Birthday Randomness

Happy 1st Birthday to The '60s Beat!!! Yes, this blog has now reached one whole year of walking down memory lane! We've covered over 200 artists and genres from this great decade, and the good news is there is still so much that hasn't even been mentioned yet!! I'd also like to thank all my wonderful readers who helped this page get over 16,000 pageviews! It's really a treat knowing that my mom isn't the only one reading this blog! :)
So for fun, the next few posts will be a part of our Random Series, featuring performers that have NOT YET been mentioned on this blog. I remember these next classic tunes receiving lots of airplay on the 'oldies' radio station during my childhood.

Random Hits: Part 1
After serving in the military as a singer with U.S. Army bands, Len Barry became the lead singer for The Dovells, a music group that went on to score huge hits, like the million-selling "Bristol Stomp" in the early 1960s. Then embarking on his own solo career in the mid-'60s, this pop/blue-eyed soul singer scored a few more hits like "1-2-3" in October of '65. Co-written by Barry, this classic reached #2 in the US and #3 in the UK, even reaching #11 on the US R&B charts. Selling over one and three quarter million copies, "1-2-3" was awarded the gold disc, and is one of the songs that appeared in John Lennon's jukebox. Barry's vocals are impressive but I'll admit that, as a kid, I thought this song was sung by a female!

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Based in San Francisco, We Five was a folk rock musical group that are best-known for their 1965 remake of Ian & Sylvia's "You Were on My Mind." Formed by Michael Stewart (brother of John Stewart of the Kingston Trio) while attending University of San Franisco in '64, he spent many hours working on the musical arrangements for the group after the five members would practice together for five or six hours a day. The ensemble played acoustic guitars, electric guitar and bass, while singing multi-part harmonies, and later a drummer was added when they began to tour. We Five was also the first commercial folk-rock artist to record music for Coca-Cola. Reaching #1 on the Cashbox chart, #3 on the Billboard chart, and #1 on the Adult Contemporary chart, "You Were on My Mind" sold over a million copies, and earned the group a Grammy nomination for Best Performance by a Vocal Group in '66 (losing to the Anita Kerr Quartet). With cute, little Beverly Bivens at the front, here's a true live performance on The Hollywood Palace.

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In New York City, 1967, folk duo/brothers Dennis and Lary Larden formed the rock band Every Mother's Son and are remembered as a one-hit wonder (although four of their singles did chart). Signed to the MGM record label (with their clean-cut image apparently being the perfect antidote to the current hippie surge), they recorded a self-titled title album that included the single "Come On Down to My Boat," which shot to #6 on the Billboard chart in July of '67 (you know, that good 'ol "Summer of Love"). Because of their MGM label, MGM Television featured the group in a two-part episode of The Man From U.N.C.L.E., in which they performed this song in a night club as a fight broke out. Unable to sustain success, the group disbanded in 1968, however, Dennis later joined Ricky Nelson's Stone Canyon Band. This tune sure puts you in the mood for some clean, summer fun!

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For our final group today, we'll conclude with another one-hit wonder, Spiral, Starecase (misspelling intentional), recognizable for its horns and lead singer Pat Upton's distinctive voice. Initially forming as a instrumental group for an Air Force talent contest in Sacramento, California, the group would play five-hour lounge gigs in Las Vegas before being discovered by Gary Usher, a representative/producer for Columbia Records. With Usher's help and encouragement, Upton wrote original material for the group, including their only hit "More Today Than Yesterday." Released in 1969, this single reached #7 on the Cashbox and #12 on the Billboard chart, selling over a million copies and earning a gold disc. Unfortunately, a year and a half after the single's success, the group disbanded due to poor management and disagreements over finances. (And this is another case of "I always thought this was a girl singing this song!" My apologizes to Pat; your vocals are amazing.)


And there you have it for our first day of random artists. This birthday celebration continues for a few more weeks with many more random classics!

Folk For A Day

After mentioning folk singer Joan Baez in the recent Patriotic post, I realized I should devote a day to some of the other folk folks of the 1960s. This post is definitely on the mellow side but folk music was very significant to this decade as a social, cultural, and political force.

American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was first introduced during Folk Rock Week at The '60s Beat, when he "went electric" and influenced the sound of the '60s, even impacting the music of The Beatles. With a recording career spanning fifty years, he has explored various genres including folk, blues, country, gospel, rock 'n roll, rockabilly, even English, Scottish, and Irish folk music. Before he became known for his political, social, philosophical, and literary influence, Dylan's humble beginnings were that of a young (Jewish) folk musician from Minnesota, initially inspired by the songs of Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams, and the performance style of Buddy Holly. Released in August 1963, "Blowin' In The Wind" was described as a protest song, although it raises several questions about peace, war, and freedom, and since has been ranked #15 of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. With a voice sometimes as surprising as his lyrics, Dylan would go on to become one of the most influential figures (musically and culturally) of the 20th century. Here's a great quality, live performance in 1963.

