The Music of My Life – 1998

Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life. In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year.

In 1998, I turned 28. I was still working in the mail room at EDS and spent a lot of time driving and making deliveries. Most of my radio listening was to the morning show on the alternative station or the rock station. The gal I was dating at the time would go on to become my first wife. She also listened to the same stations and we’d talk about stuff we heard on the shows. I will have to talk about her in more detail in a few. But only because it ties in with a song, that I suppose had to be on this list.

Let’s dive into the music.

If you are a regular reader to this blog, you are familiar with the Turntable Talk feature. Dave, from the A Sound Day blog hosts it and gives us a monthly topic. This month is was to write about a song that was based on a real event or a real person. My first song was almost my pick, but I knew this week it was on my list. Surprisingly, not one of the other bloggers chose it.

Here is the story from Songfacts:

The Way, by Fastball, is based on the true story of Lela and Raymond Howard. They were an elderly couple from Salado, Texas who drove to the annual Pioneer Day festival 10 miles away in Temple and didn’t return. She had Alzheimer’s disease and he was recovering from brain surgery.

When they disappeared, a reporter from the Austin American-Statesman wrote a series of articles about the missing couple. Fastball bassist Tony Scalzo came up with the idea for the song after reading the articles (the band is from Austin). “It’s a romanticized take on what happened,” he said. Scalzo pictured them “taking off to have fun, like they did when they first met.”

Thirteen days after the Howards went missing, they were found in Hot Springs, Arkansas, about 400 miles from their destination. They were still in the vehicle (an Oldsmobile Delta 88), which had veered off the side of the road and was hidden in brush. Scalzo had finished writing the song when he learned that the couple had died.

The song itself has a sort of retro feel to it. It also incorporates a lot of little sound effects into the mix. “There was this brief moment in time when people were having hits with really weird stuff,” Fastball’s Miles Zuniga said. “We got lucky that we came around at that time. Even two years later was too late.”

I think that is what I loved about the song. It starts off someone tuning a radio dial. It has a hollow sound to it. All of a sudden, you are hearing a full produced cut. That change in sound really grabbed me.

Songfacts puts it this way, The song opens with the sounds of an analog radio going up and down the dial, briefly tuning in stations amongst the static. When “The Way” starts, it’s as if the listener has found a song he likes and is going to give it a listen. For the first 40 seconds, the dynamics are restricted to simulate the limited frequency of a radio signal. At the line, “they drank up the wine,” the full range comes in.

Despite the sad story of the song, it is one of my favorite 90’s songs.

Listen carefully: The guitar solo was inspired by the song Secret Agent Man. Guitarist Mike Zuniga was a big fan of 50’s and 60’s songs.

The Way

Before you hear the next song. Here is a vocabulary lesson for you.

Jiggy. (adj.) (1) To be cool and trendy. (2) Often associated with a style of dress. (3) Dancing effectively. (4) Making a name for yourself. (noun) (1) sex.

Will Smith’s Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It was a monster hit. It was a song that packed the dance floor when it came out and for years afterward. It was often the song I played as the first fast dance when I was DJing weddings.

This song has so many different things piled into it. For example, This samples the beat from “He’s the Greatest Dancer” from Sister Sledge. Now add the “na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na” hook, which is from a song called “Sang and Dance” by the Bar-Kays. Finally it also incorporates some lyrical elements from the 1980 song “Love Rap” by Spoonie Gee and The Treacherous Three. (Who?!) Because of all of that, 12 different writers are credited as composers on the song!

I’m not really into rap music. While many consider this song rap, I think of it as more a pop/rock/dance/rap song. My favorite lines in the song, which make me laugh every time:

Women used to tease me
Give it to me now, nice and easy
Since I moved up like George and Weezie

Gettin’ Jiggy Wit It

Prior to 1998, I was spending a lot of time at the karaoke bar. It was a regular thing to close the bar for me. This song became the “Bar Closing Anthem” in 1998 and beyond. Many DJ’s used it at the end of the night, too.

Closing Time was Semisonic’s only American hit. Dan Wilson told The Hollywood Reporter how he wrote this song in 20 minutes:

“My bandmates were tired of ending our sets with the same song, so there was kind of an uprising where they demanded something different to end our nights with. So I thought, ‘OK, I’ll write a song to close out the set,’ and then boom, I wrote ‘Closing Time’ really fast.

