Why 1960s music was the greatest

This morning in Highlights of the News, I did a parody of the theme song to the Beverly Hillbillies. Many readers liked it. We are all familiar with the song even though no one under 50 was alive when the show was on the air on CBS.

We like the song because it is not too serious but it tells the story. The same applies to the theme songs to Gilligan's Island, Green Acres, and the Brady Bunch. All 4 series began in the 1960s but their musical styles are different: bluegrass, sailor song, country, and pop.

They represent well the music of the 1960s. It was a music era that befit a great nation. The music was played on cumbersome instruments, recorded on scratchy plastic, broadcast by poor quality AM radio, and heard on tiny transistor radio that could be heard as far away as, oh, two feet.

We lived in the Neanderthal age of technology.

And the music was great because musicians competed across genres. A look at the No. 1 hits in 1964 shows how it worked.

Yes, the Beatles dominated the charts. There was one week where they held all the top five spots one week. 

But the year began with Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again" as the No. 1 song for the first 4 weeks.

Then came the Beatles. "I Want to Hold Your Hand," "She Loves You," and "Can't Buy Me Love" held the top spot over the next 14 weeks.

Who broke the hold?

Satchmo.

At 62, a jazz trumpet player sang a Broadway showtune -- "Hello Dolly" -- and single-handedly stopped the British Invasion.

Motown took over the next week with "My Guy" by Mary Wells. (Smokey Robinson wrote it and "My Girl.")

The Beatles back two weeks later with "Love Me Do."

The hits kept coming. The Dixie Cups, Peter and Gordon, The Beach Boys, The Four Seasons, The Beatles (again) and Dean Martin followed. Most of the No. 1 songs were rock, but on December 5 the song "Ringo" was a No. 1 bonanza for Lorne Greene.

Musicians had to bring their A game in the 1960s as they were competing for radio time with everyone in every genre. The rock stations were OK with playing songs outside that lane. This exposed listeners of other kinds of music.

Part of this reflected television. Variety shows were popular and cheap to produce back then. And they exposed people to a variety of songs.

Ray Charles cut two country and western albums.

And Ed Sullivan showcased all sorts of music. You had to be good or go home.

But mainly, the radio played whatever was the most popular. And that went across all sorts of music.

The Billboard 100's No. 1 list began the decade with Marty Robbins singing "El Paso," and ended with Diana Ross & the Supremes singing "Someday We'll Be Together."

Yes we will.

In 1969, we had four weeks of the Rolling Stones' "Honky Tonk Women" at No. 1, followed by four weeks of The Archies' "Sugar, Sugar." I liked both songs. In that summer of Woodstock, Henry Mancini held down the top spot for two weeks.

But FM radio came along. 3 minute tunes went the way of penny candy. We stopped listening to music outside our lane. MTV revitalized rock music in the 1980s. But "Real World" came along and MTV found it could make more money by ditching music videos.

Today, SiriusXM gives you hundreds of channels to choose from. The quality of car radio today exceeds anything available in a home in the 1960s at any price. 

I am glad we did not have this when I was growing up.