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:
 

Video source and story: https://abc13.com/hurricane-weather-disaster-carla/1503768/

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