Who likes "Oldies"?
 

I really hate the term "Oldies" because it implies that the music is out of date. I say far from it. It's CLASSY! We should be promoting that music so kids can hear something other than how to kill, rob, and other ugly things in their music. I will have to admit some of the older music has it's violence, "Stagger Lee" for instance, BUT it doesn't glorify it the way the new stuff does. The lyrics say "Don't Stagger Lee!". It warns him not to do what he ends up doing in the song.

Anyway... Off my soapbox and onto the thread. List some of your favorite songs from 1979 and earlier. I'm looking for some new stuff to add to my iPod and I like some of the obscure stuff that you don't hear often. "Hard to find 45's" type of stuff. I'll start it off with a song or two I really like that you don't hear often on the so called "Oldies" stations:

Smoky Places by the Corsairs

Saturday Night at the Movies by the Drifters

Walk a Mile in My Shoes by Joe South

River Deep-Moutain High by Tina Turner

Give me some of yours. :)

Little GTO, Ronny and the Daytonas, I happened to be at the POCI nationals 2 years ago and they booked them there and I heard them perform it live.

Almost anything by the Beach Boys, I have seen them 3 times in concert with all the members of the Wilson family except Brian.

I co-own a record store and we classify Oldies as "Classic Rock". As I tell our customers "I may be an Oldie myself... but I'm still a Classic". I like your reference to "Hard To Find 45's" and I would guess that you know this was a series put out on CD several years ago, great stuff.
If you are not already aware and have a really good record store in your area look for anything on the Ripete label. Hard to get but worth the effort.
BTW: While Stagger Lee was popularized by Lloyd Price in the late 50s it is a song that has been around for much longer than that and has been covered by any number of artists. It is also one of my favorites.
We have a couple of Oldies radio stations in the area but they play the same dam# things all the time. If I hear "Wanderers" one more time I think I'll go crazy !!

Jim

I'm 38, but I've preferred 50s/60s Oldies to all other music since I was about 12-13. When I was a teen, we had two Oldies stations at the same time. That was awesome!

Motown (Diana Ross and the Supremes, especially), the surf and car sounds of Jan&Dean and the Beach Boys, and at random, Ricky Nelson, Elvis, and Roy Orbison are some of my favorites.

Since I've always held "Oldies" music in such high regard, that word means "greatness" to me. I hate it when some people/stations call 70s music "Oldies." That name should be reserved for 50s/60s music only.

Give me the music from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and the early 80s. There's too many favorites in those years to remember and list. Both Country and Rock.

Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, John Denver, Beach Boys

I listen to "oldies" everyday.... although our oldies station has started to filter in music from the early '80s... I guess they figure it qualifies as an oldie if its 30 yrs old. Its ok with me... prefer '70s and back to the '50s...just not too much "doo whop" stuff...
In the late 80s when i had my '60 Catalina 2dr post, i would drive around late on Saturday nights to listen to the Dusty Rhodes show...out of CHicago , i think. I'd put my antenna(AM radio, tube!) all the way up and could pick it up real good... nothing like oldies over a tube radio on AM... its like bein in a time warp... i miss that car and those times... Kids of today should be raised on that music... Real people with real talent made those recordings... no computers... you had to work hard back then... alot of people and and alot of today's music have all seemed to lose that concept...

Some songs bring me back to my 'coming of age" and the first number of years my wife and I were dating. I'm 54 and got my license in April 1975 and had a 1967 Acadian Sport Deluxe waiting at home for me. I too like the oddball stuff. Good memories come from Starbuck"Moonlight Feels Right", Paul McCartney's "My Love", Boz Scaggs "Lowdown", Jim Stafford, "Spiders and Snakes", or Dave Loggins "Please come to Boston", or Reunion "life is a rock" and I don't know how many times we sang along to Jimmy Buffett's "Come Monday" or Lobo's "Me and you and a dog named Boo".

hmmm The Beach Boys, Drifters, Jan & Dean, Leslie Gore, The Shangri Las, Jay & the Americans

Some great 1 hit wonders?

