620 The Chiffons “One Fine Day” 1963

“The Chiffons were a New York City version of the Shirelles. They were several years younger than the New Jersey group, and they began their career with a version of the Shirelle’s ‘Tonight’s the Night.’ Like the Shirelles, the Chiffons had sass…Most of the girl groups were in their mid to late teens…They were thrilled to be chosen to record the songs, impressed by studio routines and the mysterious paraphernalia, awed and intimidated by the grownup producers, and starry-eyed with the glamour of the music. They believed the lyrics they sang” (Aida Pavletich, Sirens of Song: The Popular Female Vocalist in America, 1982).   

The Chiffons “One Fine Day”

619 The Chantays “Pipeline” 1963

“Brian Carman had a guitar—a $40 Mongomery Ward’s Airline that he bought with his mom’s credit card. And he had a little group called the Chantays—five guys from Santa Ana High School who thought they could maybe play for dances at the community centre. One afternoon in 1961, he and his pal Bob Spickard got together and traded licks after school. By the end of the day, they had composed what would become one of Southern California’s most recognizable musical exports—an instrumental anthem to riding the waves and living the life, a hard-driving song that begins with a dive-bombing set of notes cherished by virtually every kid who has picked up a guitar in the past six decades…Although the Chantays became known for surfing instrumentals, Carman was not an avid surfer” (Steve Chawkins, Toronto Star, 3/14/2015). 

The Chantays “Pipeline”

618 The Centurians “Bullwinkle II” (on Surfer’s Pajama Party) 1963

“Anyone who has seen Quentin Tarantino’s films will be well aware of the masterful and unique way the director uses music. But the Hollywood hero doesn’t fly solo when it comes to picking—and clearing—the tracks in his movies. That’s the job of his trusted sync stalwart, Mary Ramos, who has been working with Tarantino ever since she took a role as music coordinator for his classic Pulp Fiction (1994)…As she later explained, Tarantino’s penchant for searching out the obtuse and the outrageous has made her life rather difficult at times” (Emma Griffiths, Music Week, 5/9/2014). 

The Centurians “Bullwinkle II”

617 Johnny Cash (1932-2003) “Ring of Fire” 1963

“Written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore, ‘Ring of Fire’ was originally intended for June’s sister Anita…The song’s inspiration is surely that of June falling hook, line and sinker for Johnny (around 1962 when the song was written)” (Stephen Miller, Johnny Cash, 2003). 

Johnny Cash “Ring of Fire”

616 The Beatles “Please Please Me” 1963

“The McCartney home always had a piano of World War I vintage because Paul’s father Jim (1902-76), the son of a brass band’s tubist, had been a musician, playing trumpet and piano in leading semiprofessional local bands…While none of the Beatles received any sort of formal instruction in an instrument, theory, or composition, Paul’s home was musically richer than that of the others; he has said, ‘I had a little bit more knowledge of harmony through my dad. I actually knew what the word harmony meant” (Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul, 2001).

The Beatles “Please Please Me”

615 The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand” 1963

The American TV correspondent Alexander Kendrick said the Beatles “‘symbolize the 20th century non-hero, as they make non-music, wear non-haircuts and give non-mersey.” However, Bob Dylan “recalled, ‘Everybody else thought they were for the teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go” (Mark Hertsgaard, A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles, 1995). 

The Beatles “I Want to Hold Your Hand”

614 The Beatles “Money (That’s What I Want)” 1963

In 1960, the Beatles were signed “to a stand at one of the clubs on Hamburg’s famous Reeperbahn. It was a big break, the Beatles thought. None of The Beatles had been out of the country before, and the prospect of a ‘tour’ of the Continent overwhelmed them. This was the big break; they felt perched on the brink of fame…Instead they found a sleazy string of strip clubs in one of the wildest and wickedest cities on the Continent. It was a port: Vice was a major industry and there was a tradition of organized crime. The five young Britons were set down in Hamburg and told to play rock and roll” (William McKeen, The Beatles: A Bio-Bibliography, 1989). 

