What Are You Listening To? [2]

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Formula for a hit record in 1961......

World-famous pop composers Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the song "Blue Moon" in 1934. There were two hit recordings of it, one by Mel Torme and one by Billy Eckstine. It was a slow and sweet ballad, a Tin Pan Alley classic; your great-grandparents probably listened to it.

Then, in 1961, the Marcels did their "doo-wop" version which became one of the all-time big hits for the next generation. (Even the Beatles liked it.) The Marcels turned the song into a frantic "roller-coaster ride" by adding a solid wall of nonstop background vocals consisting of the title words "Blue" and "Moon" repeated many times along with a dizzying assortment of nonsense syllables such as

"Ahhh" and "Ohhh"
"Dip-di-dip-di-dip"
"Mm-mm-di-dip-mm-mm-di-dip"
"A-dang-a-dang-dang-a-ding-a-dong-ding"
"Bom-pa-pa-pom-pa-pom-pa-pom-pom"

By my actual count, there were a total of 402 nonsense syllables used, but only 192 actual words, of which 105 were the two title words.

So the words other than "Blue" and "Moon" made up only 15 percent of this total of 594 "song elements"; and two-thirds of the total was nonsense sounds. And they crammed all of that into just two-and-a-quarter minutes, so you barely have time to catch your breath before the song is over. That was the way to have a hit record in 1961!

[video=youtube;qu4OkmzqK2E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu4OkmzqK2E[/video]
 
Would anyone ban this today?

To show how much times have changed:

This Carole King song has countless recordings and has become a pop classic. But the original (below) was by a group of black teenage girls, and the "older generation" at that time (1960) was still so paranoid about all "younger generation" music that the song was considered "obscene" and banned by some radio stations (though that didn't stop it from becoming the first-ever "number 1" girl-group hit).

The song probably wouldn't have bothered the old folks at all if recorded by one of their own adult singers. For many years already, the old Tin Pan Alley composers had given them very beautiful and literary songs about sex, and this one was no more sexual than many of those were.

[video=youtube;9AucXslg6HU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AucXslg6HU[/video]
 
The slower Carol King version has to be classed as the original - as she actually Co-wrote the song, the Shirelles version was re-arranged at a faster tempo and strings added to make the song sound "less Country" apparently ;)
 
[video=youtube;ab-ZNU76UDE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab-ZNU76UDE[/video]

A Guy
 
God I love this band!
They prove that girls can do metalcore with the best rock-n-roll-971-long-hair.gif

[video=youtube;HWLr2WVhIp8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWLr2WVhIp8[/video]

[video=youtube;KYDEebicxLA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYDEebicxLA[/video]
 
Another "psychedelic" classic from the 60's.
The Amboy Dukes: "Journey to the Center of the Mind"

[video=youtube;jW2_T6G4P6U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW2_T6G4P6U[/video]
 
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