It was Sixty Years Ago Today...Some Other Important Life-Changing Music From 1964

Friday is fun, it's music. So, links, playlists, etc. Today, I look at 1964, now 60 years ago. But it wasn't just The Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Here are some other things to check out from that time.

You will absolutely find bigger Beatles nutters than me. But I do have a set of their guitar picks hanging on my wall. I have just forked out for a signed-photo of original drummer, Pete Best. I am collecting everything I can find by them, all the albums, solo albums, etc…So, I am a pretty big, boring Beatles nutter. (As if there’s really any other kind). But even I am not all that excited about the fact that this year marks the 60th Anniversary of American Beatlemania, by way of it being the anniversary of their first proper tour and their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. I mean, I’m into it. For sure.

soundsgoodonsubstack

A post shared by @soundsgoodonsubstack

I’m enough of a drumming fan, let alone Beatles fan, to get the significance of it. Ringo being on a drum-riser meant visibility for drummers, sales of sticks and kits went up overnight, and the idea of being a drummer in a band was suddenly cooler than it had ever been…

But aren’t we also clutching a bit at Beatles memories and anniversaries. It’s also the anniversary of the A Hard Day’s Night album (and film). And the album — and its title song for starters — might be the real start of “serious" and clever Beatles pop music. Not just songs for screaming fans.

¹Anyway, there are a lot of cool things that happened roughly 60 years ago to the day when it comes to music. And I’m talking simply about some of the albums and songs that were released. There’s enough about The Beatles in the world already (he says, as he builds up a bookshelf of the best and most important books about the band, and collects multiple versions of their albums on both CD and vinyl).

But what about these cool things to check out again or for the frst time:

Meet The Temptations was released in April 1964.

This is the debut album, collecting up most of the key early singles, and showcasing the brilliance of this band of talented vocalists. So much star power on display here, from the producing of Norman Whitfield, to the writing of Smokey Robinson, and various co-writing, singing, and production hands from Berry Gordy, Andre Williams, and the Hollands from Holland/Dozier/Holland. That’s all outside of the actual group too. On this album, the voices of Eddie Kendricks, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams, and David Ruffin. Amazing singers, all. But especially in this configuration — together.

Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch! was released in August 1964.

One of the great modern jazz albums — one of the ones, a bit like Coltrane’s A Love Supreme and Miles’ Kind of Blue and Birth of the Cool — where it turns up in the collections of non-jazz fans too. Such is its influence, its brilliance, though Dolphy’s album isn’t quite up there in the Everywhere stakes alongside Miles Davis and John Coltrane; he’s more in the Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, and Thelonious Monk territory. In fact, opening track here, Hat And Beard, is a tribute to Monk. You listen to this album and you hear every man on the album playing like the leader, but everyone is following each other still too. Tony Williams on drums, oh wow. Bobby Hutcherson at the vibraphone, my god. And Freddie Hubbard on trumpet. Hello! This is one of the great albums by anyone ever, across any and all styles. This flipped my little brain inside out when I heard it as a teenager, a full 30 years after it was released it was still changing the world of music. And now, 30 years on from there it still could be too I reckon.

Etta James Rocks The House was released at the very end of 1963!

One of the all-time great live albums I reckon. I first heard Etta James when I was 9 years old. She was a guest on the B.B. King & Friends live concert that I have watched at least 487 times. Etta James just absolutely blew my mind. Some years later, I found this album — and I’m still very glad that I did! I must have missed the pre-Xmas love for this album on its 60th birthday. Maybe you missed it too? But whatever you do, don’t miss out on listening to this.

A Girl Called Dusty was recorded in January of 1964.

It was out in the stores by April of the same year, that’s 60 years ago — but you knew that already. The debut album by the blue-eyed soul singer. Dusty had been in folk-pop combos (The Lana Sisters, The Springfields) and then she went solo. Some of the bigger hits were still to come, there are more important must-have albums, but this is so fascinating to hear. I bought a copy on vinyl a decade or so ago, and it was a firm favourite, what with gems like You Don’t Own Me and Anyone Who Had A Heart and Will You Love Me Tomorrow and Wishin’ And Hopin’. What a voice! And what songs.

Bo Diddley’s Beach Party was released right at the start of 1964.

