AM Gold - Mid-'60s Classics
1995 CD
1995 CD Time Life Music, Warner Special Products
coordinator [project director] John Bonfield
cover GOLD & Associates
executive-producer Charles McCardell
executive-producer Robert Hull
liner notes John Morthland
producer [recording producer/consultant] Joe Sasfy
production manager [production director] Karen Hill
remastered by Steve Carr
Remastered At Hit And Run Studios
Phonographic Copyright (p) Warner Special Products
Copyright (c) Time Life Inc.
Published By Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.
Published By Mongo Music
Published By Serendipity Publishing Corp
Published By Tideland Music Publishing Corp.
Published By Longitude Music Co.
Published By Seasons Four Music
Published By Irving Music, Inc.
Published By Tender Tunes Music
Published By Trio Music Co., Inc.
Published By Jobete Music Co., Inc.
Published By Stone Agate Music
Published By Stone Diamond Music Corp.
Published By Atlantic Music Corp.
Published By EMI Feist Catalog, Inc.
Published By Songs Of PolyGram International, Inc.
Published By Northern Music
Published By Welbeck Music
Published By MCA Music Publishing
Published By Alley Music Corp.
Published By Northern Songs
Published By Music Corporation Of America, Inc.
Published By Chappell & Co.
Published By c/Hear Services, Inc.
Published By Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Published By Dandelion Music Co.
Published By Jamie Music Publishing Co.
Published By Stilran Music
Published By Mills Music, Inc.
Manufactured For Time Life Music
Manufactured By Warner Special Products
Time-Life released this disc as Superhits - Mid-'60s Classics (SUD-17) in the [l774983] series in 1992, and as AM Gold - Mid-'60s Classics (AM1-16) in the [l328190] series in 1995.
℗ 1992 Warner Special Products
© 1992, 1995 Time Life Inc.
Track durations obtained from software.
Publishing:
Track 1- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc. BMI
Track 2- Mongo Music BMI
Track 3- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc./Serendipity Publishing Corp. BM
Track 4- Prideland Music Publishing Corp. BMI {sic}
Track 5- Longitude Music Co./Seasons Four Music BMI
Track 6- Irving Music, Inc. BMI
Track 7- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc./Tender Tunes Music, Inc./Trio Music Co., Inc. BMI
Track 8- Jobete Music Co., Inc. ASCAP Stone Agate Music/Stone Diamond Corporation BMI
Track 9- Atlantic Music Corp. BMI
Track 10- EMI Feist Catalog, Inc. ASCAP
Track 11- Songs of PolyGram International, Inc. BMI
Track 12- Stone Agate Music BMI
Track 13- Northern Music Company/Welbeck Music adm. by MCA Music Publishing ASCAP
Track 14- EMI Unart Catalog Inc. BMI
Track 15- Northern Music Company ASCAP
Track 16- Alley Music Corp./Trio Music Co, Inc. BMI
Track 17- Northern Songs adm. by Music Corporation of America, Inc. BMI
Track 18- Chappell & Co. ASCAP
Track 19- c/Hear Services, Inc. BMI
Track 20- Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. BMI
Track 21- Dandelion Music Co./Jamie Music Publishing Co./Stilran Music Publishing Company BMI
Track 22- Mills Music, Inc. ASCAP
Complete liner notes:
As the commercial folk boom of the early 1960s gave way to electrified folk-rock in the middle of the decade (when the British Invasion was at its peak), a whole new school of hits, near-hits and one-hit wonders was created. The Silkie provide a perfect example.
Vocalist Silvia Tatler and her three instrumentalists were folk purists who got together at England's Hull University. After building an audience on the British folk circuit, they were signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. When their debut single flopped, Epstein induced them to record the John Lennon-Paul McCartney tune You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, from the Beatles flick Help! John, Paul and George helped produce and played on the Silkie's version, but it proved the group's only chart appearance. Epstein improved his score with the Cyrkle, a Pennsylvania folk-rock group he managed that enjoyed two hits, the second of which was Turn-Down Day. At least the Cyrkle got to tour America with the Beatles in 1966; thanks to perennial visa problems, the Silkie never even made it to the States.
