With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

Rolling Back The Years With Mayhem – 1963 October 23, 2024

Filed under: Rolling Back The Years — justwilliam1959 @ 9:39 pm
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This is the fifth in what I hope will be a very long-running series, just like my long-running life, so far at least! I have decided to look at the most popular songs from every year that I have existed. There will be some artistic licence on my part as I will always seek to include at least a few of my favourites from each year. The format will be a top ten for each year and will cover the music and songs I grew up with, came of age with, and achieved my greatest success alongside music that comforted me in bad times. This fifth top ten goes back to the year that I turned 4 years old, 1963. I don’t remember actually hearing these songs back then, but I have listened to them many times over the years. I have once again focused on the UK charts. the Beatles make their first appearance in the series, debuting at the top of the pile with “Please Please Me”. As a special time travel gift I have added a bonus track, the best-selling US single of 1963, “Sugar Shack” by Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs. This is definitely my favourite Rolling Back The Years Top 10 so far. Please get on board the Time Machine now, it will be a rough journey so bring a sick bag or two! Check out the playlist below if you are too chicken to enter the Time Machine. The chart for 1964 will follow soon. The chart listing is below!

1 Please Please Me – The Beatles
2 Foot Tapper – The Shadows
3 Do You Want To Know A Secret? – Billy J Kramer & The Dakotas
4 Take These Chains From My Heart – Ray Charles
5 Then He Kissed Me – The Crystals
6 Can’t Get Used To Losing You – Andy Williams
7 Da Doo Ron Ron – The Crystals
8 Memphis Tennessee – Chuck Berry
9 I Only Want To Be With You – Dusty Springfield
10 Sweets For My Sweet – The Searchers

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“Where did my baby go? Who’s gonna mend my rainbow?” – Advent day 24 December 24, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:03 am
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Number 24This is it folks, we’re nearly there, it’s Christmas Eve and Santa has started his delivery schedule. I hope that none of you are on his naughty list! So let’s open the penultimate cardboard flap on the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem advent calendar shall we? It’s 24th December which means you’ll get two songs with the number 24 in their title. But today will be a little different from all my other advent posts this year as both come from the same artist. Who’d have thought that one artist would have two songs with 24 in the title? Well there is such an artist and his name is Gene Pitney.

Gene+Pitney+GeneThe first song from Gene today is one that I’m sure most of you know, it’s “24 Hours From Tulsa“. The tune was a number 5 hit in the UK in 1963, It reached number 17 in the US and also made the top 5 in Australia and number 6 in Canada. In my head I always thought that this song was a UK number one. But Mr Pitney didn’t top the UK chart until his duet with Marc Almond on “Something’s Gotten Hold of My Heart” in 1989. That was 28 years after his first UK hit. Burt Bacharach and Hal David wrote “24 Hours From Tulsa” and it has been covered by Dusty Springfield and Jay And The Americans to name but two.

pitneyThe second Gene Pitney song in today’s post is “24 Sycamore”. This was a European only release from 1973 when it reached number 34 in the UK chart. Pitney was also a successful songwriter and among the hits he wrote were; “Rubber Ball” (Bobby Vee), “He’s A Rebel” (The Crystals) and “Hello Mary Lou” (Ricky Nelson). Sadly Gene Pitney passed away in 2006 but he lives on through his music.