730 Phil Ochs (1940-1976) “There but for Fortune” 1964

“Smart, funny, good looking and blessed with a distinctive voice, Phil Ochs (1940-76) moved from his family’s home in Ohio to New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s, where his apartment became the epicenter of the folk music scene. Ochs gained fame for his political songs, often drawn directly from the newspaper…Ochs was ambitious and to further his career moved in 1967 to Los Angeles, where his material, previously accompanied by his solo guitar, came to be swathed in orchestral arrangements, which was not always well received. A bipolar alcoholic, he took this hard, though he stayed active in anti-war protests and helped organize the Youth International Party (Yippies) in 1968” (John Hiett, Library Journal, 15 October 2011). 

Phil Ochs “There but for Fortune”

729 Manfred Mann “Do Wah Diddy Diddy” 1964

“Manfred Mann was one of the biggest bands of the 1960s, along with The Beatles and the Stones. And Paul Jones, the band’s original lead singer, could easily have been the front man for the Rolling Stones instead…’When it all happened for the Stones, I didn’t feel the least bit envious. I just thought, ‘Okay, well maybe I made the wrong decision, but perhaps it will turn out to be the right one. Let’s wait and see what happens. However, the next time somebody asked me to be in their band, I said yes!’ It was an invitation to sing and play harmonica with Manfred Mann (1940- ), an accomplished South African jazz pianist who was forming a group with drummer Mike Hugg, saxophone player Mike Vickers and bass guitarist tom McGuinness” (David Wigg, Daily Mail (London), 17 June 2006). 

Manfred Mann “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”

728 Little Anthony (Gourdine) (1941- ) and the Imperials “Goin’ Out of My Head” 1964

“Mr. Gourdine grew up in the Fort Greene projects in Brooklyn. His father was a saxophone player and his mother a gospel singer…Little Anthony and the Imperials had their greatest success during their brief association with the songwriter and producer Teddy Randazzo and Don Costa, a regular arranger for Frank Sinatra…When it ended in a dispute over royalties,” their “hit-making days were over” (Stephen Holden, The New York Times, 3/31/1989). 

Little Anthony and the Imperials “Goin’ Out of My Head”

727 The Kinks “You Really Got Me” 1964

Dave Davies: “I always like how our band sounded at clubs—coarse and sort of stripped down. Months earlier, I had passed a radio shop a few doors up from my parents’ house on Denmark Terrace. In the window I saw a small teal space-age Epico amp for 10 quid. I bought it, but when I got home, I was alone and had a moment of teenage inspiration or rage. I had just learned to shave, so I took one of my razor blades and slashed up the amp’s speaker cone. I had no idea whether what I had done would work, but when I plugged in the guitar, I was blown away by the raucous sound that came out. It was gritty” ” (Marc Myers, Anatomy of a Song, 2016).  

The Kinks “You Really Got Me”

726 The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night” 1964

Ray Davies: “Shortly after I formed the Ravens in 1963 with my brother Dave and bassist Pet Quaife, we began wearing colorful outfits we had bought in boutiques on London’s Carnaby Street. Dressed in these flamboyant clothes at a pub with our manager, Larry Page, I loudly insisted we needed an edgier name than the Ravens. A drunk who had been watching us remarked that we looked more like kinks to him—short for ‘kinky,’ or ‘weird.’ Larry picked up on that and said, ‘The Kinks! That’s perfect!’” (Marc Myers, Anatomy of a Song, 2016). 

The Kinks “All Day and All of the Night”

725 B.B. King (1925-2015) “How Blue Can You Get” 1964

King worked as a houseboy for a white family and drove a tractor for another plantation owner, Johnson Barrett. The guitarist never expressed bitterness about his early life….’I'll tell ya something may sound funny, but I've kinda tried to pattern my operation and my lifestyle with my group as Mr. Barrett did. He was kind and protective of his people. He stood between them and problems’” (David Fricke, Rolling Stone, 6/18/2015). A live version was recorded on the 1965 album Live at the Regal, which is listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

B.B. King “How Blue Can You Get”

724 Jan (1941-2004) and Dean (1940- ) “Dead Man’s Curve” & “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena” 1964

Jan Berry was “’a force to be reckoned with,’ says Lou Adler, who managed Jan and Dean Torrence in the 1960s and produced some of their early singles. Born William Jan Berry on April 3rd, 1941, and raised in the Bel Air section of L.A., Berry was still in high school when he cut his first Top Ten hit, the doo-wop novelty ‘Jennie Lee,’ named after a real-life exotic dancer, on two tape machines in his garage in 1958 with Torrence and another pal, Arnie Ginsburg” (David Fricke, Rolling Stone, 2004).

