Favorite old pop songs

Subject: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 06:29 AM

Every time I turn the radio on and that awful racket that passes for music these days, I remember when modern songs were pleasant to listen. Songs such as:
Dark Moon
Love is blue
Ramona
Cry of the wild Goose

What say ye?

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 10:47 AM

Right Said Fred.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Stringsinger
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 03:59 PM

Couldn't agree more, Kendall

I love Skylark (Hoagy Carmicheal, Johnny Mercer)
Stardust (Hoagy and Mitchell Parish)

More modrin? Some Beatles. I even like Bachrach and David.

Most of the newer pop songs are poorly written, musically unattractive,
monosyllabic or monotonic, cliche chord progressions (unlike the great Gershwins, Porter, Berlin etc.) or one of my faves Leonard Bernstein (West Side Story)

or "Send in the Clowns".....Sondheim by Judy Collins

or young Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon.

The problem today with pop music is that the public is so uneducated when it comes to musical appreciation, since it was cut in the schools, and it goes along with the other educational lobotomies inflicted on the American public, a public official running for office can't find Libya on a map, Creationism is actually being taken seriously, scientists are being dissed because they are not politically viable,
and on it goes, doesn't it seem reasonable that the American public taste in pop music has been debased?

Music is an index into culture and society. Corruption doesn't stop in Washington or Wall Street but is carried on into the music biz.

Pop music today (I repeat) has been lobotomized.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: kendall
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:08 PM

Amen, Brother.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Smokey.
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:41 PM

'Days' by the Kinks is my personal favourite, but I'd say Chuck Berry's 'Johnny B. Goode' is the best.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Smokey.
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:45 PM

But if we're talking old, Al Bowlly doing 'Love is the Sweetest Thing'.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,Skribla
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 04:53 PM

Some of the best modern country stuff seems to me a faithful extension of the pop quality we enjoyed in the sixties. I still listen to (& collect) fifties & sixties music, but as an acceptable alternative that doesn't sound 'dated' I enjoy much of today's country music too - & folk, of course!

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Acorn4
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 05:02 PM

"Rain or Shine" by Five Star
"Runaway" Del Shannon
"In Dreams" Roy Orbison
"Here There and Everywhere" -the Beatles
"Cracking Up" - Nick Lowe
"Crawling from the Wreckage" - Dave Edmunds

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: PHJim
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 06:18 PM

Sunny Side Of The Street
Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone
Walkin' My Baby Back Home
I Can't Get Started
I'm Satisfied With My Gal
I'm Mr. Blue...

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: kendall
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 07:51 PM

I remember you by Frank Ifield

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: pdq
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 08:11 PM

I recently got a CD of Sam Cooke with about 30 songs.

"Cupid", "You Send Me", "Another Saturday Night", "Bring It On Home", "What A Wonderful World It Would Be", "Only Sixteen", etc.

He was a close to a perfect Pop singer with perfect diction and great phrasing. He wrote most of his hit songs himself. He makes the current stuff on the AM radio sound like crap.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Effsee
Date: 10 Apr 11 - 10:41 PM

Mario Lanza
Nat King Cole
Perry Como
Bing Crosby
Satchmo
Elvis
Rolling Stones
Eurythmics
UB40
....I guess I'm dating myself!

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: banjoman
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 06:37 AM

Wandering Eyes by Charlie Gracie - I have just managed to find a 78 record of this which wont play on my record machine so now I need a different machine

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Arkie
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 03:28 PM

Music, Music, Music
Lullaby of Birdland
September Song
A Fool Such As I
You Were Always on My Mind
Since I Met You Baby
Let the Good Times Roll
Across the Borderline
Keep Me from Blowing Away
Funny how Time Slips Away
I Almost Lost My Mind
Golden Rocket

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: alex s
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 03:45 PM

In My Life. Lennon's finest

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Tootler
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 06:23 PM

One person's music is another one's racket.

I can still remember the buzz I felt when I first heard rock 'n' roll. It was so exciting. My father hated it and still refers to rock music as "jungle music"

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Ron Davies
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 08:42 PM

Fortunately we have a huge number of options other than what passes for the current top 40.

You don't ever have to hear it--unless you count having it inflicted on you by somebody with his or her radio, tape or CD player turned up so the whole car shakes with the bass,

And pity the poor kids who have this stuff as the music of their formative years.   Supposedly you always love the music you hear as a teenager.   Hard to believe it will be true with the current teenagers and the current top "songs"--many of which are just rap anyway--no melody.