The Searchers' Needles and Pins inadvertently helped invent the folkrock sound. Jackie DeShannon barely creased the 1963 charts with the song, cowritten by Sonny Bono (preCher) and Phil Spector arranger Jack Nitzsche. But the Liverpool group the Searchers, introduced to Needles and Pins while listening to British rocker Cliff Bennett at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, liked the tune enough to make it their next single.
They used two six-string guitars playing in unison on the intro, and when their engineer accidentally left the echo switch on, they wound up with the approximate sound of a 12string. It was the first folk-rock hit with that sound, which quickly became such a convention that the group had to go out and buy a real 12-string just to keep up with the competition.
Friends since grammar school, Dick (St. John Gosting) and Dee Dee (Sperling) were attending Santa Monica High when they had their first hit in 196l. Their finale was the cautionary Thou Shalt Not Steal. The Serendipity Singers were University of Colorado students when they scaled the top 10 with Don't Let the Rain Come Down. After getting as far as Hootenanny, network television's feeble attempt to cash in on the folk craze, they managed just one more Top 40 single before disappearing.
The Lovin' Spoonful, however, were quintessential folk-rock. A Greenwich Village good-time jug band that went electric in the wake of the Beatles and Dylan, they first charted in 1965 with the anthemic Do You Believe in Magic. Among the classics they recorded over the next two years was a tribute to country music, Nashville Cats.
Dusty Springfield, meanwhile, was exiting folk-rock. Under her real name of Mary O'Brien, she had sung with an early-'60s British pop trio called the Lana Sisters. She changed her name while forming the folk-rock group the Springfields, who brought Silver Threads and Golden Needles to the States in 1962. But when Dusty went solo in 1963, she took a more Motown-influenced course. I Only Want to Be with You was the very first record ever played on the BBC's landmark Top of the Pops TV show; it was also the second hit single of the British Invasion, appearing on American charts the week after the Beatles exploded with I Want to Hold Your Hand.
Petula Clark and Georgie Fame show what widely varying acts got carried in with the British wave. The latter entered the music biz early in the decade as an Elvis-inspired rocker, but turned jazzier and then toward hard-core rhythm and blues with his band the Blue Flames. He was one of the most popular London R&B acts, though in the States that translated into only modest success with Yeh, Yeh (which was No. l in England) and a flukish top lO in 1968 with The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. But Pet Clark-a World War II child star who made her first movie in 1944 and her first record in 1949-was a steady hit-maker in the U.S.A. after 1964, thanks to catchy, middle-of-theroad fare like I Couldn't Live without Your Love.
Despite the onslaught from across the Atlantic, Americans retained the upper hand on the charts during this era. The Beach Boys made increasingly ambitious records after a 1964 nervous breakdown led leader Brian Wilson to stop touring. He conceived Don't Worry Baby as a sort of competitor and follow-up to Phil Spector's Ronettes hit Be My Baby. When he'd heard that one on the car radio, Wilson wondered aloud if he could ever match it, and his wife, Marilyn, patted him on the shoulder and said, Don't worry baby as encouragement. He remembered the phrase when he and DJ Roger Christian sat down together to write.
The 4 Seasons were the East Coast group most comparable to the Beach Boys in stature. With member Bob Gaudio doing most of the writing, Frankie Valli singing lead and Bob Crewe producing, they racked up hits steadily from 1962 through 1968. Big Man in Town was one of the more interesting, though far from the most successful.
New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt lucked onto the charts with a remake of Java, adapted from a 1958 album of piano instrumentals by Tousan. The pianist, under his real name of Allen Toussaint, was the Crescent City's leading producer and songwriter through the '60s. But back in '58, he'd been a relative nobody hired by publishers Danny Kessler and Murray Sporn to play behind some auditioning hopefuls-and the two talent scouts wound up turning thumbs down on all the singers while deciding to cut an album with the pianist. Java may refer to rich New Orleans coffee, but it might also be the name of a racehorse-Kessler was a notorious bettor and supposedly named most of the Tousan instrumentals after favorite nags.