The Beatles “Money (That’s What I Want)”

613 The Beatles “She Loves You” 1963

“Beatlemania descended on the British Isles in October 1963, just as the Christine Keeler-Profumo scandal fizzled out. It didn’t lift for three years…” The Beatles performed at the London Palladium on October 13. “The front page of every newspaper next day had long news stories and large pictures of the hysterical crowd scenes. The stories weren’t about how well or how badly the group had played their songs, but simply about the chaos they had caused” (Hunter Davies, The Beatles, 1996). 

The Beatles “She Loves You”

612 The Beatles “Twist and Shout” 1963

A hit song for the Isley Brothers in 1962. “A raver with a scorching lead vocal from Lennon, ‘Twist and Shout’ was the Beatles’ concert closer until 1964, when McCartney’s rendition of ‘Long Tall Sally’ would usurp that honor. From that point on, a truncated version of ‘Twist and Shout’…would often open the show. Thus there are many more live recordings of Beatle performances of ‘Twist and Shout’ than of any other song” 

“In records to come, [recording manager George] Martin would have a much more obvious role than he does in Please Please Me. However, it is for this album that he makes his greatest contribution as their producer. For he let the Beatles have their own way. Instead of handing them certain ready-made hits, he allowed them to develop more deeply by recording their own material” (Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul, 2001)

The Beatles “Twist and Shout”

611 The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There” 1963

“The song was one of the very earliest Lennon-McCartney compositions, written when John was still attending art college and Paul the Liverpool Institute…The two budding songwriters had skipped school one day and repaired to Paul’s house to work on the song, recalled McCartney. ‘I remember I had the lyrics “just 17, never been a beauty queen”—which John, it was one of the first times he ever went, What? Must change that…’” (Mark Hertsgaard, A Day in the Life: The Music and Artistry of the Beatles, 1995). 

The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There”

610 The Beach Boys “Surfer Girl” 1963

“If Brian Wilson represented the musical heart of The Beach Boys, then Dennis Wilson [1944-1983] was the band’s spirit.” When asked about the mediocre quality of a 1983 concert performance of “Surfer Girl,” music critic David Leaf said, “Brian, I don’t know why, but it was on that song that I missed Dennis the most. You know, the way he stands at the microphone, with his hand in his ear, his eyes closed, singing and swaying with the music” (David Leaf in Back to the Beach, 1997). Dennis Wilson drowned a few weeks after the concert. 

The Beach Boys “Surfer Girl”

609 The Beach Boys “In My Room” 1963

“When Dennis, Carl and I lived in Hawthorne as kids we all slept in the same room.” Brian Wilson taught them how to harmonize “Ivory Tower.” “We then sang this song night after night. It brought peace to us. When we recorded ‘In My Room’…we sounded just like we did in our bedroom on all those nights” (Keith Badman, The Beach Boys, 2004). 

The Beach Boys “In My Room”

608 The Beach Boys “Surfin’ U.S.A.” 1963

The song “owed itself to a number of influences, including Chuck Berry, Chubby Checker, and Judy Bowle’s little brother, Jimmy….‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ became the Beach Boys’ first Top 10 single. The original pressing listed me as the sole writer, but once it became a hit Chuck Berry claimed the melody was his, an inadvertent copy of ‘Sweet Little Sixteen.’ There are plenty of musicologists who’d argue otherwise. Perhaps feeling pressured and wanting to avoid trouble, my dad gave Berry the copyright without ever informing me. But what I didn’t learn for more than twenty-five years is that he also gave away my royalties for writing the lyrics, which clearly weren’t Berry’s” (Brian Wilson, Wouldn’t It Be Nice, 1991). 

The Beach Boys “Surfin’ U.S.A.”

607 The Beach Boys “A Young Man Is Gone” 1963; The Four Freshmen "Their Hearts Were Full of Spring" 1961

“Formed at Arthur Jordan Conservatory of Music…in 1948, the Four Freshmen were a groundbreaking vocal group who influenced…the Beach Boys and countless other close-harmony outfits…They won the DownBeat readers poll in 2000 for Best Vocal Group, over 50 years since they were formed” (The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 2006). The quartet’s “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring” and their top hit “Graduation Day” were staples of Beach Boys concerts. 

