Max Picks …songs from 1963

1963

We are one year away from blasting off to strange and new lands. This year the radio was picking up a bit. You had the folk explosion and Motown was starting to raise the roof and Stax was rolling also. Some great artists are here plus one that would change the game.

Let’s start off with one of the musical leaders of the sixties who influenced his peers left and right.  22-year-old Bob Dylan released Blowin’ In The Wind which didn’t chart but soon would be covered over 300 times. A standard was born.

I usually favor Stax over Motown but that’s not to say I don’t like Motown because I do. This song is great I loved this song the first time I heard it. It’s Martha and the Vandellas doing Heat Wave. They added a little edge to the song. It was written by the incredibly talented team of Holland–Dozier–Holland.

The Ronnettes were beautiful and talented with a crazy…but well known producer Phil Spector. The group was an influence on the Stones and Beatles. The song was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich, and Phil Spector.

What do I think of when I hear this song? That would be Animal House.

In 1963 The Kingsmen released a huge single and song that would be an important one in rock history. The original was written and performed by Richard Berry in 1955 and 3 other people covered it before Kingsmen in 1963… but this is the definitive version. Another one of those songs like Gloria…that every bar band has to know.

What is he singing? That debate would get the song banned for a while and even bring in the FBI to investigate. The popularity of the song and difficulty in discerning the lyrics led some people to suspect the song was obscene. The FBI was asked to investigate whether or not those involved with the song violated laws against the interstate transportation of obscene material. The limited investigation lasted from February to May 1964 and discovered no evidence of obscenity.

Last but certainly not least. The future was in the UK and America had no clue. In 1962 they had their first single release with Love Me Do. It peaked at #17 on the UK charts but the next single was released in January of 1963 in the UK. In America, it was released in February of 1963 but it was on a small label called Vee-Jay because Capitol Records in America kept rejecting anything from Britain for the most part. America never heard it because Vee-Jay couldn’t push it enough. It was a brilliant single called Please Please Me. The following year, America and Canada were introduced to the Beatles.

…

Unknown's avatar

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

58 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1963”

  1. Absolutely classic choices! The first was clearly a game-changer (and thanks for not using the PP&M version that charted). The second has a forward motion that is irresistible, plus the baritone sax and Martha Reeves. How could you not include Ronnie Spector and the Wall of Sound? You had to. Louie, Louie – even my brother’s blues band had to contend with people requesting it (and we all heard the lyrics were “dirty” though no one could hear it). The first US Beatles single? Of course. The hardest song to leave out? Fingertips, our introduction to the genius of Little Stevie Wonder. Well done, Max!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thank you! This one was a lot of fun and next week everything changes. From here on out in the next few years it gets hard for me because between 64-69 is probably my favorite era in music.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. The 1964 one…Randy it was no possible way to narrow it down fairly…I could have filled up 50 slots. So many I left off.

        Like

      3. I won’t argue with you there…though much of the best music from that era never charted (often because it was never released as singles) and some didn’t even get much airplay on underground FM stations – not to mention the bands that focused on live performance and recorded only as an afterthought or contract obligation. There’s still a lot to choose from. You could just use five Beatles songs every year if you were lazy;)

        Liked by 2 people

      4. Yea I won’t do that with the Beatles but don’t think it didn’t cross my mind. You READ my mind because in the description I originally had in the 1964 post (although I’m a Beatle fan I won’t fill all five slots with them)… I could fill up 50 slots no problem.

        Liked by 2 people

  2. All solid choices, Max. I gotta admit that Bob Dylan was always a head-scratcher to me. I just didn’t get it and I still don’t. I admire that he was political but his voice sounds awful to my ears, like a mumbling old guy who smells like butt. LOL What am I missing?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. LOL…. I guess he has to grow on you…he did me when I was around 10 or so. I had a cousin who introduced me to his music. He is either loved or hated…a certain mystique about him.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    2. Dylan has had several different voices through his career. If you don’t like the 1963 voice (or the 1965 electric voice) try the Nashville Skyline voice (1969) which sounds unlike anything else of his (and you get Norman Blake on guitar and Dobro, Pete Drake on pedal steel, Charlie McCoy on harmonica and guitar, and a bit of Johnny Cash), or the 1976 voice from Desire (plus you get the great violin work of Scarlet Rivera).

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  3. Looking back at musical history, Bob Dylan influenced many rock musicians, he certainly did my band and myself. Once he went electric, wow. Weird, my 27-year-old grandson looks like Dylan and plays guitar. Louie Louie, if you played dances back in the 60s, you had better have this song in your set list and know the correct dirty verses. Good Post. Looking forward to the late 60s.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Thanks Phil…Louie Louie is the first song I think we learned…and every beginning guitar player I see or show something…this is the first one I share.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      1. A lot of younger players used major chords and wouldn’t slip that minor in there. We played a valentine dance at our high school and our singer used “the words” and the principle asked us to stop playing. The kids raised a ruckus and he relented and let us keep on. Plus, we always played too loud for the adults ears.

        Liked by 1 person

      2. I remember the loudness…part of my problem now… I remember people with hands over their ears. Take a song like Summertime Blues played The Who’s way…you have to play it loud or it doesn’t work…I laugh thinking about it but that is why I need headphones to talk on a phone now.

