Posted on 02/09/2020 4:26:52 PM PST by the OlLine Rebel
wow no Beatles or Beach Boys. I’m out of here.
No Beatles = suspect.
1 1960 “Theme from A Summer Place” Percy Faith
1 1963 “Surfin’ U.S.A.” The Beach Boys
5 1965 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” The Righteous Brothers
4 1968 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” Otis Redding
Roy Orbison is not that good. Crying went up against 15 forgettable songs, and the original Oh Pretty Woman pales in comparison to the remake.
I'm hoping that Lovin’ Feelin’ and Dock of the Bay will be the battle for the right to crush Orbison in the final.
“Dock of the Bay” was a huge hit in 1968 (as was “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” and Hey, Jude”) driven in part because it was a posthumous tribute to Otis Redding who had died in an aircraft incident, much the same way as what happened to Kobe Bryant. It was the #1 song on the Billboard charts for an entire month.
“Dock of the Bay” is an iconic ballad of someone who had reached the end of their rope and was ready perhaps to give up. Redding’s solo so powerfully expressed that hopelessness. Set to the background of riots, assassinations and the Vietnam War, I wonder if many people felt our nation was somehow doomed to fail.
Musically, I agree it’s a simplistic tune but it sure struck a nerve of angst our young felt during 1968. In that sense, it’s very poignant to the 1960s every bit as much as, say, “The Twist”.
4 1964 “Oh, Pretty Woman” Roy Orbison
5 1965 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” The Righteous Brothers
It's probably regional. Growing up around DC, white kids were exposed to more black music, Motown, rhythm & blues, etc. than other parts of the country, and it did more for Civil Rights among the young than marches and protests. We also had gatherings of choirs from churches all around DC-Baltimore for the annual Methodist Hymn Sing in Constitution Hall in DC, which exposed the white suburban kids to the glories of black gospel singing. And, in high school in the late 50s-early 60s, white kids could go to some black-owned clubs in DC, even during a time of considerable racial tension. Even the intimate Bohemian Caverns, owned by hipster African-Americans, that graciously tolerated white kids coming in to hear great jazz. It was dark and smokey inside with dark walls, and the ceiling was like being in a cave, decorated with long plaster stalactites embedded with glittering mica dust.
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