THE ROCK-N-ROLL ERA

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My Gay

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1964

Three of the top male vocalists Roy Orbison, Del Shannon and Gene Pitney, all had connections to the emerging British groups. Orbison had toured England with the Beatles in 1963, and it was there that he first began wearing his trademark sunglasses onstage.

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1964

Claudette, the hit Roy Orbison composed in 1958 for the Everly Brothers,Oh Pretty Woman was inspired by his wife Claudette, who was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1966.

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Del Shannon had toured England with the Beatles, and in 1963 he released his version of From Me to You,making the first U.S. chart appearance of a Lennon-McCartney composition. Shannon in turn wrote I Go To Pieces, a top-ten song for England's peter and Gordon in 1965. Shannon's last major hit was Keep Searchen, the saga of a couple's terror-stricken flight to freedom, which showcases his fierce falsetto

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Gene Pitney was a vocal dramalist whose songs traded heavily on romantic suffering. None of his hits was more anguished than " It Hurts to Be in Love."Early in 1964, Pitney played a little piano on the first Rolling Stone album and became the first artist to place a Jagger-Richards song on the American charts when he had minor success with their song "That Girl Belongs to Yesterday."

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Where did our love go

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The Drifters, the most sucessful vocal group on rock-n-roll, had their last big year in 1964.

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1964

The drifters turned to Bert Berns, whose fondness for Latin rhythms is displayed in Under The Boardwalk. On the morning of the recording session lead singer Rudy Lewis died, and Johny Moore stepped in to handle the lead vocals on what has become one of the all-time great summertime songs.

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California Sun

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Under The Boardwalk

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1964

chuck Berry returned to charts in 1964 after a four-year absevce, due in part to a prison term stemming from an alleged violation of the Mann Act. There was hardly a single British band that had not play and recorded Chuch Berry's songs; his most notable followers were the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The success first of Nadine and of No Particuar Place to go allowed Berry to tour the United Kingtom, where his many imitators could study the duck walking guitar master firsthand.

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It Hurts to be in love

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1964

On the West Coast, the surf craze gave way to another obsession of Southern California's affluent teenagers--cars, especially hot rods.

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The Beach Boys "Fun, Fun, Fun, the Hondells' "Little Honda," Ronny and the Daytonas' "GTO" and Jan and Deans "Dead Mans Curve" all sang of the pleasures and perils of life in the fast lane.---In "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena"), Jan and Dean brought a comic touch to the fad by having Granny cruise in a shiny new superstock Dodge.

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The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)

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1964

Songs like "California Sun" by Indiana's Rivieras made it clear that Southern California had become America's pop-culture mecca.

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you don't own me

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1964

The Trashmen scored a surf-style hit with the unforgettable Surfin Bird . The group took two doo-wop hits by the Rivingtons,Papa-Oom- Mow-Mow and The Bird's the Word, fused them with a surf beat and created one of the goofiest sing-alongs ever.

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Oh Pretty Woman

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A rumor spread about the song Louie, Louie that buried within singer Jack Ely's garbled vocals were outrageous and obscene lyrics.Govenor Matthew Walsh of Indiana banned the song from air play and the FBI and FCC held investigations at which Ely and the Song's composer, Richard Berry, testified. the FCC, after playing the record at every speed announced--"We found the record to be unintelligible.