1960s – Page 6

Bobby Bare | Detroit City

“In his current book ‘The Philosophy of Modern Song,’ the revered musical artist Bob Dylan critiques 66 popular recordings to explain how music reveals the character of a culture,” (Detroit Free Press). “Wouldn’t you know it, Page 1 of Chapter 1 presents ‘Detroit City,’ Bobby Bare’s 1963 crossover country classic about a disillusioned Southern white man who comes north to the Motor City. Bare recorded and released the song (61 years ago). On the Billboard charts, it reached sixth on the country-western list, 16th on the pop list, and launched his successful career. ‘It wasn’t till Detroit City came along that I realized I was never going to have to get a real job, which was a big relief for a guitar picker,’ Bare told the website All Access Pass.

Bobby Sr.’s big hit came early in a musical decade best remembered in Detroit for Motown’s assembly-line brilliance; for the raucous rock-and-roll concerts at the Grande Ballroom; and for young Canadian artists like Joni Mitchell and Neil Young clubbing their way to fame around the Motor City. In addition, Dylan’s essay cites “Detroit, the home of Motown and Fortune Records, birthplace of Hank Ballard, Mitch Ryder, Jackie Wilson, Jack White, Iggy Pop, and the MC5.”

The song was originally titled ‘I Want to Go Home,’ a phrase that dominates the chorus. The record found little success when first recorded and released by Billy Grammer in 1962, but Bare loved it. ‘I heard Billy Grammer’s record of Detroit City while I was driving down the street one day and I damn near wrecked my car,” Bare said on his website bobbybare.com. ‘I thought it was the greatest song I ever heard in my life.’” The tune makes a distinctive shift from E major down to B major at 1:19. Many thanks to our regular contributoro Rob P. for this tune!

Dusty Springfield | Sweet Ride

“There’s something odd about Dusty Springfield’s (rightly earned) position in the pantheon of great female vocalists. She’s up there with Aretha Franklin and all the best soul singers, but she began her career as a pop folkie with her brothers in The Springfields,” (BBC). “She’s cited as an influence on the new generation of gutsy stars like Adele and the late Amy Winehouse, but she was a model of vocal restraint and subtlety. And, in a medium where honesty and passion are almost slightly overrated, Dusty was discreet about her feelings and her life to the point where her Pet Shop Boys-produced 1989 hit ‘In Private’ might have been about her entire life.

Despite, or because of or nothing to do with, these contradictions, the former Mary O’Brien was one of the best singers of her era – which was a decently long one, from her recordings with The Springfields to the great duet ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This’ … she was a singer very much rooted in a showbiz tradition that’s come round again to some extent.”

“Sweet Ride,” the theme to the 1968 movie of the same name, was written by Lee Hazlewood. Starting in C# major, the tune shifts up a half step to D major at 1:30. Many thanks to regular contributor Jamie A. for this submission!

Sharon Tandy | The Way She Looks At You

In 1964, Sharon Tandy moved from her native South Africa to the UK to pursue her musical career. Through the end of the 1960s, she released a string of UK singles, mostly on Atlantic, achieving moderate success. A few of the Atlantic sides were recorded at the Stax studio (à la Dusty in Memphis). Her material spans the gamut of the popular music of the period, with songs that fit into the “pop”. “soul”, and “rock” categories.

Her cover of “Our Day Will Come” is notable: Originally performed as a bossa nova by Ruby and The Romantics, the song is turned into a raw Janis/Big Brother-flavored uptempo rocker, with backup provided by Southampton band Fleur de Lys.

“The Way She Looks At You” (1968) falls neatly into the pop category. The song was written by Brian Potter and Graham Dee. Potter is best known for his collaborations with Dennis Lambert, with hits like “Don’t Pull Your Love” (by Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds) and “Two Divided By Love” (by The Grass Roots). The swinging horn arrangement shouts “1960s London,” doesn’t it? The groove falls away for a harmonically dynamic instrumental transition begins at 1:39. The tune settles into a new key one half-step up at 1:50.

