1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die - 1962

Going for The Crystals, although they would make much better recordings later. As would The Miracles to an even larger extent.

Here's where I start pitching fits about omissions, mainly Dick Dale and Barrett Strong

nm about Barrett--I guess "Money" came ou in '60. Wow!

Looking at my media library, I don't think it was all that great a year...the Miracles from what's above; the Shirelles' "It's Love That Really Counts" if I could choose anything.

I'll probably vote for the Crystals, bcz God bless the girl groups...

Looking at Billboards from this year and it was so transitional. "Duke of Earl" was on the charts around the same time as "The One Who Really Loves You" by Mary Wells.

Didn't cast a 1961 vote because there were so many great choices; may not vote in this one because none of them really knock me out. Maybe the Miracles.

definitely like that crystals song, but ultimately it came down to francoise hardy and john lee hooker for me. went with francoise.

OK, some other '62 U.S. top 40 songs: "You'll Lose a Good Thing" by Barbara Lynn, "You Beat Me to the Punch," "Green Onions," "Surfin' Safari," "Loco-Motion," some Cameo label singles, "Bring It on Home to Me"/"We're Having a Party" (double-sided Sam Cooke single), "Telstar."

I was about to say having John Leyton as an option and not "Telstar" seems weird, but then again, instrumentals have been generally left out here.

If "Green Onions" had been on this list, that would have been that.

"he's a rebel" is so good

Another omission: Sam Cooke, Bring It On Home To Me

But this will probably be the easiest vote of all for me. The best Smokey--and Motown--song ever, You Really Got A Hold On Me.

"You've Really Got a Hold On Me" doesn't really sound like Motown at all. Well... No Motown songs from as early as 1962 did. It wasn't until 1963-64 that Motown started sounding like Motown.

If "Green Onions" had been on this list, that would have been that.

I guess the writer is operating under the assumption that everyone everywhere has heard "Green Onions". (And, if not, it's an unforgivable oversight.)

"Green Onion", like "Telstar", is an instrumental, and is as such automatically disqualified.

What's the source for this again?

Um, 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die? :)

I agree that this is a pretty weak list. I think the Francoise Hardy song is the best here by a fair margin.

^^^ Correct.

A couple more omissions: "James Bond Theme" (yes, yes, an instrumental), "Can't Help Falling In Love" (this one actually kinda surprises me). I guess we're now to the point where there won't be any Connie Francis songs. A shame, as she's one of my favorite singles artists of the era (choice for '62 would be "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You").

"A Town Without Pity"? "Runaway"? "Party Lights"? "Baby It's You"? "The Wanderer"? "Wah-Watusi"? "Break it To Me Gently"?

"The Wanderer" was #1 the day I was born, so I know that's '61.

Break It To Me Gently would have been a runaway winner for me, but as it is I voted for the Miracles.

Miracles, because Green Onions stupidly disqualified. Shitty reasoning by the author.

Mel Tormé - right now

This is pretty cool. From Billboard's Top 100 of 1962:

9. The Twist, Chubby Checker
17. Slow Twistin', Chubby Checker
23. Twistin' the Night Away, Sam Cooke
25. Peppermint Twist, Joey Dee and The Starlighters
32. Dear Lady Twist, Gary US Bonds
38. Twist and Shout, The Isley Brothers
87. Percolator Twist, Billy Joe & The Checkmates
88. Twist, Twist Senora, Gary U.S. Bonds
89. Twistin' Matilda, Jimmy Soul
92. Soul Twist, King Curtis

That's amazing...I think the craze hit full-force in '61, so some of those records (maybe most) were released a year earlier.

whither "Telstar"?

As Geir will remind us momentarily, instrumentals have no place in this book/these polls.

"You've Really Got a Hold On Me" doesn't really sound like Motown at all. Well... No Motown songs from as early as 1962 did. It wasn't until 1963-64 that Motown started sounding like Motown.

― Hongroe (Geir Hongro), Wednesday, May 11, 2011 1:53 AM (17 hours ago)

I don't know. I've always heard "Shop Around," "The One Who Really Loves You," "Beechwood 4-5789," and "You Beat Me to the Punch" as being very Motown sounding.

They lack the typical Motown sound, with the backbeat and the "big" band sound. I would also say they were more strictly R&B based, and not pop crossover to the same extent a typical Motown record would be from around Martha and The Vandellas and through to Norman Whitfield's more funk oriented productions around 1969-70.

Geir Hongro's opinions of what what Motown sounds like arguably aren't his worst. I vote for the Miracles in spite of this.

shh...never tell him that half of what makes Motown Motown could be credited to music and artists from the American south.

watch me Now! voting Contours

I was laying a mixtape and was struck by how 2 tracks referenced "Do you love me" on it...