Wonderful Summer
Johnny Get Angry
The Mountains High
Jeeeez, there are so many

Getting into newer stuff

3 Dog Night
Creedence


Steve Miller
Go Gos
Alan Parsons
B 52s
Bananarama
These are just a few that come to mind for me

Good topic

I am sure this forum has a wide range of ages....rock and roll goes hand in hand with cars especially during the 1960s as several cars GTO Chevy 409 Little Cobra etc all had records associated with them.

One of the greatest inventions in recent times to my way of thinking is satilite radio. Prior to this the oldies station in my area besides wasting most time on commercials only went back to the 1960s.....

Some of the real good rock and roll came out in the mid to late 1950s and now you can hear ones that yu don;t often hear. I also like old country be surprised how some of the orginal rock and roll artist had country hits as well back then.

We all have our own music tastes but hearing it with no commercials is one of the greatest upgrades I think.

Speaking of Ronny and the Daytonas we actually had Ronny (John Buc Wilkins) come to one of our early 1990 GTO/Buick events.....ironically he never owned a GTO. He was in High School when he penned that song...his Mom had the connections as I think she was a song writer at the time.

They lived in or near Nashville......

[email protected]

Your oldies music puts me to sleep. Punk rock and metal rule! \m/

There are songs from the early 60's that I didn't care much for back then and still don't today; but when one of these songs comes on the radio now, I'm swept back in time to a whatever girl I was dating at that time and the car I was driving. Great memories tied to mediocre songs. Then there are the songs that I really liked that came out during my time in the service, but today these songs make me feel a little uneasy. The old tunes are pretty much a time warp to our past.

I agree, certain songs can put me right back somewhere in time...amazing thing, memory.
My preference is late 60's early 70's rock...the real stuff you used to only hear if you bought the albums or went to the concerts, not the "pop" music they used to play on the radio.

I can see we are of the same mind. :D Yes, I do know the "Hard To Find 45's" was a series, great stuff! I didn't realize that Stagger Lee went back that much farther. It doesn't surprise me though. There are a TON of songs from the '50's through the '70's and beyond that were remakes of songs dating back into the Jazz era and before. I listen to lots of music going back to the '20's and it always tickles me when I here something like "Linda" that Jan and Dean did in the early '60's and I find out it at least goes back 20yrs before that. Its alway fun to find out that there were a TON of people that did the same song too. The one most people remember was just the version that finally made number one on the POP charts normally. It shocks me to listen to these so called Classic Rock stations play what for most part were the top 1-5 hits that group had between 1960-1979, i.e. a group like The Rolling Stones. Then they skip songs that were the NUMBER ONE HIT of the YEAR! It's funny, I'm just old enough to have heard a lot of the music I like, thus I guess why I like it lol, played when it was new and I don't hear some of the songs played on the classic rock stations that I know were major hits of the day.

Oops... got on my soapbox again. :o

lol Funny thing is I've been to see Metallica twice and LOVED it and will go again the next chance I get! I went to the opening of the EMP and they had a TON of groups there. I've seen Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, The Red Hot Chilly Peppers, Kid Rock and many more live in concert. Totally appreciated all of them and their talent. I just like the early rock the best. I think the thing young people don't have a clue about is the VARIETY of music that was on the AM POP stations back in the '70's. When you tuned to your local POP station in the '70's you could hear anything from Roy Clark to the Rolling Stones to Carly Simon to Kiss to Neil Sedaka to Nazareth to Neil Diamond on the same station. You got an appreciation for a variety of music and there was no SIRUS or net to turn to so that you could listen to "The only thing I like to hear" station. I think it made for a more eclectic nation. It's easier to get a click going and limit yourself when you don't have to hear others interests and thoughts. Music expresses interests and thoughts.

I'm on my soapbox again... :D

Im 40....but I was raised on 50's and 60's rock. My music ranges from 50's thru new stuff. No country....just rock and metal. Some of my friends get the WTF look when they see or hear my playlists because of such a broad range of music.

