Start Your Weekend Right With Some Hit Songs From 1961

So this week, to start your weekends off right, I think I’ll go through some songs that were hits in that long-ago year. Here are the ones I like best.

Bobby Lewis – Tossin’ & Turnin’: This one was originally recorded late in 1960 but hit the charts in 1961. The artist, R&B vocalist Bobby Lewis, had just walked into the offices of Belton Records in New York City, and another artist signed to that company, Ritchie Adams, recognized Bobby from a gig they had done together in the Apollo Theater and suggested Bobby record this song. The rest, as the saying goes, is history; the single sold 3 million copies.

Patsy Cline – I Fall To Pieces: While this is probably Patsy Cline’s best-known tune, she was reportedly reluctant to record it; a Rolling Stone piece claimed:

Cline was reluctant to record this ballad, which had been turned down by Brenda Lee, until producer Owen Bradley coaxed her into it. The sound was stone country but wrapped in elaborate pop, with Cline crying inside, like a nerve rubbed raw by heartbreak.

The Highwaymen – Michael: As you might expect (again), this is an adapted cover of the old folk song, Michael Row the Boat Ashore. The Highwaymen didn’t stick together long, breaking up in 1964 and only lead tenor Dave Fisher went on to have a career in music after that. That’s too bad, because they had a better-than-decent sound.Roy Orbison – Crying: I tend to think of Roy Orbison in terms of his stint with the Traveling Wilburys; it’s bemusing to me that he was recording great songs the year I was born, but then, so was his Traveling Wilburys bandmate Bob Dylan, who is still touring today. This song’s spectacular conclusion was something else; in 1980, Roy said about that part of it:

Immediately I thought of a past experience and just retold that, was the way that came about. It was the retelling of a thing with a girlfriend that I had had. I couldn't tell you right now what notes I hit at the end of the song, or anything.

Del Shannon – Runaway: This is the ballad of a guy whose girl ditched him, not a “runaway” in the sense we’re accustomed to thinking of it these days. Del Shannon was said to have claimed that the song was about him, and indeed, he did a lot of songs about broken relationships. Del Shannon and his keyboard player, Max Crook, threw this particular song together while playing a small club in their hometown, Battle Creek, Michigan.Ray Charles — Hit The Road, Jack: Everybody knows this song. It would be difficult to determine how many movie and television soundtracks it’s been part of. Ray Charles was already a household name in 1961, having started out recording in 1949, but this song’s one of his best. It’s a short one at two minutes, but it’s a fun one, packing a lot of story into a small package; in the song, Ray is asking the forgiveness of his backup singers for some unknown reason, while the singers continually rebuff him.Dion – Runaround Sue: For this hit, Dion wrote about the origins of the piece for the album’s liner notes:

It came about by partying in a schoolyard. We were jamming, hitting tops of boxes. I gave everyone parts like the horn parts we'd hear in the Apollo Theater and it became a jam that we kept up for 45 minutes. I came up with all kinds of stuff. But when I actually wrote the song and brought it into the studio to record it, well, her name wasn't actually Sue. It was about, you know, some girl who loved to be worshiped but as soon as you want a commitment and express your love for her, she's gone. So the song was a reaction to that kind of woman.

1961. I may not remember that year. But I can still listen to the music.

Nostalgia is fun. Examining what the world looked like and sounded like in the year you were born is fun, and maybe even more so as that natal year drops further and further into the past.

Let’s try something different this week: Find a song from the year you were born and drop it in the comments, which, as always, are all yours.