Thursday, September 16, 2021

THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 16 September 1961

At #4 this week, The Shadows' 'Kon-Tiki':


Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):


11 September: the World Wildlife Fund opens its first office in Morges, Switzerland.

Also 11 September: Hurricane Carla, a category 5 (maximum strength) tropical storm, hits Texas, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes:
 

13 September: the US contemplates 'Mutually Assured Destruction' vis-a-vis the |Soviet Union. Wikipedia recounts
    'SIOP-62, the American options for nuclear war, was presented to President Kennedy in a top secret briefing from General Lyman Lemnitzer, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The operational plan, drawn up on April 15, provided 14 options for responding to a nuclear attack, and the 14th option, recommended by General Lemnitzer, was to explode 3,267 nuclear bombs on targets in the Soviet Union, as well as the Warsaw Pact nations and Communist China. Kennedy was reportedly furious about the lack of flexibility in the plan, which contemplated obliteration of the enemy with the expectation that the United States and its allies would sustain massive destruction as well.'
    The homicidal lunacy of top-level military thinking is parodied in the 1964 movie 'Doctor Strangelove':


UK chart hits, week ending 16 September 1961 (tracks in italics have been played in earlier posts)

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

1

Johnny Remember Me

John Leyton

Top Rank

2

Wild In The Country / I Feel So Bad

Elvis Presley

RCA

3

You Don't Know

Helen Shapiro

Columbia

4

Kon-Tiki

The Shadows

Columbia

5

Reach For The Stars / Climb Every Mountain

Shirley Bassey

Columbia

6

Michael Row The Boat / Lumbered

Lonnie Donegan

Pye

7

Romeo

Petula Clark

Pye

8

Well I Ask You

Eden Kane

Decca

9

Cupid

Sam Cooke

RCA

10

Michael Row The Boat

The Highwaymen

HMV

11

Together

Connie Francis

MGM

12

Ain't Gonna Wash For A Week

The Brook Brothers

Pye

13

Halfway To Paradise

Billy Fury

Decca

14

Hats Off To Larry

Del Shannon

London

15

Jealousy

Billy Fury

Decca

16

That's My Home

Acker Bilk

Columbia

17

How Many Tears

Bobby Vee

London

18

Sea Of Heartbreak

Don Gibson

RCA

19

Drivin' Home

Duane Eddy and The Rebels

London

20

Quarter To Three

The U.S. Bonds

Top Rank


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