1964
Here’s one of those early-’60s pop oddities – Sandra Barry & The Boyfriend’s – featuring a singer and band who became better known much later.
Sandie Shaw followed up her first chart topper in 1964 with Girl Don’t Come – originally released as the B-side of her next single.
Ronnie Spector was already a star with The Ronettes when Phil Spector launched his new label with her first solo single under the name ‘Veronica’.
It takes a bold and courageous artist to re-record her signature song after more than half a century, but Marianne Faithfull was nothing if not brave.
This is the song that gave The Rolling Stones their first big US hit and helped make Irma Thomas the Soul Queen of New Orleans.
Garnet Mimms is the guy who sang the original version of Cry Baby, better known (to me, at least) for Janis Joplin’s overwrought version, back in 1963.
Today I’m feeling a little bit country and a little bit rock’n’roll, just like Donny and Marie once did. So here’s a bit of Buck Owens. This song never fails to put a big fat smile on my face. It just swings, and rocks, and twangs in all the right places.
I always thought I Can’t Explain was the first single by The Who, and it is. But before that, in July 1964, they released this song under the band name The High Numbers.
Bob Dylan painted a picture of economic despair in his heartbreaking tale of a farmer driven to familicide, The Ballad Of Hollis Brown.
Sheer perfection. My Girl is a classic from the opening notes of James Jamerson’s opening bassline, echoed by Robert White’s electric guitar. And then there’s the dancing!