Best Song: Mary Wells - My Guy
Motown has arrived. Although it first came about in 1959, it wasn't until 1964 that it hit the UK Top 40. This was the first UK Top 40 hit from Motown and only one for Mary Wells. If anything it's a sign of great music to come as Motown produced lots of good records in the 60s and beyond.
Worst Song: Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen - Hello, Dolly!
There are 3 versions of this record in this Top 40. As well as this there were versions by Louis Armstrong and Frankie Vaughan. It's a song from a musical which is never a good thing in my book, but after hearing it for the 3rd time I was irritated by this more than any other record.
Top 40 Review
Now we're approaching the mid-60s with The Beatles and co now established, you would expect most 50s acts to be finished by now. However, 10 of the 40 records are by acts who were also present in the charts in the 50s. Furthermore we have the record "Dimples" by John Lee Hooker charting for the first time, but the record itself is from 1956. A further 5 records were by acts who debuted before The Beatles including the number one "It's Over" by Roy Orbison and 2 hits by Jim Reeves.
The Beatles themselves were in the Top 40 with "Ain't She Sweet" which was their only UK Top 40 hit of the 60s not to make the Top 10. This is because it was Polydor cashing in on the bands success rather than an official release from the band.
There were 9 records in the Top 40 by bands who fall under the beat category. In addition to The Beatles, from Liverpool we had The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Fourmost and The Mojos. From London we had Brian Poole & the Tremeloes and The Dave Clark Five. From Birmingham we have The Applejacks, from Manchester we had The Hollies and finally from Blackburn we had The Four Pennies.
Furthermore we had Cilla Black and Peter & Gordon in the charts who had both previously charted with Lennon/McCartney compositions.
The Rolling Stones were also in the charts with "It's All Over Now". It wouldn't be until the following year that they would start charting with songs they wrote themselves.
What we are most likely seeing here is the charts not truly reflecting the history books. The older acts were perhaps no longer cool but enough of the older people were buying their records to keep them having hits.
As expected the score for 1964 is higher than in 1963, but only just.
Score: 13.5
Table
1964 now tops the table but again I don't expect it to stay there too long, particularly with more Motown records on the way:
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