There was one little adjustment later, which I credit to our A&R guy, Hans Haedelt. He said, ‘It’s too simple. You need to break up the rhythm of the verses.’ So that line, ‘Gather up your jackets, move it to the exits, I hope you have found a friend’ is the first time it deviates from the rhythmic pattern. He was right – it’s a great moment in the song.”

I used this for a while as my last song of the night, but it never felt right to me to end a DJ gig with a semi-upbeat song.

Closing Time

The next song is one that could be featured on my Movie Music Monday feature. The song appeared on the Can’t Hardly Wait soundtrack.

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby is a song that was written back in 1966! Denny Randell and Sandy Linzer wrote the song for the Toys. It was also recorded by The Four Seasons and Michigan’s ? and the Mysterians. ?’s version of the song was the more Rocking/Swinging version. When Smash Mouth recorded it, they copied that sound. Smash Mouth became the first group to bring it into the Top 40. They released it as the lead single from their Astro Lounge album.

This is one of those songs that immediately makes you feel good. Well, it does for me anyway. I mean, it’s a love song, but it rocks!

Fun Fact: Running just 2:29, this was the shortest Top 40 hit of 1998.

Can’t Get Enough of You Baby

Speaking of love songs, Diane Warren sure knows how to write them! I could write an entire blog about all of the hits that she has written! Maybe one day I will.

This is another song that could be a Movie Music Monday song. It appeared in the film, Armageddon, which starred Liv Tyler, the daughter of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

Originally, U2 was asked to perform I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing. The idea for Aerosmith performing it only came after Liv was cast in the film. The song was “A grand production featuring a 52-piece orchestra. This was by far Aerosmith’s biggest hit on the US Hot 100, and their only chart-topper. It was #1 US for four weeks in September 1998, becoming one of the most popular songs of the year.” – songfacts.com

Diane Warren found inspiration for this song after hearing about an interview with James Brolin. He said that when his wife Barbra Streisand was away, he missed her even when he was sleeping. When she set out to write a song for Armageddon, she thought this was a good sentiment to express, since the film deals with the impending destruction of all on Earth.

This was another one of those “pack the dance floor” songs. Most of the time, it was used as the bridal dance. When it wasn’t I often played it in my first slow song set. As the DJ, it was always heart warming to see couples dancing to a song like this. Staring into each others eyes, or singing the lyrics to each other. I played this one a lot!

I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing

My introduction to Barenaked Ladies was If I Had $1,000,000. The more I heard from them, the more impressed I became. I remember the first time I heard One Week on the radio. It really was something to hear them rattling off the lyrics.

Songfacts says: The band has said that this song is about a big fight in a relationship. The lyrics are essentially meaningless, but wildly entertaining. It showed off their clever wordplay in a rapid-fire interplay between their lead singers, Ed Robertson and Steven Page. Robertson wrote the song.

Robertson said, “I wrote the chorus structure of the song, but I couldn’t figure out the verses at all. I got together with Steve a bunch of times and said, ‘I have this idea for a song, and I couldn’t figure out where to go with it.’ And finally Steve said to me at some point, ‘Just freestyle it! Just do what you do onstage every night. It’s gonna be great.'”

The song One Week was a number one hit for the band – for one week.

One Week

Trivia Question: What was the most-played radio song in 1999 in 11 different countries, including Canada, UK, Australia, Japan and Israel? Answer: Kiss Me from Sixpence None The Richer.

Here in the US, the song got a lot of help and exposure from the media. Songfacts explains: It was used on the second season of the WB TV show Dawson’s Creek, first on November 11, 1998 and then on another episode that aired April 28, 1999. In between, it was used in the movie She’s All That, which premiered January 29, 1999. With just about every teenage girl in America hearing the song on the TV show, the movie, or the many radio stations that put the song in rotation, it cracked the Top-40 on February 27, 1999 and made it all the way to #2.

TV soundtracks helped a lot of songs in the 1990’s. Shows like Ally McBeal, Friends, Mad About You, and Party of Five were just a few that released soundtracks.

To me, I love the sound of the song. The guitar and the vocal of Leigh Nash blend so well together. It’s no wonder that Taylor Swift says it was the first song she learned how to play on the guitar.

