Those Oldies But Goodies Remind Me of You: Top 8 REALLY Old School Artists
I've made an executive decision. The month of June is hereby officially deemed Music-Related Top 8 List Month here at One Feisty Blog.
I know I made tantalizing references to creating a Top 8 List of the more modern music that I enjoy, but I've decided to save that for last. I've decided to go back before I go forward.
This list takes me back to the days when we were kids, sitting in the back seat of the trusty old Dodge Dart with the brown vinyl bench seats, held captive by my fuddy-duddy Dad's music selections. We thought we were being deprived because Dad wouldn't let us listen to KISS--we didn't realize then that our horizons were being broadened. We didn't realize that listening to the The Platters or The Inkspots instead of Guns n' Roses or Whitney Houston would give us something to talk about with a generation we'd have nothing in common with otherwise. We didn't realize that listening to Hank Williams and Benny Goodman would help us understand part of our history. It might not have made me cool to listen to the Beach Boys and The Righteous Brothers in High School, but I'm glad I chose them over The New Kids on the Block.
I know most of you may not have heard of some of these artists, but trust me when I tell you that they're worth checking out. You may not enjoy every single artist on the list, but if you fall in love with just one song that speaks to you and becomes part of the soundtrack of your life, it's worth it. Broadening your horizons is a Good Thing, especially where music is concerned.
1.) Nat "King" Cole
2.) Glenn Miller
3.) Buddy Holly
4.) The Everly Brothers
5.) Patsy Cline
6.) Roy Orbison
7.) The Mills Brothers
8.) Etta James
posted by Unknown at
10:50 AM
20 Comments:
Nat King Cole is must listen to at Christmas time. I listened to his tape many Christmases growing up. I love christmas music.
Buddy Holly is from Lubbock, the place i lived way too long and hope to never return.
and Etta James was in my wedding.
Those are the only connections I have to your list.
My parents were schooling us with Huey Lewis and the News and Creedence Clearwater. We had it easy.
By
Lisa, at 2:58 PM
I almost used "At Last" by Etta James in our wedding, but decided to stick with all classical music for the ceremony and all big band (actually, all Glenn Miller) for the recessional/meet-and-greet. I got as many compliments on the music as I did on my dress--and I had a BeOOOOOOOOtiful dress (if I do say so myself).
And it just wouldn't be Christmas without Nat and Bing Crosby. But Nat is good any time of year!
By
Unknown, at 3:38 PM
my list from this genre would be impossible to narrow down.
impossibile.
there's jan and dean
i'm with you on the everly brothers, buddy holly and roy orbison.
i'd have to add ricky nelson.
marty robbins would make himself known.
the hollies, fo sho
the del vikings and the fleetwoods
the old johnny cash, or the young, i suppose you'd have to say.
peter paul and mary (yes, the did so much more than puff)
sam cook, of course sam cook.
i need to lie down. this list could get very long.
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rebecca marie, at 8:16 AM
Rebecca Marie, you keep impressing me with your excellent taste in music! If I'd known all of this in HS, I would have made more of an effort to hang with you. Clearly, you're a real cool cat.
I'm pretty sure I've got an all Motown list somewhere in my future, so that's why you see no Sam Cook, Otis Redding, The Temptations, etc. I actually watched an infomercial the other night because they were shilling "soul" (by which they meant what I call Motown or early R&B) music. It was worth watching just for the song snippets.
Peter, Paul & Mary are second-stringers for me because we had to sing "Blowning in the Wind" in choir one year and I got throuoghly sick of it (and them, to a lesser extent).
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Unknown, at 8:30 AM
Well, I think you are both pretty cool.
Don't think I can make any contribution to a list that spans from Glen Miller's 1940's swing to Roy Orbison's heartbreaker ballads of the 60's. Although I do find it interesting that 3 on your list of eight died in plane crashes (Miller, Holly, Cline).
