Songs of the 1960s

I don’t want to annoy anyone, so I’ll interview myself about what I remember of the music of the 1960s 😀.

Were you a pop fan in the 1960s?

I was a very young child, and I wasn’t a pop fan. I do remember seeing long-haired teenaged hippies, and I didn’t think much of them 😀. The only pop groups that I was vaguely aware of some of the Irish showbands and the Monkees. I remember watching the Monkees in the late 1960s, but I wasn’t really aware of their music. I became aware of I’m a Believer and Daydream Believer in the late 1970s.

Had you ever heard of the Beatles?

I had heard Yellow Submarine, but I don’t think that I knew who sang it. I remember my dad mentioning the Beatles when he saw me watching the Monkees, but beetles sounded quite scary 😀.

So, what specific songs can you remember from the 1960s?

I actually remember many songs. There were Irish songs that we were very familiar with. Why? I don’t know. Perhaps they were just part of popular culture. Everyone knew the Eurovision entries. Then, I remember the BBC Light Programme on Long Wave radio. I think that this was the precursor to BBC Radio 2. I probably heard some Beatle songs on it, because when I got my first Beatles album in 1974, I recognized some of the songs, such as Elenor Rigby and All My Loving.

So, can you list some of the songs?

Yes, I will. I’ll begin with songs from earlier years that would have either been on the radio or sung at home during the 1960s. I recently investigated these, and some go way back to the beginning of the 20th Century. I’ll list the 20 that I’m most familiar with from the 1950s:

1950s

• If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake 1950
• (How Much Is That) Doggie In The Window? 1953
• Tell Me A Story 1953
• I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus 1953
• Oh Mein Papa 1954
• The Happy Wanderer 1954 – We sang that at school
• I See The Moon 1954
• The Black Hills Of Dakota 1954
• Where Will The Dimple Be? 1955
• Rose Marie 1955
• Christmas Alphabet 1955
• Twenty Tiny Fingers 1955
• Hound Dog 1956
• “Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)” 1956
• Robin Hood 1956
• (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear 1957
• Scarlet Ribbons 1957 – We sang that at school
• Mary’s Boy Child 1957
• Little Drummer Boy 1959 – We sang that at school
• Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home) 1959 – That was covered by Irish artist Brendan Bowyer in the 1960s

In another post, I’ll list older songs that I knew as a child. For example, after singing Happy Birthday, we’d always launch into For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. I recently discovered that the song is actually 18th Century or earlier. And so are many of the nursery rhyme songs. And of course, many hymns (most of which I became familiar with after committing my life to Christ in 1980) go back a long way. Charles Wesley’s hymns are obviously 18th Century, but some go back to the Reformation and even earlier.

So here are the songs that I knew in the 1960s. These aren’t necessarily my favourites, but I do have an affection for them. In many cases, I would have only become familiar with these a couple of years after they were released. Towards the end of the decade, I probably would have been more familiar with contemporary songs, such as Mary Hopkin’s Those Were the Days.

1960

• My Old Man’s A Dustman – Lonnie Donegan & His Group

1961

• A Scottish Soldier​ – Andy Stewart
• 76 Trombones​ – Mantovani & His Orchestra
• Wooden Heart​ – Elvis Presley
• Michael Row The Boat Ashore – Lonnie Donegan & His Group
• Hole In The Bucket​ – Harry Belafonte & Odetta
• Moon River​ – Danny Williams

I have a vague memory of a hymn at Mass going to the tune of Michael Row The Boat Ashore. This was immediately after Vatican II, so I do remember some of the changes, such as the Holy Ghost becoming the Holy Spirit and an element of trendiness being introduced for hymns.

1962

• Midnight In Moscow – Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen
• Wonderful Land – The Shadows
• Telstar – The Tornados

I was a new baby in 1962. I discovered these songs in recent years, but they all resonate with me in a weird way. Maybe, I heard them later in the 1960s, but perhaps I could have known them as a baby. Even unborn babies can hear music.

1963

• Puff the Magic Dragon – Peter Paul and Mary
• Summer Holiday​ – Cliff Richard

We might have sung Puff the Magic Dragon in school. And we’d probably have sung Summer Holiday on our way to our holidays. I never liked the line “no more working for a week or two”. It just seemed so short 😀. We generally went for a month to Crosshaven.

1964

• The Girl From Ipanema – Astrud Gilberto
• Walk Tall​ – Val Doonican
• From the Candy Store in the Corner – Dickie Rock

I remember singing Walk Tall and Candy Store as a very young child. In Crosshaven, Cork, there’s a ruined Church of Ireland building that we used to know as “The Chapel on the Hill”, which is a line from Candy Store. The proper name for the church is Templebreedy Church.

I think it’s worth pointing to these on YouTube:

1965

• Boulavogue – Tommy Drennan and the Monarchs
• The Hucklebuck – Brendan Bowyer and the Royal Showband
• Do What You Do Do Well – Ned Miller
• If I Didn’t Have a Dime – Tom Dunphy and the Royal Showband
• Walking the Streets in the Rain – Butch Moore
• Every Step of the Way – Dickie Rock & the Miami
• I Left My Heart In San Francisco – Dickie Rock​ & the Miami

I was very aware of Eurovision artists, such as Butch Moore and Dickie Rock. The Hucklebuck was hugely popular. Brendan Bowyer was thought of as an Irish Elvis. I remember being on holiday in Kilkee, County Clare that year. I was in a sort of a hotel, and I chose a song from the jukebox. I think it might have been “If I Didn’t Have a Dime”. I remember being surrounded by teenaged girls and them helping me to operate it. And I remember pressing number 4.