I agree with pdq on this--Sam Cooke's songs are some of the best of the best.

But the best pop music in general was done in the 20's 30s and 40's.   Nothing can touch some of those.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Smokey.
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 08:45 PM

We've had rock and roll for over 50 years - is it traditional yet?

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Joe_F
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 08:48 PM

Pop music peaked around 1900 and became despicable around 1940.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Smokey.
Date: 11 Apr 11 - 08:58 PM

Here- pick the bones out of this.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Ron Davies
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 01:13 AM

Hey Joe, just how far is your tongue buried in your cheek?

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,Guest - Lin
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 01:49 AM

Before I got into folk music I used to love all the 60's Beach Boys music, like "Help Me Rhonda", "Surfer Girl" "In My Room" "I Get Around' and all their 60's songs. Also Jan & Dean with songs like, "Surf City' "Little Old lady from Pasadena' 'Dead Man's Curve'.
Of course all the early & mid-60s Beatles and early Rolling Stones.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,jeff
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 02:15 AM

Wow, Al Bowlly w/1 boom mic, no monitors, or corrector and he was dead-on pitch the whole time. The pianist had great dynamics, too. Now 'that's' how it's done.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 02:29 AM

There's some fantastic new music around. And there's always been some music that's mass-produced formulaic pap. It's just that the stuff out there now is for the kids, not the grouchy granddads. ;-)

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:16 AM

T-Rex - I love to boogie
Led Zeppelin - Whole lot of love
Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Jethro Tull - The Witches Promise
Buddy Holly - Everyday
Cat Stevens - Moonshadow
The Temptations - Can't get next to you

In no particular order...

:D

PS - Can't agree more about Sam Cooke - I think I have the same compilation.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,Suibhne Astray
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:37 AM

I'd go further than that - in my day Pop Music was all lobotomised fomulaic crap with exceptions proving rules - hell, I was born on August 22nd 1961 and just look at my birth number one! What a star to be born under! (See the thread Number one the day you were born? for more on this - be prepared for some major dissapointments!). For sure there's still the persistence of the moronic, but I'd say on whe whole it's better now than ever right now, with top bands, singers, writers, producers etc. very much in evidence. So, celebrate the old by all means, but it's possible to do so without missing the point of the present, or making opening salvos such as Every time I turn the radio on and that awful racket that passes for music these days... (that was Folk on 2 you were listening to, right?). And with that I'm off to Listen Again to pick up on the latest Tim Westwood selections which always makes me glad to be alive. Give it a try - you never know!

S O'P

PS - How many folkies does it take to change a lightbulb anyway?

PPS - There is a song in which we are urged to try to remember the kind of september when life was slow and oh so mellow which resides in some hellish nether-realm that is signposted Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here. Just the thought of it brings me out in hives and cold sweats and has me running for the toilet in a giddy delirium not sure which end to attend to first. Avoiding this song is my life's work - I live in dread fear of its cosummate awfulness and yet I know one day it will be death of me and that some wag (quite possibly my long suffering wife) will have it played at my funeral instead of my current song of choice (Joey Ramone's cover of What A wonderful World if you must know).

PPPS - In the spirit of the thread put me down for The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore by The Walker Brothers

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:50 AM

All this thread is doing is (a) dating people and (b) showing that most people lose touch with the current "scene" that the younger generation are actually listening to.

Kendall: "Every time I turn the radio on and that awful racket that passes for music these days, I remember when modern songs were pleasant to listen."

Sounds JUST like my parents omplaining that "all this modern stuff is just a racket" and "why can't you listen to someone decent like Bing Crosby, Perry Como or Vera Lynn?"

I was actually listening to *some* stuff from their era but it was Django and/or Grappelli etc rather than "crooners", who I couldn't (and still can't) get on with. But the music I *was* listening to while they were complaining included some of the "greats" listed above, plus a lot of other really good well-crafted and musically interesting songs.

And they're still out there. Just as most of the stuff I was listening to in the 60s and 70s didn't get much (if any) radio airplay, and a lot that did was crap, there's a vibrant scene with good bands prodcuing some well-crafted, songs in among the dross that gets airplay.

It's the same with every generation, it seems. My kids listen to (and steal) my old vinyl, but it's the "prog" stuff they're after and they wouldn't be interested in "Herman's Hermits" or "Gerry and the Pacemakers" from "my" era (which I wasn't interested in either).