Tommy Roe | Dizzy

“In 1962, a 20-year-old Atlanta electrician named Tommy Roe hit #1 with ‘Sheila,’ a direct Buddy Holly bite that’s both good and weird enough to stand on its own.” (Stereogum). “Roe, who’d written ‘Sheila’ when he was 14, didn’t think he had a music career in him, and the bosses at RCA had to advance Roe thousands of dollars to convince him to leave his job at General Electric and go out on tour. In the years that followed, though, Tommy Roe cranked out a whole lot of simple, joyous, and delightful pop hits, proving himself to be a pro … becoming one of the handful of artists to reach the top of the charts both before and after the Beatles’ arrival. That’s a hell of a run, and it’s bookended by two extremely fun songs.”

Speaking of the tune’s multiple modulations: ” … those streamlined bits of musical disorientation are there to drive home the point of the song … The drums and strings and guitars pound away in a weirdly circular sense, effectively mirroring the idea that this kid just can’t get his feet under him … Roe and his bubblegum peers never cared the slightest bit about credibility. They just wanted to deliver kicks. And in a song like ‘Dizzy,’ a best-case scenario for a low-ambition bubblegum bop, that’s exactly what they did.”

The half-step key changes start early, at 0:24 and then just as verse 1 hits (0:28); many more follow thereafter (0:43, 1:15, 1:20, 1:34, 2:16, 2:21, and 2:35). Many thanks to first-time contributor (but longtime music educator!) Amy C. for submitting this track!

Astrud Gilberto + Stan Getz | The Girl from Ipanema

A classic which has somehow hidden in plain sight for many years! “‘The Girl from Ipanema’ shot 24-year-old Astrud Gilberto to worldwide fame in 1964 … The full-length album version of the song opens with Gilberto strumming his guitar and singing in Portuguese; then comes a verse in English written by Norman Gimbel and sung by João Gilberto’s then wife, Astrud Gilberto,” (Financial Times). “She had never sung professionally before, but it was her untrained, beguiling voice that made the song (along with Getz’s breathy sax solo). A shortened version of the song, featuring only Astrud’s voice, was released as a single and was a worldwide hit, and came to define an entire genre, bossa nova, blending Brazilian samba with jazz and blues.

By the time the song won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1965, bossa nova was in decline in Brazil. The light, frivolous sound was eclipsed by more politically charged tropicalia music that responded to the country’s slide into dictatorship. In the US, however, bossa nova appealed to jazz singers such as Frank Sinatra … Ella Fitzgerald, and Nancy Wilson before her, also sent the tan and tall figure walking, but this time as a boy … Girl or boy, the track is one of the most recorded songs in history.”

Initially in F major, the tune’s 16-bar bridge (first heard from 0:43 – 1:13) goes to Gb major, then Gb minor before transitioning back to F major for the final A section.

The Searchers | Needles and Pins

Jackie DeShannon was the first to record “Needles and Pins,” credited to Jack Nitzsche and Sonny Bono, in 1963. She has claimed co-authorship of the song. But the song’s big hit was scored by the British Invasion group The Searchers, released early the next year. That was their second UK #1, after “Sweets For My Sweet” from 1963. In the US, the song reached a respectable #13 on the Billboard charts. Later in 1964, their cover of The Clovers’ “Love Potion No. 9” became their best-charting song in America (#3).

According to Songfacts, “two 6-string guitars are playing in unison on the intro — it sounds like a 12-string guitar because an engineer accidentally left the echo switch on but liked the result.”

After the bridge, the third verse (1:24) lands a third up from the starting key.

Frank Sinatra | Strangers In the Night

In the midst of rock’s mid-60s domination of the pop music charts, Frank Sinatra’s treacly 1966 rendition of “Strangers in the Night” was a major hit. The music was written by Bert Kaempfert, with English lyrics by Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder. In the US, the song reached #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and on the Easy Listening chart. The same-named album containing the single, with arrangements by long-time collaborator Nelson Riddle, was also a US #1 release. That album also contained “Summer Wind,” another Sinatra staple, though that song fared less well as a single.

Sinatra disliked the song, and wasn’t shy about mentioning it. See this dedicated Sinatra fan page for some of his very colorful commentary about the tune!

The scat-singing that starts at 2:20 gave rise to innumerable sophomoric bathroom graffiti quoting Sinatra’s do-be-do-be-do and the pithy wisdom of various philosophers.

There’s a whole-step modulation, from F major to G major, for the final verse at 2:01. According to the Wikipedia page for the song, referencing The Billboard Book of Number One Adult Contemporary Hits, Sinatra had trouble nailing the modulation, so the two sections were recorded separately and spliced together.

