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This week 56 years ago July 15 1964
Just saw a tweet from Brian Wilson today:
This week in 1964, the Beach Boys released their sixth studio album, All Summer Long. Certified Gold, “I Get Around” became the band’s first number 1 hit in the U.S.
The US Billboard charts for the week of July 11, 1964 show Beach Boys I Get Around at #1, Four Seasons “Rag Doll” at #3, Peter and Gordon “A Wold Without Love” love drops down to #8 after peaking to #1, Beatles “Love Me Do” drops down to #24 after peaking to #1 in the charts for some 14 weeks. Beatles “A Hard Days Night” would be released the following week to hit the chart at #21 to rapidly rise to #1.
Just a fun snapshot of what the world was rocking to 56 years ago today.
Here is a lesser known Beach Boys gem off the “All Summer Long” album with a fitting title.
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32 Replies
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Nifty, Jung! The Beach Boys and the Four Seasons are the only American groups I can think of to have hits both before and during the British invasion, which I think really says something about how appealing their sound was.
Hadn’t heard that tune you posted. I didn’t know that any musicians were already waxing nostalgic about early rock-and-roll in 1964!
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David, yeah I thought that too about that song, considering the British Invasion was just on the cusp of the big wave to happen and all the great music about to be created, a song singing ode to all the great rock musicians of the past seems a little premature. But I guess from the perspective of young 20 years old’s like the Beach Boys, Rock and Roll had already spanned half their lives from the early 50s to 1964 by then.
1964 was just an incredible time for music. The Kinks would be releasing their iconic single “You Really Got me” in a couple of weeks, and the Beatles made their debut USA appearance on the Ed Sullivan show just a few months earlier in February! The big Beatles Tsunami was just starting. The Beach Boys career was only a year old with their major hit “Surfin USA” that was released March 4 1963 (2 days after my birthday!) that put them on the musical map. It was a good year to be a rock and roll fan for sure with such an onslaught of great music about to happen.
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One easy way to demonstrate how profoundly pop music changed in 1964 is to compare the top-selling songs of 1965 with those of 1963. I don’t think there is any other two-year period in the history of music in which the sound evolved so quickly.
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Lol… Jan and Dean always sounded similar to the Beach Boys to me… So when I was a kid, back in the 70s…I inadvertingly from time to time get their songs mixed up as to who sang what whenever I heard the songs on radio, but it helped that my 2nd oldest bro had a few HotRod themed albums to which I took a liking to, that featured both Jan and Dean, and I think Beach Boys too, but not sure on that, however the 2 HotRod songs I still love as my faves… He Wore Black Leather Trousers and Motorcycle Boots and The Little Old Lady from Passedena… Lol…. A little Rebel HotRod Rock n Roll in your soul, does no harm… ??
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You may already know this, Jacki, but Jan and Dean collaborated quite a bit with Brian Wilson on their songwriting, so the strong resemblance is no accident.
I lived in Pasadena for a couple of years, and even spent some time on Colorado Blvd., but never encountered that little old lady. Given that more than 20 years had passed since the song was written, I rationalized that the grandkids had taken the keys away from her by then.
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David, yes even in the summer of 1964 between the Beatles back to back hits, I Wanna Hold Your Hand and A Hard Days Night, there is a significant progression in the music style and complexity.
Jacki, Jan and Dean were the biggest surfing/hot rod groups next to the Beach Boys in the early 60s. It’s unfortunate Jan Berry’s bad accident in his Vette abruptly ended the bright future of that duo. If they had progressed and matured into newer styles of music like the Beach Boys did, I am sure there would have been a lot more great songs to talk about from them.
In one of my California trips I remember staying in Pasadena in a hotel right on Colorado Blvd, and recalling it’s significance to Little Old Lady from Pasadena. Next to the Rose Bowl, it’s probably that song that made Pasadena famous. I also stayed often in North Hollywood on Sunset Blvd on occasion too. Fun place to rip around in the mustang when I was younger along Sunset Blvd from Hollywood down to Santa Monica or Malibu.
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One of Jan and Dean’s big hit songs was “Dead Man’s Curve”, and interestingly it became an example of an eerie self fulfilling prophecy as Jan Berry crashed his Corvette literally on the same route along Sunset Blvd the song sang about.
In April 1966, the successful career of California’s surf-pop musical duo called “Jan and Dean” came to a halt when Jan Berry’s Corvette Sting Ray car crashed into an unexpected parked truck going 90 MPH while on his way to a business meeting. The horrific near-fatal accident occurred just a short distance from the fictional site mentioned in the 1964 hit single “Dead Man’s Curve.” Was the song a foreshadow of what was to come?
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Looks like 1964 was a big year for the Beatles. In April of 1964, the Beatles dominated the US Billboard Top 5.
1. “Can’t Buy Me Love”
2. “Twist and Shout”
3. “She Loves You”
4. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
5. “Please Please Me”Never before in the history of Billboard had one artist dominated the top five positions.
And that wasn’t all. In addition to the five chart-toppers, the Beatles were represented by another seven titles on the chart that week: “I Saw Her Standing There” (#31), “From Me to You” (#41), “Do You Want to Know a Secret” (#46), “All My Loving” (#58), “You Can’t Do That” (#65), “Roll Over Beethoven” #(68) and “Thank You Girl” (#79). And several of those were B-sides—such was the pervasiveness of Beatlemania in early 1964.
My favourite early Beatles songs would be these two:
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1964 sure sounded good!
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I have to say, Love Me Do too from 1962, their first big hit single.
It’s interesting what George Martin said, that it was the Beatles individual charisma that stood out for him at first.
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Jung, if you stayed at that Pasadena hotel in the late 80’s, we were probably at most just a few kilometers apart.
I once bought an audio cassette compilation album called Teenage Tragedy, which included all the usual suspects (Teen Angel, Last Kiss, Tell Laura I Love Her, Patches, etc.), plus a live performance of Dead Man’s Curve by Jan Berry sometime after his accident. He missed a few notes, his timing was a little off, and his speech was a bit slurred, but he made it through to generous applause. I would love to know exactly when and where he did this, but I don’t know how I could find out.
Oh, and if I recall correctly, I bought the cassette at Canterbury Records, on Colorado Blvd. in Pasadena.
The Beatles songs you posted are among my early favorites too. I’ve learned the chords for both on ukulele. Very devious of them to raise the key by half a step in the middle of “And I Love Her”. It sounds nice, but it’s twice as much work to learn how to play it.
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David, I found this re Jan and Dean’s first live performance together after the accident:
The duo’s first live performance after Berry’s accident occurred at the Palomino Nightclub in North Hollywood on June 5, 1976, ten years after the accident, as guests of Disneyland regulars Papa Doo Run Run.
My first trip down to Los Angeles was in summer of 1990, so maybe missed you by a year in Pasadena. Those Beatles songs I’m sure must sound nice on the Uke.
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Another big 1964 hit. The Kinks certainly were cutting edge with their rock and roll guitar sounds.
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Great song! I always assumed that it was from a year or two later than 1964, which underscores your point.
I read that Ray Davies claimed that The Doors “borrowed” the basic riff for “Hello, I Love You” from this song.
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Thanks, Jung; that might be it. I found this performance from 1980, and he sounds much better:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXm3cL-mjdE&t=1739s
I left LA in May of 1989, so yeah, I guess I just missed you.
It is fun playing the Beatles on the uke. I focus on the happy songs, and the uke is a happy instrument, so it’s usually pretty satisfying.
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