Original Record of the Year: Drifters - I Count The Tears
I think of 1961 as being the pre-Beatles slump. When I was doing my initial research 10 years ago I can remember not knowing many of the records and a lot of those I listened to went in one ear and out of the other.
I also remember picking an obscure Drifters record as my record of the year so the task this time round is to look at the list of records, listen to a few and decide whether they're better than "I Count The Tears".
I feel my knowledge of 20th century UK Top 40 music is better now than it was 10 years ago and yet I still find myself looking at the list of records and thinking what the hell is that with a lot of them.
There may be some hidden gems but I don't have time to listen to everything I don't know. Besides I don't think I'm going to crown a record after just one listen.
It was the debut year for Del Shannon and in the last 10 years I've bought a compilation CD of his from a charity shop because I decided I quite like his music. It was also the debut year of Gene Pitney who I bought a CD of back in 1998.
The question is are any of the Del Shannon hits in 1961 or the sole Gene Pitney hit in 1961 better than "I Count The Tears"? I would say no.
The Drifters retain their crown.
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