Robert Johnson's King of the Delta Blues Singers won 1961. Let's see who wins 1962. Debuts of Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock and the Beach Boys this year. Billboard chart-topping albums of 1962. Dominated by West Side Story the majority of the year: Elvis - Blue Hawaii (cont. from '61) West Side Story Cast - Soundtrack Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Peter, Paul and Mary - Peter, Paul and Mary Allan Sherman - My Son, the Folk Singer Billboard chart-topping singles of 1962: The Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight (cont. from '61) Chubby Checker - The Twist Joey Dee and the Starliters - Peppermint Twist Gene Chandler - Duke of Earl Bruce Channel - Hey! Baby Connie Francis - Don't Break the Heart That Loves You Shelley Fabares - Johnny Angel Elvis - Good Luck Charm The Shirelles - Soldier Boy Acker Bilk - Stranger on the Shore Ray Charles - I Can't Stop Loving You David Rose - The Stripper Bobby Vinton - Roses are Red Neil Sedaka - Breaking Up is Hard to Do Little Eva - The Locomotion Tommy Roe - Sheila The Four Seasons - Sherry Bobby Pickett - Monster Mash The Crystals - He's a Rebel The Four Seasons - Big Girls Don't Cry The Tornados - Telstar What are your top three albums for 1962? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be: 1. Roy Orbison - Crying 2. Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan 3. Booker T and the M.G.'s - Green Onions What are some of the forgotten gems from the year? What is overrated? What did you discover at a young age and what did you discover later? getting debuts from a couple of big names from here on out. YEARS IN MUSIC • forum.chorus.fm
This is the first one with some cuts that hurt. Ray Charles, Dick Dale, George Jones, Patsy Cline. All fantastic albums. Bob Dylan's debut is admittedly a bit rough but I love his arrangement of a few of the traditional songs. I distinctly remember hearing Fixin to Die when I was like 18 for the first time and being shocked the voice I was hearing was from someone only 21. Telstar is a great single. Actually involved with the dad of the singer of Muse lol. Don't love the album but the instrumental title track is so good. It kind of even sounds a bit like Knights of Cydonia lol @Matt
This is the first year where I feel like I have a solid top three to contribute at the outset of the conversation: 1. Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 2. Roy Orbison - Crying 3. Bob Dylan - Bob Dylan That Charles LP was one of my favorite #MWE albums from this year, and one I'd been meaning to listen to for ages. And the Orbison record is just a great collection of songs performed beautifully. The Dylan debut is a little rough around the edges, but has plenty to recommend it, especially as an early document of a legend (though I've always found it a bit funny that arguably the greatest songwriter of all time only wrote two of the songs on his debut).
@phaynes12 what George Jones record are you big on from ‘62? I haven’t heard any prior to The Grand Tour yet
This year presents my one hangup with this process. I like still having frontiers to discover, so I don’t want to rip through every older album I have left to hear just because we’re doing this. I think I will deliberately skip Dylan’s debut and do some listening in other corners
Most notable for me are the debuts of Bob Dylan and the Supremes with Meet the Supremes. Not the best from either, but both solid starts to incredible careers. Got lots more to check out before making a top 3 though
the dylan album is very good but it's hardly one of his most essential. more of a nostalgia choice for me.
I had also wondered about George Jones, so I looked up his discography. Dude apparently released...seven albums in 1962?! What a fucking time.
yeah im not gonna pretend to have even heard half of them haha usually with artists with that many albums in a condensed time period I just try to check out reviews to get an idea of which are essential
AllMusic is a godsend for that kind of stuff. They may not have reviewed everything, but they usually have and identify the essential ones.
This is admittedly (and somewhat embarrassingly) my first listen through of Dylan's first record. I for some reason just assumed without researching to verify that his career started with The Freewheelin' .
Yeah, that kind of catalog is super daunting to me. I wrote an "essential albums" piece about Willie Nelson for Vinyl Me Please a few years ago and was torn between not wanting to just pick the usual suspects, but also recognizing that the guy has made like 100 studio albums.