After three drag-racing LPs at the height of the surf era, the T-Bones scored with their instrumental No Matter What Shape, which was written for them as an Alka Seltzer commercial. The group later evolved into early-'70s harmonizers Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.
Freddy Cannon made his share of exuberant, noisy hits beginning in 1959, but Action, the theme for the TV beach dance party Where the Action Is, was the last to go Top 40. Jay and the Americans came out of Brooklyn with a comparable string of pop rockers, but Cara, Mia proved most enduring; released again in Holland in 1980, it went straight to No. 1.
It Hurts to Be in Love caught former Connecticut electronics student Gene Pitney, a thrilling singer and imaginative writer-arranger, at peak performance. Dino, Desi and Billy were, respectively, the sons of Dean Martin, Desi Arnaz and the real estate broker who sold houses to both stars. They recorded I'm a Fool, their first and biggest hit, on Frank Sinatra's label after Frankie caught them rehearsing one afternoon over at Dino's pad. The Shangri-Las, two sets of sisters from Queens, were the toughest of the white girl groups. Producer Shadow Morton used them and Remember (Walking in the Sand) to launch his Red Bird label.
With the intoxicating Yes, I'm Ready, Philly singer Barbara Mason served as a bridge between girl groups and soul balladeers. Little Anthony and the Imperials, who emerged from Brooklyn in 1958 with the doo-wop ballad Tears on My Pillow, broke up from 1960 to 1964 before returning with the same basic sound on the likes of Hurt So Bad. The Temptations disliked Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, but Motown released it anyway. The Norman Whitfield production, with David Ruffin singing lead, immediately became one of their best-loved grooves and helped ensure that it would be impossible to talk about the mid-'60s without waxing ecstatic over Detroit soul.
-John Morthland
Matrix / Runout: 10 OPCD 2672-2 06
Rights Society: BMI
Rights Society: ASCAP
cover GOLD & Associates
executive-producer Charles McCardell
executive-producer Robert Hull
liner notes John Morthland
producer [recording producer/consultant] Joe Sasfy
production manager [production director] Karen Hill
remastered by Steve Carr
Remastered At Hit And Run Studios
Phonographic Copyright (p) Warner Special Products
Copyright (c) Time Life Inc.
Published By Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc.
Published By Mongo Music
Published By Serendipity Publishing Corp
Published By Tideland Music Publishing Corp.
Published By Longitude Music Co.
Published By Seasons Four Music
Published By Irving Music, Inc.
Published By Tender Tunes Music
Published By Trio Music Co., Inc.
Published By Jobete Music Co., Inc.
Published By Stone Agate Music
Published By Stone Diamond Music Corp.
Published By Atlantic Music Corp.
Published By EMI Feist Catalog, Inc.
Published By Songs Of PolyGram International, Inc.
Published By Northern Music
Published By Welbeck Music
Published By MCA Music Publishing
Published By Alley Music Corp.
Published By Northern Songs
Published By Music Corporation Of America, Inc.
Published By Chappell & Co.
Published By c/Hear Services, Inc.
Published By Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.
Published By Dandelion Music Co.
Published By Jamie Music Publishing Co.
Published By Stilran Music
Published By Mills Music, Inc.
Manufactured For Time Life Music
Manufactured By Warner Special Products
Time-Life released this disc as Superhits - Mid-'60s Classics (SUD-17) in the [l774983] series in 1992, and as AM Gold - Mid-'60s Classics (AM1-16) in the [l328190] series in 1995.
℗ 1992 Warner Special Products
© 1992, 1995 Time Life Inc.
Track durations obtained from software.