Date line, Eugene, OR, 1969. I'm riding in the family car, a dove grey 1956 Ford Fairlane 4dr. My Mom is driving (24 at the time) my aunt is in the front seat (about 12) and me in the back (4yrs old). We are touring Eugene, new to the area, and flowing the "Tour Rout" through town. We enter the Oregon State campus on the tour rout and drive right into the middle of a Vietnam War riot! lol Those kids piled on the "Old Grey Ghost" and were pounding on the windows and yelling every obscenity in the book at my Mom as if she were "The Establishment" and all I remember were all these angry faces in the windows of the car mashed against ALL of the windows and my Mom up front just cooly idling through the mob as they spilled of the sides of the car. We turned the next corner and the same thing until we finally idled out of the mess. All of that great music brings back some VERY old childhood memories of a truly eclectic and turbulent time. My uncle went to Vietnam just after that. I remember him calling my Grandmothers little farm house from someplace in S.E. Asia in the middle of the night. I had the chicken pox and was staying at my Grandma's and she had a party line. Anyone remember party lines? lol He asked to talk to me and they drug me off the couch and he was drunk off his ass and there was a party going on in the background and all I got out of it was that he loved me and then a bunch of unintelligible stuff with the sounds of C.C.R. in the background. lol He doesn't even remember it. I do and all that music was part of it. Great stuff! :D

I know what you mean. I get the same look. My play list ranges from "Lonely Blue Boy" and "If I were a Carpenter" to "Hair of the Dog" and "Detroit Rock City" and beyond. lol The thing is we listened to all of that stuff, it was all on the radio at the same time. I'm glad I was exposed to the variety. :D

sh-boom, both versions.
rainy day bells, harlem globetrotters
those oldies but goodies reminds me of you
smoke gets in your eyes, or anything by the platters
quarter to three by gary "u.s." bonds
donna the primadonna
sally's sayin something by billy hahrner-- ANYONE KNOW THAT ONE?

Have to pass on the oldies, waaaay to overplayed imo. Prefer heavier Rock / Metal 70's to current.

That was, and is, all I ever listened to. To each his own!:)

About to order some Mammas & Pappas today, Dusty Springfield(man she was sweet) couple of others.

Growing up in California the term "Oldies" often times referred to particular songs and/or bands that hispanics listened to - "Sittin in the park" by Billy Stewart, "I'm your Puppet" by James & Bobby Purify , or "If you should lose me" by Barbara Lynn. As an avid record collector and musician i guess i'll be too specific but Blues, Rockabilly, Rhythm & Blues, Surf, Rock & Roll, Swing, Jump Blues, Jazz, Soul are all genre's of music that i thoroughly enjoy.

Aw, come on -- you not callin' '70 songs oldies? Maybe we need to have old oldies and new oldies :p. You were just born too late to have enjoyed the 60's.

Being born in '42, I experienced the "evolution" of popular music.
When I listen to music on the Sirius stations on tv my feelings are:
30's and 40's is more soothing and relaxing
50's is "fun" and romantic (you can understand the words)
60's gets frantic and jumbled with little romance
70's scratchy and violent

I listen to some of all with favorites in each generation. I don't like any rap music!

All good ones. ;)

I we musent give the young person a bad time about his unfortunate ignorance brought on by a circumstance beyond his control, i.e. date of birth.

That said... a lack of taste maybe. :D lol Just kidding, really. ;) I like some new stuff but my hart is where I heard all that great stuff when I grew up. I can't say I was "privileged" (Vietnam??) enough to take part in the '60's and '70's but I was privileged enough to have some VERY COOL Aunt's, Uncle's, and a Step Brother that baby sat me durning that time and they set an example of fun I will never be able to live up to... THANK GOD! LOL! GREAT TIMES! GREAT MUSIC! GREAT CARS!

My first drive over 60mph was on the lap of my Uncle Ed in his brand new 1970 440 Six-Pack 'Cuda. Those were the days when you could set your kid on your lap out in the middle of nowhere and let them drive. Fond memories of my Mom letting me do that and there was all that great music on that AM radio. :) Thank you to all you damned "Hippy" Baby Boomers that gave me such awesome childhood memories, made all that great music, and fought for their country during some real turbulent times. I remember Mr. Cronkite on the TV showing us the War. I remember... ;) I remember the Astronauts when they were like GODS! ;)

I'm a terrable sentimentalist... :o They were fun times though! :D

I bought something like 100 Bing Crosby tunes. :D I LOVE Louie Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald!

