OLD SCHOOL #49: Lost in 1965

^{Professor Mikey here. For the next few minutes we are going to get lost in 1965.} 

^{It’s quite easy to put together a playlist from 65, which incidentally was the second year of total Beatle global domination. Ask any wikitedious jukebox generator algorithm boss jock and they will tell you the only songs that mattered were:}

^{Satisfaction by the Stones. Yesterday, Help, and A Hard Days Nights from the Liverpudlians. Downtown by Petula Clark. You’ve Lost That Lovin Feeling from the Righteous Brother and their shaman of a Svengali Phil Spector. And some monumental soul. Stop in the Name of Love from the Supremes, I Can’t Help Myself Sugar Pie Honey Bunch from the Four Tops, My Girl from the Temptations. Oh and Like a Rolling Stone from Bob Dylan. A 7 minute song which top 40 radio played 50% of because there was no such thing as Underground.}

^{The Beatles had thrown a seismic monkey wrench into the works. If you weren’t a Beatle, one solution was to be a Beatle imitator but that only went so far. The other was to stick with your convictions and become the artist you started out to be.}

^{Which meant they probably got lost in 1965.}

^{But I love these songs that made no greatest hits lists. And I love that I may be playing them for someone who may be hearing them for the first time.  Or someone who listened to the radio 24/7 almost 60 years ago.} 

^{We start with Don Covay, who invented a Steppenwolf classic three years before they were cubs. Then four babes from Queens who enjoyed eleven Top 100 hits from August of 64 to June of 66. Marge and Mary Ann Ganser and Betty and Mary Weiss. Before they took a ride on the back of the bike that belonged to the Leader of the Pack.} 

^{Written by the powerhouse duo of Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, authors of Da Do Ron Ron, Chapel of Love, and Be My Baby.}

^{This is Out in the Streets, a great place to be when you are lost in 1965.}

^{Then we find ourselves in the thick of it, and grab a bit of what is all around us. The Turtles before they were Happy Together. Country Charlie Rich conflicted about going rock and roll, so he goes novelty. The Sorrows wave the British Invasion flag. Lesley Gore’s first comeback. Tom Donahue’s Beau Brummels, the most limey sounding band ever from Haight Ashbury. Beloved Otis Redding. Crazy Roy Head with the kickoff song from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Moulty the one-handed drummer with the Barbarians. The Pretty Things about the time they became a Bowie song. And the future in a bottle. Doctor, it’s the Strangeloves, or how I learned to love the turntable.}

The greatest hit of 1965. The Mustang.

^{It’s too bad that years aren’t comets. Having 1965 come around every now and then would be way fun. But the music stays with us. In libraries, in sound closets, on digital playlists, and in the always breezy curriculum of Professor Mikey’s Old School. My office hours are weird but the Old School podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, and Substack. Many episodes are archived on youTube where you could and should subscribe anytime.}

It’s free because this podcast is produced for educational purposes. Many don’t even realize they are learning then boom, they have a new favorite song. Any and all music heard in this program resides within the public domain or is used within the guidelines of fair use provided for in Section 107 of the copyright act of 1976, or is provided by the podcast service you are tuned to. 

“The past is a blast.”

^{I’m Professor Mikey, stay safe, listen well, support music and I’ll be talking at you next time on Old School.}