The Beach Boys “A Young Man Is Gone”

The Four Freshmen “Their Hearts Were Full of Spring”

606 Tommy Roe (1942- ) “Sheila” 1962 and “Everybody” 1963

“Like most of the big names in the music business, Felton [Jarvis] was a true eccentric who even set up a traditional Indian wigwam in the middle of the big, wide open recording studios at RCA. Every time you went into to see Felton at RCA, you had to sit down on the floor of his wigwam before you could talk business…Felton also discovered and recorded a rising young pop singer named Tommy Roe…the day before Felton brought Tommy down from Nashville, Dan and I locked the studio doors behind us and stayed up all night smoking cigarettes, drinking beer and writing a song called ‘Everybody.’ We were convinced Tommy Roe would cut it the very next day and sure enough he did” (Rick Hall, Terry Pace, The Man from Muscle Shoals: My Journey from Shame to Fame, 2015)

Tommy Roe “Sheila”

Tommy Roe “Everybody”

605 The Angels “My Boyfriend’s Back” 1963

Songwriter Richard Gottehrer “grew up in the Bronx listening to Alan Freed play R&B records on a transistor radio. Trained as a pianist from the age of six, he caught the blues bug early on, and by the age of 13, he was banging out rock ‘n’ roll numbers with a band of classmates at school dances. After earning a History degree at Adelphi University and spending a year or two at law school, Gottehrer realized that his passion for rock ‘n’ roll was not about to abate.” Gottehrer and his writing colleagues, Robert Feldman and Jerry Goldstein, started their own production company so the Angels could record their song, quitting April/Blackwood Music who “thought that ‘Boyfriend’ was a perfect song for their very popular girl group, The Shirelles” (Gary Eskow, Mix, September 2005). 

The Angels “My Boyfriend’s Back”

604 Dionne Warwick (1940- ) “Don’t Make Me Over” 1962

“Warwick’s recording debut as a solo artist was in August, 1962, singing ‘Don’t Make Me Over.’ Her last name (Warrick) was misprinted on the record label as Warwick. The record was a hit. In 1963, Burt Bacharach persuaded actor Marlene Dietrich, then starring in a show at the Olympia Theater in Paris, to invite Warwick to perform. Warwick left college and went to Paris. There, with Dietrich’s help, Warwick learned how to dress and move on stage. She was so successful in Paris that the French press called her ‘The Black Pearl.’ Warwick was the first African American female contemporary music artist to achieve stardom in Europe” (Marcia Dinneen, Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, 2016). 

Dionne Warwick “Don’t Make Me Over”

603 Bobby Vinton (1935- ) “Roses are Red (My Love)” 1962

Stanley Robert, stage name Bobby Vinton, was born in Canonsburg, PA. “His father led a band, and Bobby Vinton had visions of working with a big band even as the genre faded into nostalgia. He earned a degree at Duquesne in musical composition while supporting himself in various bands. By the end of his matriculation, he could play piano, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet, drums, and oboe. An appearance by his band on Guy Lombardo’s TV show earned him a four-week run on the program, which in turn got him a contract with Epic Records” (Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 2001).

Bobby Vinton “Roses are Red (My Love)”

602 The Tornados “Telstar” 1962

“In 1962, we splashed out six shillings and eightpence to buy ‘Telstar’,  a single  by the Tornados. It went to number one and stayed thee for weeks, and became the first British record ever to top the American charts. We bought it because it sounded electronic, like nothing we had heard before…It comes to no surprise to me to learn that Joe Meek, the composer of ‘Telstar’, was tone deaf…He was of an excitable disposition, to put it mildly, and tyrannized the groups with which he worked” (Michael Portillo, New Statesman, 7/11/2005). 

The Tornados “Telstar”

601 The Tornadoes “Bustin’ Surfboards” 1962

“Though the named popular genre Surf Music is not the first, most important, or necessarily best music associated with surfing, it did mark a key moment in the history of surfing as a global cultural practice: the shift of the cultural center of surfing from Hawai’i to California. Thus Surf Music stands as an icon of a watershed moment in the reinvention of surfing…For some surfers the music became and remained an anthem of their youth, but for others then and since it created a problematic popular image of surfing frozen in time while their surfing community moved on and changed” (Timothy Cooley, Surfing About Music, 2014).

The Tornadoes “Bustin’ Surfboards”