The Impressions | People Get Ready

“Seldom does a song go down in history as not only one of the best popular songs ever written, but as a song that is so universal in composition and message that it can be effectively covered by almost anyone,” (American Songwriter). “But that’s the case with ‘People Get Ready,’ recorded in 1965 by The Impressions and written by the group’s lead singer, Curtis Mayfield. Nearly half a century later the song continues to be recorded and performed by a variety of acts in several genres.

From the album of the same name, (it) was released during a time of civil unrest in America, when the country was in turmoil over race relations and the Vietnam War just as Mayfield was beginning to infuse his work with social commentary. Influenced by the music of the church and his preacher grandmother, Mayfield began singing professionally as a teenager, and his work would go on to define what was the Chicago soul sound as opposed to what was coming out of Berry Gordy’s shop in Detroit at the time. In a 1993 interview with National Public Radio’s Terry Gross … Mayfield said. ‘This is a perfect example of what I believe has laid in my subconscious as to the preaching of my grandmother, and most ministers when they reflect from the Bible.'”

“People Get Ready” was awarded a Grammy Hall of Fame award in 1998, its first year of eligibility. The song has been covered by literally dozens of other artists, including Bob Dylan, Alicia Keys, Exile and Matisyahu, and guitarist Jeff Beck obviously is a fan of the song, having recorded or performed it with Rod Stewart, Joss Stone, Sting and Queen’s Roger Taylor.

A half-step modulation drops during a short, understated guitar feature at the track’s midpoint (1:21).

Frankie Valli + The Four Seasons | Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You

“Once the Four Seasons became a consistent success, Frankie Valli established a side career doing solo recordings whose style hearkened back to pre-rock pop,” (AllMusic). “The best and most successful example of his solo work is ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ (1967), (which) would be perfectly at home on one of Frank Sinatra’s mid-1950s albums … The music skillfully blends ballad and pre-rock pop feels by wedding gentle, yearning verses that ebb and flow in a cocktail jazz style to a swinging chorus that bounds along on a series of surging, soaring melodic motifs.

(The track) starts in a ballad style with stately horns drifting a smooth, jazzy beat, undergoes a change midway through where the horns and the beat both start to swing in an uptempo, lounge music style and then shifts back and forth between these two feels for the rest of the song. Valli navigates this tricky set of tempo shifts with graceful style, using a silky tenor croon for the lighter moments and a swaggering baritone in the uptempo moments … (it) became a #2 smash hit and an instant standard that was extensively covered by … Andy Williams, Paul Anka and Englebert Humperdinck … (and has) become an oldies radio favorite and popped up in films as diverse as The Deer Hunter and Conspiracy Theory.“

After starting in E major, the verse features with plenty of harmonic motion over a tonic pedal-point bass. At 2:08, there’s a shift upward to G major for verse 2 — impressive enough that you won’t even mind when you hear verse 1’s lyrics are re-used wholesale. At 2:38, the boisterous instrumental hook returns, but drops back into the original key E major for the chorus, which repeats as the track fades.

The Duprees | You Belong to Me

In 1952, “You Belong to Me” was a #1 hit for singer Jo Stafford backed by the orchestra led by her husband, pianist Paul Weston. That arrangement features distinctive marimba rolls and ensemble saxophone phrases. The song was written by Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, and Redd Stewart, and first recorded by Joni James earlier in 1952. King and Stewart are best known as the writers of the country standard “Tennessee Waltz.” Stafford was known for her perfect pitch and vocal accuracy, perhaps adding to the comedic value of the talentless musicians act she and Weston later created, “Jonathan and Darlene Edwards.” The song has since been widely recorded; there are versions by Patti Page, Ella Fitzgerald, Dean Martin, Ringo Starr, and Bob Dylan, among others.

The Duprees were a doo-wop group from New Jersey, who recorded for the independent Coed label beginning starting in the early 1960s, and later for Columbia. The tune here was from their 1962 debut album of the same name. The single peaked at #7 on Billboard. In 1970, the group changed their name to The Italian Asphalt & Pavement Co. (ed. note: shudder), with a change in sound to match; they recorded one album under that moniker. As with many groups from the doo-wop period, there is an extant group carrying on with the name, though none of the original Duprees is in it.

The song starts out in C♯ major. Coming out of the bridge, there’s a modulation to D at 1:41 for the final verse. There’s an unmistakable doo-wop cliché vocal cadenza at 2:12 to settle into the outro.