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Interestingly, Dylan's "Blowin' In The Wind" was covered by another folk group and released just three weeks before his, however, this version became an international hit (listen here). The American folk-singing trio, Peter, Paul & Mary, were one of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s. After auditioning for manager Albert Grossman in 1961, Peter Yarrow, Paul Stookey, and Mary Travers were chosen from the New York folk scene, becoming a successful and beloved group that helped revive folk music in America (which had been forced underground by McCarthyism in the late '50s). As folk music goes hand-in-hand with promoting peace, they performed "The Hammer Song" at the 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. As "Blowin' In The Wind" was one of their biggest hits, they sang other Dylan songs like "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," which aided in the popularity of his second album. I'm sure you were expecting to hear one of their biggest hits, but I really love the group's rendition of this folk beauty. Initially released by the trio in 1963, here's a live performance of "Don't Think Twice" in Sydney while on their Australian tour in the late '60s.

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Described as one of the most important female recording artists of the rock era, Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell was known for her distinctive voice and unique guitar style, as well as complex piano arrangements further into her career. First achieving fame as a songwriter in New York, then as singer with her debut album in 1968, she finally settled in Southern California (introduced to the L.A. music scene by David Crosby of The Byrds) and played a significant part in the development of rock folk. Her success really took off in the early 1970s, beginning with a Grammy Award win for Best Folk Performance for her album Clouds in March 1970, the first of many wins over the years. The following month, Mitchell's next album featured the folk rock tune "Big Yellow Taxi," a big hit in her native Canada that has since been voted #9 on CBC's list of the 50 essential Canadian tracks. Known for its environmental concern, this song is one of the most identifiable of Mitchell's music.

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One of Joni Mitchell's most famous songs was made famous by fellow folk musician Judy Collins. An American singer and songwriter, Collins was inspired by the folk music revival in the early 1960s and began her career in the Greenwich Village folk music scene in New York City as well. She is known for recording a wide variety of other genres including folk, show tunes, pop, rock 'n' roll, and standards, as well as for her social activism (like most folk singers of the time). After signing with a record label in 1961 at the age of 22, Collins has continued a steady career of recording and performing, still touring today. Written by Joni Mitchell, Collins released "Both Sides Now" in 1968, which reached #8 on the Billboard charts and won her a Grammy Award for Best Folk Performance of that year. It has since become her signature song and is ranked among those 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. I was unable to find a live performance of this song from the '60s, so here's Judy Collins performing this beauty with the Boston Pops in 1976.

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And we'll conclude with good 'ol Donovan, one of the leading British recording artists of his day who produced a series of hit singles and albums between 1965 and 1970. The Scottish singer-songwriter and guitarist is remembered for having developed a distinctive style, mixing folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic, and world music together. Since we've explored some of those "evolved sounds of Donovan" in past posts, we'll go back to his roots with his early folk sound, a time when he was even referred to as the "British Bob Dylan." Released in 1965, "Catch the Wind" was his first single, reaching #4 on the UK charts and #23 in the US. The single version featured Donovan's voice with an echo and strings, while the song was re-recorded for his first album without the vocal echo and string section. Here's a live performance of classic Donovan on the American TV show Shindig!.

Let's Live for Today

Folk Rock Week: Part 3
Alright, diving right back into the remainder of folk rock week, we have another group from the Greenwich Village folk scene, as mentioned in my last post, the American band The Lovin' Spoonful. Starting out as The Mugwumps, a New York bohemian folk group including two members of The Mamas and The Papas (Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot), the band's leader John Sebastian and guitarist Zal Yanovsky went on to form The Lovin' Spoonful in 1965, eventually producing seven chart-toppers (quite a feat in the midst of Beatlemania). With the use of roots music and folk rock as his inspiration, Sebastian composed/sang original songs with modern sounds that still contained the heart of classic American music. Their second single released in 1965, here's a Shindig! performance of the folk pop hit, "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," with that beautiful sparkle of John Sebastian's autoharp (pictured above). These guys are having so much fun!

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One of the most popular folk rock songs from the 1960's was "Let's Live for Today" by the American band The Grass Roots. From 1967 to 1972, The Grass Roots set a record for being on the Billboard chart for 307 straight weeks! Not only did this particular tune become a big hit with the record-buying public, but it also struck a chord with the young American men serving overseas in the Vietnam War, making it a powerful song of the decade. Although this is a mimed performance, this guys are too cute (I have a thing for sideburns). Introduced by entertainer Jimmy Durante, here are the super-cool Grass Roots at just the beginning of their career.

