WERE
THAT
GOOD?
ÒFighting to
Stay FreeÓ #181...February
2014
And now, ladies and gentlemenÉ
Éimagine if you will a pop-based recording act coming out in 2014 with
music having the production values of three to five years ago, much of whose
repertoire consists of songs that were R&B hits over the past seven years.
A formula for success? If
you asked most radio programmers today, theyÕd probably say no.
ThatÕs what most PDs in
the U.S. said when they first heard the Beatles in 1963. Of course,
circumstances were different then: with few exceptions, what was made in
England stayed in England. There wasnÕt the automatic access to music from
anywhere that we have now. Except for American
Bandstand and a handful of local teen dance shows on weekends, there was no
TV outlet given over entirely to youth-targeted popular music. Radio was it, so
PDs and DJs were the gatekeepers of musical taste - not only for teens, but
everyone.
Then again, some
circumstances, as it happens, were the same. Pop success was singles-based: few
artists could produce an albumÕs worth of music deserving of young adultsÕ
spending money. Top 40 radio was successful and perceived as healthy musically,
with a crop of new artists and sounds that broke with the recent past. Then it
was The Beach Boys and surf, The Four Seasons, Spector and serious folk, now
itÕs alternative and a wave of retro-pop. And in both eras, teens ultimately
decided what to listen to on a portable pocket-sized player, only then that
control was exercised by changing from one already-programmed station to
another.
The big difference in 1963
was an event so tragic for our nation it rendered the then-current crop of hits
ineffective as mood-swingers. In hindsight, it seems clear now (if it wasnÕt so
much then) that Capitol Records saw that opening and went to fill it with ÒI
Want To Hold Your Hand.Ó After nearly a year of the opposite situation, the
Beatles suddenly found themselves in the right place (as in America) at the
right time (as in after the Kennedy assassination).
In the weeks that followed
that singleÕs rise to the top of local station countdowns, we found out that
much of the BeatlesÕ output at the time was music America had already heard by
its own artists: The Shirelles, MotownÕs Miracles and Marvelettes, rockÕs
pioneers like Chuck Berry and Little Richard. Even though ÔrecyclingÕ wasnÕt
yet a word, thatÕs exactly what the group had done.
So, the question must be
asked: could popÕs savior in December 1963 have been any act, not necessarily
the Beatles? Was it all timing, luck and Ed Sullivan, or were they really that
good? Had ÒI Want To Hold Your HandÓ not captured young AmericaÕs imagination
(and I recall not being so certain it would at the time), what artist or genre
might have taken its place? Could America have come to its own rescue?
Those last two questions
arenÕt as impossible to offer logical answers to as one might think. Not every
part of the U.S. was knocked over by Beatlemania as quickly as on the East
Coast (we were closest to the U.K., after all). Take Minneapolis-St. Paul,
where not only did ÒSurfinÕ BirdÓ by local group The Trashmen move to No. 1 the
week after the assassination, it stayed there until AFTER ÒI Want To Hold Your
HandÓ landed in America and on KDWB, denying the Beatles the top spot until
February. If that suggests that under the right circumstances, this slice of
early surf-garage-pre-punk Ð also with lower production values than most of the
hits at top 40 at the time - could have lifted America from post-Camelot blues,
consider that another early low-fi garage classic was at No. 1 or No. 2 in many
markets (such as Minneapolis) from November until the Beatles hit: the
KingsmenÕs ÒLouie Louie.Ó Granted, in some parts of the country Ð such as
Boston, where ÒI Want To Hold Your HandÕsÓ success was immediate Ð ÒLouieÓ had hit
before November 22. And let it be noted, both songs were remakes. (Let it also
be noted that in a strange twist, ÒSurfinÕ BirdÓ took nearly 50 years to hit
the top 10 in England, reaching No. 3 in December 2010.)
If not
for the Beatles, could the ÒInvasionÓ have been an inside job?
All the above is to suggest that were there no Beatles and no
British Invasion, the impact of both ÒSurfinÕ BirdÓ and ÒLouie LouieÓ on pop
music may have been greater earlier - but thatÕs another column. The question
remains, could the Beatles have eventually made it in America the same way they
did everywhere else? Odds are quite good the answerÕs yes, especially given the
success of the Kingsmen and Trashmen. The Beatles would have become the obvious
next step in that de-evolution (at first) of pop by adding the element of Ð
initially, anyway - cuteness. It probably goes without saying that the
songwriting of John Lennon and Paul McCartney and production of George Martin
would have eventually won out and turned the Beatles into contemporary musicÕs
most influential act ever all over the world, even if it may have taken a Bob
Dylan ÒLike A Rolling StoneÓ-style 180 to do it here in the states (with a song
such as ÒI Feel FineÓ).
Fortunately, we donÕt have
to think about Òwhat if,Ó and instead we can enjoy Ð and celebrate - what was,
50 years ago.
Long live the Beatles.
NOW THIS
Here comes that Number 7. Hz So GoodÕs 7th annual I.R.S.
(as in, "It Really Shoulda" been a top 10 hit!) is officially in
business again. ItÕs that time of the year when we ask: what songs "Really Shoulda" been Top 10?
ItÕs your
call, when you fill out your I.R.S. form, which you can do at http://www.musicradio77.com/IRS.html.
Just send your list of songs that make you say
"THAT really shoulda been a Top 10 Hit!" before
April 1, 2014. (All rules, regulations and other fun stuff is at the link
above.)
As in past
years, random I.R.S. filers will win a 4-disc set of the resulting 7th Annual
I.R.S. Top 104, based on what songs show up most on those forms and where
they're ranked. And you can hear the complete countdown of the Top 104 on Rewound Radio
just before tax deadline. More details are coming soon.
We had a record turnout last year, our
sixth. If you love music and you've never taken part before, join the fun and
let's make the 7th our biggest I.R.S. yet.
Hz So Good online (currents and
recent archive) at http://www.60s70s.org/HzSoGood.
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Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/richappel7).
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