I Love No.1's - 1962

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Last week Debbie Harry & Her Blondie Band romped away into the lead with 47 ticks, making Heart Of Glass your favourite number one of 1979. Close behind were Trev "Buggles" Horn & Gary Numan with 44 and 41 ticks respectively, but poor old Lena Martell languished behind in last place with only 5.

Today we trudge back to the eve of Beatlemania when Elvis was still King and Cliff was still er, Queen. It's 1962!


[Poll #801432]

Comments

The Inventor of the Power Ballad?

[koganbot]

the rock ballad as such is derived from soul music and, in particular, from Ray Charles, whose gospel reading of a country song, "I Can't Stop Loving You" (1962), became the blueprint for generations of rock balladeers. Charles's emotional sincerity was marked by vocal roughness and hesitation (unlike the Italian balladeers), and, if his tempo was slow, it was nevertheless insistent.

Charles had a direct effect on such singers as Tom Jones and Joe Cocker (whose voice was soon featured regularly on film soundtracks, providing the closing credit uplift), but his most lasting influence was on lighter-toned singer-songwriters such as Elton John and Billy Joel, who drew also on rock's lyrical pretensions (and had a major impact on younger performers such as George Michael). An equivalent line of influence can be traced from female soul singers such as Dionne Warwick and Gladys Knight through Anita Baker and Whitney Houston to Mariah Carey and Céline Dion.
--Simon Frith, excerpted from his ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA entry on "pop ballad"