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Released in April 1965, The Beau Brummels' "Just a Little" is considered an example of early folk rock because of its strong vocal blend with acoustic/electric guitars and ascending minor-key harmonies. Due to the band's name and musical style, many listeners thought The Beau Brummels were British, however this San Francisco group was a successful part of the U.S. response to the British Invasion. After "Just a Little" became their highest-charting single, the group's folk rock sound would go on to incorporate many different genres including hard rock, country rock, and rhythm and blues, and were later considered influential in the development of punk rock with their garage rock tunes ("Laugh Laugh"). The band was regarded as teen idols, even appearing in a few films and the animated sitcom The Flintstones. Written by guitarist Ron Elliott and a wonderful lead vocal by Sal Valentino, this performance of "Just a Little" comes from the musical variety show Shindig!.

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As The Monkees have shown up in a few posts now, we all know that they didn't come together like most bands do with common interests and musical tastes, but it's those vast musical styles that make their albums so interesting. Their third album released in May 1967, Headquarters was the first time that the group had full creative control over their music, and not only was this album possibly the finest of their careers but it's even included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die (I just recently purchased the vinyl LP at a used record store!). Creating a sound between jangle-pop and folk rock, this album was #1 on the charts, until another little album came along: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles. Written and sung by country-influenced Michael Nesmith, "You Told Me" begins the album with a rockin' banjo played by Peter Tork, the first time the instrument was used in a pop/rock song.

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Although I still have many songs lined up for this week, I think I'll conclude with just one more song. American singer-songwriter Barry McGuire is best known for his 1965 hit, "Eve of Destruction," written by 19-year-old P.F. Sloan who produced mainly hits for several artists of the '60s. Influenced by the fears of young people in the era of the Cold War, Vietnam War, and the civil rights movement, this was the first protest song to become a #1 hit (there's also a version by The Turtles as well). As McGuire later became known as a singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music, he renounced this song for many years, though has begun singing it again in recent years with new lyrics that refer to the Columbine High School massacre. Great introduction by actor/comedian Jerry Lewis (with his normal voice for once!) on Hullabaloo.

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Well, it's been a fascinating week getting into all these folk rock tunes and their variations. Looks like The Seachers, The Seekers, The Turtles, Jackie DeShannon, and other groups will just have to wait till we revisit folk rock later this year. Catch ya next time for another fun week at The 60's Beat!

For What It's Worth

Folk Rock Week: Part 2
Deeper into the roots and legacy of folk rock, the amount of subgenres that have formed out of the initial genre of the 1960's is impressive. Some of these subgenres include Celtic rock, electric folk, folk metal, folk punk, Medieval folk rock, psychedelic folk, Indie folk, and so on. Realizing that going into any further detail about these could take all day, I'm just going to jump back into the classic folk rock of the 1960's.

Released as a single in January 1967, "For What It's Worth" is a great folk rock song by the American group Buffalo Springfield, and is another classic tune listed in Rolling Stones' 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Although the band only lasted for about two years, Buffalo Springfield was the springboard for the future careers of its members, Neil Young and Stephen Stills (both in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young), and Richie Furay and Jim Messina (in Poco). During the turbulent times of the Vietnam War, this song quickly became known as a protest-song, however, its writer, Stephen Stills, wrote it as a reaction to the riots of the young club-goers on Hollywood's Sunset Strip at that time (the same inspiration for The Monkees' "Daily Nightly"), e.i. "Stop, children, what's that sound?" As introduced by Peter Tork (Stills' roommate!), this is Buffalo Springfield's live performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in May 1967. EDITED 1/23/12: Rats, this video has been removed from YouTube, yet again! Here's a different performance from the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1967:


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Known as the "quintessential folk rock release," the American folk duo, Simon and Garfunkel, was propelled into 1960's popularity with "The Sound of Silence" from September 1965. Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel were close childhood friends from Queens, New York, and first found their success as a singing duo in the Greenwich Village folk music scene (along with musicians Stephen Stills and Peter Tork). Written by Paul Simon in the aftermath of President Kennedy's assassination, it was originally recorded in 1964 with just the acoustic guitar and the haunting vocal harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel, but it wasn't until months later, after hearing the release of Bob Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone," an electric rock band was overdubbed to create the song's new folk rock sound. Also included in that list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, here's another wonderful live performance "The Sound of Silence" from that same Monterey Pop Festival in 1967.

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Next up is yet another group that has their founding roots in New York's Greenwich Village folk music scene as well before moving to L.A. (definitely the place to be for the folkies in the 1960's!). Written by John and Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas, their 1967 autobiographical, folk rock hit, "Creeque Alley," describes the story of how the group formed. The song's lyrics directly mentions several musicians who were at the music scene with them, including the group's own Cass Elliot and lead singer Denny Doherty (formerly of The Mugwumps), plus John Sebastian and Zal Yanovsky (of The Lovin' Spoonful), Jim McGuinn (of The Byrds), and Barry McGuire (known for the song "Eve of Destruction"). Now hearing this song with these musicians' names in mind will make a lot more sense! Although the group had generally "left the folk music behind" by the mid-60's, this is a fun homage to the roots of the beloved vocal group.

