Record of the Year 1960: Johnny & the Hurricanes - Beatnik Fly

This has been the toughest year so far to pick a record of the year because there are several to choose from. In the end I've gone with Johnny & the Hurricanes - Beatnik Fly.

Having been a dance music fan most of my life, I've always had older people and rock music fans criticise dance music because so much of it samples older music and also because a fair amount of it has no vocals so therefore isn't proper music.

Here we are back in 1960 and we have a record which is a Rock n Roll version of an old song, "Blue Tail Fly", and has no vocals.

The first time I heard this record was on an episode of Father Ted where Ted goes to borrow the car of the dancing priest, who is dancing to this record. Then some years later I found out on the internet what the record was and then listened to the full version on YouTube.

Johnny & the Hurricanes first hit the charts a year earlier with "Red River Rock" which was a Rock n Roll version of "Red River Valley". All their UK hits were Rock n Roll versions of older songs. Johnny was Johnny Paris who was a saxophone player and the only constant member of the band. What differentiated the band from other instrumental groups at the time was their use of the saxophone and organ taking the lead compared to other groups being very guitar driven.

Their chart time came to an end the following year in 1961. They were by no means finished though, in 1962 they played in Hamburg where a band called the Beatles opened for them.

Johnny Paris would continue to tour right up to his death in 2006.