Category: Sixties

Beatles Hits by Non-Beatles

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date March 7, 2026

The astonishing creativity and impact of The Beatles on pop charts of the 1960s was not limited to the band’s own releases. In the US, UK, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand charts there were in fact more chart entries in the 1960s – an even 100 – with Lennon-McCartney (and Harrison) songs by non-Beatles than the 85 entries recorded by the group itself.

These ranged from straightforward cover versions to odd adaptations, but their success appears to be related to the underlying melodicism (catchiness) of the tunes and the market’s familiarity with the originals. Broadly speaking, the non-Beatle Beatle songs fall into three categories: songs that were written for other artists and never recorded by the Beatles themselves; opportunistic covers of Beatles album tracks that were never released as singles by the group; and re-interpretations of Beatles hits.

Music Sixties

The Hit Song by Nobody

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date February 4, 2023

In 1968, an Italian movie purporting to examine wild sex freedom in Sweden was released (in English, titled “Sweden Heaven and Hell”). It wasn’t much of a cinematic treasure, but during a sauna scene an insanely catchy song played. Composed by Piero Umiliani, it was performed by a “band” called Marc 4 (four session musicians) and the nonsense vocal part was sung by Italian singer/composer Alessandro Alessandroni and his wife Giulia.

A soundtrack album was duly created and in mid-1969 the tune, entitled entitled “Máh Ná Máh Ná”, was released as a single on the obscure Ariel label. Ariel clearly didn’t really understand the record business; they didn’t list an artist or performer on the disc, just noting it was from the movie Sweden Heaven and Hell.

Despite being uncredited, the song started to get some traction on radio and was played across North America in September 1969, peaking at No. 55 in the Billboard Hot 100 singles and #12 on their Adult Contemporary list. It made # 44 on the Cash Box magazine chart. In Canada, the song reached No. 22 in the RPM magazine top singles chart. Even when Columbia Records leased it from Ariel for release in Canada, no artist was listed.

Music Sixties

“World Music” of The Sixties

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date February 1, 2023

Let’s take a look at the international spread of pop music in the 1960s. It goes without saying that the English-speaking pop music industry extended its reach around the globe during that decade, from the US and then the UK. Groups like The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Beach Boys, and singers like Petula Clark, Elvis Presley, and Stevie Wonder became household names in places like Italy, The Philippines, South Africa, Brazil, and Thailand. Their songs were covered in native languages, and their images were framed in bedrooms and schools around the world.

But what about the reverse? Were English-speaking countries ready to listen to pop music from other cultures? In other languages? Could a German rock star become world-famous? Or a Japanese pop group? Was there any mechanism for “international” pop stars to breach the American and UK markets?

We can examine the evidence, in the form of our international hit singles charts from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. We can look for performers who were based in countries other than the above; although some international performers ended up recording, performing, and living part-time in the US or UK, we draw no distinction here between those and others who “stayed at home” and let their music do the travelling. For the sake of argument, this list of “international” musicians will not include performers from Ireland (e.g. The Bachelors, Them / Van Morrison) on the premise that they wrote, sang, and performed in English and for all intents and purposes were part of the UK pop scene. Conversely, we do include French-language records made in Quebec that crossed over into the English Canadian charts.

Tags #hit singles, #international, #Sixties

Radio Sixties

The Toronto Sound – In the 60s Charts

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date November 18, 2022

“The Toronto Sound”…what? There can be endless arguments about whether or not there was a distinct “Toronto Sound” in the 1960s, in the same vein as “surf music”, “the British Invasion”, or “the San Francisco psychedelic sound”. There is a strong case to be made that the Yonge Street club scene did, for a few years, generate a recognizable sound.

Music Radio Sixties

Domestic Substitution for International Hits

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date October 14, 2022

For a brief period in the mid-1960s In both Canada and Australia, a sub-industry grew up of local performers covering international hit records. In some instances the local outfit was able to record and release their version before the original single made it to the domestic market. This phenomenon was closely associated with the 1964 – 1966 “beat boom” era; earlier, the domestic groups, recording industry, and radio environment were still rather primitive and could not compete with international (particularly US) product, while later in the decade the premium placed on originality pushed the “cover band” to the fringes. Furthermore, performers realized that recording an original song would create much more net revenue than sending royalties off to a foreign songwriter.

Music Radio Sixties

Canada’s International Pop Impact in the 60s

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date September 30, 2022

Let’s take a look at the Canadian performers who had entries on the US, UK, and Australian hit singles charts in the 1960s – click here to open the PDF – as a subset of the Canadian Hit Singles Chart (coming soon).

The Canadian music industry through much of the 1960s was simply treated as a US branch plant. The quality of the recording studios, availability of skilled musicians and technicians, and radio support were all lacking.

Music Radio Sixties

Play the Song – Backwards!

Post author By Stephen Schijns
Post date July 12, 2022

By Snjihcs Nehpets

The novelty effect of working with tape in the 1950s and 60s occasionally made it on record; tape could be sped up (e.g. The Chipmunks), slowed down, or run backwards for extra effect (e.g. The Beatles’ “Tomorrow Never Knows” or Tomorrow’s “My White Bicycle”). Of course, running the tape backwards might yield an unlistenable mess of gibberish, or it could create a surprisingly melodic new tune. But rarely did a whole “backwards” song get released.