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Yeah, the three remaining band members got together for lunch a few months ago, and we all have severe hearing loss. Jarry, out rhythm guitar player has an ocular implant and Danny and I can’t hear squat and are getting hearing aids. Compliments of Vox and Fender.

        Liked by 2 people

  4. I am kind of in Gary’s camp too for the most part on Dylan, but strangely I quite like his own take on ‘Blowin in the Wind’. Beyond that, I’d say he had capability of being a brilliant songwriter – he certainly reached that a number of times – but there aren’t a lot of his records that I like listening to. No over-estimating how influential he was though.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I don’t know…I love his voice and for the most part would rather hear him than covers…there are exceptions of course…but without him would Jimi Hendrix had the courage to sing? That goes for many more also. Was Jimi’s voice great? No…was Mick’s great? No…but they made them work.
      One thing about his voice…it’s not boring.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      3. Well ya, me too!
        On a bad Bob-related note…Toronto radio station 97.3 are reporting Robbie Robertson died earlier today. Another good one gone.
        That’s something Dylan did – gave The Band a world stage

        Liked by 1 person

  5. Yep things are gonna change. Bob proved he could write, and he uses his voice the best he can. On some songs it is perfect ‘Knockin’ On Heavens Door,’ ‘Most Of The Time,’ but it’s no wonder he’s covered by so many artists- and Manfred Mann made their 60s career out of Bob’s songs.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. and The Byrds to an extent. Bob has changed his voice so much. His early voice, his Blonde on Blooooonddddeeeee voice and his country crooner voice on Nashville Skyline….and the voices go on.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. I agree…my phone has blown up today… most from that era are frozen in my mind…I don’t think of them as older so when it happens…it stings and he was one of the greats.

        Liked by 1 person

  8. Dick Biondi, on WLS in Chicago, played “Please Please Me” sometime in 1963. He knew someone at Vee Jay Records (based in nearby Gary, Indiana) who gave him an advance copy of the album. I don’t know that anyone was aware just how big The Beatles would be.

    My guess is that Spector demanded a songwriting credit before he’d let the Ronettes record “Be My Baby.” I doubt seriously he actually wrote any of it.

    Atlanta station WFOX (at the time its slogan was “Good Times, Great Oldies”) did an “Ultimate Oldies Concert” at Fulton County Stadium I think around ’92 or ’93. They put the lyrics for “Louie Louie” on a big overhead projector and had everyone sing it. Unless you saw the lyrics, you would have no idea what they were singing, especially during the extra-dirty second verse (which as it turns out wasn’t dirty at all).

    Great picks for ’63!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

      3. I think he was everyone’s favorite. There were also Gene Taylor, Bernie Allen, and Don Phillips at one time or another. For a while, you had “Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club” and the “WLS Barn Dance” for a while, too…. I remember those….

        Liked by 2 people

    2. Thanks for the info John! I do know there was a guy at Capitol who hated everything British. Out of all the British singles he picked the corniest British things he could find to release just so they would fail. EMI owned Capitol but didn’t flex their muscles at all.
      I’m glad they got played a little in Chicago anyway.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  9. No argument with your picks whatsoever – I love them all! I didn’t realize “Blowin’ In the Wind” didn’t chart at all when it was released initially – that kind of blows my mind! I guess it goes to show that chart success is only one indicator of a song’s influence.

    I’m also with you when it comes to Motown vs. Stax, though it was Motown that first made me love soul. Plus, many Motown songs are great, including your pick. Due to the “Motown formula,” they can sound alike.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. LOL…a lot of variety! I do like odd things like that. Like Jimi Hendrix opening for the Monkees…or in the 70s when different generations mixed together in music and acting.
      Now it seems that most people are in a box and will stay in there.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

      2. Yep! The British bands are missing one big one but they didn’t have much over here in their first year…

        Like

    1. You probably would have known them better than America at the time. It’s too many to pick from in 64…and no I won’t go the lazy route and do all Beatles lol.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  13. Pingback: Max Picks …songs from 1963 – MobsterTiger

  14. All great songs Max. My personal top five of 1963 are:

    1. Sugar Shack – Jimmy Gilmer & the Fireballs
    2. Blue on Blue – Bobby Vinton
    3. Sukiyaki – Kyu Sakamoto
    4. Fingertips, Part 2 – Little Stevie Wonder
    5. Be My Baby – The Ronettes

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Jeff you messed me up lol! I thought I included Be My Baby…I did.
      I bumped Fingertips for Louie Louie since it was such a iconic rock song….but it was on there.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  15. This year is much more up my alley than the previous ones – Be My Baby is an all time favourite. Freewheeling has a bunch of classics, Don’t Think Twice, Masters of War, Hard Rain are all amazing too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. My brother turned the radio dial to KHJ Boss Radio to figure out how he suddenly developed the nick name Sugar Shack in school. Its a personal thing, our last name is spelled differently but pronounced the same.

    This year?

    The rise of Motown started, with Little Stevie Wonder, Martha and “You Really Got a Hold On Me” by Smokey. My listening habits were delayed a few years by the Supremes, but when I opened my ears again, oh what a glorious flood from Detroit.

    Lame as it might be, I still like Puff The Magic Dragon.

    Wipe Out came out this year.

    So did “If You Wanna Be Happy”, “Mockinbird”, “Busted”, Lonnie Mack’s “Memphis”, and

    “Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah (Letter from Camp Granada)” by Allan Sherman.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a comment