Due to the sheer size of the thread, I haven't got time to check it all, so sorry if this lot have been mentioned, but Fleur De Lys with Gotta Get Enough Time. Wow!

Good stuff!

Before hearing those tracks the only song by the Olympics that I was familiar with was a Coasters-style Doo-Wop track entitled My Baby Loves The Western Movies, which I believe was a big UK hit single in the fifties, and is a particular favourite of mine.




Welcome to this enormous thread.

As you didn't supply a Youtube clip I checked out the track you mentioned independently and like it a great deal, although imho it can't hold a candle to the brilliant Circles (see above).

I think I'll give it a try, cheers for that! Pity the albums were deleted...

A couple of duets

The original version of Someday We'll Be Together , a big hit for The Supremes

Johnny & Jackey - Someday We'll Be Together

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4iPqO5wEYw

Etta James & Harvey Farqua - If I Can't Have You

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoX1O...eature=related

The first Olympics I can remember is Tokyo 64 & the great theme used by The BBC , Helmut Zacharies with Tokyo Melody

As you can see, there's been no shortage of brilliant Etta James tracks on the thread, but that's no reason why we can't have a few more.

Etta James - Stop The Wedding (1962)

Etta James - Something's Got A Hold On Me (1962)

Etta James - The Same Rope (1967)

Bradley Wiggins, winner of this year's Tour De France and gold medallist at this year's Olympic Games, is apparently a Mod, so this is for him:-

Vandyke and the Bambis - Doin' The Mod (1964)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N15rE1ZBb-8

If one interesting fact about Bradley Wiggins is that he's been a Mod since his teens, then another interesting fact about him is that he was born in Belgium, which gives me an excuse to post tracks by two of that country's greatest artists.


Let's start with Belgium's greatest ever singer-songwriter and one of the greatest ever from any country:-

Jacques Brel - Fils De (1966)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K5gBGzcrBs


The harmonica on John Barry's fantastic theme for the film "Midnight Cowboy" was played by Belgium's greatest ever Jazz musician:-

John Barry (featuring Toots Thielemans on harmonica) - Midnight Cowboy Theme (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9GxJTtpjKU

Some more relatively rare tracks from 1968:

The Millennium - To Claudia On Tuesday (1968) - The Millennium was a studio band that produced a couple of interesting pop-psych albums in the late 60s. This is one of my favorite tracks of theirs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09QgHBEs6l0

Spirit - Uncle Jack (1968) - A great track from their debut album. The album made it to #31, but this track never charted as a single. As best I can gather, the song was either a tribute to the band's drummer, Ed Cassidy (the stepfather of Randy California -- the band's singer/guitarist!), or to actor Jack Cassidy, Randy's actual uncle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xroH6J0SlPU

Free - I'm a Mover (1968) - Strong hard-psych rocker from Free's debut album. The album barely charted (at #197). It wasn't until 1970 that Free had a big hit with "All Right Now".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78MHWzUbU4k

David Walker - Ring the Changes (1968) - An infectious pop song with a thumping beat from an obscure singer whose entire recorded output is only a single 45, of which this is the 'A' side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=us4NCBdI4rA

Taste - Blister on the Moon (1968) - The first single from this blues-rock trio from Ireland who enjoyed only modest commercial success. (They were almost unknown in the U.S. at the time.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNfKtHvaPEU

Again, apologies for any tracks that might already have been posted on this thread. I'm sure that at least some of these haven't been. Enjoy!

Oh, I do like that one!



I quite like that one too, and I absolutely love the band name, so much so that I decided to do a bit of research on this lot. I discovered that the lead singer and composer of the above song was Les Vandyke (aka Johnny Worth), a songwriter who had previously written three songs that had topped the British charts (Adam Faith's What Do You Want and Poor Me, and Eden Kane's Well I Ask You).

The following not so well known tracks are other Les Vandyke compositions:-

Vince Hill - The River's Run Dry (1962)
I never thought I'd find myself liking a Vince Hill track, but I rather like this one.

Bobby Vee - Forget Me Not (1962)
Eden Kane's UK hit version of this song is my favourite track by that artist. I'm surprised to discover that, two years prior to the British Invasion, a leading American pop star like Bobby Vee decided to cover a British song, albeit as an album track. I'm also surprised to find that I prefer his version to the one by Eden Kane.

Chubby Checker - What Do Ya Say (1963)
Another leading American act recording a Les Vandyke song. Very different from Chubby Checker's normal fare, which was probably why it wasn't a hit, but it does have that certain early sixties charm that I find appealing.

Johnny Leyton - Cupboard Love (1963)
Only a minor hit for John Leyton, which is quite understandable, as it's rather cheesy and hardly in the same league as a classic like Johnny Remember Me, but like the previous track it too has that certain early sixties charm that I find appealing.

You'll certainly know this song, but you may not know this fantastic version of it:-

The Shangri-Las - Shout (1965)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEKxFNCuT4

My favourite performance by Otis Redding performing 'Shake', and 'I can't turn you loose'.

I've loved since seeing the re-runs of Ready Steady Go in the 80's. For me is hard to beat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi_7iBskm94

Nothing like his big hit record Let The Heartaches Begin , Long John Baldry with

Don't Try To Lay No Boogie-Woogie On The King Of Rock & Roll

(Takes about three minutes to get going , well worth the wait )

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

Love it!

