1965: The Most Revolutionary Year in Music by Andrew Grant Jackson

Author:Andrew Grant Jackson [Jackson, Andrew Grant]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781466864979
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2015-02-02T22:00:00+00:00

IV

AUTUMN

17

Next Day You Turn Around and It’s Fall

Frank Sinatra begins his comeback with September of My Years, the Beatles’ “Yesterday” hits No. 1 on October 9 and becomes the most covered song of the decade, and the Rolling Stones rush to record their own song with strings on October 26.

Frank Sinatra, a.k.a. the Chairman of the Board, was trying to figure out how to push his way back into “Beatle land.” At the moment, he was firmly ensconced in easy listening, which was as much its own alternate dimension as country.

In the 1950s, many radio stations wanted to play popular songs without the rock beat. Billboard started listing such songs on a chart separate from pop, R&B, and country. It changed the name a number of times (pop-standard singles, middle-road singles) until finally settling on easy listening in 1965.1 It became the most popular FM format nationwide (rebranded “adult contemporary” in 1979). Like Muzak and elevator music, it was safe for doctors’ offices and supermarkets, generally the modern version of big band music.

Nat King Cole, who passed away in February, was one of easy listening’s mainstays. Sinatra gave Tony Bennett a huge boost when he told Life that Bennett was the best singer in the business. Bennett’s version of “The Shadow of Your Smile” beat out “Yesterday,” Sinatra’s “September of My Years,” and “King of the Road” for Grammy Song of the Year. The song was the theme to Liz Taylor’s movie about Big Sur bohemians, called The Sandpiper, and won the Oscar for Best Original Song as well. Everybody in easy listening covered it: Barbra Streisand, Shirley “Goldfinger” Bassey, Perry Como, Andy Williams (who had the top-rated NBC variety show), Herb Alpert, Trini Lopez, Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, and even Marvin Gaye, his desire to be an old-school crooner still going strong.

The Righteous Brothers and Phil Spector had returned in July with “Unchained Melody.” Another group of “brothers” with resounding baritones—the Walker Brothers—scored in August with “Make It Easy on Yourself,” a track written by the easy listening kings Burt Bacharach (music) and Hal David (lyrics), a powerhouse team from the Brill Building. Other Bacharach-David hits included Jackie DeShannon’s “What the World Needs Now Is Love,” Manfred Mann’s “My Little Red Book” (covered by Love), and Tom Jones’s “It’s Not Unusual” and “What’s New Pussycat?”

The most indelible easy listening image of the year was the album jacket of Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass’s Whipped Cream & Other Delights, featuring model Dolores Erickson. She was three months pregnant when they photographed her, and was no doubt responsible for many of the six million copies sold. (She was actually covered in shaving cream, because it didn’t melt under the lights.) “Sorry, we can’t play the cover for you,” Alpert would tell audiences. The album’s instrumental version of “A Taste of Honey” made it to No. 7 and won four Grammys, including Record of the Year (which was different from Song of the Year).

Sinatra’s Rat Pack itself was the embodiment of

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