Acclaimed Music Top 40 Songs from 1964 poll

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Saturday, April 4, 1964: Beatles on Billboard charts:

http://d817ypd61vbww.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/tile/image/4Apr1964_Highlight_sm.jpg

The band holds the top five positions on Billboard magazine's Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending April 4. Altogether, 12 Beatles songs are in the Hot 100. (The following week, 14 songs would make the list.) That same week, The Beatles also held the top two spots on Billboard’s albums chart with Meet The Beatles! and Introducing…The Beatles. These U.S. chart records have never been broken!

Poll Results

OptionVotes
3 42 Sam Cooke - A Change Is Gonna Come 7
17 635 The Zombies - She's Not There 5
34 1990 Jacques Brel - Amsterdam 5
9 159 The Beach Boys - Don't Worry Baby 3
31 1508 The Beatles - Eight Days a Week 3
27 1181 Petula Clark - Downtown 2
14 346 The Beach Boys - I Get Around 2
2 37 The Kinks - You Really Got Me 2
12 275 The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go 2
15 397 The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night 2
8 146 Dionne Warwick - Walk On By 2
33 1974 Chuck Berry - No Particular Place to Go 1
25 1068 Millie - My Boy Lollipop 1
32 1564 The Kinks - All Day and All of the Night 1
19 705 The Supremes - Baby Love 1
37 2256 The Beatles - I Feel Fine 1
23 925 The Drifters - Under the Boardwalk 1
11 232 The Shangri-La's - Leader of the Pack 1
4 61 Martha and The Vandellas - Dancing in the Street 1
5 87 The Animals - House of the Rising Sun 1
13 300 Bob Dylan - The Times They Are A-Changin' 1
6 123 The Temptations - My Girl 1
38 2360 The Shangri-La's - Give Him a Great Big Kiss 0
41 2712 The Rolling Stones - Time Is on My Side 0
40 2554 Chuck Berry - Promised Land 0
39 2441 The Ronettes - Walking in the Rain 0
35 2204 The Rolling Stones - It's All Over Now 0
36 2208 Bob Dylan - The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll 0
30 1454 The Beach Boys - Fun, Fun, Fun 0
29 1290 The Dixie Cups - Chapel of Love 0
10 164 Them - Gloria 0
1 32 The Righteous Brothers - You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' 0
16 429 Stan Getz and Astrud Gilberto - The Girl from Ipanema 0
18 697 Sam Cooke - Shake 0
20 833 Mary Wells - My Guy 0
21 923 The Searchers - Needles and Pins 0
22 924 The Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love 0
24 934 The Shangri-La's - Remember (Walkin' in the Sand) 0
26 1098 Four Tops - Baby I Need Your Loving 0
28 1254 Solomon Burke - Everybody Needs Somebody to Love 0
7 129 Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman 0


Bee OK, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:37 (nine years ago) link

have no idea how number 41 or the Rolling Stones got in there, maybe a prelude of things to come?

Bee OK, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:38 (nine years ago) link

You Really Got Me

kornrulez6969, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:42 (nine years ago) link

Not possible. Voting requires just being arbitrary at this point

Οὖτις, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:45 (nine years ago) link

This one is too hard.

jmm, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:53 (nine years ago) link

Brel, I guess. I lingered for a second on all three Shangri-Las songs.

jmm, Thursday, 11 December 2014 02:53 (nine years ago) link

A Change Is Gonna Come

EZ Snappin, Thursday, 11 December 2014 03:06 (nine years ago) link

Yeah, this is super difficult, an insane amount of classics here. I ended up voting for 'She's Not There' by The Zombies, because The Zombies were a fucking superb band that deserved as much success as any massive act of the era.

Welcome To (Turrican), Thursday, 11 December 2014 03:39 (nine years ago) link

Had to go with "A Change Is Gonna Come."

Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 11 December 2014 04:45 (nine years ago) link

me too: she's not there

I'm sort of surprised that the Righteous Brothers single would be the 'most acclaimed' in this company

Vic Perry, Thursday, 11 December 2014 04:50 (nine years ago) link

she's not there.

billstevejim, Thursday, 11 December 2014 06:23 (nine years ago) link

Wow, I thought 64 was mostly about the Beatles but this is an incredible list. Hardly a weak song here (Needles & Pins, I'm looking at you). I'm down to Walk On By, Gloria, Under The Boardwalk, and Oh, Pretty Woman. Will have to think about it some more.

that's not my post, Thursday, 11 December 2014 06:40 (nine years ago) link

I'm basically numb to all of these at this point. Eight Days a Week least so

g simmel, Thursday, 11 December 2014 06:41 (nine years ago) link

Kinda love "My Boy Lollipop". Some of these are stone classics and don't need my vote. I might go with "Give Him A Great Big Kiss".

Monarch of the Murder Chair (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:02 (nine years ago) link

Why does it look off?

Mark G, Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:34 (nine years ago) link

i always include those hotlinks in the original thread and they are not there so it looks different to me, like something was off.

Bee OK, Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:39 (nine years ago) link

Gotcha.

It's fine, though

Mark G, Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:41 (nine years ago) link

never really explained this either, original pictures:

albums = US movies with box office numbers.

songs = events, usually from an American view.

Bee OK, Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:47 (nine years ago) link

What are the numbers ?

Mark G, Thursday, 11 December 2014 07:59 (nine years ago) link

Acclaimed Music Top 25 Albums from 1964 poll

for example:

Number 17 movie from 1964. A Hard Day's Night United Artists The Beatles $12,299,668

$12 million is how much this movie made in the US according to Wikipedia.

Bee OK, Thursday, 11 December 2014 08:06 (nine years ago) link

dude martha and the vandellas really had some jams

j. winters (josh), Thursday, 11 December 2014 08:19 (nine years ago) link

anyway it's either between them and "where did our love go." the harmonies in the latter will never stop sounding so divine.

j. winters (josh), Thursday, 11 December 2014 08:21 (nine years ago) link

As in 32 the righteous brothers

Mark G, Thursday, 11 December 2014 09:15 (nine years ago) link

Just a snapshot--there are a whole bunch of songs on here I would have ranked top two or three at some point:

1. "Eight Days a Week"
2. "Downtown"
3. "Walk on By"
4. "It's All Over Now"
5. "Promised Land"

Song I've never heard: "Amsterdam"

clemenza, Thursday, 11 December 2014 13:02 (nine years ago) link

It's marvelous, you should hear it.

jmm, Thursday, 11 December 2014 17:12 (nine years ago) link

I can't help but wonder how some of these songs would sound if decades of overplay on radio and overuse in movies and commercials hadn't leeched so much of the life from them. Discovering early-'60s pop that hasn't suffered those ravages has been revelatory.

Monarch of the Murder Chair (Old Lunch), Thursday, 11 December 2014 17:15 (nine years ago) link

"The Girl from Ipanema" is the worst in that regard. I like it a lot, especially now that I've heard more from those artists and have a bit of context for bossa nova, but it took a while to hear it as a song and not as stock film music.

jmm, Thursday, 11 December 2014 17:29 (nine years ago) link

(xpost) The problem I have every time I vote in one of these polls. Should I weight how I've felt about a song over time, or just vote based on right here, right now? I always go with the latter. (I should have added "Dancing in the Street" to my list above, though.)

clemenza, Thursday, 11 December 2014 17:38 (nine years ago) link

As in 32 the righteous brothers

lol

everything is from: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net

so they do year, decade and also all-time rankings. when i copy the list it has the year ranking and then the all-time rank. at first i started to edited out the all-time ranking but that took too much time so now i just leave it in. so the 32 is actually the all-time ranking.

