A few more fine tracks from Marvin Gaye.

Marvin Gaye - Wherever I Lay My Hat That's My Home (1962)
The original version of a song made famous by Paul Young in 1983.

Marvin Gaye - Pride And Joy (1963)
His first Top Ten hit single in the USA. It didn't chart in the UK.

Marvin Gaye - You're A Wonderful One (1964)
A Holland-Dozier-Holland song with elements of Chuck Berry's Memphis thrown in. A wonderful track.

Marvin Gaye - How Sweet It Is (1964)
A while back (quite a while back, in fact,) I submitted my favourite version of this song by Junior Walker and the All Stars. Marvin Gaye's version comes a very close second for me, so is definitely worth submitting to the thread.

Three loosely connected tracks from 1962.

Valerie Mountain and the Eagles - Some People (1962)
This is a real curiosity. It's the title song from a 1962 film called Some People with the actress Angela Douglas miming to the singing of a lady named Valerie Mountain. Miss Douglas is "backed" on screen by other actors, but Miss Mountain is backed by a British band who called themselves The Eagles a whole decade before a far more popular American band gave themselves the same name.

Carol Deene - Norman (1962)
Valerie Mountain and the Eagles' version of Some People did not chart, but another British chanteuse named Carol Deene had a minor hit with it. Carol Deene also had a minor hit with Norman. Apparently, when this single featured on Juke Box Jury one of the panellists hated it so much he put a clothes peg on his nose while it was playing, which was very rude indeed, but having just listened to it I think I know where he was coming from!

Joanie Sommers - Johnny Get Angry (1962)
As well as Some People and Norman the aforementioned Carol Deene had a third minor hit in 1962 with a song called Johnny Get Angry. Here's the original American (and imho by far the the best) version of that song.

The post we've all been waiting for, songs based on classical works.

I'll start with the most well known from one Demis Roussos, this did great in Europe and is the best chart position his group Aphrodite's Child had in the UK getting to #29. Based on the ever popular Canon in D by Pachelbel.

Aphrodite's Child - Rain & Tears

With only little bits of Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D, this is nonetheless a rare classic from Nancy's 1st album.

Nancy Sinatra - In My Room

Much more identifiably Bach this homage to J. Sebastien was a Dutch hit

Shirley Zwerus - Bach bijvoorbeeld


This Dutch psychedelic parody of Mozart's The Magic Flute regularly features in the Dutch Public Radio 2's yearly Top 2000 songs list

Liesbeth List & Ramses Shaffy - Pastorale

Lastly a Danish lullaby

Papa Bue's Viking Jazz Band - Wiegenlied

A Lover's Concerto by the Toys is based on a Bach concerto.

Groovy Kind Of Love by the Mindbenders is based on a sonatina by Clementi.

There is a piece in Manfred Mann Earth Band's hit 'Joybringer' based on the Jupiter Suite of Gustav Holst's 'The Planets'.

Not to mention (all big hits, so not exactly "rare"):-

"Nut Rocker" by B. Bumble and the Stingers (rock'n'roll instrumental based on Tchaikovski's "Nutcracker Suite") - No. 1 in 1962.

"Sabre Dance" by Love Sculpture featuring Dave Edmunds (hard rock instrumental version of Khachaturian's famous piece) - No. 5 in 1968.

"Please Don't Go" by Donald Peers (ballad based on Offenbach's "Tales Of Hoffman") - No. 3 in 1969.

'gneiss' posted a link somewhere to a site with a comprehensive list of pop songs that have used classical... some surprises in there (well to people like me whos knowlege of classical isnt that good!)

i didnt know about 'a groovy kind of love'

woo hoo sots in half an hour!

New one on me too.

b side to the Yardbirds For Your Love, this guitar instrumental features Eric "Slowhand" Clapton

Yardbirds - Got To Hurry

Described as Sublime Psychedelic music from 1969 ,

Kat - Lemonaide Kid

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gddo...eature=related

One of the best tracks I've heard for the quality of the Stereo sound .

interesting track that ... never heard of Kat.

Edit to my above post , groups name is Kak not Kat

Kak is the Afrikaans (South African Dutch) word for sh*t. Did the band know that when they gave themselves that name? Whether or not they did, one thing's for certain, this track (and I would hazard a guess most of their other music) certainly isn't kak!

Great track.

The above two songs were made famous by Manfred Mann. Here are alternative versions of three other songs also made famous by them.

The Shirelles - Sha La La (1964)
This was all set to be a massive hit in the USA, but stalled at Number 69 when Manfred Mann's cover was released at the height of the British Invasion and became the version to make the US Top Twenty. The Shirelles were justifiably not happy!

The Everly Brothers - Pretty Flamingo (1966)
I'm a massive fan of the Everly Brothers, but before today I was totally unaware that they'd covered this song. Great version.

John Simon - My Name Is Jack (1967)
Original version by the song's composer.

Here's an early Lloyd-Webber classical rip-off (Moonlight Sonata I think).

