The 100 Most Influential Singles of the 1960s. [via mefi projects] [more inside]
posted by item on Mar 18, 2013 - 66 comments

Quincy Jones sat in the Tenafly, New Jersey den of 16-year-old vocal student Lesley Gore, playing demo after demo, looking for the right song to cut for her first record. Out of over 200 tapes, Jones and Gore had moved only one to the "maybe" pile, and so that song, It's My Party, was recorded on March 30, 1963 in a Manhattan studio. After the session Mercury president Irving Green warned Gore not to get her hopes up, but Gore gratefully told him that it had been a great experience anyway, and it was okay if he didn't want to release it. However, later that evening Jones learned that Phil Spector had just recorded "It's My Party" for The Crystals, so Jones rushed back to the studio to press 100 test copies of the single and immediately mailed them to key radio stations across the country. [more inside]
posted by swift on Sep 13, 2011 - 69 comments

Endless Noise turns Beyonce's Single Ladies into a tribute to the girl groups of Motown.
posted by The Whelk on Jun 13, 2011 - 25 comments

"What happened was that Abner Spector was an electronics nut. He took the girls in the studio on a Friday, and they didn't get out of there until everybody was on the track. Anybody that came in the studio that week, he would put them on. Originally, I think he had about 20 voices on 'Sally.'" The cost of the project alone, Richardson figured was over $60,000..." - Sally, Go Round The Roses (alt) was the first (and only) hit for the Jaynettes in 1963 and a unique and hypnotic studio creation. It's been called "a subtle and transcendental epic in 45rpm form" and there is much speculation on its mysterious lyrics. It has been covered by Donna Summer. Great Society (with Grace Slick) . Fanny. Pentangle. ? And The Mysterians and others.
posted by The Whelk on May 6, 2010 - 16 comments

Music! - A 1968 documentary by the National Music Council of Great Britain, featuring folk singing, The Beatles, and even early electronic music produced by tape splicing. Part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.
posted by Artw on Mar 7, 2010 - 8 comments

60s Pop Friday! Ladies and Gentlemen, from Queens, NY, it's the Shangri-Las! Mostly known for their grandly melodramatic songs about teen love gone awry, they aren't all downers. They've been covered by bands from France to Japan.
posted by The Whelk on Jun 5, 2009 - 12 comments

Page after page of late 50s/early 60s pop posters, advertisements and more, designed by the studio of Lefor-Openo, which consisted of Marie-Claire Lefort and Marie-Francine Oppeneau. Via Papel Continuo
posted by iconomy on Jun 29, 2005 - 6 comments