Publishing:
Track 1- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc. BMI
Track 2- Mongo Music BMI
Track 3- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc./Serendipity Publishing Corp. BM
Track 4- Prideland Music Publishing Corp. BMI {sic}
Track 5- Longitude Music Co./Seasons Four Music BMI
Track 6- Irving Music, Inc. BMI
Track 7- Screen Gems-EMI Music Inc./Tender Tunes Music, Inc./Trio Music Co., Inc. BMI
Track 8- Jobete Music Co., Inc. ASCAP Stone Agate Music/Stone Diamond Corporation BMI
Track 9- Atlantic Music Corp. BMI
Track 10- EMI Feist Catalog, Inc. ASCAP
Track 11- Songs of PolyGram International, Inc. BMI
Track 12- Stone Agate Music BMI
Track 13- Northern Music Company/Welbeck Music adm. by MCA Music Publishing ASCAP
Track 14- EMI Unart Catalog Inc. BMI
Track 15- Northern Music Company ASCAP
Track 16- Alley Music Corp./Trio Music Co, Inc. BMI
Track 17- Northern Songs adm. by Music Corporation of America, Inc. BMI
Track 18- Chappell & Co. ASCAP
Track 19- c/Hear Services, Inc. BMI
Track 20- Acuff-Rose Music, Inc. BMI
Track 21- Dandelion Music Co./Jamie Music Publishing Co./Stilran Music Publishing Company BMI
Track 22- Mills Music, Inc. ASCAP
Complete liner notes:
As the commercial folk boom of the early 1960s gave way to electrified folk-rock in the middle of the decade (when the British Invasion was at its peak), a whole new school of hits, near-hits and one-hit wonders was created. The Silkie provide a perfect example.
Vocalist Silvia Tatler and her three instrumentalists were folk purists who got together at England's Hull University. After building an audience on the British folk circuit, they were signed by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. When their debut single flopped, Epstein induced them to record the John Lennon-Paul McCartney tune You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, from the Beatles flick Help! John, Paul and George helped produce and played on the Silkie's version, but it proved the group's only chart appearance. Epstein improved his score with the Cyrkle, a Pennsylvania folk-rock group he managed that enjoyed two hits, the second of which was Turn-Down Day. At least the Cyrkle got to tour America with the Beatles in 1966; thanks to perennial visa problems, the Silkie never even made it to the States.
The Searchers' Needles and Pins inadvertently helped invent the folkrock sound. Jackie DeShannon barely creased the 1963 charts with the song, cowritten by Sonny Bono (preCher) and Phil Spector arranger Jack Nitzsche. But the Liverpool group the Searchers, introduced to Needles and Pins while listening to British rocker Cliff Bennett at the infamous Star Club in Hamburg, Germany, liked the tune enough to make it their next single.
They used two six-string guitars playing in unison on the intro, and when their engineer accidentally left the echo switch on, they wound up with the approximate sound of a 12string. It was the first folk-rock hit with that sound, which quickly became such a convention that the group had to go out and buy a real 12-string just to keep up with the competition.
Friends since grammar school, Dick (St. John Gosting) and Dee Dee (Sperling) were attending Santa Monica High when they had their first hit in 196l. Their finale was the cautionary Thou Shalt Not Steal. The Serendipity Singers were University of Colorado students when they scaled the top 10 with Don't Let the Rain Come Down. After getting as far as Hootenanny, network television's feeble attempt to cash in on the folk craze, they managed just one more Top 40 single before disappearing.
The Lovin' Spoonful, however, were quintessential folk-rock. A Greenwich Village good-time jug band that went electric in the wake of the Beatles and Dylan, they first charted in 1965 with the anthemic Do You Believe in Magic. Among the classics they recorded over the next two years was a tribute to country music, Nashville Cats.
Dusty Springfield, meanwhile, was exiting folk-rock. Under her real name of Mary O'Brien, she had sung with an early-'60s British pop trio called the Lana Sisters. She changed her name while forming the folk-rock group the Springfields, who brought Silver Threads and Golden Needles to the States in 1962. But when Dusty went solo in 1963, she took a more Motown-influenced course. I Only Want to Be with You was the very first record ever played on the BBC's landmark Top of the Pops TV show; it was also the second hit single of the British Invasion, appearing on American charts the week after the Beatles exploded with I Want to Hold Your Hand.