Jan and Dean “Dead Man’s Curve”

Jan and Dean “The Little Old Lady from Pasadena”

723 Howlin’ Wolf (1910-1976) “Killing Floor” 1964

“His tombstone refers to him simply as Chester Burnett, and only the engraved images of a guitar and harmonica remind visitors of the man’s career as Howlin’ Wolf. Yet the nickname told all…the trailblazer, the aggressor, the cunning interloper, the teacher, the reconciler, but above all, the sad and mournful voice we still hear wailing in the dark” (Ted Gioia, Delta Blues, 2008).

Howlin’ Wolf “Killing Floor”

722 Herman’s Hermits “I’m Into Something Good” 1964

“As the Heartbeats, they were an undistinguished Manchester group fronted by drama student Peter Noone. Signed by Mickie Most, more for Noone's youthful good looks than their musical talents, they covered Gerry Goffin's and Carole King's 'I'm into Something Good', reaching No. 1 in Britain on EMI's Columbia label in 1964” (Phil Hardy, The Faber Companion to 20th Century Popular Music, 2001).

Herman’s Hermits “I’m Into Something Good”

721 Francoise Hardy (1944- ) “Dans Le Monde Entier” 1964, “Le Temps de L’Amour” & “Tous Les Garcon Et Les Filles” 1962

“Born into a Parisian family of humble means, Hard taught herself a few chords on the guitar, and was already singing her own compositions in French clubs by the age of 17.” She became a star with her debut song, “Tous Les Garcon Et Les Filles” (Find Me a Boy) 1962, “drastically improving by the second EP, especially on the snaky ‘Le Temps de L’Amour’ (The Time of Love), with its spy-movie guitar and splendidly film noirish vocal. Her English version of ‘Dans Le Monde’, ‘All Over the World,’ was a hit song in Great Britain in 1965. “When the Beatles came through Paris on their 1965 European tour, they declared that there were two people they wanted to see: Brigitte Bardot and Francoise Hardy” (Richie Unterberger, Unknown Legends of Rock ‘n’ Roll, 1998). 

Francoise Hardy “Dans le Monde Entier”

Francoise Hardy “Le Temps de L’Amour”

Francoise Hardy “Tous Les Garcon Et Les Filles”

720 Stan Getz (1927-1991) with Joao (1931- ) and Astrud Gilberto (1940- ) “The Girl from Ipanema” 1964

Getz/Gilberto “is the finest work of all in the jazz-bossa nova idiom. Its fragile delicacy, melodic richness and exquisite rhythmic poise place it in a class far above all the others, even Getz’s own. It also turned out to be the most popular, and this was partly by accident. Accounts vary but, at some point during the preliminary rehearsal, someone suggested that it would be a good idea to have a couple of the songs sung in English as well as Portuguese…Purely as a demonstration, Astrud Gilberto sang through the English lyrics of ‘Garota de Ipanema’…Her singing—simple, artless and with slightly wavering intonation—appealed to Getz” (Dave Gelly, Stan Getz: Nobody Else But Me, 2002).  Listed on the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress.

Stan Getz with Joao and Astrud Gilberto “The Girl from Ipanema”

719 Marvin Gaye (1939-1984) “How Sweet It Is (to be Loved By You)” 1964

“Ford’s assembly line influenced the son of a black transplant from the Georgia cotton fields. That boy, born in 1929, was named Berry Gordy, and he would in 1959 establish Motown Records Corporation, which became one of the most successful black businesses in the nation. Gordy modeled his company’s philosophy of producing records on Ford’s methods of producing cars. Motown also shaped the musical tastes of millions of Americans with its bright melodies, upbeat lyrics, and crossover ambitions. It wanted to sell the beauty and brilliance of the black voice to white America” (Michael E. Dyson, Mercy, Mercy Me: The Art, Loves and Demons of Marvin Gaye, 2004). 

Marvin Gaye “How Sweet It Is”

718 The Four Tops “Baby I Need Your Loving” 1964

“They'd been singing together for ten years, and making intermittent recordings for eight years. But in 1964, Levi Stubbs, Abdul ‘Duke’ Fakir, Lawrence Payton, and Renaldo ‘Obie’ Benson had yet to break through with a hit record. That came to an end with their debut single for Motown, Baby, I Need Your Loving…Once this record hit big, the Tops were on a roll that didn't stop until more than a decade later. Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) ranks it as the #8 most played song of the past sixty-plus years with over nine million broadcast performances” (Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, 2013).  