Kiss Me

Last week, I mentioned the Swing Revival that was taking place and mentioned Zoot Suit Riot. The Cherry Poppin’ Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy were a part of that, but I believe that it was Brian Setzer who took it to a whole new level.

Brian Setzer had success with the Stray Cats in the 80’s. When he formed the Brian Setzer Orchestra and started covering jazz and swing songs, we saw a resurgence in his career.

The first album came out in 1994 and featured covers of Route 66 and Lady Luck. It also featured originals like the beautiful September Skies. The second album came out in 1996 and featured covers of Stevie Ray Vaughn, Roy Montrell, and Gene Pitney. In 1998, The BSO released the Dirty Boogie and the lead single was a Louis Prima classic.

Jump, Jive, an’ Wail originally appeared on a Louis Prima album called The Wildest. It was recorded live in Las Vegas in 1956. Setzer’s version went to #23 on the Hot 100 chart, but I always felt it was more popular than that. We used to get requests for it when we DJ’s so that people could swing dance to it.

I absolutely love this version. To me, Prima’s version sounds like the Demo and Setzer’s is the finished product! The song won Setzer a Grammy in 1999 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals.

Jump, Jive an’ Wail

The next song is hard to include on this list. I almost skipped it, but in a feature that is called The Music of My Life, how could I not list it? Let me explain.

When my ex and I decided to get married, we didn’t have a wedding song. I had some suggestions that were pretty much shot down immediately. Looking back at this now, I understand why. I was never really going to have a say in the song. I had a list of great songs. I was a wedding DJ for crying out loud, I had all kinds that we could make work.

For weeks, I attempted to suggest song after song. For each song I would be told why it was a bad choice. I finally accepted that anything I offered up was going to be turned down for some reason. So when she came to me with Edwin McCain’s I’ll Be, I listened to it and told her okay.

That being said, I have to admit that I never really felt like this was a wedding song. Not surprising that Edwin didn’t feel it was either! In a songfacts interview he said the track was not intended as a love song at all: “It was kind of a Hail Mary prayer for me, personally. And it’s been obviously linked as a romantic song. It’s one of those things that I hesitate to say too much, because sometimes songs become what they were supposed to be, and it’s not really up to the songwriter to determine what that is.”

He went on to say that a break-up prompted him to pen this song: “It was the end of a relationship for me, and it was also an admission of my inability to function in a relationship, hence the love suicide line. And it was the hope that I would be better, grow and be better as a person. I was struggling with some personal problems at the time, as well, so it was all of those things. It was this admission of failure and this prayer that I could be a better person, wrapped up as sort of the end of a relationship kind of thought. And it was something that I said to a girl that I’d been going out with. I knew that she was waiting, and I always said to her, ‘Don’t ever look back on this in any other way than I’ll be your biggest fan.’ You know, ‘I’ll always be a fan.'”

So my first wedding song was about a break up. Maybe it was prohetic?

I’ll Be

The final song brings us back to Barenaked Ladies. It wasn’t until I researched this for this feature that I realized it wasn’t really a hit. It only got up to #44 on the charts, which is surprising to me. I almost like this more than One Week. For what it is worth, it did go to #1 in Canada.

As you watch the video, keep in mind that the band was not happy with it. They had a concept of what they wanted. It was to be seen from the point of view of various household pets. (A cat, a dog, a goldfish, and a bird). The band was disappointed with the filming of the video while it was being shot, as they did not feel it was fitting their concept.

Many times, a video helped a band with their song. This was not one of those times, obviously. I have to wonder how the release date played into the song’s poor performance. It was released in late December. The charts are pretty much done at that time, and you’ve got two weeks where nothing really changes. The song could have been dead in the water the week it was released. Sorry, that’s my radio mind spewing out thoughts.

It’s All Been Done

Did I miss one of your favorites from 1998? Let me know in the comments.

Next week, we’ll party like it’s 1999! On my list is a song that was so popular I played it 4 times at a prom. The list also features one of the songs that was shot down by my ex, movie music from two big animated films, an artist who waited 30 years for his first #1, a song that makes me think of Barbara Eden, and one of my favorite cover songs.

Thanks for reading! See you next week!

