Several weeks ago I posted some hot
pop jams from 1955-1959, mostly rockabilly stuff. Here are some more .mp3s from 1960-1964 with some early rock and R&B. You can
download them all as a .zip file or individually. If you're interested in any expired links, my AIM is my Blogger name.
01 Shirelles - Soldier Boy sounds a lot like Sonic Youth's
Little Trouble Girl, doesn't it?
02 Shirelles - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow is one of the best songs of the era. I have a copy of the Afghan Whigs' version, if you're interested. Another artist with two tracks here is
03 Gary "U.S." Bonds - New Orleans which starts out sounding like the theme to
Battletoads, if you can remember that. They also reference the 1959 song
The Battle Of New Orleans if you can remember that one, too. Gary also sings
04 Gary "U.S." Bonds - Quarter To Three which sounds a whole lot like . . . what's that song again?
05 Dion - Runaround Sue Oh, that's the one. Then we have some songs about cars, such as
06 Jan & Dean - The Little Old Lady From Pasadena which always sounded scarily too much like the Beach Boys,
07 Ronny & The Daytonas - G.T.O. which makes me wonder if they created their name solely from the subject of their breakout hit, and
08 Little Eva - The Loco-Motion. That's a stretch, but do you remember when Vanessa and her friends made a music video for this on
The Cosby Show? A more vehicle-based song would probably be
09 Shangri-Las - Leader Of The Pack. It's both corny and ahead of its time simultaneously. NPR spent an hour analyzing this song a few months ago. Another song ahead of its time is
10 Booker T. and the M.G.'s - Green Onions. And you know what doesn't mix with green onions?
11 Dartells - Hot Pastrami. And you know what you look like when you eat green onions and hot pastrami?
12 Ikettes - I'm Blue. Then again, if you work with Ike you may be black and blue. The 5.6.7.8.'s redid this song on
Kill Bill. While your blue self suffers from food poisoning I'm sure you'll be
13 Bobby Lewis - Tossin' and Turnin' all night. Unless you're a large African feline, which is the worst segue ever into
14 Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (Wimoweh). The song is derived from an old African song called
Mbube, the Zulu word for "lion." Look it up!
15 Bobby "Blue" Bland - Turn On Your Love Light was stolen by the Blues Brothers and a million others. Bland probably stole this as well. Another truly great song is
16 Drifters - Up On The Roof. While you can't listen to old records on the roof, you can hear the
17 Cascades - Rhythm Of The Rain. Another thing you should never do on the roof is
18 Chuck Jackson - Let's Dance. Save that for someplace safer, like
19 Martha & The Vandellas - Dancing In The Street. Once you're down there you can
20 Marvin Gaye - Hitch Hike (The Velvet Underground totally stole that opener.) to
21 Freddy Cannon - Palisades Park, later covered by the Beach Boys and the Ramones.
22 Chris Kenner - I Like It Like That - or as I remember the commercial,
22 Chris Kenner - (Cold Miller Light) I Like It Like That. Another song used in a beverage commercial was
23 Doris Payne - Just One Look, except it involved Pepsi and Cindy Crawford. She always looked weird, didn't she? With that mole?
24 Impressions - Gypsy Woman is about a similar odd lady. An even weirder, more exotic female is discussed in
25 Coasters - Little Egypt, which pretty much has the same plot as the Coasters' Mexico. The next five songs are put in alphabetical order of their onomatopoeitic lyrics:
26 Hollywood Argyles - Alley-Oop, based on the comic strip and covered by the Beach Boys,
27 Regents - Barbara-Ann (
ba ba ba, ba Barbara-Ann) also covered by the Beach Boys,
28 Raindrops - The Kind Of Boy You Can't Forget(
Diddle iddle iddle-it)
29 Neil Sedaka - Breaking Up Is Hard To Do(
Down doobie do down down), and
30 Dee Dee Ford - I Need Your Lovin'(
Woah woah woah WOAH! Woah woah). Finally, a song without words at all.
31 Rockin' Rebels - Wild Weekend. And what a wild weekend it was, sleeping for twelve straight hours. I have to go back to it right now.