I see the trend you are aiming at but I think the true "scratchy and violent" hit in the '80's. Oh it was there in the '70's but it truly ramped up from the '80's onward.

Think about this, anyone know what the term "Rock and Roll" REALLY means? :o :p :D

I love the Mammas & Poppas and Peter, Paul and Mary too. :cool:

Mick,
I never considered Black Sabbath, Dio, ACDC,Rainbow, Deep Purple, Judas Priest, Montrose, Motorhead, The Ramones, Uriah Heap, Scorpians, Thin Lizzy,Accept, Alice Cooper or Sweet "OLDIES".

Mike

oldies
 

If you love the Mama's and papa's and Peter,Paul and Mary then you'll love these videos..M and P's on Hullabaloo (check out the go go dancers) and one song (live) by Peter,Paul and Mary that imho doesnt get as much air time as it deserves...enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVOr2Es7kE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEz5QOt7Umo

Heck yeah, I watch them just about every day...and thanks for the easy link:)

Back in late 69, right before I left for Vietnam, I first saw a show with the M & P's and almost lost my lunch when I saw Mamma...but hey, what a voice!!!!! And looking at eye candy Michelle Phillips was more than pleasing:D

Great times(Mostly :usa2:) and the music:cool:;)!!

50's and early 60's here.Of coursesome of the later 60's didn't care for most of the 'drug era' music. Mason williams 'classical gas' is one that I remember from working at the tv/radio station at Kent. Da-wop,surf music,hotrod songs, blues,Howling Wolf. Rock and roll means 60 minute man -se,---x.

Good topic. Very passionate about my music. I, too, have a very wide rang of music that I listen to. Anything from Glenn Miller to the Crystal Method.

ANYTHING by Buddy Holly. I just finished directing "Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story" at my community theatre and the three guys I put together for Buddy Holly and the Crickets ROCKED!!

ANYTHING by the Moody Blues. "Seventh Sojourn was an awesome album.

I really like the obscure old 45's that no one ever plays. Got quite a collection now and the wife says the vinyl is taking over the house more than car parts! Some of my favorites:

"Run Run Run" by the Gestures. Probably one of the greatest rock and roll records that no one has ever heard.

"Jack the Ripper" by Link Wray. Awesome instrumental. Pretty much anything else by Link as well.

"Competition Coupe" by the Astronauts. Who would have figured that five guys from Denver could play such great surf/ hot rod music?

"Buckaroo" by Buck Owens. Helped popularize the electric guitar for country music.

"Have You Heard" by the Duprees. Great doo-wop harmonies.

Man, I could go on and on. I agree with uneasyrider about the 60's and 70's AM radio. Such a wide variety of music that we were exposed to. rock, pop, soul, country crossovers. It really gave you an appreciation for different kinds of music. I have passed this appreciation on to both of my kids as well. My son plays the guitar and will randomly throw "Walk, Don't Run" or "Pipeline" into the middle of a metal song he's playing. Good times...

Anything by Grand Funk Railroad...

(that's what the GFR in BearGFR stands for)

Bear

Great stuff! :D

YES! It gets passed on! :D It was a unique time in American music. I think we have generally become more narrow in our tastes. Album collections and the variety you kept used to be a sign of maturity like which news paper you read. You went over to someones how and set and looked through their albums, eyeing the art work, listening to music, and the variety was part of the scene. Now you can tune into a channel that only plays one band. OK I guess for some but not me. :gag:

Generally the same for me but I will have to admit I was influenced by the likes of KISS and I still get a kick out of hearing them. I was in my early teens when they hit their peak so like all teen age boys of that era tell me the one that didn't want to get up on stage dressed like Gene Simons and spit blood. When you're 13 that is WAY COOL! lol It takes me back still and I thank them for it. Just fun, outrageous, entertainment. I think they would admit they were there to sell and put on a show. Gene was a business man and new how to sell to the people with liquid cash and hot to buy, the teen age boy. That was me! lol :D "The God of Thunder, and Rock and Roll. The spell you're under will rock you off your virgin soul!" LOL! :D At 12 there was Star Wars, Smokey and the Bandit, Evil Kenevil, and KISS! :D

