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4

1960–1964

Too much happened in the 1960s to cover in a single chapter. The first half of the decade saw the rise of a small independent Detroit record label (Motown) that would have an enormous impact way beyond its humble beginnings. By the time the Beatles arrived in the United States in February 1964, quickly taking over the pop charts and leading a British Invasion that saw a new British group enter the Top 40 almost every month for two years, Motown had launched two of its four most successful artists, Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye. The other two were the Supremes, who would begin an extraordinary run of #1 pop hits that year, and the Jackson Five (featuring eleven-year-old Michael Jackson), who would do the same at the end of the decade. The decade opened with an urban folk revival that provided the backdrop for the sudden celebrity of Joan Baez, followed by Bob Dylan, whose sophisticated songwriting cast a long shadow in all directions. James Brown’s star would rise in the first half of the 1960s, matched by Aretha Franklin in the second half. Independent producers, girl groups, surf rock, and southern soul round out the picture.

All this took place in conversation with the increasingly urgent civil rights movement, fear of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union (weapons testing resumed in Nevada in September 1961 after the USSR broke a three-year worldwide moratorium), and gradual awareness that the United States was surreptitiously entering into what would be one of the most controversial wars in its history, in Vietnam. The assassination of President Kennedy in November 1963 added further distress to unsettling, yet economically abundant, times. A youth counterculture would gel by mid-decade, setting the terms of youth engagement with authority for many decades, deeply entwined in the new styles of rock and soul.

INDEPENDENT PRODUCERS, THE BRILL BUILDING, AND TEEN IDOLS

One of the major developments that took shape in the years between Elvis and the Beatles (late 1950s–early 1960s) was the surge of pop songs associated with independent songwriters and producers working in Midtown Manhattan.¹ The Brill Building, located at 1619 Broadway (at Forty-Ninth Street), was part of a small network of buildings on Broadway between Forty-Ninth and Fifty-Third Streets, including 1650 Broadway (at Fifty-First Street, home to Aldon Music), which housed offices for songwriters, publishers, arrangers, producers, talent agencies, and record labels. The Brill Building gave its name to a genre, which kept the focus on the single pop song that could be shopped around to different labels and artists. It was the major music-production center in New York City in the late 1950s and 1960s wherein songwriters would work during the day and pitch their product to a publisher, record label, and talent agent (who would supply the artists) and even record a demo (using in-house arrangers) all in one place. Production values were generally high.

The Brill Building gave rise to the independent producer, not attached to any single record label. The most well known of the early independent record producers were Jerry Leiber (1933–2011, from Baltimore) and Mike Stoller (1933–, from Long Island, New York), who met as teens in Los Angeles in 1950 and began writing songs together. Their first hit was in 1953, “Hound Dog,” sung by Big Mama Thornton (and later covered by Elvis). Atlantic Records hired them, and they wrote and produced many hits for the Drifters and the Coasters. They moved to New York City about 1957 and about 1961 set up an office in the Brill Building. The role of the producer can be heard to good effect in Leiber and Stoller’s arrangement of Ben E. King’s 1960 “Stand by Me”: the sparse opening gives way to a subtle and steady buildup of instrumental forces that dramatically highlight King’s voice (see figure 24).

About 1960 Phil Spector (1939–, from Bronx, New York) apprenticed with Leiber and Stoller before moving out on his own to become one of the most important producers of the early and mid-1960s. Spector set up his own record label (Philles) and primarily recorded in Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, where he created his trademark “wall of sound,” fully saturating his productions. The group of LA studio musicians that Spector (and many others, including the Beach Boys and the Byrds) employed were known as the Wrecking Crew, including conductor-arranger Jack Nitzsche, drummers Hal Blaine and Earl Palmer, bassist Carol Kaye, guitarists Glen Campbell and Tommy Tedesco, and pianist Leon Russell. The Wrecking Crew was the house band for the T.A.M.I. Show held in Santa Monica, California, in October 1964, one of the first live rock concert films (Binder 1964-v).