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In the late 1960's, Scottish folk singer-songwriter Donovan (Leitch) was influential in the development of Celtic rock, one of those subgenres of folk rock that combines traditional Celtic instruments, as well as traditional vocal styles, in a rock band setting. In about 1968, the initially folk rock Donovan stripped his sound back from his pop and psychedelic explorations, dubbing this new sound Celtic rock. Based on a poem by author Lewis Caroll (Alice in Wonderland), "Jabberwocky" comes from his children's album HMS Donovan, and it is a wonderful, haunting gem from this genre.



Alright, so I've branched out a bit with a subgenre of folk rock, but more classic folk rock tunes are already queued up for the next post!

Folk Rock

Folk Rock Week: Part 1

Being a hybrid of folk music and rock music, folk rock is yet another genre of music that developed in the mid-1960s. An ancestor of this genre came from the American folk music revival, which, interestingly, was influential on the music of The Beatles and other British Invasion bands (their beat music). Also, pre-British Invasion American rock 'n' roll from the late 1950's, like some tunes by Elvis Presley and Buddy Holly, affected the development of folk rock as well. Folk rock is known for its clear vocal harmonies and a generally "clean" (distortion-free) guitar sound, especially influenced by the jangly ringing of Beatle George Harrison's 12 string Rickenbacker guitar.

One of the first big hits of a folk rock song was the revolutionary single from 1964, "The House of the Rising Sun," by the British blues/rock band The Animals. Originally an 18th century American folk song, "The House of the Rising Sun" was actually recorded by folk singer-songwriter Bob Dylan (pictured above) in 1961, however, when he later heard The Animals' version on the radio, he jumped out of his seat since he liked it so much and gracefully withdrew his recording from the singles charts! With the combination of the famous electric guitar arpeggio intro by Hilton Valentine, Eric Burdon's soulful lead vocals, and Alan Price's pulsating organ part, the song was a trans-Atlantic chart-topper and is included on the list of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Recorded in only one take in May of '64, here's the song that helped shape rock 'n' roll history.

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Another group that contributed to the developing folk rock sound was The Beatles with "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" from their 1965 Help! album. Interestingly, The Beatles were fascinated by Bob Dylan, and this song was John Lennon's attempt at sounding like Dylan with a slightly more raspy voice and writing the song in folkish form with mainly acoustic instruments and light percussion. (Side note: while The Beatles were on their first tour in America in '64, they met Bob Dylan who actually introduced them to, you know, cannabis, which eventually had an impact on their future songwriting, ahem.) With the incorporation of the tenor and alto flutes, this was the first Beatles' song to feature an outside musician. This clip comes from The Beatles' hilarious (well, I think so), second film, also titled Help!, and was inspired by the Marx Brothers classic Duck Soup, as well as a parody of James Bond films.

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The first folk rock smash hit that ignited the explosion of the genre in the 1960's was "Mr. Tambourine Man," the debut single in April 1965 by The Byrds. Although it was written and originally recorded by Bob Dylan (who actually endorsed The Byrd's cover), the term "folk rock" was first coined by U.S. music press to describe The Byrd's sound. The band was the first to combine the elements of the rock beat, the 12-string guitar jangle (inspired by The Beatles), and poetic/socially observant lyrics, which became the successful template for folk rock music throughout the 60's and still continues to influence bands (ya know, like Tom Petty and the Heartbreaks and R.E.M.). With Jim McGuinn singing lead vocals, and backed by Gene Clark and David Crosby (yeah, that guy that later formed Crosby, Stills & Nash), McGuinn attempted to modify his singing style to fill in the gap between John Lennon's and Bob Dylan's sound. Another song featured on that 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, here's a great performance with another audience of too many crazy girls.

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And so who's this Bob Dylan guy I keep talking about? Initially a folk-singer, the American singer-songwriter, Bob Dylan, was extremely influential in the development of folk rock, as well as the direction of rock 'n' roll in the 1960's. Considered the #1 greatest song of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, Dylan's "Like A Rolling Stone" from July 1965 was his transition from folk to folk rock with the use of electric instruments. At the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where Dylan "went electric" premiering this song, the crowd even booed him because of his "betrayal" of folk music, however, it was a important turning point in Dylan's career, as well as rock history. Significant in the protest-song/anti-establishment movement, Dylan was a true poet in this "put-down toward a down-and-out society girl" song, with the unique, cynical sound in his voice. Why, oh, why it is so hard to find a live performance of this song on YouTube, I do not know. So, "how does it feel?"

 Check back soon for MANY more folk rock songs to come!