“Seasonal” Favorite

As the “Nostalgic Italian,” I would be wrong to not mention that today is the 346th birthday of Italian composer Antonio Vivaldi. He (along with GF Handel and JS Bach) is considered to be one of the greatest Baroque composers of all time. His work consisted of many concertos for violin, choral works, and even operas. To me, he will forever be known for one amazing work of music – The Four Seasons.

He was born in Venice, one of six children. He had some issues with his health, which many say was what we’d call asthma today. While this prevented him from playing wind instruments, it did not stop him from becoming a virtuoso violinist. It also did not stop him from composing music.

It is estimated that he wrote The Four Seasons somewhere between 1717-1720. The entire piece features 4 concertos featuring 3 movements each. It begins with the season of Spring, then Summer, Autumn and finally Winter. Wikipedia describes the piece:

They were a revolution in musical conception: Vivaldi represented flowing creeks, singing birds (of different species, each specifically characterized), a shepherd and his barking dog, buzzing flies, storms, drunken dancers, hunting parties from both the hunters’ and the prey’s point of view, frozen landscapes, and warm winter fires.

Unusually for the period, Vivaldi published the concerti with accompanying sonnets (possibly written by the composer himself) that elucidated what it was in the spirit of each season that his music was intended to evoke. The concerti therefore stand as one of the earliest and most detailed examples of what would come to be called program music—in other words, music with a narrative element. Vivaldi took great pains to relate his music to the texts of the poems, translating the poetic lines themselves directly into the music on the page. For example, in the middle section of “Spring”, when the goatherd sleeps, his barking dog can be heard in the viola section. The music is elsewhere similarly evocative of other natural sounds. Vivaldi divided each concerto into three movements (fast–slow–fast), and, likewise, each linked sonnet into three sections.

The Four Seasons is one of the best known pieces of classical music. It truly is an amazing work. I had heard it hundreds of times before, but it wasn’t until I set aside about an hour one day and listened to it in headphones that I truly gained a real appreciation for the piece. I recall sitting with my eyes closed and envisioning what season the movement was about. The images that the music conjured up in my mind was something I cannot begin to describe. It really was an amazing experience.

Here is one of MANY recordings of the entire piece:

There is a lot of debate as to whether the concerto was written to go with the sonnets that were written or the other way around. No one knows for sure who wrote the sonnets, but it is believed that Vivaldi wrote them.

As you listen to each concerto, read the sonnets and see if you can picture the things alluded to in them.

Spring

Allegro
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are
softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar,
casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches
rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps,
his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes,
nymphs and shepherds lightly dance
beneath spring’s beautiful canopy.

Summer

Allegro non molto
Under a hard season, fired up by the sun
Languishes man, languishes the flock and burns the pine
We hear the cuckoo’s voice;
then sweet songs of the turtledove and finch are heard.
Soft breezes stir the air, but threatening
the North Wind sweeps them suddenly aside.
The shepherd trembles,
fearing violent storms and his fate.

Adagio e piano – Presto e forte
The fear of lightning and fierce thunder
Robs his tired limbs of rest
As gnats and flies buzz furiously around.

Presto
Alas, his fears were justified
The Heavens thunder and roar and with hail
Cut the head off the wheat and damages the grain.

Autumn

Allegro
Celebrates the peasant, with songs and dances,
The pleasure of a bountiful harvest.
And fired up by Bacchus’ liquor,
many end their revelry in sleep.

Adagio molto
Everyone is made to forget their cares and to sing and dance
By the air which is tempered with pleasure
And (by) the season that invites so many, many
Out of their sweetest slumber to fine enjoyment

Allegro
The hunters emerge at the new dawn,
And with horns and dogs and guns depart upon their hunting
The beast flees and they follow its trail;
Terrified and tired of the great noise
Of guns and dogs, the beast, wounded, threatens
Languidly to flee, but harried, dies.

Winter

Allegro non molto
To tremble from cold in the icy snow,
In the harsh breath of a horrid wind;
To run, stamping one’s feet every moment,
Our teeth chattering in the extreme cold

Largo
Before the fire to pass peaceful,
Contented days while the rain outside pours down.

Allegro
We tread the icy path slowly and cautiously,
for fear of tripping and falling.
Then turn abruptly, slip, crash on the ground and,
rising, hasten on across the ice lest it cracks up.
We feel the chill north winds course through the home
despite the locked and bolted doors…
this is winter, which nonetheless
brings its own delights.

