TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS 1960S PING LIST
(This is a temporary ping list…so don’t worry!)
ROUND 5 WINNERS (rank/year/title/act):
4 1961 “Crying” Roy Orbison
4 1964 “Oh, Pretty Woman” Roy Orbison
5 1965 “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” The Righteous Brothers
4 1968 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” Otis Redding
Interesting tidbits:
-An astounding 67 voters!
-MOST VOTES - “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” Otis Redding
-FEWEST VOTES - “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine in” The 5th Dimension
-ALL songs got votes; no zeroes
-No pairs were even that close, which is incomprehensible to me. ;-D Only the duel of Righteous Bros and “Light My Fire” was relatively close, in single-digit difference.
I can’t believe the Beach Boys are out (and Roy Orbison rules), or that Aquarius is out! I can’t believe Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay keeps whaling over all these songs! Geesh, it’s not THAT good! ;-D
On to Round 6!
wow no Beatles or Beach Boys. I’m out of here.
No Beatles = suspect.
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