I bet a lot of the songs about in the days some of the other posters are getting all misty-eyed about were absolute crap, too...it tends to be the more decent stuff that stands the test of time. And in 30 years, I'm sure someone from my kids' generation will be on a music forum (or equivalent) moaning about what absolute crap is being tured out "these days", unlike the great days of the "early two thousands"!

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 05:20 AM

On the day I was born it was Perry Como - Who I still can't really say I like but I can appreciate he is good at what he does :-) However - On the day I turned 16 it was Blackberry Way by the Move - WooHoo!

I don't think we will get anywhere comparing music from different eras. There is good and bad in all. What I would say is that music from my youth will probably always be my favourite becuae it was what I first got into and has been with me the longest. I would never seriously say it was any better or worse than anyone else's though.

D.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 05:23 AM

22 year old Adele has just been number 1 in umpteen countries. Anyone here listened to her album '21'? It's gorgeous and she writes her own songs. There's huge hype around her which may put people off listening to her, but she's outstanding.

Credit where it's due eh guys?

Adele live at the 2011 Brit Awards

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: RamblinStu
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 05:38 AM

Waterloo Sunset - The Kinks

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: kendall
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 07:33 AM

90% of everything is crap.

Can you picture todays teens 30 years from now all standing around the old upright synthesizer trying to remember three words from Twisted Sister?

Crooners never did float my boat etc.

I remember singing I'd like to PUT you on a slow boat to China. YUK! Pap for the masses!

Today's "Music" is just noise to me.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 08:31 AM

Kendall... tell me this is "just noise": Cee Lo Jones

Top class pop!

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Spleen Cringe
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 08:38 AM

Of course, the original was better...

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 08:47 AM

Kendall: Can you picture todays teens 30 years from now all standing around the old upright synthesizer trying to remember three words from Twisted Sister?

Twisted sister? No...but I can imagine them sitting around my lad's old analogue Korg (which no doubt, he'll still have then) singing "Intervention" word perfect. Probably playing it on my by then beaten-up old "Chisholm" guitar which one of them would have inherited.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Arkie
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 11:14 AM

There is good music still being produced, but for the most part it does not get mainstream radio air time. Having said that, I don't listen to mainstream radio anymore, so what do I know. Suzy Bogguss, for one, is writing and singing literate lyrics and recognizable melodies. In my opinion, one is more likely to hear good music in films than on the radio.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: pdq
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 12:30 PM

Gail Davies, Suzy Bogguss and Mary Chapin Carpenter have all done quality work for a long time. They are usually called Country, which is saving popular music from complete destruction by the debased urban noise.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 04:29 PM

When I was a kid, rock and roll irritated me no end. But lately I've come to realize that it had something to offer - spirit, fun, good tunes, rhythm.

It just needed to be performed by somebody with actual talent. Enter Freddie and the Dowhops!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nxVQIGgOys&feature=related

PS It makes me sneer when heavy-metal rock bands call their stuff 'rock and roll'. True rock and roll may have been trivial, but at least it was friendly.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 05:10 PM

I still love many of the old rock 'n' roll songs I listened to back in the 1950s, BEFORE the "folk scare." Tough to single out a small number of favorites; I certainly love Sam Cooke, like anyone else with any taste at all.

Here's a couple of extra-wonderful examples that come to mind today. Tomorrow, I might find different ones to mention:

The Flamingoes' reinterpretation of "I Only Have Eyes For You." Perhaps the most magical, ethereal SOUND ever put on a 45rpm platter, a profoundly original rearrangement of an earlier generation's pop hit, from a time when "pop" meant something different from what it would mean later on.

Jackie Wilson, "Lonely Teardrops." 'Nuff said.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: ranger1
Date: 12 Apr 11 - 11:54 PM

Musn't...post...and...make...fun...of...my...elders...Oh, what the hell.

Just because it isn't to your taste doesn't mean that it is crap. Personally, I like Twisted Sister, but then again, it's being played on the oldies station these days. And I thought I was going to give Micca heart failure when he realized I was browsing the punk section at the local music store. I can't stand crooners, big band, doo wop, opera, most new age, and Bach, but that doesn't mean the music is crap, it just means it isn't to my taste.

You'll all have to pardon me, I'm going to go listen to some Social Distortion now.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: J-boy
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 12:27 AM

Back off boys. This Philistine ranger1 is all mine.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Bert
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 12:46 AM

I think you're right Kendall, 90% of everything is crap.

I can remember listening to the radio back in the good old days and you'd be lucky to get one good song in a half hour show.

Some of the good ones...