Petula Clark and Georgie Fame show what widely varying acts got carried in with the British wave. The latter entered the music biz early in the decade as an Elvis-inspired rocker, but turned jazzier and then toward hard-core rhythm and blues with his band the Blue Flames. He was one of the most popular London R&B acts, though in the States that translated into only modest success with Yeh, Yeh (which was No. l in England) and a flukish top lO in 1968 with The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde. But Pet Clark-a World War II child star who made her first movie in 1944 and her first record in 1949-was a steady hit-maker in the U.S.A. after 1964, thanks to catchy, middle-of-theroad fare like I Couldn't Live without Your Love.
Despite the onslaught from across the Atlantic, Americans retained the upper hand on the charts during this era. The Beach Boys made increasingly ambitious records after a 1964 nervous breakdown led leader Brian Wilson to stop touring. He conceived Don't Worry Baby as a sort of competitor and follow-up to Phil Spector's Ronettes hit Be My Baby. When he'd heard that one on the car radio, Wilson wondered aloud if he could ever match it, and his wife, Marilyn, patted him on the shoulder and said, Don't worry baby as encouragement. He remembered the phrase when he and DJ Roger Christian sat down together to write.
The 4 Seasons were the East Coast group most comparable to the Beach Boys in stature. With member Bob Gaudio doing most of the writing, Frankie Valli singing lead and Bob Crewe producing, they racked up hits steadily from 1962 through 1968. Big Man in Town was one of the more interesting, though far from the most successful.
New Orleans trumpeter Al Hirt lucked onto the charts with a remake of Java, adapted from a 1958 album of piano instrumentals by Tousan. The pianist, under his real name of Allen Toussaint, was the Crescent City's leading producer and songwriter through the '60s. But back in '58, he'd been a relative nobody hired by publishers Danny Kessler and Murray Sporn to play behind some auditioning hopefuls-and the two talent scouts wound up turning thumbs down on all the singers while deciding to cut an album with the pianist. Java may refer to rich New Orleans coffee, but it might also be the name of a racehorse-Kessler was a notorious bettor and supposedly named most of the Tousan instrumentals after favorite nags.
After three drag-racing LPs at the height of the surf era, the T-Bones scored with their instrumental No Matter What Shape, which was written for them as an Alka Seltzer commercial. The group later evolved into early-'70s harmonizers Hamilton, Joe Frank and Reynolds.
Freddy Cannon made his share of exuberant, noisy hits beginning in 1959, but Action, the theme for the TV beach dance party Where the Action Is, was the last to go Top 40. Jay and the Americans came out of Brooklyn with a comparable string of pop rockers, but Cara, Mia proved most enduring; released again in Holland in 1980, it went straight to No. 1.
It Hurts to Be in Love caught former Connecticut electronics student Gene Pitney, a thrilling singer and imaginative writer-arranger, at peak performance. Dino, Desi and Billy were, respectively, the sons of Dean Martin, Desi Arnaz and the real estate broker who sold houses to both stars. They recorded I'm a Fool, their first and biggest hit, on Frank Sinatra's label after Frankie caught them rehearsing one afternoon over at Dino's pad. The Shangri-Las, two sets of sisters from Queens, were the toughest of the white girl groups. Producer Shadow Morton used them and Remember (Walking in the Sand) to launch his Red Bird label.
With the intoxicating Yes, I'm Ready, Philly singer Barbara Mason served as a bridge between girl groups and soul balladeers. Little Anthony and the Imperials, who emerged from Brooklyn in 1958 with the doo-wop ballad Tears on My Pillow, broke up from 1960 to 1964 before returning with the same basic sound on the likes of Hurt So Bad. The Temptations disliked Beauty Is Only Skin Deep, but Motown released it anyway. The Norman Whitfield production, with David Ruffin singing lead, immediately became one of their best-loved grooves and helped ensure that it would be impossible to talk about the mid-'60s without waxing ecstatic over Detroit soul.
-John Morthland
Matrix / Runout: 10 OPCD 2672-2 06
Rights Society: BMI
Rights Society: ASCAP