Thursday, June 24, 2021

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 24 June 1961

Del Shannon's 'Runaway' stays at #2 all month, behind Elvis' 'Surrender':


Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

18 June: the OAS, a terrorist organisation trying to force France to keep possession of Algeria,
bombs the Paris-to-Strasbourg express train, killing dozens and injuring over 100. 
The newspaper splash above is found here.

19 June: Kuwait, a British protectorate since 1899, gains independence (photo source.)
 Iraq's leader Abdul Karim Qasim, who seized power there in 1958, lays claim to Kuwait six days later.
Britain sends forces to defend the country in Operation Vantage.

War criminal and mass murderer Adolf Eichmann, kidnapped in Argentina and put on trial in Israel, gives evidence in his defence, claiming he was merely obeying orders. 
He is found guilty on December 15 and hanged on May 31 the following year, his body cremated and the ashes thrown into the sea.

21 June: the USA's first desalination plant opens in Freeport, Texas.

(Image via 'Historic Photographs' Facebook page)
21 June: 'A thin TV screen only 4 inches thick with an automatic timing device to record TV programs for later viewing is the wave of the future as shown at the Home Furnishings Market in Chicago.'


24 June: despite a ban in Dade County, Florida, Henry Miller's controversial book 'Tropic of Cancer' is published in the USA by Grove Press, 27 years after its first publication in Europe. Booksellers are still threatened with prosecution for violating anti-obscenity laws; in 1964 the US Supreme Court rules that the book is not obscene because it has some redeeming social value.

UK chart hits, week ending 24 June 1961

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

1

Surrender

Elvis Presley

RCA

2

Runaway

Del Shannon

London

3

Temptation

The Everly Brothers

Warner Brothers

4

Pasadena

The Temperance Seven

Parlophone

5

The Frightened City

The Shadows

Columbia

6

Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man

Ricky Nelson

London

7

You'll Never Know

Shirley Bassey

Columbia

8

But I Do

Clarence 'Frogman' Henry

Pye

9

Pop Goes The Weasel / Bee*Bom

Anthony Newley

Decca

10

Halfway To Paradise

Billy Fury

Decca

11

I Told Every Little Star

Linda Scott

Columbia

12

A Girl Like You

Cliff Richard and The Shadows

Columbia

13

Runnin' Scared

Roy Orbison

London

14

More Than I Can Say

Bobby Vee

London

15

Have A Drink On Me

Lonnie Donegan

Pye

16

Well I Ask You

Eden Kane

Decca

17

What'd I Say

Jerry Lee Lewis

London

18

Little Devil

Neil Sedaka

RCA

19

Weekend

Eddie Cochran

London

20

Ring Of Fire

Duane Eddy

London

1 comment:

Bucko said...

Love that tune. There's a video on Youtube of Del Shannon singing Runaround Sue in some kind of posh club.
He's belting it out, but the audience all look a bit bored or bewildered. They were probably a bit old a posh for that stuff :-)