Butterfingers
Singing the Blues
Too young
Jambalaya
Half as Much
Your Cheating Heart
Seven Lonely Days
Last Thing on my Mind
All I Have To Do Is Dream
Bestest Friend
Big Iron                
Big River
Blowing in the wind        
Blue Christmas                
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain                 
Blueberry Hill
Carolina In My Mind
Carolina Moon                
Catch A Falling Star
Copper Kettle
Crazy                
Crazy Arms
Daydream Believer
Did She Mention My Name        
Don't Make me Love You
Dream Lover
El Paso
Every Day
Far Away Places
Follow Me
Folsom Prison
Freight Train
Gentle On My Mind
Goodnight Irene
Grand Coulee Dam
Great Pretender
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?
Heartaches By The Number
Heartbeat
Hit the Road Jack
I Can't Help but Wonder Where I'm Bound        
I can't help falling in love with you                
I can't help it if I'm still in love with you        
I fall to pieces        
I Still Miss Someone                
I walk the line
I was born under a wandering star

And I'm not halfway through my song list yet.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Rob Naylor
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 08:51 AM

Ranger1:

I think *I* posted above and made fun of your elders....and I'm *one* of them!!!

I think it's sad that people seem to stop listening to new music, or new genres, and that whatever was current in their own youth becomes fixed forever in their minds as "the golden age". Most of my neighbours are a few years younger than me and will fill up the local venue en-mass when an old punk band like "Eddie and the Hotrods" (who weren't actually very good even back in their day) are on, banging on about how wonderful they are, yet I just can't get them to go along and listen to "Tom Williams & The Boat" or "Origami Dinosaur" who are, IMO, immeasurably superior.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Becca72
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 09:10 AM

Dad, you're seriously dating yourself. "Today's teens" don't know who Twisted Sister is...they were popular 25 years ago. The people MY age remember them, though (I'm closing in on the big 4-0)

The Number 1 song on the US charts on the day of my birth was Don MacLean - American Pie. I never liked that song.

Favority "Pop" groups of my youth include Duran Duran, Journey, Twisted Sister, Poison, Bon Jovi.... I still listen to all of them.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Darowyn
Date: 13 Apr 11 - 12:48 PM

There is nobody in my band under sixty.
Our songlist includes songs from the 1930s and songs from 2010 ('Good Enough' by Tom Petty if you want to know one). We do a Suzy Bogguss song, and I may just get away with dropping in "Mr Blue". I suspected that I was the only person to remember it. We won't do the intro verse though.
The trick is , never to stop listening to new stuff, and hang about with people with good musical taste, who are a different age from you.
There are some great songs about right now.
If you don't listen, you'll never hear them.
Cheers
Dave

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: kendall
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 08:12 AM

Becca, next time I see you would you sing some Twisted Sister for me?

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Becca72
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 08:15 AM

Sure thing. I'll belt out a verse or two of "I Wanna Rock" :-)

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: ranger1
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 12:43 PM

Becca, J-boy and I will join you. we may even segue from there into We're Not Gonna Take It.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Becca72
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 12:56 PM

I knew I could count on you two!

I always did enjoy their version of "Leader of the Pack", too.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Becca72
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 01:03 PM

Speaking of favorite pop songs/artists from my youth, I just got myself a ticket to see Colin Hay (of Men At Work) next week in Scarborough. I can't WAIT. He's amazing.

Colin Hay

My favorite

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,glueman
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 01:46 PM

There are some giants among manufactured pop. The Monkees Last Train to Clarkesville, almost anything by Abba, Phil Spector (especially Bob B, Soxx period) or the Motown stable. All written and performed with the sole expedient of making cash and all brilliant.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 03:40 PM

OMG, where did I go wrong?

I remember when your favorite songs were, The Diamond and Angus McFergus McTavish Dundee.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Becca72
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 04:28 PM

Where you went wrong is when you taught us all to have opinions of our own.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: J-boy
Date: 14 Apr 11 - 11:51 PM

"Overkill" is one of my favorite songs Becca. I hope you and I and ranger1 can get together and play some Dungeons & Dragons sometime soon.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: Max Johnson
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 02:48 PM

How many folkies does it take to change a lightbulb anyway?

I don't know. But half of them would be telling the other half not to change it.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: J-boy
Date: 15 Apr 11 - 11:21 PM

Loooong before my time but Glenn Miller's "American Patrol" is a favorite of mine. I quite like big band music. The Inkspots were great too.

Subject: RE: Favorite old pop songs
From: GUEST,JarheadSmog
Date: 16 Apr 11 - 12:43 PM

that Duran Duran