A Sucker for a Sixties Song

I'm not a sucker for a Sixties song very often. But every now and then...

1. Baby Don't Go - Sonny & Cher (1964)
2. California Dreamin' - The Mamas & the Papas (1965)
3. Turn Turn Turn - The Byrds (1965)
4. Eight Miles High - The Byrds(1966)
5. For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield (1967)
6. A Whiter Shade Of Pale - Procul Harum (1967)
7. Light My Fire - The Doors (1967)
8. Play With Fire - The Rolling Stones (1965)
9. Like A Rolling Stone - Bob Dylan (1965)
10.Homeward Bound - Simon & Garfunkel (1966)

A Sucker for a Sad Song

Once upon a time I was a very impressionable young man who listened to sad songs every once in a while for some unexplained reason that I'm unable to remember at age 58. Thank heavens for that. Anyway, here are five such songs. Why anyone in their right mind would choose to torture himself with sad-ass old music when they have classic jazz and big band on CD and even on vinyl is totally beyond me.

Yeah...right. Listen to me. An old fart with not much left to go on except memories. Thank heavens for them.

1. In My Room (The Beach Boys - 1963 Surfer Girl Album)
2. The Dangling Conversation (Simon and Garfunkel - 1966 Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme Album)
3. Lonely Boy (Iron Butterfly - 1971 Ball Album)
4. Nights In White Satin (The Moody Blues - 1967 Days of Future Passed Album)
5. Knocking on Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan - 1973 Soundtrack to the movie Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid)

A Sucker for a Summer Song

It's been 40 years since I walked barefoot in the warm sands of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, but my most memorable stroll on the sand was around midnight the following year. That was the night I kissed a beautiful girl my own age under the moonlight on the beach at Stone Harbor, New Jersey. We were both 19.

She had long, thick, black hair that fell nearly to her waist and her favorite breakfast food was plain white bread without the crust and black coffee. She'd locked herself out of her motel room earlier that evening and, while I stood on the shoulders of a friend, I removed the window screen, squeezed in through the open window and unlocked her door.

What I got for my effort was only a kiss that night. But it was a kiss on the beach in the summer moonlight. A kiss I'd never forget.

There was no music when I enjoyed my first romantic kiss with the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. Just the soft rush of the incoming tide and the gentle flapping of the cool ocean breeze against us. But, if there had been music playing, it would have been in my head and it might have been one of these four songs. Or all of them.

1. Theme Song from A Summer Place (the 1960 instrumental version by The Percy Faith Orchestra)
2. Telstar (the 1962 song by The Tornados)
3. Surfer Girl (from the Beach Boy's 1963 Surfer Girl Album -- a vinyl album I still own)
4. Your Summer Dream (Surfer Girl album)

Even today, I'm still a sucker for a beautiful, romantic, summer song.