Years are starting to heat up now! 1. Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 2. Howlin' Wolf - Howlin' Wolf 3. Sam Cooke - Twistin' the Night Away Ray Charles' album is absolutely iconic, one of the most important and boundary breaking albums I think of all time, crossing racial and genre divides and hugely influential on everything since. Howlin' Wolfs second album is full of some absolute stone cold classics, including Little Red Rooster and Spoonful. Probably my favourite of that era of bluesmen, has an absolutely thunderous voice that'll transfix you. His first album, Moanin' At The Midnight from 1959 is probably just a little bit ahead of this record, but both are an absolute must listen. The Sam Cooke record is just a great time - full of uptempo and swinging numbers. He'd release better, and they'll come up next year, but this is one of his breeziest and liveliest records. I did originally have James Brown's Live at The Apollo here, but it was mislabelled in my iTunes library as a 1962 release, when it actually came out in 63 (but recorded in 62). One that'll probably re-appear next week... Dylan's debut gets an honourable mention too, I suppose. My least listened to of his 60s work, and when I'm in the mood for folksy, acoustic, Protest music Dylan, I'd usually pick one of the three records that followed it, but his 1962 debut is a solid start, albeit one that he'd eclipse pretty quickly.
link? i generally start with shotgun willie and the post-RCA stuff, but that's his ... 16th album lol
howlin' wolf was a cut for me too, for sure. peter paul and mary debut too. fuck, so much good stuff. one album that's not good? surfin safari lol. dick dale just dunking all over beach boys on surfers' choice.
1. Sammy Davis, Jr. - Sings What Kind of Fool Am I and Other Show Stoppers 2. Howlin' Wolf - Howlin' Wolf 3. Tony Bennett - I Left My Heart in San Francisco Just Missed: Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music Peter Paul and Mary - Peter Paul and Mary Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba Harry Belafonte - The Midnight Special Other good ones I've heard: Bill Evans Trio - Waltz for Debby Booker T. and the MGs - Green Onions Ben E. King - Don't Play That Song Hank Mobley - Work Out On my radar to hopefully get in: Ray Price - Night Life George Jones - Sings Bob Wills Francoise Hardy - Tous Les Garcons Et LEs Filles Herbie Hancock - Takin' Off Dick Dale and His Del-Tones - Surfer's Choice Sun Ra - The Futuristic Sounds of Sun Ra Freddie Hubbard - Hub-Tones Quincy Jones - Big Band Bossa Nova Perez Prado - Exotic Suite of the Americas
Yeah, I only included one of the albums before that, and it was from right before that, ha. The 10 Best Willie Nelson Albums To Own On Vinyl — Vinyl Me, Please
So far today: Roy Orbison's Crying has two holy-shit singles and a truly great singer working his way through covers of songs he doesn't do the definitive version of and elevating some album-track material. A lot like Sings Lonely and Blue in that way. But Jesus Christ what a masterpiece "Crying" is. Ray Price's Nightlife is the kind of country I'm still really a neophyte in, but it's generally considered one of the greatest country records. He has an incredible voice, it's more or less one of country's first concept/theme albums (according to AMG), and it's impeccably performed late-night honky-tonk. Really into it.
One thing I'd like to do is give more attention to a couple Bill Evans albums I own but don't know well, Empathy, Undercurrent, and Moon Beams. I got them in a multi-album set so I know certain ones in there better than others.
Impossible to pick three from this year (and probably every year going forward). Shooting from the hip here... 1. Ray Charles - Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music 2. Peter, Paul and Mary - Peter, Paul and Mary 3. The Supremes - Meet the Supremes
Favorite single of 1962 Misirlou - Dick Dale and his Del-Tones Other favorite 1962 singles.. Surfin' Safari - The Beach Boys Green Onions - Booker T. & The M.Gs James Bond Theme - John Barry Orchestra The Loco-Motion - Little Eva Love Me Do - The Beatles (UK) Telstar - The Tornadoes Big Girls Don't Cry - The Four Seasons If I Had A Hammer - Peter, Paul and Mary Sherry - The Four Seasons The Lion Sleeps Tonight - The Tokens Tous les garcons et les filles - Francoise Hardy Twist, Twist Senora - Gary U.S. Bonds He's A Rebel - The Crystals Shiela - Tommy Roe Top 3 albums 1. Crying - Roy Orbison 2. Surfer's Choice - Dick Dale and his Del-Tones 3. Surfin' Safari - The Beach Boys