Bob Dylan's The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan won 1963. Let's see who wins 1964. The Stones debut this year and the Beatles drop two albums with the invasion really beginning. Billboard chart-topping albums of 1964: The Singing Nun - The Singing Nun The Beatles - Meet the Beatles! Louis Armstrong - Hello Dolly! The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night Barbara Streisand - People The Beach Boys - Beach Boys Concert Billboard chart-topping singles of 1964: Bobby Vinton - There! I've Said It Again The Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand The Beatles - She Loves You The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love Louis Armstrong - Hello Dolly! Mary Wells - My Guy The Beatles - Love Me Do The Dixie Cups - Chapel of Love Peter and Gordon - A World Without Love The Beach Boys - I Get Around The Four Seasons - Rag Doll The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night Dean Martin - Everybody Loves Somebody The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go The Animals - The House of the Rising Sun Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman Manfred Mann - Do Wah Diddy Diddy The Supremes - Baby Love The Shangri-Las - Leader of the Pack Lorne Greene - Ringo Bobby Vinton - Mr. Lonely The Supremes - Come See About Me The Beatles - I Feel Fine What are your top three albums for 1964? We will keep a running tally and eventually have some sort of bracket. For me it would be: 1. Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan 2. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 3. Bob Dylan - The Times They Are a-Changin 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? YEARS IN MUSIC • forum.chorus.fm
this was an insanely difficult one with the cuts. like half a dozen of these would be runaway #1s in the prior years and they didn't make my top 3. tough cuts: albert ayler - spirits the animals - the animals buck owens - together again chet atkins - guitar country george jones - blue and lonesome the hollies - in the hollies style johnny cash - bitter tears johnny cash - I walk the line the kinks - kinks muddy waters - folk singer otis redding - pain in my heart rolling stones - 12x5 rolling stones - england's newest hitmakers sam cooke - ain't that good news the yardbirds - five live yardbirds stuff to check out: aretha franklin - unforgettable bill evans - how my heart sings charles mingus - mingus x5 chuck berry - st. louis to liverpool dave clark five - glad all over dusty springfield - a girl called dusty herbie hancock - empyrean isles the holy modal rounders - the holy modal rounders ike and tina turner - the ike and tina revue john coltrane - crescent simon and garfunkel - wednesday morning 3am stan getz and joao gilberto - getz/gilberto the supremes - where did our love go the temptations - meet the temptations thelonious monk - it's monk's time
1. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 2. Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto 3. The Kinks - Kinks
1. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 2. Stan Getz and Joao Gilberto - Getz/GIlberto 3. Sam Cooke - At the Copa Just Missed: Bob Dylan - The Times Are A-Changin' Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan Jerry Lee Lewis - Live at the Star Club, Hamburg Muddy Waters - Folk Singer The Beatles - Beatles for Sale Peter, Paul, and Mary - In Concert Henry Mancini - The Pink Panther Doc Watson - Doc Watson Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News Jacques Brel - Olympia '64 Others I Love: The Ronettes - The Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica Harry Belafonte - Ballads, Blues, and Boasters Nina Simone - Broadway-Blues-Ballads Dionne Warwick - Make Way for Dionne Warwick Mary Wells - Sings My Guy Herbie Hancock - Empyrean Isles Nina Simone - In Concert Otis Redding - Pain in My Heart The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Johnny Mercer Songbook Good Ones I've Heard: Odetta - It's a Mighty World Ravi Shankar - Portrait of Genius John Lee Hooker - At Newport Marvin Gaye - When I'm Alone I Cry Nat King Cole - Sings My Fair Lady The Supremes - A Bit of Liverpool Not a fan: Eric Dolphy - Out to Lunch Targets for Listening: The Temptations - Meet the Temptations Original Cast - Funny Girl Barbra Streisand - People Al Hirt - Cotton Candy Solomon Burke - Rock 'n' Soul Dusty Springfield - A Girl Called Dusty The Kinks - Kinks Johnny Cash - Bitter Tears The Dave Clark Five - Glad All Over Dave Van Ronk - Inside Dave Van Ronk The Impressions - Keep on Pushing The Hollies - In the Hollies Style Chet Atkins - Guitar Country Buck Owens - Together Again
I love how this list is wall-to-wall utter classics I've known every word to my whole life...and a pair of Bobby Vinton songs. Added these to the list thanks to you listing them. Hope to get to all of them. Honestly jealous you get to listen to this for the first time. A staple of my nice-weather listening every year. Great trio. I really need to get to that Kinks record.
