Almanac Music: ‘100x 100, 1954 – 1977’: 41 – 50

 

Finding release dates aint as easy as you’d think. Some are no more specific than the year. Some have caught me by surprise, not all are in the order I’d like. So I went ahead and listed all songs and researched dates and, by the gods, that song came out in late ’67? I’d always thought it late ’66. I’ve been organising, every now and then I’d lose a song and have to go back through the original list to look for it. Then I’d find another one out of orderliness, bloody hell.

 

41 – As Long As I Have You, Garnett Mimms, 1964
“Give me mountains to crumble, and I’ll turn them to sand”, the rhythm, the vocals, this was The Song when Perky Girl and I got married.

 

42 – Tainted Love, Gloria Jones, May 1965
Classic buildup, the rhythm, the voice, backing vox, the horn section slips in, ‘I love you but you hurt me so” the drama builds upon itself with every eight bars. Originally the B side to a flop, this song became a popular track in northern English nightclubs, part of the early ‘70s Northern Soul sound. Wipe the synth-pop cover from your memory, this song pumps.

 

43 – Heart Full Of Soul, Yardbirds, June 1965
Jeff Beck’s fuzz guitar lick opens the song, the acoustic guitar and drums carry it, check those triplets in the chorus. The instrumental break, in classic song form, repeats the vocal melody, then another verse and another lick. Perfect guitar pop.

 

44 – Tracks Of My Tears, Smokey Robinson And The Miracles, June 1965
Smokey Robinson was a genius singer and songwriter, but it’s the guitar figure that opens the song that really sets up this beautiful melodrama. The drums follow the vocals, accents and fills, this is sophisticated pop soul, a tiny room full of crack hot musicians and singers and songwriters at the top of their game.

 

45 – Midnight Hour, Wilson Pickett, June 1965
Wicked Pickett and the wickedly slick Stax band, a studio in an old cinema with minimal equipment and maximum talent of musicians and engineers, this song has a crack and thump like nothing else at the time. Legend has it that the rhythm came from portly producer, Jerry Wexler, who did a dance like what the kids were into that month. Well, maybe, but it was Steve, Duck and Al who played the rhythm in one of the best sounding rooms on this list and Wilson, his mama sent him north cos she was scared for his life down home, testifies.

 

46 – Uptight, Stevie Wonder, November 1965
Little Stevie’s voice broke and it was even better. He had a line and a riff and Sylvia Moy wrote the rest of the lyrics and, bang, that was it. The band hit it, just like a Motown band would, Sylvia sang the lyrics a line ahead, Stevie repeated and didn’t miss a beat. Of course not, this was call and response, the heart of gospel music and in this loose raw riff there’s more gospel than in most Motown.

 

47 – California Dreaming, Mamas and Papas, December 1965
New York in winter, dreaming of the sun in LA, this song is the moment when folk music, bubbling under for a couple years, broke through into pop bigtime, taking the California sound in a new direction. Ironic and appropriate, bigtime producer Lou Adler recorded it for another singer before redoing the voices and flute solo.

 

48 – This Ole Heart Of Mine, The Isley Brothers, January 1966
Don’t it lift your heart?! Dance, sing!

 

49 – Good Lovin, Young Rascals, February 1966
Fantastic bouncing song, you can hardly keep up with the rhythm and energy. Felix heard The Olympics version on the radio, the band started playing it at gigs, Tom Dowd (worth an article himself) recorded it live in the studio. Bang, that’s one hell of a great rhythm guitar.

 

50 – Cool Jerk, Capitols, May 1966
Bassline sneaks up on you, piano joins in – Capitols was a Detroit trio who’d split a couple years earlier, Don wrote a song to crash in on a local lewd dance craze, they got together to record this, the ultimate bragging song, they know I’m the king of the Cool Jerk, can you do it, can you do it? Best part is “now gimme a little bass on those 88s” and the piano riffs. Motown crew played on this, after hours, relaxing and having fun. As ought we all.

 

1966, dollars and cents, me, the best year for singles. What a time to be alive.

 

 

To read more by Earl O’Neill click HERE.

 

 

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