A rock-and-roll revolution

A strong argument might be made that the decade of the 1960s saw more innovation and transformation across the broad spectrum of popular music in western civilization than did any other decade either before or after all the way up to the present, at least within the history of recorded music.

Consider that the 1960s began as basically an extension of the 1950s (musically anyway), with the rhythm and blues and especially the Chuck Berry-style three-chord, 12-bar rock-and-roll that continued to permeate pop-rock sounds well into the ‘60s and even much later, which helped shape many of the song arrangements by groups like the Beach Boys and other guitar-dominant rock groups of the period.

The pop charts were also peppered with love ballads and familiar-sounding melodic tunes structurally and harmonically reminiscent of the previous decade. “The Rhythm of the Rain” by The Cascades from 1962, the Paris Sisters’ “I Love How You Love Me” from 1961, and “Popsicles and Icicles” by the Murmaids from 1963 could each be perceived as an example of this.

Additionally, the careers of many recording artists who rose to fame in the 1950s like Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, The Everly Brothers, Dion DiMucci, Bobby Darin, Sam Cooke, Paul Anka, Roy Orbison and others continued on well after the final days of the fifties.

This spillover of the music styles from the ‘50s into the early ‘60s appears to have persisted until the pivotal year of 1964 when the music industry began to forever change in a very big way. The sounds heard over the airwaves from 1960 to 1963 – in that brief period commonly referred to on this side of the Atlantic as the “pre-Beatles ‘60s” - likely would not have sounded terribly out of place were any of them to have debuted instead in say, 1958 or even a few years earlier. However, by the end of 1968 all sorts of experimental and psychedelic sounds, non-traditional chord progressions and even progressive hard rock music in the flavor of Iron Butterfly’s rock classic, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” had already emerged.

Some would argue that it was actually the decade of the ‘50s that was witness to the greatest departure from established musical norms with the arrival of the rock-and-roll craze in the middle of it, which we all know dramatically changed popular music forever and influenced the changes in music that came later. And it is a common claim, though I imagine few would dispute that the music transformation of the ‘60s happened on an unprecedented scale.

There is a sense that the vast majority of the music that appealed to America’s youth circa 1969 (like much of the material performed at the famous Woodstock concert, for example) had very little resemblance at all stylistically to the more structured and predictable songs popular prior to 1964.

The four “mop tops” from Liverpool claim their due credit for not only leading the wave of British rock bands and their music that poured into the states beginning in 1964 — the so-called “British invasion” — but also for serving as a catalyst of a movement that pushed the boundaries of popular music wide open. As the Beatles expanded their own sounds and evolved musically throughout the second half of the decade, so their influence as we all know also moved the standards of pop music. But even as instrumental as The Beatles obviously were to the changes in mainstream music, we can see there is much more to this story.

If there were any particular style of music we could characterize as the signature sound of the 1960s, whatever it might be for one music listener would likely not represent the same for another because we all perceive things so differently, and also because there were so many diverse styles either originating in or rising in popularity within that span of 10 years.

It would be impossible to pin down and define any single musical form representative of this period that gave us the folk music of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan, the soul music from Motown Records, the funk genre created by James Brown, the surf and hot rod car-themed music popularized by the Beach Boys and other California coastal groups, the bubblegum music associated with Tommy Roe or the Ohio Express, the famous “Wall of Sound” developed by record producer Phil Spector, or the guitar-dominated, heavy blues-rock sounds of Jimi Hendrix, in addition to that whole British invasion phenomenon already mentioned, among others. But it’s probably safe to say there is actually a certain range of sounds that will always be easily recognized as belonging to the ‘60s.

Fifty-plus years later we often think of the 1960s in the context of that era’s cultural revolution and the civil rights movement, or the widespread experimentation with mind-altering drugs and the long hairstyles, America’s controversial involvement in the Vietnam War, or the assassination of President Kennedy and of his brother Bobby five years later. No doubt these events influenced the popular music of the time.

Perhaps the music legacy of the ‘60s more than anything else belongs to the songwriters who dreamed up those melodies, to the word smiths who penned those lyrics, to the musicians who composed those arrangements and recorded those songs.

We don’t always think of the writers when we hear those songs. It is true that a handful of them like John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Carole King, Neil Diamond, or even Paul Simon from the Simon & Garfunkel duo became just as well-known as prolific songwriters as they were singers and performers. But many others contributed a great deal as writers but never received quite the same level of recognition.

Singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan was one of those songwriters who helped shape the music of the era but relatively few outside the music industry have ever even heard of him.

Philip “Flip” Sloan was one of the founding members of the rock group, The Grass Roots, but he is remembered more for having written (or co-written with writing partner Steve Barri) some of the 1960s most iconic works. Some of the better known Sloan works are “Eve of Destruction,” which became a Billboard No.1 for Barry McGuire in 1965; “Let Me Be,” “I Get Out of Breath” and “You Baby” by The Turtles, “Secret Agent Man” by Johnny Rivers; “Where Were You When I Needed You?” by The Grass Roots; “A Must to Avoid” by Herman’s Hermits; “I Found A Girl” by Jan and Dean; and “Take Me For What I’m Worth” by The Searchers.

P.F. Sloan was also the subject and the title of a song by Jimmy Webb, who is probably best known as the writer of the 1967 hit “Up, Up and Away” by the 5th Dimension.

Another mostly behind-the-scenes creative force in the popular music of this period was Barry Mann. As a singer, Mann is best known for his 1961 doo-wop hit, “Who Put the Bomp,” which he co-wrote with songwriter Gerry Goffin. Goffin was songwriting legend Carole King’s husband and songwriting partner at the time.

As part of the songwriting partnership with his wife Cynthia Weil (and occasionally with record producer Phil Spector and a few others), Barry Mann co-wrote a long list of popular songs of the era, including the previously mentioned “I Love How You Love Me” recorded by the Paris Sisters; “Uptown” by the Crystals; “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by the Animals; “On Broadway” by The Drifters; “Kicks” and “Hungry” by Paul Revere and the Raiders; “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” and “You’re My Soul and Inspiration” by the Righteous Brothers; “Love is Only Sleeping” and “Shades of Gray” by The Monkees; “Blame It on the Bossa Nova” by Eydie Gormé; “Walking in the Rain” by The Ronettes; “Only in America” by Jay and the Americans; and many more than we have room to list here.

Certainly every decade has had its own unique music new to its time, but the creative explosion of the 1960s will always be remembered for the great variation of sounds produced and for the rampant experimentation and the breaking out of traditional boundaries that occurred within the music industry then.