I'm excited for anything that has "You Really Got Me" and "Stop Your Sobbing". Really wish "All Day and All of the Night" was on there though. Damn British albums leaving off singles deliberately.
Two absolute certainties here for me, with two of my favourite albums, and then a huge and difficult choice for the third. 1. Sam Cooke - Ain't That Good News 2. The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes Featuring Veronica 3. Bob Dylan - Another side of Bob Dylan Sam Cooke's Ain't That Good News is the last studio record released in his last time, and it's absolutely perfect. One side of upbeat, danceable numbers, and then the other side being more mellow. All the songs are basically perfect, but his version of Tennessee Waltz is my favourite, and the contrast between his version and Otis Redding's version (both are my two favourites) is incredible - they sound like two completely different interpretations. This will be the last Cooke album to appear in these threads I think, but what an incredible talent he was. The Ronettes only album is just a collection of absolutely perfect pop tracks, recorded with Phil Spector's incredible Wall of Sound production technique that just makes them feel so much larger and all encompassing. Again, like the Cooke record, every single song on here is absolutely incredible. Third choice was slightly harder, and probably could have gone for either of Dylan's records this year (which is going to be a problem next year too!), but I think Another Side of Bob Dylan just about shades The Times They are-a Changing, as he took a little step away from the protest music, and had some more personal songs on here. Rounding out for honourable mentions would include Nina Simone's Broadway Blues Ballads, which has two of my favourite Nina songs (Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood & See-Line Woman) and Muddy Water's Folk Singer, which is just an incredible collection of acoustic blues tracks, and Muddy Water's spellbinding voice. A double live album mention here for Etta James Rocks the House, which is ferocious, loud and aggressive, and lives up to the title, and Sam Cooke's Live at the Copa, which is the opposite and has Cooke in full on charmer mode, smooth as you like it, an absolute master equally at home in the sweaty clubs, or the swanky stages. Loads of great stuff elsewhere this year too!
Dude, Folk Singer is incredible. Even just as a feat of engineering. If you have it loud enough you can hear studio noises, it’s so intimate.
i know girl from ipanema but that’s about it. i forgot to include the dave van ronk album, which would have been a cut of mine, and the streisand album, which i’m gonna check out
Top 3: 1. Bob Dylan: The Times They Are A-Changin' 2. The Supremes: Where Did Our Love Go 3. The Beatles: A Hard Day's Night The Times They Are A-Changin' to me is taking the brilliance of Freewheelin' and doing it even better. With God on Our Side and Boots of Spanish Leather both stand out to me as some of Dylan's best. Another Side of Bob Dylan is also great, but I need to spend a little more time with it. I've only listened a handful of times. Where Did Our Love Go is just wall to wall bops. Always so fun to listen to. Other stuff I want to check out: -The Kinks: Kinks (not sure if I've listened to the whole thing before) -The Rolling Stones: The Rolling Stones -The Rolling Stones: 12 X 5 -The Ronettes: Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes -Johnny Cash: I Walk the Line -The Animals: The Animals -The Shangri-Las: Leader of the Pack -Aretha Franklin: Unforgettable -Sam Cooke: Ain't That Good News -Marvin Gaye: When I'm Alone I Cry -The Temptations: Meet the Temptations: -Joan Baez: Joan Baez 5 -Simon & Garfunkel: Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M.