Happy Birthday, Antonio Vivaldi!!

Turntable Talk #8 – Best Year In Music?

Once again, Dave from A Sound Day has asked some of us music lovers to participate in another round of Turntable Talk. This time around was a bit of a challenge for me. Dave’s e-mail stated:

“Put your thinking caps on and go through your stacks of records (or scroll thru that I-pod) and … come up with what you think the best year for music was. A tough call of course, thankfully there have been more than a few good ones! I’m interested in what you pick and don’t worry if yours duplicates someone else’s , you still have your reasons which might be different.” He goes on to say, “I think I have a guess on a couple of years that might come up more than once, but we’ll wait and see.”

This particular blog will be one of the last ones to be featured and I do not know if my year will be or has been featured. I plan on writing this KNOWING that the year I have chosen very well may be one that comes up in another post. Before I tell you the year I picked, let me tell you that I had a very difficult time narrowing it down.

My first thought was to go with 1956/1957 because those years were always so unique. You had the birth of rock and roll mixing with pop standards. When I worked at Honey Radio, I loved doing the Top 12 at 12 show when those years popped up because there was such a big variety in what was played. You could go from Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis to Pat Boone or Nelson Riddle. When I looked at the list of songs, however, were they really the BEST? No.

The same thing can be said for some of the years in the 70’s decades. I looked through many lists and while there were many great songs, there were also a lot of really crappy songs! I just couldn’t really come up with the conviction to pick a year in that decade as the BEST.

One year kept coming up every time I started thinking about it – 1964.

I want you to know before I continue that I was dead set AGAINST 1964 when I read Dave’s e-mail. Why? Well, I felt that it would just be too Beatle heavy and loaded with British Invasion stuff. And it is. On the Top 100 Chart, The Fab Four nabbed 9 spots. 18 spots were held by other British Invasion acts. In total 27% of the Top 100 were British acts. When I really looked at the chart, the more and more I felt like this WAS the year.

1964 really was the year of the Beatles, so let’s discuss them first. They were present almost right from the start as their “Introducing The Beatles” album was released in America on January 10th of that year.

This album preceded Capitol Records “Meet the Beatles” by 10 days and there was a lawsuit surrounding that whole issue. Capitol Records won an injunction and Vee-jay Records was not allowed to put out any more Beatles recordings.

In February of 1964, the Beatles arrived in the US and appeared on Ed Sullivan’s show three times (2/9, 2/16, and 2/23). In March of 64, Billboard magazine stated that the Beatles were responsible for 60% of all single record sales! In a feat that has yet to be matched, on April 4, 1964, the Beatles held the Top 5 spots on the Billboard chart!

A week later, the boys held 14 spots on the Hot 100 Chart! That broke the previous record of 9 spots held by Elvis Presley in 1956.

In May, The Beatles Second Album was released and in July, they would release A Hard Day’s Night in theaters. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” wound up being the #1 song for the whole year of 64 (“She Loves You” was #2) To say that they played a small part in the music of 1964 would be a huge understatement.

Among the other artists that came over from “across the pond” in 64 were Manfred Mann (Do Wah Diddy Diddy), Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas (Little Children and Bad to Me), The Dave Clark Five (Glad All Over, Because, Do You Love Me), Peter and Gordon (A World Without Love), The Animals (House of the Rising Son), The Honeycombs (Have I The Right), Dusty Springfield (Wishin’ and Hopin’), Gerry & The Pacemakers (Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying and How Do You Do It), Chad and Jeremy (A Summer Song), The Kinks (You Really Got Me), and the Searchers (Don’t Throw Your Love Away and Needles and Pins). It is interesting to note that the Rolling Stones debut album was released this year, but no songs appear in the Top 100 for the year.

Once you move away from the British artists, the chart has a nice variety of pop, rock, folk, country, soul, and even a few novelty songs. I think that is what made me ultimately choose this particular year.

It was nice to look over the Top 100 and see Motown represented with some classics. The Supremes hold two of the six Motown songs (Where Did Our Love Go and Baby Love), Motown was female heavy as Mary Wells (My Guy) and Martha and the Vandellas (Dancin’ In The Street) grabbed the next two spots, and the male gender was represented by The Four Tops (Baby I Need Your Loving) and The Temptations (The Way You Do The Things You Do).