Bee OK, Friday, 12 December 2014 02:16 (nine years ago) link

i'm laughing at myself for not figuring out what you meant.

i agree, this list is almost impossible.

Bee OK, Friday, 12 December 2014 02:17 (nine years ago) link

Eight days a week is not enough to show I care
And she says "Don't worry baby"
and when she passes, each man she passes goes Aaah!
Girl, you really got me goin' you really got me
All day and all of the night

meisenfek, Friday, 12 December 2014 20:32 (nine years ago) link

This is a tough one, but not impossible. "Walk On By" just ahead of "I Feel Fine," and a 39-way tie for 3rd.

WilliamC, Friday, 12 December 2014 20:44 (nine years ago) link

A lot of these songs are so classic it's incredible to think that a lot of them are 50 years old now. It's made me take a look at what was happening 50 years prior to these songs being released...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_in_music

Welcome To (Turrican), Friday, 12 December 2014 22:30 (nine years ago) link

I mean, christ, 1964... all of this music is now basically antique stuff!

Welcome To (Turrican), Friday, 12 December 2014 22:33 (nine years ago) link

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaZ9HTH6qPs

death in Skegness (seandalai), Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:24 (nine years ago) link

I read this great essay by Glenn Gould explaining why Petula Clarks music is genious, while The Beatles is overrated pap. Looking back on that... voted for Clark anyway.

Frederik B, Saturday, 13 December 2014 00:35 (nine years ago) link

18 697 Sam Cooke - Shake

Funny, this was a top ten hit, but I don't remember hearing it much or at all during my years of listening to oldies radio and such. I know the Otis Redding version better.

timellison, Saturday, 13 December 2014 04:02 (nine years ago) link

Voting "My Girl" over, gosh, "Don't Worry Baby" and "I Feel Fine" and lots of others.

timellison, Saturday, 13 December 2014 04:27 (nine years ago) link

the best part of that Top 100 list is that there is a "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" section." there was so much good music coming out that they needed to add an extra 35 slots.

Bee OK, Saturday, 13 December 2014 19:36 (nine years ago) link

oh, and that "Amsterdam" clip is fucking amazing. thanks seandalai!

Bee OK, Saturday, 13 December 2014 19:38 (nine years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Monday, 15 December 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link

1. House of the Rising Sun
2. All Day and All of the Night
3. Gloria
4. My Girl
5. She's Not There

Bee OK, Monday, 15 December 2014 16:35 (nine years ago) link

"Don't Worry Baby" is such an amazing song - it's all about car racing, and yet it's so not about car racing. It pains me I can't vote for it.

Lee626, Monday, 15 December 2014 18:26 (nine years ago) link

Don't worry, I gotcha covered.

Mr. Bojangus (Old Lunch), Monday, 15 December 2014 18:44 (nine years ago) link

Re: "antique stuff" just think: if ilx had existed in 1964 they would have been polling the top songs of 1914 at this point.

hardcore dilettante, Monday, 15 December 2014 20:19 (nine years ago) link

Somebody would have been stabbing for James Reese Europe.

hardcore dilettante, Monday, 15 December 2014 20:20 (nine years ago) link

*stanning, stupid autocorrect.

hardcore dilettante, Monday, 15 December 2014 20:21 (nine years ago) link

Stabbing was a fairly common sign of critical approval in '64 IIRC.

Mr. Bojangus (Old Lunch), Monday, 15 December 2014 20:29 (nine years ago) link

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 00:01 (nine years ago) link

you've lost that most acclaimed feelin', whoa that most acclaimed feelin', bring back that most acclaimed feelin' now it's gone gone gone, whoa-oh-oh

Vic Perry, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 01:56 (nine years ago) link

Acclaim Is Gonna Come

jmm, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 02:17 (nine years ago) link

"A Change is Gonna Come" may be the most absurdly great song ever relegated to the B side of a single

Lee626, Tuesday, 16 December 2014 04:57 (nine years ago) link


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