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The sixties was an incredibly exciting, inventive and vibrant time.
We marched into the 1960’s with more enthusiasm, hope and self belief than in any other decade. The sixties teenagers were the first wave of baby boomers. We’d moved out of the fifties bringing with it Doo Wop, Rhythm & Blues, Rock n’ Roll, Jiving and the start of the Twist craze.
The Twist was written and first released in 1959 by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters. In 1960 it was covered by Chubby Checker and became a big hit and a huge dance craze which people still practice today.
There were many other sixties dance fads including The Penguin, The Swim, The Duck, The Mashed Potato, The Jerk, The Chicken, The Monkey, The Frug, The Boogaloo, The Shingaling and The Locomotion which was also a number one in 1962 written by Gerry Goffin & Carole King and sang by Little Eva who was their babysitter.
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Music the Sixties
1960’s Music
Sixties Music
60’s Music | Sixties Songs
Motown
In the late fifties Tamla records was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. in Detroit Michigan.
The Miracles released “Shop Around” in 1960 and this was Motown’s first million selling record. Their first Number one was “Please Mr Postman” by the Marvelettes in 1961.
Over the years Motown signed legends like:-
· The Four Tops. The Temptations
· The Supremes Junior Walker & Allstars
· (Little) Stevie Wonder Martha Reeves & Vandellas
· Marvin Gaye Gladys Knight & the Pips
· Smokey Robinson The Miracles
· Mary Wells The Jackson Five
They also had a formidable production crew which included the renowned song writing trio:-
· Brian Holland
· Lamont Dozier
· Eddie Holland
The Funk Brothers were the excellent backing group for Motown.
The Supremes were the most prolific selling artists for Motown and they had several number one hits which included - I Hear A Symphony - Baby love – Come See About Me – Where Did Our Love Go.
In 1966 they were the first female group to reach number one in the Billboard Magazine pop album charts with “A’ Go-Go”
Stax
In Memphis Jim Stewart and Estelle Axton had set up Satellite Records.
By taking the first two letters from their Surnames Stewart and Axton
they later formed Stax records. They launched the careers of soul legends
such as:- Sam & Dave – Eddie Floyd – Booker T and the MG’s (Memphis Group) - Carla Thomas - Isaac Hayes - Arthur Conley - The Staple Singers - The Mar- Keys and the incomparable Otis Redding.
Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote numerous sixties songs.
Among the hits of the sixties which they wrote were :-
· The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance - Gene Pitney
· Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa - Gene Pitney
· Wives and Lovers - Jack Jones
· Anyone who had A Heart - Cilla Black
· Alfie - Cilla Black
· Make It Easy On Yourself - The Walker Brothers
· Always Something There To Remind Me - Sandie Shaw
· This Guy’s In Love With You - Herb Alpert
· What’s New Pussycat - Tom Jones
· Don’t Make Me Over - Swinging Blue Jeans
· I Just Don’t Know What To Do With Myself - Dusty Springfield
· Walk On By - Dionne Warwick
· Do You Know The Way To San Jose? - Dionne Warwick
· You’ll Never Get To Heaven - Dionne Warwick
These were just a few of the songs they wrote. Their contribution to sixties music was immense.
Chuck Berry in the fifties and sixties wrote, recorded and had hits with a plethora of R&B songs which have become classics. Most of the early beat groups performed his songs and copied his style of guitar playing. The Beatles recorded “Roll over Beethoven” and “Rock n’ Roll Music”.
The Rolling Stones were influenced by him and recorded “Johnny B. Goode”, “Bye Bye Johnny” ,“Carol” and “Around and Around” just to name a few.
The two main 60’s music T.V. Shows which were carried over from the 50’s were American Bandstand U.S. and Jukebox Jury U.K.
In 1957 sixteen year old John Lennon with some of his Liverpool school friends formed a skiffle group called The Quarrymen. Fifteen year old Paul McCartney joined the group and in 1958 he introduced his friend George Harrison to play lead guitar. Changing their musical direction from skiffle to rock n’ roll in 1959 they changed the group name to Johnny and the Moondogs and reached the finals of the TV Star Search competition held at the Liverpool Empire Theatre.
Early 1960 Stuart Sutcliffe a friend of John’s from Liverpool College of Art sold a painting and invested his earnings by purchasing a bass guitar. He joined the group and later they changed their name to The Silver Beetles. Allan Williams became their manager and they entered music promoter Larry Parnes auditions for a group to back Billy Fury on a tour of northern England and Scotland. They didn’t get that job but in May that year Larry Parnes offered them a seven day tour of Scotland as the backing group for Johnny Gentle.
In August The Beatles were booked at their first Hamburg venue the Indra Club, run by Bruno Koschmider. They needed a drummer so Pete Best left the Blackjacks to join the group and around this time they changed their name to the Beatles. In October when the Indra club closed the group began playing at the Kaiserkeller Club and then later at the larger Top Ten Club. In November George was deported by the German police authorities because at the age of seventeen he was underage and unable to continue playing at the clubs without a work permit.
The rest of the group continued without George but in December Paul and Pete Best were arrested for arson when they ignited an object in the Bambi-Filmkunsttheater cinema where they were staying. They were later deported by the German police authorities.
Stuart remained in Hamburg and John returned to Liverpool on his own. Stuart had decided to leave the group and he enrolled at the Hamburg College of Art to study painting. He stayed with his German girl friend Astrid Kirchherr who was the instigator of the Beatle haircut.
In February 1961 the Beatles performed their first show at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, they appeared nearly 300 times between February 1961 and August 1963.
When George had turned eighteen Peter Eckhorn the owner of the Top Ten Club took The Beatles back to Hamburg for a three month engagement from March to July.
In June while in Hamburg the producer Bert Kaemphert asked the Beatles to back Tony Sheridan as the “The Beat Brothers” on a number of recordings for Polydor Records which included "My Bonnie". The record was released and in October it was asked for at the NEMS record store in Liverpool which was run by Brian Epstein. He had seen posters around Liverpool advertising Beatle shows and had read about them in the pop paper the Mersey Beat. In November Brian Epstein and Alistair Taylor his work colleague visited the Cavern to see a Beatles performance and was that impressed he arranged a meeting and asked if he could manage them, which was agreed.
Brian Epstein did not invent the Beatles he helped polish the group’s appearance throwing away the leather jackets and wearing collarless grey suits which made them look more professional and presentable.
He moved quickly and on the 1st January 1962 he had arranged an audition with Decca Records where Brian Poole and the Tremeloes had also auditioned and were chosen instead.
Not deterred by the set back within six months they had been signed by George Martin the A & E manager of EMI Parlophone records who had insisted on a change of drummer. In August Pete Best had been replaced by Ringo Starr and in October they released their first single “Love Me Do”.
The tenacity and foresight of Brian Epstein, the inventiveness and quality of The Beatles song writing and George Martin’s music arranging made them the major force in music throughout the sixties.