While they were not “oldies” at the time, there were some classic songs that are still in hot rotation today on the oldies stations across the country. Roy Orbison had a smash with Pretty Woman in 64, and also had a hit with It’s Over. Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons grabbed three of the Top 100 with Rag Doll, Dawn and Ronnie. The Beach Boys only entry in the Top 100 was I Get Around.

1964 brought us classics like The Drifters Under The Boardwalk, Chapel of Love by the Dixie Cups, Suspicion by Terry Stafford, It Hurts to Be In Love from gene Pitney and Come A Little Bit Closer by Jay and the Americans. Johnny Rivers had a hit with Chuck Berry’s Memphis, Bobby Freeman invited us to C’mon and Swim, Detroit’s Reflections offered up Just Like Romeo and Juliet and the Shangri-Las told us the story of the Leader of the Pack.

Car songs were well represented in 64! Ronny and the Daytonas had GTO, while the Rip Chords sang Hey Little Cobra, and the Hondells had Little Honda. Jan and Dean told us the stories of The Little Old Lady from Pasadena and Dead Man’s Curve, while J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers told us the tragic story of a Last Kiss.

Soul music is represented by The Impressions (I’m So Proud and Keep on Pushing), Joe Hinton (Funny How Time Slips Away), The Tams (What Kind of Fool Do You Think I Am), Jimmy Hughes (Steal Away) and Nancy Wilson (How Glad Am I). If you throw Blues into the “Soul” mix, the great Tommy Tucker song “Hi Heel Sneakers” was out in 1964.

Instrumentally, Al Hirt had a monster hit with Java, The Ventures had Walk Don’t Run 1964, The Marketts had The Outer Limits, and Robert Maxwell had the incredibly cheesy lounge version of Shangri-la. While novelty songs included Jumpin’ Gene Simmons (Haunted House), The Trashmen (Surfin’ Bird) and Roger Miller (Chug-a-Lug).

While Rock was dominant in 1964, there were still some pop (and even folk) songs that made the Top 100 – one of them, doing the “impossible.” Two of the biggest pop hits of the year couldn’t be more different from each other. The third biggest hit of the year belonged to Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong and his Dixieland hit “Hello, Dolly!” Barbra Streisand (who won Album of the year at the 1964 Grammy Awards) had the 11th biggest hit of the year with “People.”

Pop/Folk was also represented by Gale Garnett (We’ll Sing in the Sunshine), The Ray Charles Singers (Love Me With All Your Heart), Dionne Warwick (Walk On By), Al Martino (I Love You More and More Every Day), and Andy Williams (A Fool Never Learns). But the biggest surprise came from an artist who hadn’t had a top 40 record since 1958!

Dean Martin didn’t care for Rock and Roll. With the British Invasion in full swing, there was very little chance of him ever having another hit. His kids loved the new artists. His son, Dean Paul, loved the Beatles. Dean told his boy, “I’m gonna knock your pallies off the charts!” On August 15, 1964 – he did just that with a song that became his NEW theme song, “Everybody Loves Somebody.” (It replaced That’s Amore as his theme song)

The song knocked the beloved Beatles A Hard Day’s Night out of the number 1 spot! It went on to stay at #1 on the Pop Standards Singles Chart for 8 weeks. It also became the theme to his weekly television show in 1965.

I picked 1964 for a few reasons. Despite my initial worry about it being British act heavy, it was the year that introduced us to the Beatles (who changed the music scene forever!). It is also the year that one act held the top 5 spots on the charts (a record that remains in place). It is also the year that my favorite singer of all time bumped the biggest group in music out of the top spot.

It is also a year that encompasses such a vast variety of music. While there may be better songs that appeared before and after 1964, it truly represents a unique time in history. America was still recovering from the loss of a beloved president, there were still Civil Rights issues, and a war in Vietnam. The music of 1964 was a welcome escape from so many things.

Was it all good? No, and that is true of every year. However, as I look at the 100 biggest songs of the year, there are a lot of great songs that have gone on to become classics. There are so many songs that are still looked at as pivotal in the music scene. The fact that many of these songs are still getting airplay today is a statement to just how good they are.

Thanks again to Dave at a Sound Day for allowing me to be a part of this feature. I can only hope that my contribution is worthy of an invite to participate in the next round.