Living Old Hits

Groovy or not: are the old hits as good as you remembered?

Recently, I described to my daughter how record changers work. The more I told her how ubiquitous they were, and how easy they were to use, the more I knew I sounded like some geezer talking about a Victrola. And then I told her how you bought a 45 (at a store!) with one song on each side AND you had to flip it over to get to the B-side song, which was usually a filler except when it came to The Beatles or in the case of Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye, the original filler B-side until everyone started liking it better than the A-side by a group that never even existed. You could look it up. 

Anyway, that’s all to say that music was an interesting critter way back when. (Notwithstanding that there is so much new and wonderful music being produced these days that is literally – and I mean literally, not figuratively – impossible for one person to hear it all. More new music is made available every minute on YouTube, Soundcloud, Spotify, etc than a single individual could listen to, even if they listened 24 hours a day).

But back to old-school music: far be it for us to dwell on the past, but it was fun talking to my daughter about music and music technology from half a century ago. Interestingly, a lot of that music is still as good now as your teen ears remembered. On the flip side (!), music you might have thought as groovy back then (when ‘groovy’ was actually a thing, for 6 months), doesn't sound groovy anymore.

Which brings us around to the excuse for this posting, because 1969 was a particularly good year for music. A lot of it is just as vibrant today, and would fit in with any playlist on radio or at parties (or even –ugh – supermarkets).

The top songs of 1969 including little numbers from lesser-know bands, like Honky Tonk Women by the Rolling Stones, Something, Get Back (the live, rooftop version) and Come Together by The Beatles, Suspicious Minds by Elvis, Everyday People by Sly and his bunch, Proud Mary by Creedence (on Ed Sullivan), Lay Lady Lay by Bob Dylan, I Heard It Through the Grapevine by Marvin Gaye, as well as one-shot anthemic hits like Get Together by The Youngbloods. 

By the way, if you’re feeling all superior about the quality of the music released back then, this will sober you up: the number one hit of 1969? Sugar Sugar by The Archies (written by Andy Kim).

So that’s our excuse to post some older music, not that that we need much of an excuse. Bottom line: listen to music, lots. Listen to new stuff, listen to old stuff, listen to music live, buy music on-line or at your local independent vinyl/record stores.

 Tom New