Brill Building songwriters typically worked in teams (composer and lyricist), writing in small offices.² Some of the more successful writers included Burt Bacharach and Hal David (“What the World Needs Now Is Love,” “I Say a Little Prayer”), whose writing was largely a vehicle for singer Dionne Warwick (niece of Cissy Houston, Whitney’s mother); Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman (“This Magic Moment,” “Save the Last Dance for Me”); Carole King and Gerry Goffin (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow,” “Up on the Roof”); Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil (“You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling,” “On Broadway”); and Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry (“Be My Baby,” “Da Doo Ron Ron”). These were some of the most memorable hits of the early and mid-1960s (see figure 25).³

The legacy of the Brill Building style was far-reaching (Inglis 2003). It provided an unprecedented voice for young woman songwriters: Carole King, Cynthia Weil, and Ellie Greenwich (part of three songwriting pairs) placed over two hundred songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart. It provided important vehicles for African American singers, and particularly women, to reach the top of the pop charts: the Shirelles were the first African American women group to reach #1 on Billboard’s pop chart, with Goffin and King’s “Will You Love Me Tomorrow”; and Dionne Warwick, fueled by the songwriting of Bacharach and David, had the most Top 40 hits of any woman in that era (until Aretha Franklin surpassed her in the 1970s). It provided the songwriting and production model for Motown. And it provided an important context for the rise of the Beatles: they had about a dozen Brill Building songs in their repertory in the early 1960s; they covered three Brill Building songs on their first album; and Lennon and McCartney have expressed great admiration for the songwriting team of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

In the void left by the dissipation of the early waves of rock and roll by the late 1950s, a cohort of predominantly white male singers in their mid and late teens, projecting a cleaned-up wholesome version of rockabilly Elvis, helped define a brief post–rock and roll era (see figure 26). Many were Italian Americans from South Philadelphia (Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, and Fabian), New Jersey (Connie Francis, Frankie Valli), and New York City (Dion, Bobby Darin). Eight vocalists produced 174 Top 40 hits between 1957 and 1965. Those from Philadelphia (and the surrounding region) enjoyed exposure on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand television show, which was based there. Frankie Avalon, Ricky Nelson, Fabian, and Bobby Darin also had major careers starring in Hollywood teen films and TV shows. A related trend at the time was white male vocal groups, including Danny and the Juniors (“At the Hop,” 1957); Dion and the Belmonts (“A Teenager in Love,” 1959); and one of the most successful vocal groups of all time, the Four Seasons, led by Frankie Valli (“Sherry” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” 1962).⁴

GIRL GROUPS

In the late 1950s all-women vocal groups combining elements of R&B and rock and roll began to appear on the pop charts. Most were young, often starting their singing careers in high school. Primarily a northern urban African American phenomenon, early signs of this genre were the Bobbettes (from Harlem) in 1957 with “Mr. Lee” (pop #6) and the Chantels (from the Bronx) in 1958 with “Maybe” (pop #15). In 1960 the Shirelles (from Passaic, New Jersey) were the first group in this cohort to hit pop #1 (“Will You Love Me Tomorrow”). The Shirelles inaugurated a new era and had nine more Top 40 hits over the next three years. Their initial pop success was immediately followed by three all-women groups on the new Motown label: the Marvelettes (“Please Mr. Postman,” pop #1, 1961); Martha and the Vandellas (“Heat Wave,” pop #4, 1963); and the Supremes (“Where Did Our Love Go,” pop #1, 1964). The Supremes were the most commercially successful of the groups in this genre (and of any Motown artist) with twenty Top 10 hits through 1970 (see figure 27). Supremes lead vocalist Diana Ross went on to a major solo career beginning in 1970.

Motown’s girl groups were rivaled by two New York groups produced by Phil Spector, who recorded them at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, yielding eleven Top 40 hits between 1962 and 1964: the Crystals and the Ronettes (with lead-singer Ronnie Bennett). “Da Do Ron Ron” (pop #3, Crystals, featuring LaLa Brooks) and “Be My Baby” (pop #2, Ronettes), both released in the second half of 1963, were emblematic of Spector’s wall of sound. The Ronettes had a brief but meteoric celebrity, illustrating differences between how record labels invested in their artists. After “Be My Baby,” they had four Top 40 hits in 1964 (all Spector productions), none of which breached the Top 20, and that was it for them. They were hot in 1964, touring with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. The Shirelles had a slightly longer trajectory (all on the Scepter label): their Top 40 success lasted from 1960 to 1963, with twelve hits, five of which were in 1962. By contrast, the most successful of these groups, the Supremes, heavily supported by Motown, had twenty-nine Top 40 hits from 1963 to 1970 (twelve of which hit #1), with an average of four hits per year.