Ross Hannaman - 1969 (1967)

Ross Hannaman was a very lovely looking German model who was briefly Tim Rice's girlfriend. Sadly for Tim, shortly after the release of this record, she married fellow German, Mark Wirtz, who was the creator of 'A Teenage Opera'.

It's not Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, which is beautiful, it's the almost as beautiful Fur Elise, also by Beethoven.

The record label shown on the Youtube clip has Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice as composers. I don't know what songwriting royalties were accrued for this track. It wasn't a hit single so not very much I would imagine. Rice perhaps deserved whatever royalties he received for writing the lyrics, but ALW merely took an out of copyright tune, didn't change the arrangement too much, and appears to have claimed the tune as his own, so I would say he didn't deserve any royalties for this track. On the other hand, if Copyright Law allows him to receive royalties for this song then who am I to say he doesn't deserve them?.

Eric Spear is best remembered for his "Coronation Street" theme from 1960,but he had another hit several years earlier in 1952 with "Meet Mr. Callaghan", recorded by
The Harry Grove Trio - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5stSzBMKuhs
and Les Paul - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ha6Zy...eature=related

Les Paul was well known for using multi track tape for his unique sound, here is another early attempt
Bobby Maxwell - "Chinatown My Chinatown" (also 1952)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_11h8_d1kfY
Mercury USA recording - issued in the UK on Oriole.

I know these aren't 60s tracks but I suppose they helped to pave the way for what came later, unfortunately pre 1960 music doesn't come up very often on here. Hope someone likes them...

Ahhh...'Für Elise'. I knew 'Moonlight Sonata' was wrong as I typed it, but couldn't remember the name of the piece!

I just listened to 'Für Elise' again on Youtube - Lloyd-Webber really was taking the p*ss taking a songwriter's credit, particularly as the arrangement is credited to Tony Meehan.

I do like the record though; it's a real period piece.

EMI must have fancied the chances of the record selling as they even invested in a picture sleeve!
http://shop.totallyvinyl.com/img/upl...9_DJ_7_PIC.jpg

I like "Meet Mr. Callaghan". Nice tune. We need a Pre-1960's music appreciation thread!

Let's have a look at Shocking Blue today. Fronted by the strikingly beautiful Mariska Veres, this excellent Dutch band's best known track by far is 'Venus', but there's a load of other songs that, if they don't quite reach that level of greatness, are well worth a listen.

Leaving out 'Venus' and 'Shocking You' (1971) on grounds of eligibility and the excellent 'Send Me A Postcard' as it was already submitted by Capablanca way back in post #99, here's a few more:

Shocking Blue - Love Buzz (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0U47ExaucQ

This song was covered later on by Nirvana (the Kurt Cobain one).

Shocking Blue - Hot Sand (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp03qsZ2AoQ

Shocking Blue - Long And Lonesome Road (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLcPCad3ZOw

I think they sound quite a lot like early Jefferson Airplane - blues & psych tinged rock with a very strong female vocal: no bad thing in my book.

Some good American tracks, all from 1962.

Brook Benton - Hotel Happiness (1962)
Fabulous voice. Good track.

Chubby Checker - Limbo Rock (1962)
How low can you go? Not one of Mr. Checker’s best remembered tracks, but imho one of his finest.

Dion - Love Came To Me (1962)
I’m a big fan of Dion, with or without the Belmonts. For me this track is not quite in the same league as classics like Runaround Sue, The Wanderer and Ruby Baby, but I do like it a great deal.

Joey Dee and the Starlighters - Shout (1962)
The Isley Brothers famously recorded the original in the fifties and Lulu even more famously had a big UK hit single with her 1964 cover. Here’s another great version.

Claude King - Wolverton Mountain (1962)
Country song that crossed over and became a Top Ten pop hit in the USA. Good track.

Some good tracks there ^^, especially the ones by Brook Benton and Joey Dee.

I think 1962 was a much better year for music than it's generally given credit for. This attitude by some (the powers that be at Absolute Radio 60s spring to mind) that any sixties music before the Beatles has little or no merit is one that greatly annoys me.

im kinda guilty of that due mainly to my age. i got into music with the beatles and guitar pop, generally im not over keen on earlier music.

That is your personal choice and I certainly don't have a beef with you on this matter. Quite the reverse, in fact. In spite of your preference for post-Beatles sixties music, you started this thread and have given people a free hand to post some fantastic, obscure tracks from the entire decade, many of which are from the years 1960, 1961 and 1962.

My main problem is with the new Absolute Radio 60s station, which came online in November and refuses point blank to include any track from before 1963 on its playlist. This station is supposed to appeal to a broad range of people who love sixties music, and this seems to be a blinkered attitude to me, which I do find annoying.

i agree with you that there was great music prior to the beatles and that station should play ALL 60's music... i do like some 'pre beatles' but not much.

Interestingly in the 1940's the BBC banned list included any popular song that was based on any classical piece or melody. The list was put together by Sir Adrian Boult. so that's probably why.

The last record played on SOTS this morning , don't think it has been posted before .

Sam Cooke - Meet Me At Mary's Place

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMFv_MUEtcY