I will join any conversation of Sam Cooke, however. With his own tragic death, he'd fit in safely on this oldies list. You will have a little trouble putting him on an all Motown list, since he was never recorded on that label. I say you give him a list of his own, you know "Top 8 Sam Cooke Songs That Changed the Face of Music Forever". (Oops, I think I may have just blown my cover as a Sam Cooke fanatic.
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Jason Hill, at 9:26 AM
There's no shame in outing oneself as a Sam Cooke fan. It just comfirms what we already knew--Jason knows music. I'll leave the Sam Cooke list to you, Jason--I've got so many Top 8 ideas it's going to take me a year to make a dent.
It's funny you mentioned the plane crash thing, since I came pretty close to adding Richie Valens just so half the list would have that in common. But I decided I liked the Mills Brothers better.
As for the Motown list, I guess I'm guilty of using the term more generally than I should--sort of like calling all facial tissue "Kleenex." But I'm glad you said something, because now I won't embarrass myself by using a specific term generically. What should I call it? Old School R&B? Soul? Soul seems too broad to me, and I flinch when I hear the term R&B these days (old boyfriend with atrocious taste in music). Ya gotta help me out here!
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Unknown, at 9:57 AM
man, i was thiiiiiiis close to adding richie valens... thiiiiis close.
look gina... jason spelled sam cooke correctly. we didn't add the e until he did.
i'm so ashamed.
also, as far as hanging out in HS, no worries friend. i alwaysK liked you. our potential deep friendship just fell victim to age difference. you know how jerkie HS kids are. i could name EVERYone older than me and NO one younger. seriously... it's so sad.
i always knew who you were from church/yamhill connections. that's what sealed you into the old memory banks.
making friends with younger people would be one thing i'd change if i could go back. especially considering the current knowledge of age being boundless. one of my best friends is ten years younger, another best friend is in her sixties. it's all relative.
wish i'd've known that then.
anyway... sorry to get so sidetracked... basically, i think you're pretty cool, too.
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rebecca marie, at 11:27 AM
Well, Becky, I'm sure you'll be happy to know that I've forgiven you for going to Junior/Senior with the boy I'd been in love with for two years. (Let's not say his name here, if you even reemmber who it was, because too many of our fellow bloggers know his family--and now I'm a bit embarrassed that I ever liked him in the first place.) I was very bitter and hated you for it then, but now I think you're cool and I feel like sending you a thank you note for saving me from that doofus.
I'm pretty sure you had no way of knowing that that dope had been leading me on for months, or that I already had a dress because of all the leading and hinting and jerking around. I was mighty peeved at you there for a while, but I eventually realized you did me a favor by getting in the way of my plans--and I ended up going to a prom with a WAY hotter guy that night anyway. So belated thanks for keeping me from dating yet another dud.
I think I need to write a post about that whole thing. People will get a kick out of it. Is it okay if I use your name? We'll make up a nickname for the boy, because I'm still friends with his parents and sibling.
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Unknown, at 11:59 AM
(Anybody else feeling the love between Gina and RMW? I'm kinda glad I didn't go to Columbia, probably would have got my heart broken by both of you.)
But, back to the music.
Yeah, soul is too broad and r&b is a little vague. I don’t suppose that “8 Black Artists From the 60s that I Dig” would work? You would do no harm in making a list that is called “Artists with that Motown Sound”. It is commonly accepted that although there was a label called Motown; other musicians from the period had the same sound. Sam Cooke could comfortably fall into that group--I was just being snotty.
What I think was happening back then was a direct result of the progression civil rights for African Americans. It would be an understatement to say that the times were a changing, and this was clearly evident in the music industry. Blacks took their gospel and blues roots and exploded in the 60s. Not only were they accepted by a mainstream audience, but they could, for the first time, go into the studio and have complete, creative control—Motown is a prime example. But, much of what was recorded during this period is accurately grouped by the term “Motown Sound”.
Maybe you could call it “8 Black Artists that Finally Got Some Respect”.
As far as “Jason knows music” I do what I can, but I’m no expert, and much of what I know is media influenced. Case in point: when many soul recordings play in my head it is the Commitments that I hear, not the original artist. Like, Wilson Pickett recorded Mustang Sally? I should get a copy of that. Kind of embarrassing.