1966

• These Boots Are Made For Walkin’​ – Nancy Sinatra
• My Love – Petula Clark
• Come Back to Stay – Dick Rock
• The Sea Around Us – The Ludlows
• Strangers In The Night​ – Frank Sinatra
• Yellow Submarine – The Beatles
• Guantanamera – The Sandpipers
• Dear Mrs Applebee – David Garrick
• Merry Ploughboy​ – Dermot O’Brien and His Clubmen
• Green Green Grass Of Home​ – Tom Jones
• Morningtown Ride​ – The Seekers
• Mursheen Durkin​ – Johnny McEvoy
• This Is My Song​ – Petula Clarke

The Merry Ploughboy was a song that we used to sing all the time at home. It included a line “I’m off to join the IRA”. This was before the recent troubles. The reference was to the old IRA from the early 20th Century. These people had more respect than the modern organization. Even back in the 20’s my ancestors, who were Roman Catholics, were British soldiers or policemen, so they could well have been murdered by the old IRA. So, I don’t have much love for any IRA or other terrorist groups. I remember Dermot O’Brien being interviewed in later years and him saying that he stopped singing some of these rebel songs when the troubles started in 1969.

1967

• Edelweiss – Vince Hill
• Georgy Girl – The Seekers
• House With the Whitewashed Gable – Joe Dolan and The Drifters
• Puppet On A String – Sandie Show
• If I Could Choose​ – Sean Dunphy
• Somethin’ Stupid​ – Frank & Nancy Sinatra
• The Irish Soldier – Pat Lynch & The Airchords
• Casino Royale​ – Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass 
• The Happening​ – The Supremes
• Boston Burglar – Johnny McEvoy
• Baby I’m Your Man – Dickie Rock & The Miami
• All You Need Is Love – The Beatles
• ​San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Some Flowers In Your Hair)​ – Scott McKenzie
• Somewhere My Love​ – Mike Samms Singers
• Even The Bad Times Are Good​ – The Tremeloes
• The Last Waltz​ – Englebert Humperdink
• Tar and Cement – Joe Dolan and the Drifters
• Black Velvet Band​ – The Dubliners
• Thank U Very Much​ – Scaffold
• Whiskey on a Sunday – Danny Doyle
• The Other Man’s Grass (Is Always Greener)​ – Petula Clare

We learned Edelweiss in school. Joe Dolan was well loved in Ireland. Once I got interested in pop music in 1972, I started to hate all Irish music, but in the sixties, I’d regularly sing Joe Dolan songs. I remember my parents going to see Dickie Rock in the Majorca ballroom in Crosshaven and bringing us home Baby I’m Your Man stickers. And Even the Bad Times Were Good was always on the radio on our 1967 holiday. I remember hearing All You Need is Love in the funfair in Youghal in the Summer of 1968, but I had no idea who sang it. And I remember being fascinated by hearing two songs with San Francisco in the title. I’ve discovered a few more since 😀. Pink Floyd played the Cork Arcadia in September 1967. I was big into them 10 years later. I often regretted not having seen them, but I’m told that their live shows in 1967 were really weird, and I was only 5 😀. I had the opportunity to see them in London in 1981. There was a package from Cork. I did go to see Bob Dylan in Earl’s Court in June 1981, but I had grown out of Pink Floyd at that stage, but I still like them. Maybe, I should have gone. It’s such a nuisance that they don’t permit time travel in Ireland 😀.

1968

• Cinderella Rockefella​ – Esther and Abi Oferam
• What A Wonderful World – Louise Armstrong
• Love Is Blue (L’Amour Est Bleu)​ – Paul Mauriat and Vicky Leandros
• Delilah – Tom Jones
• Congratulations – Cliff Richard
• Chance of a Lifetime​ – Pat McGeegan
• Two Loves – Sean Dunphy​
• Little Green Apples – Andy Williams​
• Simon Says​ – Dickie Rock & The Miami
• Sunshine Girl​ – Herman’s Hermits
• Henry My Son – Weaver Folk
• Little Arrows​ –  Brendan O’Brien & the Dixies
• Those Were The Days​ – Mary Hopkin
• Lily The Pink​ – Scaffold

The last three songs were very popular on the streets where I lived. It’s interesting the Lily the Pink was sung by Scaffold, which included Paul McCartney’s brother. I don’t think they publicised it much, but listening to Paul McCartney’s biography recently, I discovered that Paul was quite involved in some of his brother’s music.

1969

• Quick Joey Small (Run Joey Run) The Real McCoy
• Monsieur Dupont​ – Sandie Shaw
• Lonely Woods of Upton – Sean Dunphy
• The Wages of Love – Muriel Day
• The Windmills Of Your Mind​ – Noel Harrison
• My Way​ – Frank Sinatra
• Boom Bang-A-Bang​ – Lulu
• Aquarius – The Fifth Dimension
• Oh Happy Day​ – The Edwin Hawkins Singers
• Little Green Apples – Andy Williams
• Happy Heart​ – Andy Williams
• Good Morning Starshine​ – Olover
• Two Little Boys – Rolf Harris​

The Lonely Woods of Upton was another tribute to old IRA rebels. I remember watching a documentary on the Upton incident. They went out to murder British soldiers:

The result was devastating:

• 3 IRA volunteers were killed, 2 wounded, and 1 captured
• 6 British soldiers were wounded, **3 seriously
• At least 8 civilians were killed and 10 wounded in the crossfire

After 1969, the vast majority of people that I knew were appalled by the activities of the modern IRA, so you didn’t really here that song much anymore. Thankfully things have improved since the 1990s. The last major incident was the Omagh bombing, which was carried out by a breakaway IRA group. On a happier note, 1969 was the year of Oh Happy Day, a song that inspired George Harrison to write My Sweet Lord a couple of years later. Somehow or other, he was also influenced by He’s So Fine and sued 😀. Later, he wrote a song called “Sue you, Sue me blues”.