The Tunes: Fall of 1964

          According to that impeccable source, The Courier-Express, the top ten tunes in September of 1964 were as follows:

 1. Little GTO                           Ronnie and the Daytona’s

2. House of the Rising Sun                            The Animals

3. Remember                                                    Shangrilas

4. Because                                                       Dave Clark 5

5. Where Did Our Love Go                              Supremes

6. Anytime at All                                               Beatles

7. Slow Down                                                     Beatles

8. Baby I Need Your Lovin’                       The Four Tops   

9. It Hurts to be in Love                                    Gene Pitney

10. Dancin’ in the Streets                                  Martha & the Vandellas

I am not clear as to whether this was in DuBois or the entire country.

[It is the beauty of You Tube that you can relive the ‘60s by looking at and hearing most of the tunes of this era.]

           One month later in October, the top three tunes were:

1. I’ll Be Back Again                                        Beatles

2. Pretty Woman                                              Roy Orbison

3. Baby Love                                                   Supremes

          In December the top 3 were:

1. I Feel Fine                                                    Beatles

2. Come See About Me                                   Supremes

3. Love Potion #9                                             The Searchers

Vietnam had not yet boiled over so the protest songs were not yet in vogue. However, little did we know things were soon going to change. When the Beatles were making us feel fine, Diana Ross was asking us to come and see about her and The Searchers were imbibing  love potion #9 until they kissed a cop down on 34^th and Vine, there was a news item that caught the attention of those paying attention.

          On December 3, 1964, at Sproul Hall, the administration building of the University of California at Berkeley, over 1500 students staged an all night sit in protesting the censoring of political speech on campus. It was the beginning of the so-called Free Speech Movement that would mushroom into nation wide protests over the next 8 years. During that time period the top tunes would shed their sentimentality. Like the rest of culture, pop music lost its innocence.