RMW, don’t worry about the extra E on Cooke; if it weren’t for my spell-checker, I’d be typing Mowtown. Sheesh.
By
Jason Hill, at 12:24 PM
Jason, I think I'll go with "Motown Sound." That conveys what I'm going for without being too broad or too specific.
I've got an embarrassing confession to make. I've always had a hard time keeping artists and their songs straight. Aside from what I learned listening to the radio with Dad, the main reason I can connect a song to an artist is generally TV-related. Mostly those compilation album commercials. But sometimes VH1 lists or conversations on Murphy Brown or The Cosby Show.
The rest of the credit for my music knowledge belongs to my friend, Rush. (Proud owner of Sharkdog.) Educating Gina since 1999.
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Unknown, at 12:34 PM
i feel just terrible that i have no idea which of the two you are speaking of... at any rate, you're welcome. also, you are very good at hiding it when you bitterly hate someone. i honestly never knew.
(runs away sobbing...)
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rebecca marie, at 12:34 PM
Oh, the bitter hating only lasted a few weeks. The mild resentment lasted longer, but I got over that once I realized that you were cool and smart and funny and all that. Besides, I was really, really better off without him. (He was the one who came to CCHS for his Senior year to play basketball. Does that help you figure out which one he was?)
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Unknown, at 12:37 PM
oh. my. word. yes. he wasn't even who i was thinking of. now that i know who you mean i feel HORRIBLE even more so. if i told you who i thought you meant, you'd probably laugh.
i feel like i need to make this up to you somehow. lunch?
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rebecca marie, at 12:47 PM
Seriously, there is NO need to make it up to me. You've already given me the greatest gift--making me mad enough at him (seriously with the flirting and leading-on!) to get over the stupid crush. (A certain Junior girl was involved in the whole scenario, and was probably more to blame anyway--but she wasn't his date to the formal.)
If it's cool with you, I'll write the story (it ends up mostly being about the hot guy I went to the Prom with) and explain it all. You'll see that you were mostly an innocent bystander who got caught in the malestrom of my teenage angst.
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Unknown, at 12:58 PM
Oh, and I REALLY wanna know who you thought I meant.
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Unknown, at 12:58 PM
of course it's alright for you to write about it! teen angst is one of my favorite genres of ANYthing... blogging included.
as far as who i THOUGHT it was... i was trying to decide between Daniel and Tom. i didn't think it was daniel, because you guys were better friends than that, and i would hunt him down and punch him for leading on a friend, and i didn't think it was tom for no reason that i could explain.
when you made me realize who it was, i remembered that it wasn't a jr/sr that i went to with daniel, but rather a sweethearts. had i remembered my two actual jr/sr dates, it would have made better sense to begin with.
oh highschool....
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rebecca marie, at 1:11 PM
Tom? There was a Tom at school? Why can't I remember a Tom? I remember freakin' everybody--even a lot of the younger kids (cough, cough). Who is this Tom you speak of?
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Unknown, at 3:10 PM
for real? tom bain... looked mexican/italian drama kid?
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rebecca marie, at 3:41 PM
Oh DUH! Now I remember him. I think we rented a house from his uncle or some other relative when I was a kid. I'm shocked that I couldn't "bring up his file", because I totally remember him now. He played basketball, right? And I halfway think he might have joined the choir his last semester of HS just so he could go on choir tour--I feel like I might have stood next to him on the risers for a few songs. Actually, I'm surprised I never crushed on him--short-ish, charismatic Latin dudes really did it for me when I was a teenager.
I'm clearly getting old and losing brain cells.
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Unknown, at 3:54 PM
Oh, and I forgot to say that Dan would never have treated me that way--he was a big, sweet, hilarious, burly big brother to me and I'll love his guts (in a sisterly way) till the day I die.
And I just posted the super-long version of the story, so now you can know the whole sordid saga.
By
Unknown, at 7:03 PM
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