The Four Tops “Baby I Need Your Loving”

717 The Four Seasons “Rag Doll” 1964

“Four Seasons member and chief songwriter Bob Gaudio was inspired to create the group’s most memorable hit one day while driving down the West Side Highway leaving New York City through the Holland Tunnel near 10th Avenue when, during a marathon three-minute stoplight, a young woman in tattered clothes came up to clean his windows, hoping for a tip. Finding nothing in his pockets smaller than a five-dollar bill (in some interviews it's a ten-dollar bill), he handed it to her, and, he recalled, ‘I could see her in the rear-view mirror, just standing in disbelief in the middle of the street with the five dollars. And that whole image stayed with me, a rag doll was what she looked like’” (Steve Sullivan, Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, 2013). 

The Four Seasons “Rag Doll”

716 Betty Everett (1939-2001) “The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s In His Kiss)” 1964

“‘The Shoop Shoop Son,’ or ‘It’s In His Kiss,’ reached number six on the Billboard charts in 1964. That same year, Betty Edward had another hit with a duet. She and Jerry Butler, who was then with The Impressions, recorded ‘Let It Be Me.’ Betty Everett was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 1939. She started playing piano and singing in church when she was nine. It was her move to Chicago in 1957 that launched her recording career and even though her popular success was sporadic, she earned considerable respect as a soul singer” (Melissa Block, Morning Edition (NPR), 23 Aug. 2001). 

Betty Everett “The Shoop Shoop Song”

715 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “The Times They Are A-Changin’” 1964

“Why…did he ever write anti-war songs and songs inspired by and inspiring to the civil rights movement? ‘That was my chance,’ he says frankly. ‘In the Village there was a little publication called Broadside and with a topical song you could get in there. I wasn’t getting far with the things I was doing, songs like I’m writing now, but Broadside gave me a start.’ It also brought him the attention and friendship of Joan Baez, undisputed queen of folk music, and Pete Seeger, for many years a folksinger and composer known in many nations” (Frances Taylor in Bob Dylan The Early Years A Retrospective, 1990). 

Bob Dylan (1941- ) “The Times They Are A-Changin’”

714 Bob Dylan (1941- ) “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” 1964

“In ‘The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll,’ Dylan describes the negligent homicide of a kitchen maid, Hattie Carroll, at the hands of the son of a Baltimore aristocrat…What concerned Dylan was not whether the victim’s family received a just remedy for its loss, but whether just retribution was provided to the assailant. The Biblical lex talionis, the law of retribution, was what Dylan seemed to have in mind” (Francis Beckwith in Bob Dylan and Philosophy, 2006). 

Bob Dylan “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll”

713 The Drifters “Under the Boardwalk” 1964

“Under the Boardwalk” was the group’s “last US Top 10 pop hit, although the group remained a popular attraction. When producer Bert Berns “left Atlantic to found the Bang label, the drifters found themselves increasingly overshadowed by newer, more contemporary artists and, bedeviled by lesser material and frequent changes in personnel, the group began to slip from prominence.” They enjoyed renewed popularity, however, in the UK in the early 70s (The Encyclopedia of Popular Music, 2006). 

The Drifters “Under the Boardwalk”

712 The Dixie Cups “Chapel of Love” 1964

“[Joan Marie] Johnson was only with the group for its first few years because she was diagnosed with sickle cell anemia. Their version of ‘Chapel of Love,’ written by Phil Spector, Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, supplanted the Beatles’ ‘Love Me Do’ as the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100…It turns out the trio arranged the vocals on the spot. [Barbara Ann] Hawkins recalled: ‘When Ellie and Jeff first played ‘Chapel’ for us, we looked at each other, like, You really want us to sing that like that? They said, Well, how do you want to sing it? So I said, Give us a minute. So we went to the corner and started singing. We walked back to them and when we sang it the way it was recorded, they were just, Wow! That was awesome’” (Mark Kennedy, Washington Post, 13 Oct. 2016). 

The Dixie Cups “Chapel of Love”

711 Floyd Dakil (1945-2010) Combo “Dance, Franny, Dance” 1964

“The son of immigrant Arthur Dakil, Lebanon’s longtime honorary consul in Dallas (Texas), Floyd found success with his speedy guitar licks and innate showmanship. ‘Floyd was a big deal when his record came out and it went national,’ says entertainment booker Angus Wynn. ‘He was one of the great guitar players. He could play anything. You’d call out any song, and he could remember things that you just wouldn’t believe. And he was such a sweet guy. He always wanted to know what he could do for you.’ In 1969, Floyd began a multiyear stint as the guitarist for Louis Prima. In the ‘70s, he and his band were regulars at the Lion’s Den at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as well as venues in Reno and Lake Tahoe” (Alan Peppard, Dallas Morning News, 5 May 2010). 

Floyd Dakil Combo “Dance, Franny, Dance”