Time to Retire These?

I post this for all of my readers, but for my musical readers especially. Let me have your honest opinion.

While surfing MSN the other day, I came across an article entitled “1960’s Pop Songs That Should Be Permanently Retired.” I agree with some of these, and I’m sure you can guess which ones. On the other hand there are a couple I actually like.

So here is the list. No commentary. What are your thoughts? I will post my own comments in an upcoming blog.

1960’s Pop Songs That Should Be Permanently Retired (From MSN.com)

Sugar, Sugar – The Archies

Green Tambourine – Lemon Pipers

In The Year 2525 – Zager and Evans

Cherish – The Association

Little Children – Billy J. Kramer

MacArthur Park – Richard Harris

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La Da – The Beatles

You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’ – Righteous Brothers

Eve of Destruction – Barry McGuire

Build Me Up Buttercup – The Foundations

Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

The Ballad of the Green Berets – Sgt. Barry Sadler

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy – Ohio Express

There were a couple others on the list that were more late 1950’s, so I opted to not share those.

So, what do you think? Do you agree? Are there songs that should be on this list that aren’t? I’d love to hear your comments.

14 thoughts on “Time to Retire These?

  1. What do they mean ‘retire’ them? Do they mean never give them air time? Do radio stations even program their own playlists these days? Aside from The Righteous Bros. I wouldn’t listen to any of these willingly LOL Honestly, aside from the Righteous Bros. I never listened to any of these willingly when they WERE popular and that includes the Beatles (Yes, I am THAT old.)

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    1. Yes, I think they mean to pull them off the air completely. I’m guessing that they feel that they are overplayed or do not fit anymore.

      And answer to your other question, radio stations today very rarely program their own playlists. Most of them are suggested by the corporate programmers or consultants hired by the corporate managers. There are, however, some smaller stations that are family-owned or locally owned, and they might actually still program their own playlist.

      I’m not sure how often they do it today, but they used to get an auditorium of 500 to 800 people and they would play 5 00 hooks from songs and those people in the audience would say whether or not they loved it, hated it, didn’t hear it enough, or heard it too much. Those auditorium tests often led to where a song would end up on or off a playlist.

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  2. everyone’s entitled to their own opinions. That list spans the musical miles. To me, I didn’t even know the song ‘Little Children’ but some of those I love (‘Loving Feeling’, ‘Obla-di,Obla Da’), several I fairly like (‘…Buttercup’ ‘Cherish’,for instance) most I don’t especially like but don’t mind hearing now and then (‘Sugar’, ‘Brown-eyed Girl’…. sorry I’m just not half the Van the Man fan the rest of the world is) but a few are real dogs – Harris’ too earnest reading of ‘MacArthur Park’ and the militaristic march of the green berets in particular. Mind you, I don’t think I’ve heard either on any radio or in any store for a decade minimum.

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  3. NO….absolutely not. You let people have their own choice. They shouldn’t try to make it for them. Van Morrison? No…just no…it’s a great song. Some people still like these songs. I dont’ like all of them but why pull any off? I would rather hear this list than the top 40 right now. How about pulling the top 40 of 2025 off? Then you would get my vote lol.
    I wasn’t born when some of these were hits…but they are fine. A least they have a melody and we are talking about them 60-70 years later! Lets see if modern music lives that long.
    It’s all subjective though.
    Great post!

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      1. Exactly! Lets take a song I hate…Safety Dance…my most hated for the 80s…and that is a big group of songs lol…but I would never want it pulled off air because people like it.

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  4. Oh man, I so agree with all of these. The Archies were a group of studio musicians who made this song, and it was terrible, right up there with Green Tambourine. My band opened for the Lemon Pipers in the late sixties, and that was all they had, no set list, just that one awful song. The Eve of Destruction was sort of cool on AM radio, but it came and went quickly.

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