In the first of these Secret Sixties I blathered on about my old man and how his records must have seeped into my soul because, whether we like it or not, we are all shaped by our fathers and mothers. When we are young we don’t know it and wouldn’t want to imagine it even if we did, but as we get older it slowly dawns on us how much our parents contributed to our very essence.
Fortunately, I have no problem acknowledging how my old man shaped me although I’m not so keen on his ghost looking back from the mirror every morning. I know that if it wasn’t for him there’s no way my life with music and its ability to make my world a better place would have happened. Sure, it may have been my own awareness that ultimately determined my own path but it was his influence and racks of pop, easy listening, folk, country and soul records that lit the blue touch paper. And when it comes to the Sixties, it’s really his taste I’m tapping into. Way too young to care about anything other than the usual boyhood stuff, I was there but not there!
In those ten years my Dad went from his late twenties to his late thirties. I’m more than a decade older than that now yet I can still recognise how the songs here represented the start of a new pop age, an age when fifties resistance to the birth of the teenager had been all but wiped out by youth cultures own refinement and radicalisation, a time of fun fun fun, highschool, dance crazes, teen idols, girl groups, and the dodgy British invasion.
Early doors it was all strictly pop. There was no such thing as rock. That would come much later, yet even when it did, the charts were still packed with records like ‘The Legend Of Xanadu’, ‘Cinderella Rockefella’ or ‘Build Me Up Buttercup’ rather than the latest psychedelic freak out or never ending cosmic blues jam. In fact, some of those hits and near misses were so absolutely pop they continue to bring a smile to my face. And in a 21st century where a global cocktail of poverty, starvation, outrageous wealth, mass terrorism and religious insanity looks like it might plunge humanity into a new Dark Age, we need as much of that as we can get.
One
01 JOHN BARRY SEVEN / Hit And Miss / February 1960
02 THE BOBBETTES / I Shot Mr Lee / April 1960
03 THE SHADOWS / Man Of Mystery / November 1960
04 THE MARCELS / Blue Moon / March 1961
05 THE SHIRELLES / Soldier Boy / March 1962
06 JET HARRIS / The Man With The Golden Arm / August 1962
07 DEL SHANNON / The Swiss Maid / September 1962
08 CHRIS MONTEZ / Some Kinda Fun / December 1962
09 BILLIE DAVIS / Tell Him / February 1963
10 ROY ORBISON / In Dreams / February 1963
11 SKEETER DAVIS / The End Of The World / March 1963
12 THE TAMMYS / Egyptian Shumba / June 1963
13 HEINZ / Just Like Eddie / August 1963
14 RICKY NELSON / Fools Rush In / September 1963
15 THE ANGELS / My Boyfriends Back / October 1963
16 TWINKLE / Terry / October 1964
17 KELLI & THE KITTENS / What Mama Don’t Know / May 1964
18 THE SHANGRILA’S / Give Him A Great Big Kiss / November 1964
19 THE AD-LIBS / Boy From New York City / December 1964
20 BILLY FURY / I’m Lost Without You / January 1965
21 MARIANNE FAITHFULL / Come And Stay With Me / February 1965
22 THE MERSEYS / Sorrow / April 1966
23 CRISPIAN ST PETERS / Pied Piper / April 1966
24 MANFRED MANN / Pretty Flamingo / April 1966
25 REPARATA & THE DELRONS / I’m Nobody’s Baby Now / May 1966
26 BOBBY HEBB / Sunny May / 1966
27 CHRIS FARLOWE / Out Of Time / June 1966
28 BEE GEES / Spicks And Specks / September 1966
29 LOVIN’ SPOONFUL / Coconut Grove / November 1966
30 SHOTGUN EXPRESS / I Could Feel The Whole World Turn Round / November 1966
Two
01 MAMA’S & PAPA’S / Creeque Alley / March 1967
02 THE TURTLES / Happy Together / March 1967
03 THE YOUNGBLOODS / Get Together / March 1967
04 YOUNG RASCALS / Groovin’ / May 1967
05 FRANKIE VALLI / Can’t Take My Eyes Off You / May 1967
06 WYNDER K FROG / Green Door / June 1967
07 SIMON DUPREE & THE BIG SOUND / Kites / October 1967
08 THE ZOMBIES / Care Of Cell 44 / November 1967
09 THE LEMON PIPERS / Green Tambourine / December 1967
10 GLEN CAMPBELL / By The Time I Get To Phoenix / January 1968
11 SERGE GAINSBOURG & BRIGITTE BARDOT / Bonnie & Clyde / January 1968
12 LOVE AFFAIR / Everlasting Love / January 1968
13 DAVE DEE, DOZY, BEAKY, MICK & TICH / The Legend Of Xanadu / February 1968
14 ESTHER & ABI OFARIM / Cinderella Rockefella / February 1968
15 LORETTA LYNN / Fist City / February 1968
16 NILSSON / One / March 1968
17 LEE HAZLEWOOD & NANCY SINATRA / Sundown, Sundown / April 1968
18 TIMEBOX / Beggin’ / July 1968
19 TOM JONES / Weeping Annaleah / July 1968
20 DION / Abraham, Martin And John / October 1968
21 THE FOUNDATIONS / Build Me Up Buttercup / November 1968
22 DUSTY SPRINGFIELD / Breakfast In Bed / March 1969
23 MAMA CASS / It’s Getting Better / August 1969
24 ZAGER AND EVANS / In The Year 2525 / August 1969
25 MARMALADE / Reflections Of My Life / November 1969