"I love you Susanne" Lou Reed, and "Cake Shop Girl" by Jowe Head.

Also don't remind him that "Shop Around" has so little "pop crossover" appeal that it was later made a big hit by noted R&B artists The Captain and Tenille.

Wow...I feel like kind of an idiot for not noticing that insanely obvious Reed/Contours connection before.

some other great 1962 songs:

Bob B. Soxx & the Blue Jeans - Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da
Bob Dylan - Talkin's New York
The Crystals - He Hit Me (It Felt Like a Kiss)
Dick Dale - Peppermint Man

i'm really surprised about them leaving out "He Hit Me" which I think is absolutely a song you must hear before you die

love Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Da

agree about He Hit Me. always feel like starting a poll on greatest misogynistic songs, but choosing the right songs seems too great a task for just one man.

shh...never tell him that half of what makes Motown Motown could be credited to music and artists from the American south.

Part of what makes it Motown is that those were filtered through the somewhat more melodic style of the American North, and, later, Soutwest.

The point being that w/o Southern music traditions, there would never be Motown. Sure is a good thing those existed and, as you wished the other day, DIDN'T exist.

and=instead of

Geir, I don't think I hear a big band sound in the early Supremes hits ca. '63/early '64 ("Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," and "Come See About Me") or Marvin Gaye's "I'll Be Doggone" or early Martha and the Vandellas hits either. Even on some of their great wall of sound records, I don't know as that there's always a lot of people playing.

Still definitely think the records I mentioned above "sound like Motown," especially those two Mary Wells songs ("You Beat Me to the Punch" and "The One Who Really Loves You")!

Mary Wells, maybe. "Do You Love Me" and early Smokey Robinson were more raw R&B though (and even without the Tin Pan Alley/Brill Building pop elements that were typical of Sam Cooke and Ben E. King/Drifters at the time)

But, sure, Phil Spector had yet to really happen (save fot that one Crystals hit that I voted for here), and he was of course an important influence on the trademark 60s Motown sound. So no wonder they didn't nail that sound until they had those Spector-productions to be influenced by.

One key element that was in place already on the early records was "Benny" Benjamin's drumming. James Jamerson didn't find his bass style until around 1963 though. And Joe Messina's trademark upbeats, not sure exactly when he perfected them, but they were surely not around for those 1961-62 recordings.

There were some fine Howlin' Wolf singles on Chess in 1962, for instance "You'll Be Mine / Goin' Down Slow".

"I don't like you but I love you" beats all, but seeing John Lee Hooker play "Boom Boom" in the mid-'80s was one of my concert-going highlights of all time. He'd been sitting for the show, and halfway through the song stood up, in that theatrical way that sends the chair scooting backward across the floor. It was electric.

Performance here is pretty amazing too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSnQ0bdHW0s

Hang on, 1962 was also "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover" by Bo Diddley!

xp "I don't like you but I love you" beats all

otm

Love the use of "You Really Got a Hold on Me" in the 1964 film Nothing But a Man too.

i can only think of it in this way

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyUxVCR0p9g

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Some more '62-era Motown that sounds very much to me like it's already '60s soul music proper and pretty far removed from '50s R&B/rock and roll/doo wop:

The Supremes - "Your Heart Belongs to Me"
Martha and the Vandellas - "I'll Have to Let Him Go"
The Marvelettes - "Strange I Know"

Personally I miss "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do Here" and "Crying In The Rain" the most here.

i understand being pissed about some omissions here, but the obvious obvious choice is "Boom Boom."

i mean, in that video above, when he says "i like it like that" at :41, it sends shivers up my spine.

Some more '62-era Motown that sounds very much to me like it's already '60s soul music proper and pretty far removed from '50s R&B/rock and roll/doo wop:

I agree it sounds like soul music, but it doesn't sound like pop the way later Motown did. Golden period 60s Motown was genius in blurring the differences between R&B and pop.

Well, golden period Motown is also "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," and "Jimmy Mack" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."

The thing is, I think all golden period Motown is soul music. There was an expanded chord vocabulary and there were other changes, but I'm very wary of taking all those specific things and labeling them as pop influences. There might very well have been pop influences, but its probably fairer to the greatness of that music to look a lot of those things as original developments specific to soul music proper.

table, you speak the truth. Voted "Boom Boom."

I voted Boom Boom too.

Well, golden period Motown is also "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)," and "Jimmy Mack" and "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."

All of those, while having ecstatic and soulful vocals, were also great pop songs.

I agree, but I think "Beechwood 4-5789" and "Your Heart Belongs to Me" are too, and in a way that sounds very Motown.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.