MUSICAL DECADES - 1960s - Boyfriends

Times have certainly changed over the years, particularly in the dating/romance scene. Today I'd like to take you back to the 1960s to look once again at how girls saw their boyfriends back then. If you missed Part 1, click here.

Betty Everett (November 23, 1939 – August 19, 2001) was an American soul singer and pianist. Her second release, a bluesy version of "You're No Good" (written by Clint Ballard, Jr. and later a number 1 hit for Linda Ronstadt), just missed the U.S. top 50. Her next single, the catchy “The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)”, was her biggest solo hit. The Rudy Clark song climbed to #6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and made number 1 on the Cashbox R&B chart for three weeks.

Her other hits included "I Can't Hear You", "Getting Mighty Crowded", and several duets with Jerry Butler, including "Let It Be Me", which made the US Top 5 in 1964 and was another Cashbox R&B number 1.

Mary Esther Wells (May 13, 1943 – July 26, 1992) was an American singer who helped to define the emerging sound of Motown in the early 1960s. Along with the Supremes, the Miracles, the Temptations, and the Four Tops, Wells was said to have been part of the change in black music onto radio stations and record shelves of mainstream America, "bridging the color lines in music at the time."

With a string of hit singles composed mainly by Smokey Robinson, including "The One Who Really Loves You"", "Two Lovers" (1962), the Grammy-nominated "You Beat Me to the Punch" (1962) and her signature hit, "My Guy" (1964), she became recognized as "The Queen of Motown" until her departure from the company in 1964, at the height of her popularity. She was one of Motown's first singing superstars.

"My Guy" became the biggest hit ever for Wells and reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The song led the Cashbox magazine R&B chart for seven weeks.

The Ronettes were an American girl group from New York City. One of the most popular groups from the 1960s, they placed nine songs on the Billboard Hot 100, five of which became Top 40 hits. The trio from Spanish Harlem, New York, consisted of lead singer Veronica Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector), her older sister Estelle Bennett and their cousin Nedra Talley.

Among the Ronettes' most famous songs are "Baby, I Love You", "Be My Baby", “(The Best Part of) Breakin' Up", and "Walking in the Rain", all of which charted on the Billboard Hot 100. "Walking in the Rain" won a Grammy Award in 1965, and "Be My Baby" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. The Ronettes were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

"He's a Rebel" is a pop/rock song credited to the girl group the Crystals, although actually recorded by The Blossoms. The Crystals were touring on the east coast of the USA at the time, so Phil Spector had The Blossoms, a Los Angeles group, record the track. He credited The Crystals on the record. Mary Thomas recalled that "our mouths fell open" when she and her group-mates heard a disc jockey announce "the new Crystals song." It reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in November 1962. Written by Gene Pitney and produced by Phil Spector, it is an example of the Spector-produced girl group sound.

Little Peggy March (born Margaret Annemarie Battavio, March 8, 1948) is an American pop singer. She is primarily known for her 1963 million-selling song "I Will Follow Him". Although she is sometimes remembered as a one-hit wonder, she continued to have success in Europe until the 1970s.

Lesley Sue Goldstein (May 2, 1946 – February 16, 2015), better known as Lesley Gore, was an American singer, songwriter, actress, and activist. At the age of 16 (in 1963) she recorded the pop hit "It's My Party", and followed it up with other hits including "Judy's Turn to Cry", "You Don't Own Me", and "California Nights".

“Maybe I Know" is a song written by Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich and performed by Lesley Gore. The song was one in a long line of successful "Brill Building Sound" hits created by composers and arrangers working in New York City's Brill Building at 1619 Broadway. Pop songwriting stars Barry and Greenwich had previously scored hits with songs such as "Be My Baby" and "Baby, I Love You" (The Ronettes), and "Then He Kissed Me" and "Da Doo Ron Ron" (The Crystals).

"Maybe I Know" reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 16 in Canada, number 20 in the United Kingdom, and number 37 in Australia in 1964.

This ends Musical Decades for this week. Thanks for listening and I hope to see you here next time.

(The information used in this post is from Wikipedia.)

Dominique "Nik" Petersen is an aficionado of "oldies" music and the author of the interactive book set, Partners Forever. Read more at the website:

www.nikdesignsgraphics.com