What’s really amazing is the number of top 60s singers and musicians who began their lives as part of a skiffle group.
Skiffle is music played using largely home made or inexpensive instruments and where enjoyment of the music is more important then expertise or sophistication. Originating in the USA, it a way of playing, rather than a musical style, and so skiffle music can have its roots in blues, pop, rock and roll, country or any other musical style.
Posted in Music
Tagged adam faith, band, beatles, blues, cliff richard, country, folk, group, john rembourne, lonnie donegan, martin carthy, pop, rock and roll, shadows, skiffle
The top ten UK singles of the 1960 year of the decade were:
Number 1 The Beatles She Loves You
No surprise here.
No 2 The Beatles I Want To Hold Your Hand
This song was made specifically for the American market
No 3 Ken Dodd Tears
Kenneth Arthur Dodd, still going (strong) and will be 83 this year.
No 4 The Beatles Can’t Buy Me Love
This, I recall, was one of my favourite songs and I heard it again recently on the radio and do you know what? I still liked it!
No 5 The Beatles I Feel Fine
A hit on the American charts and the first of half a dozen such hits.
No 6 Seekers The Carnival Is Over
Written by Tom Springfield, I never really understood what this song was about but it was very popular.
No 7 The Beatles Day Tripper / We Can Work It Out
Another Beatles song. Day Tripper was written mostly by John Lennon and it was a hit with many people. We Can Work It Out, I never really liked, it was too downbeat.
No8 Englebert Humperdinck Release Me
Not a favourite of mine, however, it was a very successful track.
No 9 Elvis Presley It’s Now Or Never
The King! What can you say? A brilliant track!
No 10 Tom Jones Green Green Grass Of Home
A perennial track that still appears from time to time on the radio. I have to say that it was not a particular favourite.
So, that was 1960! It was a chart dominated by the Beatles with only one Elvis record which surprised me.
Photo windyjonas
Any 60s blog has to start with the Beatles. Without doubt the Beatles were the most important and exciting music to emerge from that time. But they were important not just for their music but because they changed the way life was structured for many teenagers.
Seen as equals, not icons, their dress, the way they behaved, spoke and reacted to those around them was accepted as the way everyone should behave. What the Beatles did today a nation did tomorrow!
Of course, we all loved them and that love has endures even today. A look on Ebay (both Ebay UK and Ebay USA) reveals a plethora of items up for bids and much of it high-priced. The value and the interest, of course, is an expression of the value we place upon them and the day that Beatles memorabilia and Beatles music disappears will be the day we forget both them and the decade!
Photo credit: tom1231