Moody Blues, Journey, Foreigner and go back from there to about 1955. Also Lou Cristie

Too many to pick one. too varied tastes to attempt to categorize. I guess my real favorite is early folk (before it became anti-establishment); but I like early rock, some jazz, some country, shucks, even some classical (Stravinsky, Korsakov); and virtually ALL surf and hotrod. Current record collection of several thousand needs pruning.

Generally, when DirecTV's 300 plus channels have absolutely nothing to watch, 50's or 60's music and a good book.

Jon.

Same here, Sherlock Holmes and some classical and a cup of good coffee. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FXoyr_FyFw

For setting here BS'ing some simple dish network '50's-'60's channel. :D

P.S. About the only thing I "watch" on TV anymore is the '50's-'60's channel and some American Pickers and Pawn Stars. A little other stuff on The "History" Channel. I put "History" in quotes because they really stretch the term "History" in some of their programing. Racing, TCM, and a little other stuff but for the most part music. There isn't chit on....

Buddy Holly is bad as hell. Montrose, Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath

Love them all and have been becoming a big fan of Thin Lizzy lately. "Whisky in the Jar!" :D

oldies
 

For you surf music lovers you HAVE TOO see Junior brown live...he does rock and roll,country and blues with his homemade guit-steel....very under rated guitarist....check him out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16qsYreBJZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FRfh...eature=related

You guys may or may not like this older/classy song, by The Trashmen in 1963-ish called Surfin' Bird I do not know why. But this song turns the worst day in to the best day! I love The Scorpians too. The Beatles and alot of the classic rock.

I have that song on a car themed CD. It is purely obnoxious, but I love it! LOL

Nice! Jr. is great to listen to. If you like that I think you'll like this. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnreN5LsjvQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg-xX...feature=fvwrel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8__EwAT8VM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x6OEhKKKDA

Some classic surf. :D

Oh, P.S. I found this and had to add it,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oCmm...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTQUlklVIVs&feature=fvsr

WOW ! Someone else is in to real music. The fact that you know "Run run run" is amazing . A great group from Minneapolis !

The Astronauts - out of all the Surf bands they were probably in the top 3 !

Got to love YouTube:

"Run Run Run" by the Gestures, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvO2ePPPQ-M

"Jack the Ripper" by Link Wray, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxdVKELceE

"Competition Coupe" by the Astronauts, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBIAPvcDaEo

"Buckaroo" by Buck Owens (and his Buckaroo's) (...and yes I'm old enough to remember the show(s) lol :D), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXHbN...eature=related It's Don Rich here but Don was a Buckaroo when they were Buck Ownes and the Buckaroo's.

"Have You Heard" by the Duprees, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL52vFzvHbQ

All great stuff! :D

Here is an excellent song had had forgotten by one of the great guitarist/song writer/singers to come along, Roy Clark:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEY4LxORCeo

There are several here that are really into music. Brent Flynn is in a kick ass country rock band www.flynnvilletrain.com and my wife has www.phoenixbandcincinnati.com and does 70's and 80's classic rock. You ask about oldies, check out The Students on youtube. They had three hit songs around 1960, and one of them is in a current NFL commercial. You can search for My Vow to you, So Young, and Everyday of the week (the nfl song). My wife had the pleasure of singing the last 7 years wit Richie Johnson of the Students and had the pleasure to sing in places she never thuoght would happen. Richie has had the group on stage in Las Vegas, New York, Chicago, and one her fsavorites, Count Basey Theatre in New Jersey. Richie also had a stint with the Drifters after the Students broke up. You might also check out Mary Wells, she was the first lady of Motown. The Bobbetts and the Crystals, also come to mind. Hope this helps you find some stuff that is on obscure list as well.