Best Song: The Moody Blues - Go Now
It's one of those records I've known as long as I can remember, but it was from watching a best of the 60s type TV show that taught me how much I liked it. It was probably the first time I'd sat down and properly took notice and afterwards I felt it was a record I had to include in a music quiz I was writing.
Worst Song: Julie Rogers - The Wedding
There were 2 records by Julie Rogers in this Top 40 and she only had 3 overall. There wasn't much in it between both records, both sound like they would have fitted in better in the 50s but stand out like a sore thumb in 1964.
Top 40 Review
Beatlemania was still in full effect and it was The Beatles who once again got the Christmas number one record. The "Beat" sound was also dominating the Top 40, but you could sense it was on its way out.
An example here was "I Understand" by Freddie & the Dreamers, a cover of a record by the G-Clefs in 1961 and just sounds wrong. They would have just one further Top 40 hit which was a minor one.
We also had covers by Wayne Fontana And The Mindbenders of "Um Um Um Um Um Um" and by Fourmost of "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" which both weren't bad, but sounded far inferior to the original versions.
No doubt capitalising on the success of The Beatles was the record "Ringo" by Lorne Greene. It had nothing to do with Ringo Starr, but the title gave people that impression and that must have been intentional.
There were 4 Christmas hits in the Top 40, there was "Blue Christmas" by Elvis Presley and "Pretty Paper" by Roy Orbison which you still hear now. There was also the long forgotten "Christmas Will Be Just Another Lonely Day" by Brenda Lee and "A Starry Night" by Joy Strings. As usual with Christmas hits it's zeros all round.
A strong contender for the best song was "Baby Love" by The Supremes which was the first Motown number one. Another record picking up full marks was the Motown inspired "Downtown" by Petula Clark which was the number 2 record.
Making it a perfect Top 3 was the ever reliable Gene Pitney with "I'm Gonna Be Strong". No such luck with the number 4 though which was "Walk Tall" by Val Doonican.
With the 2nd half of the 60s just around the corner I would say the best representation of the direction music would take was "All Day And All Of The Night" by The Kinks which gets full marks.
All in all half the records get no points and half do, but the latter includes those which get half points.
Score: 16
Table
The post-Beatles debut era of the 60s is bucking the trend of the Christmas charts nosediving, but the 1964 score is much lower than the 1963 one:
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