The Music of My Youth Lives On
“Back in the day” the Baby Boomer enjoyed the music from the 60’s and guess what? Yep, the music of my youth still lives on today. How can one not love the music of the 60’s!!
Desiring my own portable stereophonic record player for my room, my parents were kind enough to contribute to the purchase, as long as, I made up the difference from my newspaper route earnings. So, in 1964, we, of course, decided to purchase a record player made by Zenith, my father’s favorite brand, at Swillers in Clarendon. Mrs. Swiller, in retirement, lived in Colonial Village and her apartment received one of my “Washington Evening Star” newspapers.
Dad had three hobbies which he very much enjoyed–golf, poker, and wood crafting. In fact, he built my bedroom furniture which consisted of two long wooden dressers with both drawers and small louvred doors for books and storage and a corner desk supported by a dresser on each side along with a wooden captain’s chair. My bedroom also had two twin beds situated perpendicular at the end of each dresser. Being the perfectionist that he was, he got the measurements to the Zenith record player and built a cabinet for it with two shelves–the top shelf for 45’s and the bottom for LP’s–which fit snugly against one wall. The record player, as I can recall, was probably 3′ wide and 2′ high with a handle, when lifted, exposed the inside of the record player along with two speakers tucked into the top which could be removed, if desired, and be connected within a few feet of the portable record player making it stereophonic.
Records could be purchased at Mayer’s, Swillers, or at G.C. Murphy in Clarendon or Giant Music in Falls Church. Murphy’s had the cheapest 45’s and Giant Music had the largest selection while Mayer’s always got the newest hits first, but you paid a premium price as I recall. This Baby Boomer liked 45’s over LP’s. I just wanted the hits and albums, to me, were filled with recordings that never became hits. True music aficionados like my buddy, Fred, preferred albums as he was a true music “junky”.
In 1964, the first two 45’s I purchased were Roy Orbison’s, “Oh, Pretty Woman” and Manfred Mann’s, “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”. The irony here is that during our daughter’s wedding to our son-in-law (Baby Bear and Big Red), in 2018, the entire wedding procession danced down the aisle shaking maracas to “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”!!
The British Invasion hit the USA in 1964 led by bands like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Herman’s Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Zombies, The Animals, The Dave Clark Five, and The Kinks to name several along with individuals Tom Jones, Petula Clark, Lulu, Dusty Springfield, and Peter and Gordon. Seemingly, you either were a fan of The Beatles or The Rolling Stones, but not both. In my case, I was a Beatles fan.
In fact, in sixth grade at Wilson Elementary School, we had a play in which we performed the song “I Want to Hold Your Hand” where Fred, Bob, Gary, and Eddie portrayed The Beatles and I introduced the band as Ed Sullivan as we had a “really big show”. LOL!!
Music which I also enjoyed came from Motown with artists like Mary Wells and Dionne Warwick who both owned beautiful and rich voices along with Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. Groups from Motown included the Supremes, the Four Tops, the Temptations, the Miracles, the Marvelettes, and Martha Reeves and the Vandellas.
Those from the USA I enjoyed included Aretha Franklin, The Byrds, Sly and the Family Stone, The (Young) Rascals, Tommy James & The Shondels, The Buckinghams, Lesley Gore, The Righteous Brothers, Roger Miller, Glen Campbell, Sonny & Cher, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, and The Carpenters
Not really ever a real fan of Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Otis Redding, The Four Seasons, James Brown, The Mamas & The Papas, The Monkees, and Simon and Garfunkel although I did enjoy the soundtrack from the movie, “The Graduate”–Katharine Ross was a “knockout”!!
I also enjoyed music from “South Pacific”, “Camelot”, “West Side Story”, “Man of La Mancha” (Richard Kiley as Don Quixote), and “The Sound of Music”–when the Captain sang “Edelweiss” and the Captain and Maria in the gazebo with that beautiful backdrop singing “Something Good” which was just incredible and always brings tears to my eyes!!
Heading to a concert “back in the day” would probably run you $10-$15/ticket which was quite a sum of money for the Baby Boomer. My favorite venue was the Carter Barron Amphitheatre in Rock Creek Park where I saw The Miracles, The Four Tops, The Temptations, and Dionne Warwick.
The Baby Boomer’s Favorite Songs (narrowing my picks to just 10 for the following years)
1964
“I Want to Hold Your Hand”, “Oh, Pretty Woman”, “My Guy”, “Chapel of Love”, “Suspicion”, “Wishin’ and Hopin'”, “Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying”, “Anyone Who Had a Heart”, “Bad to Me”, “Needles and Pins”
1965
“Mrs. Brown You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter”, “Downtown”, “You Were on My Mind”, “Hang On Sloopy”, “Yesterday”, “Ferry Cross the Mersey”, “Just Once in My Life”, “My Girl”, “King of the Road”, “Goin’ Our of My Head”
1966
“96 Tears”, “Soul and Inspiration”, “Reach Out I’ll Be There”, “Nowhere Man”, “Walk Away Renee”, “Turn!, Turn!, Turn!”, “Listen People”, “Gloria”, “The Men in My Little Girl’s Life”, “Message to Michael”
1967
“Happy Together”, “Respect”, “I Think We’re Alone Now”, “Kind of a Drag”, “Expressway to Your Heart”, “For What It’s Worth”, “Don’t Sleep in the Subway”, “How Can I Be Sure”, “Don’t You Care”, “Bernadette”
1968
“Hey Jude”, “Love Is Blue”, “Theme from Valley of the Dolls”, “A Beautiful Morning”, “Different Drum”, “MacArthur Park”, “Reach Out of the Darkness”, “Susan”, “The Rain, The Park & Other Things”, “Just Dropped In to See What Condition My Condition Was In”
1969 (can’t keep it to just ten)
“Crimson and Clover”, “I Heard it Through the Grapevine”, “Crystal Blue Persuasion”, “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me”, “Sweet Caroline”, “Easy to Be Hard”, “You’ve Made Me So Very Happy”, “Get Together”, “Good Morning Starshine”, “Wichita Lineman”, “The Worst that Could Happen”, “Galveston”, “This Magic Moment”, “Stormy”, “I’ve Gotta Be Me”, “Abraham, Martin and John”, “More Today Than Yesterday”
1970
“Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head”, “Let It Be”, “Make it With You”, “Leaving on a Jet Plane”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, “He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother”, “Something’s Burning”, “Didn’t I Blow Your Mind This Time”, “Someday We’ll Be Together”, “The Long and Winding Road”
In 1970, I had no idea whatsoever how clairvoyant The Beatles were in describing life as it certainly has been a “long and winding road” and although this is so true–I love life!!
What and who were your favorites from “back in the day”?