One of the first remote-recorded live albums — a recording studio in the back of a truck capturing the sound of the actual beach party — it’s Bo and his guitar and that voice. There’s drums and a second (rhythm) guitar. And of course there’s some hits. Crackin’ Up, Road Runner, Hey! Bo Diddley. And Chuck Berry’s Memphis just for starters…

Surfin’ Bird [the album] by The Trashmen was yet another January release in 1964.

Okay, okay, it’s been ruined by Family Guy now, but this garage-rock classic was released as a single in late 1963, and then the debut album — kicking off with the title track — was released at the very start of ‘64. It’s not so much that it sounded like the future, it’s just that it must have sounded so fucking cool.

As well as The Beatles releasing A Hard Day’s Night, and later in the year, Beatles For Sale, and in the U.S. there was also the release of Meet the Beatles! — their second album for that territory, yes, they would “Change the world” by appearing on the Ed Sullivan show. They’d be charming, and the fandom would be at the sort of fever-pitch we now mock the Swifties for…

But also, that same year, and in those same times, there were the debut albums of The Kinks, The Dave Clark Five, The Hollies, Simon & Garfunkel, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, and Manfred Mann. And that’s just off the top of my head. There were significant records by The Beach Boys (three in the one year) and Bob Dylan (two) and though Elvis didn’t release a record, he was in three films that year. And there were amazing singles by Dionne Warwick, and The Supremes, and if you don’t really remember Johnny Tillotson, The Rip Chords, and Major Lance, you definitely do remember Barbra Streisand, Chuck Berry, and Dean Martin. The songs Tall Black Trembling Lips and Hey Little Cobra may well have faded from the mind, and no longer really be in the collective culture, but the same can’t be said for Walk On By, Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying, The Girl From Ipanema, The House of the Rising Sun, Oh Pretty Woman, Leader of the Pack, Remember (Walking In The Sand), She’s Not There, Time Is On My Side, You Really Got Me, and Dancing In The Street.

And for all the great debut albums of 1964, think of how many amazing sophomore albums there were. You know, the artist is now fully formed, has learned to walk and can also run. Just one example for you — Gladys Knight & The Pips, the second album by the band of the same name was released in 1964. Hunt it out. Even better, do so before getting a ticket to see Gladys Knight on her farewell tour. She’s playing New Zealand in April of this year, a month later, she’ll celebrate her 80th birthday!

So, you know, 60 years since The Beatles were on Sullivan, sure, absolutely, but we should also remember some of the things above — and the albums highlighted (among the many others that could have been listed).

And my own favourite album of 1964 is:

Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus

Recorded in January and September of 1963, in two seperate sessions with two different lineups, and released in January of 1964, this music from 60 years ago still sounds like a jazz of the future to my ears. Charles Mingus (bass, piano, some spoken word) collaborated with the arranger and orchestrator Bob Hammer, to take some of Mingus’ songs from the 50s and charge them for a larger ensemble. I first heard this album in the late 1990s, and it’s the Mingus album I most often return to — there are so many of his albums I love, and so many more for me to still properly wrap my ears and mind and heart around, but of the ones I know and love, this is the one that excites me most; this is the one that speaks a language I adore, even if I’m nowhere close to fluent in that particular mode.

Oh and here’s my favourite song from 1964:

I guess all I’m saying, is give some of these other pieces a chance…

And here’s 10 other albums for you to listen to that came out in 1964. Some are absolute classics, but many of them have been forgotten to time, and that’s a shame. They certainly won’t be getting raves and reissues this year.

And the 1964 hits just keep on coming…

---

But hey, I reckon there’s not a single song from 1964 on my playlist I’ve made for us today. (Spoiler alert: I know there’s not, there’s really only one song from the 60s, one from the 70s and a couple from the 80s).

Earlier this week, I celebrated three years of writing here at Substack. So that also means three years of making a weekly playlist. Hopefully there’s something you like on Vol. 156 of “A Little Something For The Weekend…Sounds Good!”

Phew, that was a lot eh. Happy listening. Happy Weekend! Thanks for reading.

1. I say this, and yet, while writing this newsletter I watched the entirely unnecessary ‘Rock Milestones: The Beatles’ - Meet The Beatles’ LOL.