Listened to Nina Simone in Concert from this year, which is basically the safest new album choice I could have made, because I was certain I'd love it. A short little live collection, consisting of 7 tracks and 35 minutes, Nina is an excellent form, a truly wonderful live performer. It also shows her more playful and silly side, with the ridiculously fun, "Go Limp", where she forgets the words halfway through and laughs along with the audience, enjoying the innuendos of the song. She then follows it up with the ferocious "Mississippi Goddamn", just in case you were worried that it was going to be a comic end to it. Excellent stuff, looking at her discography on Wiki, there's quite a few live albums of hers from this period that I haven't heard (I'd only previously heard 1962's Nina at the Village Gate), so I might spend some time with her live records this week.
For something completely different, I listened to an album by the Singing Nun, who I’d never heard of, but noticed her name as one of the big sellers in the OP. She was a Belgian nun in the early 60s, who had some extremely unexpected hits, selling over two million records in 1964. Reading up on her on wiki, she met a tragic end unfortunately, and took her own life, after financial and spiritual troubles in the early 80s, along with her “partner”. She had a beautiful voice, singing these lovely little folk devotional songs, all in French, but crystal clear and wonderful, with some nice simple harmonies. Perhaps a little bit one note for an entire album, but it’s certainly interesting reading up about her too. Not one I imagine I’ll be back to often, but a very nice discovery.
Phaynes/ Cshadows do you both post your lists first day just because you’re that confident in the top 3, or are you listening ahead? I know there’s technically no rules , but for any year pre-1993ish I feel like an album I might not have heard before recommendations from you guys could sneak it’s way into the top 3. For that reason I think I’ll usually wait till close to the end of the week to cast my ballot.
i mean, i’m pretty familiar with all the albums i’ve voting for. an album that i’ve heard once or twice isn’t going to make it to the top of my list when i barely know it. maybe it could sneak up to that point eventually, but not within the course of a week haha. a lot of these albums are albums i’ve listened to for most of my life.
His best song. Which, given the source, is saying a lot. That version of "Mississippi Goddamn" is for sure one of her finest moments. "This is a showtune...only the show ain't been written for it yet." You know I'm pretty open-minded, but that album got really tedious for me by the end. Glad I listened for the Grammy nom, the educational value, and "Dominique", but not for me really. I don't listen ahead, I just feel like nothing I listen to for the first time is going to crack a top 3 in a year where I've heard 20-40 albums. They usually take more spins. So I figure may as well post my ballot and other stuff I like early and maybe people can get ideas for what to listen to (since it's not necessarily easy to look up releases by year in any kind of curated way).
@phaynes12 @George and obviously anyone else, I highly recommend Jerry Lee Lewis' Live at the Star Club, Hamburg, Doc Watson's s/t and the Jacques Brel Olympia '64 album. Seem like ones you could really get down with.
Alright sold - I’ll start doing it this way too , just hadn’t thought of it that way but pretty obvious. Will post mine tomorrow along with my listening plans for the rest of the week! Thanks y’all.
yeah, the JLL album peaked my interest but I wasn't sure if it was a deal where the live album was trumped by a studio record. adding these to the list
1964 in Music Best Single: I Get Around - The Beach Boys Other great 1964 singles: Be My Baby - The Ronettes Twist & Shout - The Beatles Fun, Fun, Fun - The Beach Boys House Of The Rising Sun - The Animals Glad All Over - The Dave Clark Five The Girl From Ipanema - Getz/Gilberto Oh, Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison I Feel Fine - The Beatles A Hard Day’s Night - The Beatles Can’t Buy Me Love - The Beatles Remember (Walkin’ In The Sand) - The Shangri-las Chapel Of Love - The Dixie Cups Leader Of The Pack - The Shangri-las She’s Not There - The Zombies Baby Love - The Supremes You Really Got Me - The Kinks Dancing In The Street - Martha And The Vandellas Notable Mention: Terry Riley’s “In C” Top 3 albums: 1. Beatles For Sale - The Beatles 2. A Hard Day’s Night - The Beatles 3. All Summer Long - The Beach Boys
Yeah I mean either way seems fine to me as long as it doesn’t deter you from exploring and relistening and such.