The Danny’s: 1961

Welcome back to the second installment of The Danny’s! This time we’re listening to what 1961 has to offer. This year is a subtle gear change in our move closer to the inevitable psychedelic explosion coming later in the decade.

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Best Folk Albums

Taking the Bronze here is The Kingston Trio for Make Way, a group that very nearly made the list for last year. Two acoustic guitars, a banjo and three harmonized voices is a simple set up that these guys use to make simple yet very solid folk songs. I wouldn’t be surprised if guys like Simon & Garfunkel pulled inspiration from them. Speckled Roan is my favorite song.

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Taking Silver for Folk is the melancholy infused sophomore effort from Joan Baez, Joan Baez Vol. 2. She’s once again sticking with covers of traditional folk songs and while I haven’t really heard any other versions of most of these songs I do find it hard to imagine hearing more definitive versions. Barbara Allen is my favorite song.

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The Gold winner is another artist that just barely missed the cut for 1960, the legendary Harry Belafonte for Jump Up Calypso. His brand of calypso folk was a breath of fresh air in the mainstream music scene and is a fun listen to this day. It also pairs surprisingly well with horror comedies. His rendition of Jump in the Line is easily my favorite track.

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Best Country Albums

Taking their second Bronze of this year is The Kingston Trio who’s Make Way rode the line between Folk and Country pretty closely. Combine that with a lack of Country competition and here we are. Bonny Hielan’ Laddie is my second favorite track here.

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Silver goes to Patsy Cline Showcase, an album of country covers by a singer who was still building up her legend here with her second album. She takes an overall more upbeat and pop-y approach compared to the Trio. That being said my favorite track is the slower, more jazz influenced Crazy.

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Gold goes to the Man in Black Johnny Cash for his 7th album, Now Here’s Johnny Cash. Sure it was slapped together by his old record label after he ditched them and doesn’t quiet meet the length of a real LP and has a terrible name, but I still kinda like it. Also like I said it was a bad year for Country. Hey Porter is my top track.

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Best Jazz Albums

I really love me some Jazz, easily one of my favorite things which is fitting because our Bronze winner this year is My Favorite Things by legendary John Coltrane. There’s a wistful, longing quality to how he arranges and plays. No offense to any Sound Of Music fans but this rendition of My Favorite Things is far superior. Now obviously the whole album is amazing but of course my favorite song is the title track, it’s just too hard to stand out against an almost fourteen minute epic.

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Coming out of the cool to take the Silver award is The Gil Evans Orchestra for Gil’s fourth LP Out of the Cool. As the group name suggests this is Jazz music preformed by a full orchestra which gives it a larger and fuller range of sound. It doesn’t overwhelm you with this sound though as the tempo moves slowly letting each new instrument subtly layer themselves into each track. Really hard to pick a favorite song but I did have a lot of fun with Stratusphunk.

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Gold belongs to the Miles Davis Sextet for Someday My Prince Will Come, yet another amazing album from the master. Today I don’t think a cover of a song from a Disney film probably wouldn’t go over too well, but it doesn’t appear to have been an issue back in the day since Miles Davis wasn’t even the first person to cover Someday My Prince Will Come, though his rendition is my favorite version. That being said my actual favorite song from this album is Pfrancing.

Best Rock Albums

Taking the Bronze for Rock music is Runaround Sue by Dion. It’s doo-wop rock that’s desperately trying to move beyond that sound without exactly knowing how. There’s a clear Pop influence on most of the songs but there are a few tracks here like my favorite one The Wanderer that ooze that rock and roll attitude we generally associate with the genre. The Wanderer in particular has been covered so many times over the decades since it’s release that I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t heard the original version until starting this project.

Silver goes to Bo Diddley for Bo Diddley is a Lover, a man seemingly obsessed with putting his own name in his song and album titles. This album alone features Bo’s Vacation, Bo’s Blues, the title track Bo Diddley is a Lover and Bo Diddley Is Loose. But I can’t complain, his prowess with the blues guitar is beyond nit picks. In fact my favorite track is one of the self titled ones, Bo’s Blues.

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Chuck Berry is taking the Gold for Rock the second year in a row. The man just well, rocks. Unfortunately his 5th LP here would be his last until 1964 due to some legal trouble that led to his arrest in early 1962. The accusations are pretty serious and damning but racism being what it is I take it all with a grain of salt. I found a fairly comprehensive breakdown for those who are interested, but suffice to say you might just wanna skip the song Sweet Sixteen on this album. All that aside this is a more than solid rock album, Run Around is my favorite track.

Best Soul Albums

Talk about a fast growing genre, Soul was extremely hard to narrow down and I am sincerely sorry for the artists that I couldn’t include. James Brown and the Famous Flames are back again to take the Bronze for their 4th LP The Amazing James Brown and the Famous Flames. Clunky title I know but they make up for it with an absolutely amazing sound. Soul has barely been around and already these guys were trying to push it beyond it’s limits into what would eventually become Funk. I mean just listen to the bopping bass and the jazzy trumpets on my favorite track And I Do Just What I Want. Truly excellent stuff.

