My Musical Journey – The Lull Before "The British Invasion"

 My Musical Journey – The Lull Before "The British Invasion"

I attended Memorial Junior High School in the fall of 1961. In the years 1961 through the end of 1963 much of the pop music was coming from the Brill Building (Don Kirshner) and also from Phil Spector. These were my junior high years. Songs from this time period were dominated by songs about love and boy/girl relationships and they could get pretty sappy. For example: We got songs like “Roses are Red” and “Blue Velvet”, “Soldier Boy”, “Bobby's Girl”, “Sealed With a Kiss”, “I Will Follow Him”, “I Love How You Love Me”, “Where The Boys Are”, and who can forget, even though many of us would like to, “Hey Paula” by Paul and Paula. Yuk! I liked high energy songs and/or something with a bit of an edge. Where were these songs?

In junior high I started making a whole new set of friends. I pretty much stopped hanging out with most of my grade school friends except for both Joe and Jimmy who both lived near me. I became friends with Ron. We shared a homeroom from junior high all the way through high school. He was my first new junior high school friend. In the 8^th grade I met Eddie. Well, I had actually met him before as we had played basketball against each other in grade school where Eddie and his team beat the pants off us. I had been given the assignment of guarding Eddie. Eddie was one of the best athletes in the entire school district and consequently a considerably better athlete than me. Anyway, in 1962 Eddie and I became fast friends. We played a lot of sports together. As it happened, basketball was the one sport that I could actually beat Eddie (one on one) most of the time. I was taller than him. Well, not when we first met in the 8^th grade as he was 5' 4" and I was just a hair over 5 feet, but I grew 10" that school year where Eddie grew maybe 1 inch. However, the real reason I'm bringing up Eddie is our shared interest in music. We completely connected on music, as well as other things, like comedy, but, this is on music. We listened to and talked about music all the time. We pretty much liked all the same songs, singers, and groups. We both liked the old Rock-n-Roll guys. Eddie had some Little Richard and we both really liked him. Chuck Berry and Elvis were also favorites. We also both liked what was called "soul" music. I remember listening to a James Brown album at Eddie's house. It was the first time I'd heard of James Brown.

So, here are some songs I was listening to and buying in junior high: "The Peppermint Twist" by Joey Dee, "Return to Sender" by Elvis, "The Wanderer" by Dion, Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl", The Contours' "Do You Love Me", “At Last” by Etta James,, Chris Montez's "Let's Dance", Gary U.S. Bonds' "Dear Lady Twist", and “The Loco-Motion” by Little Eva. "The Loco-Motion" is the song that I first danced to in public. I had danced at a few parties, mostly slow, but this was at lunchtime in the school auditorium. Music (45s) was played after we ate. It was mostly girls who danced while the boys mostly watched. Chris from my neighborhood managed to get me and, as I recall, my friend Joe out on the floor to dance. I use the word "dance" here loosely as Joe and I did our best to move around like we actually knew what we were doing. Joe had older sisters so perhaps he actually did know what he was doing. I was completely faking it and clearly was not looking as smooth as I would have liked.

I bought Freddy Cannon's "Palisades Park". Palisades Park was a large amusement park in New Jersey across the Hudson from Manhattan. I had not been to it at that point. I did eventually get there in 1969 with my college girlfriend Donna. We took my brother who was about 10. Palisades closed not long after that, in the early 70's. I'm pretty sure it wasn't my fault.

The song of that year for me was The Beach Boys' "Surfin' Safari” a rare hit song that us guys could relate to. In fact, I even bought the album. At this time I rarely bought an album as most pop albums were filled with sub-standard songs which made them a waste of money as you were lucky to find 3 good songs on them. The Surfin' Safari album wasn't great but a little better than average for the time. I have never surfed, only body surfed. The waves on the Long Island beaches are not very good for board surfing. I loved the beach and went whenever I could. After all, I lived on an island and the beaches were less than 30 minutes away in either direction.

In the fall of '62 the Four Seasons hit the scene with their hits "Sherry" followed by "Big Girls Don't Cry". Eddie and I both liked their songs. That November, the Walt Whitman Mall opened up near my house. It was the first enclosed shopping mall on Long Island. The Four Seasons appeared at the grand opening of the the mall. They set up and performed in a clothing store inside the new mall. Eddie and I went. They were the first pop band I ever saw in person. "Big Girls Don't Cry", their 2^nd hit, was on the top of the pop charts at that time. They were tucked into the back corner of the store and it was a wall-to-wall crowd. I'm pretty sure they lip-synced the songs, although it was so crowded I couldn't tell for sure.

There were some good albums during that time period. In April '62 Ray Charles had released his Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music. That album made a big impression on me and to this day it's one of my favorite albums. The Sinatra-Basie album came out that December. It was the first Frank Sinatra album I purchased but I didn't buy it until a few years later. Bob Dylan's first album came out that year but I had not discovered him yet. I did buy The Beach Boys 2^nd album when it came out, the Surfer Girl album. It was a much better album than Surfin' Safari. I also bought the Peter Paul and Mary's album, their first, that came out that year.

There were a number of, shall we say interesting, not likely to be released today songs. There was “Ahab the Arab”, “Speedy Gonzales” (Pat Boone), and “If You Want to Be Happy”. Then there was “The Monster Mash”, “Sukiyaki”, “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport”, and Allan Sherman's “Hello Mudduh, Hello Fadduh”. Then there was the classic “Louie Louie” by the Kingsmen. A song where nobody could really tell what the heck they were singing so all kinds of stories were going around about what the actual words of the song really were. Eydie Gorme did “Blame It On The Bosa Nova”. It was a big hit but supposedly she never cared for it. Eydie was one of my father's favorite singers so I was pretty familiar with her. Lastly, I'd be remiss if I failed to mention the Singing Nun and “Dominique”, a song that seemed to go on forever. In that regard, it kind of reminded me of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall”. The Singing Nun appeared on Ed Sullivan but time was running out so she was forced to do a one minute version of her song. I have copy of that version and it's the version I choose when I put that song on one of my playlists.

1963, at least until Christmas, was still all pre-Beatles. There was some Beatles available that summer and fall but the songs were on small labels and didn't get much if any radio play. I never heard them and I didn't know anyone who did. I continued to purchase "45s" during this period such as: Dion's “Ruby”, “Surfin' USA” and “Shut Down” by the Beach Boys, “Fingertips Part 2” by Little Stevie Wonder, “Wild Weekend” by the Rebels, “Wipe Out” by The Surfaris, “Pipeline” by The Chantays, “Surf City” by Jan and Dean, “Heat Wave” by Martha and the Vandellas, “Sally Go round the Roses” by Jaynetts, “Pride and Joy” by Marvin Gaye, “Busted” by Ray Charles, “Da Do Run Run” by The Crystals, “Mean Woman Blues” by Roy Orbison, and “Up on the Roof” by the Drifters. I also liked Barbara Lewis's “Hello Stranger” and I even liked Tommy Roe's “Sheila”. Eddie and I shared all our discoveries with each other. Motown was also starting to take off and we were both fans. We particularly liked Smoky Robinson. The British were coming and the seemingly controlled pop music scene was about to explode, in a good way....