Some girl groups were associated with Brill Building writers, such as the Chiffons (from the Bronx), whose “One Fine Day” (written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin) hit #5 in 1963. The Shangri-Las (from Queens, New York) were one of the few white (and Jewish) groups in the genre, with “Leader of the Pack” (Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich) hitting #1 in 1964. Darlene Love, who sang with Bob B. Soxx and the Blue Jeans, the Blossoms, and surreptitiously with the Crystals (“He’s a Rebel”), had three solo songs in the pop charts in 1963, all Ellie Greenwich–Phil Spector productions. By the mid-1960s girl groups were a major presence on the musical landscape, with African American groups predominating.

O’Brien (2002: 68) has noted that three Brill Building husband-and-wife songwriting teams were the “nucleus of the girl-group industry” until Motown moved in: Carole King and Gerry Goffin, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, and Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry (see figure 25). She has succinctly summarized part of the significance of this moment in the early 1960s: “Women love telling stories—they read them to children at night, they relate them to girlfriends in the ladies’ room—the girl-group era is a gigantic narrative full of morality tales locked up like charms in a crystallized sound” (2002: 67).⁵

MOTOWN

In 1959 Detroit native Berry Gordy Jr. (1929–) founded the Tamla and then Motown record labels in his hometown. Several additional subsidiaries were folded into Motown, including Anna, Gordy, and Soul. Tamla had its first hits the following year with Barrett Strong’s “Money (That’s What I Want)” (pop #23) and the Miracles’ (featuring Smokey Robinson) “Shop Around” (pop #2). Gordy had initially entered the music business cowriting the hits “Reet Petite” (1957) and “Lonely Teardrops” (1958) for Jackie Wilson. In 1961 Motown had its first pop #1 hit with the Marvelettes’ “Please Mr. Postman.”

Berry Gordy and Motown, a predominantly black corporation, were known for their investment in their artists and full in-house production, including a recording studio (Hitsville U.S.A.); songwriters, producers, sales and promotion personnel; a choreographer (Cholly Atkins); charm and poise instructor (Maxine Powell); publishing company (Jobete); and a house band. That band was known as the Funk Brothers and featured Benny Benjamin (drums), James Jamerson (bass), Earl Van Dyke (piano), and Robert White (guitar), among many others, most of whom had a significant jazz background. Jamerson in particular is highly regarded as one of the most sensitive and creative bass players of his era. Motown began recording on eight tracks in 1964 (with the Supremes’ “Baby Love”), increasing the clarity and giving a more prominent role to Jamerson, whose bass had its own track.⁶

Gordy’s whole Motown operation consciously resembled the Detroit auto-plant assembly lines on which he worked. As Gordy has noted, “Every day I watched how a bare metal frame, rolling down the line would come off the other end, a spanking brand new car. What a great idea! Maybe, I could do the same thing with my music. Create a place where a kid off the street could walk in one door, an unknown, go through a process, and come out another door, a star” (Motown Museum 2019).

Motown songwriters included the teams of Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Eddie Holland (“Heat Wave,” “Baby I Need Your Loving,” “How Sweet It Is,” “You Can’t Hurry Love”) and Nickolas Ashford and Valerie Simpson (“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “Reach Out and Touch”); and individuals, including Smokey Robinson (“The Way You Do the Things You Do,” “My Guy,” “My Girl,” “Get Ready”) and Norman Whitfield (“Ain’t Too Proud to Beg,” “I Heard It through the Grapevine,” “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone”).

The Funk Brothers and their producers were largely responsible for the recognizable Motown sound. Animated by Jamerson’s prominent dynamic bass lines (e.g., “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”), tambourines or handclaps, and relatively sophisticated musical forms (that rarely drew on the blues), the Motown sound reflected an upwardly mobile, rather than down home southern, aesthetic. Although Motown singers could draw on deep gospel inflections (e.g., “Heat Wave”), their delivery was typically smoother (often complemented with orchestral strings by mid-decade) than that of singers coming out of the southern soul Stax and Fame studios.

Between 1960 and 1970 Motown had ten artists or groups with three or more pop Top 10 hits (see figure 27). A roster of about two dozen artists produced about a hundred pop Top 10 hits during this decade, making the label one of the most vital musical forces of its time. The most commercially successful artists and groups were the Supremes, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, and the Jackson Five, who had their first hit in 1969.

Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972 and in 1983 celebrated its twenty-fifth-year anniversary with a television special that reunited many artists and groups who had left the label, including Michael Jackson and the Jackson Five. Michael Jackson’s performance of “Billie Jean” was particularly iconic as he performed the moonwalk to a large national audience for the first time. While Gordy is widely respected as one of the most successful and visionary entrepreneurs in the music business with a label that has won exceptional and enduring critical acclaim, he has also been the target of lawsuits regarding improprieties with royalties by some Motown artists, including Barrett Strong, Mary Wells, Mary Wilson, and the songwriting team of Holland, Dozier, and Holland, who left the label in 1968.⁷

URBAN FOLK REVIVAL

In the late 1950s and early 1960s a second wave of an urban folk revival hit. The initial high point took place at the July 1963 Newport Folk Festival, with rousing renditions of “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “We Shall Overcome” at the end of Bob Dylan’s set, where he was joined by Joan Baez; the acoustic guitar and vocal trio Peter, Paul, and Mary; the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee) Freedom Singers; and Pete Seeger. The following month Dylan, Baez, and Peter, Paul, and Mary sang at the March on Washington before several hundred thousand people. When Dylan played an electric guitar set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, many saw this as the end of an era.

The first wave took place in the 1930s and 1940s with the arrival in Greenwich Village of Louisiana singer-guitarist Lead Belly in 1935, New England–bred Harvard dropout Pete Seeger in the late 1930s, and Oklahoma singer-songwriter-guitarist Woody Guthrie in 1940. Seeger apprenticed with Guthrie and formed the Almanac Singers, recording together in 1941. Guthrie, who wrote “This Land Is Your Land” within weeks of arriving in New York City in early 1940, would suffer from a debilitating disease that would put him out of commission by the early 1950s and in hospital care for much of the rest of his life (he died in 1967). Seeger formed the Weavers in 1949, and the following year they became the first folk group to have major commercial success, hitting #1 on the pop charts in the summer with “Goodnight Irene” (the flip-side “Tzena Tzena” hit #2 at the time).

That same summer of 1950, however, a right-wing organization issued the publication Red Channels, which named 151 people in the media (including Seeger and other musicians and actors) and listed their alleged communist sympathies (including membership in peace and other democratic organizations). This contributed to a wave of anticommunist paranoia that was earlier exacerbated in 1947 with the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating alleged communist infiltration in Hollywood, questioning the loyalty of actors, directors, and screenwriters. The blacklists that ensued denied employment in the entertainment industry, typically on the basis of being associated with progressive organizations that were fully legal.

Just as quickly as the Weavers had risen to stardom, so nightclubs and organizations were afraid to hire them for fear of a backlash. Folk music, which had strong pro-union and socialist leanings, was driven underground during this era, the high (or low) point of which were hearings led by Senator Joseph McCarthy in 1953–54. Pete Seeger was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 and lectured his inquisitors about questioning his loyalty. He was indicted for contempt of Congress in 1957, convicted in 1961, and sentenced to ten one-year terms in prison (one for each question he did not answer) to be served concurrently, but in 1962 the conviction was overturned. In December 1954 the Senate had voted to censure Senator McCarthy.

The release of the six-LP set Anthology of American Folk Music (edited by Harry Smith) on the Folkways label in 1952 was a major event in the reemergence of folk music later in the decade. Consisting of reissues of recordings of a diverse range of American music from 1927 to 1932 (blues, white and black gospel, jug bands, old-time fiddle), the Anthology provided a blueprint for the generation growing up in the 1950s.

The second wave of the urban folk revival was spurred on in part by the Kingston Trio, a clean-cut collegiate group who enjoyed a six-month run at the Purple Onion in San Francisco in the second half of 1957. “Tom Dooley,” a single from their first album, hit #1 on the pop charts in the summer of 1958, leading the album into the #1 slot. Their next four albums hit #1.

The key moment, however, was eighteen-year-old Joan Baez (1941–) guest singing with Bob Gibson at the first Newport Folk Festival in 1959. She represented a new generation of singers who drew on a diversity of folk material and sang in their own intimate interpretive voices. Baez quickly gained a recording contract with the independent downtown New York–based Vanguard label (turning down an offer from Columbia), hitting the Top 40 with ten of the twelve albums she released in the 1960s (four were in the Top 10). A Time magazine cover story on Baez in fall 1962 announced that the folk revival had swept the nation. She was the first folksinger star of this generation and introduced Bob Dylan (1941–) to her large audiences following the 1963 Newport Folk Festival. Dylan emerged as a star at that festival. Peter, Paul, and Mary had just given Dylan his first pop Top 10 chart appearance with their recording of “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which had become something of an anthem for the times. Within a few months they would do it again with Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice” (see figures 28 and 29).