Ray Charles‘ 9th album is another case of an artist switching record labels only for their old label to slap together a bunch of previously unreleased songs that they’ve been sitting on for no reason and call it an album. Skeevy though that practice may be I do really love The Genius Sings The Blues. While James Brown was exploding into a whole new genre Ray Charles‘ album stays rooted in it’s gospel and blues roots. My favorite track is the heartbreaking Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I).

Bronze and Silver are basically interchangeable for me personally, but there was only one Soul album that had a chance at the Gold; Aretha With The Ray Bryant Combo is the incredible debut of 18 year old Aretha Franklin. It’s a collection of Pop covers done in a jazzier style with her amazing boisterous voice being the main driving force toward Soul. And not to throw any shade at The Ray Bryant Combo but there is a very good reason why this was the first and last time her backing band got billing. Again it’s not that they were bad, I mean just listen to that trumpet on By Myself, but she was always going to outshine whoever she worked with. Hard to choose a favorite track here but I think I’ll go with the opener, Won’t Be Long.

Best Pop Albums

The last but not least genre for the year is Pop where we have Brenda Lee taking the Bronze for her 4th album, Emotions. It’s a solid pop album with some sweet rockabilly flavor to it. My favorite track is Emotions but Crazy Talk is a very close second.

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Taking Silver is the 9th studio album from Bill Haley & His Comets, the Latin flavored Pop Rock Bikini Twist. This album never actually got an American release which I find a little strange. Bill Haley did randomly have a huge following in Mexico and Latin America, but this album is largely instrumental so I think it could have played in any country. My working theory is that the “risqué” album art probably would have made someone’s head explode here. Gotta go with Spanish Twist as my favorite track.

Taking Gold for Pop this year is Neil Sedaka Sings Little Devil And His Other Hits, the third LP from Neil Sedaka. This album is the closest to our modern understanding of pop. It’s upbeat, catchy, a little heart throbby and all the songs are short and to the point. Gotta go with the title track as my favorite.

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Best Debut Albums

1961 saw a bit of an explosion of new artists which made this quiet the difficult category, but I did become a nice place to honor some artists that didn’t quiet make it into other categories. Like The Miracles who take the Bronze for Hi… We’re The Miracles. Not only is it the first Miracles album, it was the first album from Motown Records period and it was a bold declaration of what they intended to do to the music scene at the time. My favorite track here is Cause I Love You.

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I’m not a big fan of awarding Ike Turner for anything given what we now know about him, but I’d have to be crazy not to award the explosive voice of Tina Turner. The name of the album being The Soul of Ike and Tina Turner makes it extra hard to split the difference too. But putting feelings aside this is a great album. That goes doubly so for my favorite track I Idolize You, whose lyrics have aged quiet poorly but they’re sung with incredible passion and skill that you can mostly ignore their meaning. Then you find out that Ike wrote the lyrics and it gets weird again.

The Gold debut of 1961 can only go to the soulful jazz sounds of Aretha With The Ray Bryant Combo. This album represents the first step in an icon’s journey and remains a great listen to this day. I already mentioned how much I liked By Myself so I’ll name Sweet Lover as my “official” second favorite track.

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Best Songs

Post Army Elvis had lost a bit of his old magic, the two albums he put out in ’61 were just okay in my opinion. He does still manage to win Bronze for Surrender though, probably one of the best songs in his whole catalogue. Oddly enough Surrender wasn’t on any albums, it was only released as a single for reasons I couldn’t discover. Fun fact I could discover though, it’s an English reinterpretation of an old Italian song written way back in 1894.

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Silver has to go to Hard Times (No One Knows Better Than I) by Ray Charles. From his his deep mournful voice delivering heartfelt lyrics to the masterful piano playing to the bright and lush horns; Everything about this song just works perfectly. It’s short length is the only knock against it.

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Gold goes to the most excellent The Wanderer by Dion. It’s a song that’s been covered no less then ten times and it’s easy to hear why. Called “black music filtered through an Italian neighborhood” by Dion himself. It’s about a man who has a different girl in every town he visits, but it doesn’t glorify this, he’s sad and lonely, incapable of finding real love. A tragic little detail that doesn’t translate in every cover.

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Best Albums

Bronze for album of the year goes to Miles Davis who wins his second award of the year. Someday My Prince Will Come is masterful in it’s execution and cool in it’s jazz. Teo is my second favorite track.

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Chuck Berry also gets his second win here for an album full of that gold standard Blues Rock sound. Track nine aside you can’t deny his impressive prowess on the guitar. I’m Talking About You is my second favorite song and an excellent showcase for said guitarmenship.

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Aretha Franklin takes her third and the biggest award of the year. Did I maybe run out of things to say after overly gushing in her first two wins? Uh, no definitely not, there are a bunch of ways to keep saying brilliant and amazing. Also I still have to tell you what my third favorite track is, Love is the Only Thing.

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