I think it's criminal that Long John Baldry, one of the greatest artists to ever grace the British blues scene, is only known to many for a no. 1 single that was far more suited to the style of Engelbert Humperdinck or Vince Hill.

Almost as criminal as the great Chuck Berry's most successful single being a novelty song and the great Stevie Wonder's most successful single being cheesier than Welsh rarebit.

Last Saturday we received the sad news that Scott McKenzie, who famously sang the flower power anthem "San Francisco", had died. Above are two very good less well known Scott McKenzie tracks, and below is a third:-

Scott McKenzie RIP - Like An Old Time Movie (1967)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78GxqOoiA50

I must have been existing in a bubble last week as I only heard about Scott's passing this morning on SOTS. Very sad news.
.
He was certainly a very gifted singer as ' Like An Old Time Movie' amply demonstrates.

Here he is, singing beautifully as usual, performing his take of Donovan's 'Celeste'.
Scott McKenzie - Celeste (1967)

George Gallacher , singer of The Poets sadly passed away this weekend . A very underrated genius.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNgFAgiVcz0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4lhgFdGTBU

Four minor hits from 1964.

Tony Meehan - Song Of Mexico (1964)
Following Tony Meehan's very successful but rather short-lived partnership with Jet Harris the former Shadows' drummer released this fine instrumental as a solo single. Actually, I'm not entirely sure that the word "solo" is particularly appropriate here as there are obviously quite a few other musicians on this track, including (I believe) Jimmy Page on guitar.

Chuck Berry - Nadine (1964)
Hardly a Chuck Berry classic like Johnny B Goode or Roll Over Beethoven, but still well worth a listen.

Del Shannon - Mary Jane (1964)
I'm a big admirer of Del Shannon so it came as a bit of a surprise to discover that he'd had a Top Forty single that until very recently I was completely unfamiliar with. I heard Mary Jane for the first time about four days ago and liked it a great deal, but it's Del Shannon, so what's not to like?

Tommy Tucker - Hi-Heel Sneakers (1964)
I absolutely love this track. A true sixties R'n'B classic.

Here's a few of my favourites:
Love: You Set The Scene
Captain Beefheart And The Magic Band: I'm Glad
Colosseum: Beware The Ides Of March

I always thought western pop music was banned or heavily discouraged behind the iron curtain.

This is a selection of songs issued by Supraphon in Prague between 1960 and 1969, I don't know if the films were made for television or for showing in cinemas. Some of them are, well, weird.....?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sDhyylwVS7E

Most of the songs were local and sung in czech but if you go to these start times you will find some titles you know
0:06:16
1:01:50
1:02:53
1:09:55.

There may be others but I haven't looked through it all yet.
Don't suppose the composers were paid their royalties.

That looks fascinating, Mike. Obviously, I haven't had the chance to view it all, but I've checked out your recommended start times and am surprised at some Western songs being allowed behind the Iron Curtain.

It was also my belief that all Western pop music was discouraged in the Eastern Bloc. So even acts as big as the Beatles were "Rare 60's" in that part of the World.

Here an interesting Soviet propaganda film about the Beatles:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V0wR...eature=related

I saw a great BBC documentary about 3 or 4 years ago, about how secret Soviet fans of Beatles indirectly eventually led to the fall of communism. That documentary is here in it's entirety on Youtube:-

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

I've had a bit more time to go through it and find a few more

25:27 (Nancy Sinatra)
26:21 ("Love Is a Many Splendoured Thing" recorded by Nat King Cole and others)
28:42 (Millie Small)
30:34 (Mack the Knife)
44:45 (Beatles)
53:05 (Frank Ifield)
55:33 (Leapy Lee) - they had fairgrounds in eastern europe...?
1:01:50 (Ray Charles)
1:02:53 (Nancy Sinatra)
1:04:42 (Singing Nun)

What is the last clip "Karel Kopecký - Schody do nebe" all about??? - starts at 1:24:26.

Some of these covers are better than others but on the better ones the producers did at least make an effort. The studio sound isn't bad and whoever put this DVD together went back to the original recordings. The sound is too good for optical film sound tracks. I have had a quick listen and a couple of songs might have been taken from french or italian originals but I can't be sure.

I will have a look at the material you mentioned.

Here's one you'll recognise, even if the artist & title aren't familiar.

The Haunted - Vapeur Mauve (1969)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB96JsTj9jE

A couple of excellent tracks from a great Chicago Garage Rock band.

The Shadows of Knight - Oh Yeah (1966)
Was David Bowie listening to this track just prior to writing The Jean Genie? Anyone else see the similarity?

The Shadows Of Knight - Shake (1969)
Great mix of Garage, Psych and R'n'B. Love it!

Del Shannon tries his hand at psychedelic from 1968

Del Shannon - New Orleans ( Mardi Grass )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrTagdrN8yo

A Dutch Band , Sandy Coast - Subject Of My Thoughts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWiCYgQq91U

Did not think Jackie Wilson's version of Higher & Higher could be bettered , but this this version gives it a run for it's money .

Higher & Higher - Ossie Lane

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYckr-Vjfbg