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

 At #5 this week, another classic: Kenny Ball's 'Midnight In Moscow':

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

10 December: 'The Soviet–Albanian split was culminated when the Communist government of Albania confirmed that the Soviet Union had severed diplomatic relations on December 3, marking the first time that the U.S.S.R. had ever withdrawn its embassy from another Communist state. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev had criticized Albanian leaders Enver Hoxha and Mehmet Shehu at the 22nd Soviet Communist Party Congress after the Albanians refused to repudiated Stalinism. The People's Republic of China then began a program of emergency aid to the Balkan nation.'

11 December - Vietnam War begins: 'The Vietnam War officially began for the United States, as the USS Core arrived at Saigon Harbor. The ship brought in two helicopter units, the 8th Transportation Company from Fort Bragg and the 57th Transportation Company from Fort Lewis, with 33 H-21 Shawnee helicopters, and 400 U.S. Army personnel.'

12 December: 'Police in Tokyo arrested 13 men in a pre-dawn raid after uncovering a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda and the 16 members of his cabinet. The plot, under the cover of the "Society for Japanese History", was financed by industrialist Toyosaku Kawanami with the assistance of former Lt. General Tokutaro Sakurai.'

13 December: 'In Geneva, the United States and the Soviet Union announced that they had come to an agreement on the formation of a multinational discussion to reduce nuclear weapons, in a group described as the "Eighteen-Nation Committee on Disarmament". The United Nations General Assembly endorsed the idea one week later, and the group first met on March 14, 1962. The 18 nations were the U.S., the U.K., Italy, Canada and France; the U.S.S.R., Poland, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria and Romania; and the non-aligned states of Mexico, Brazil, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Egypt, Sweden, India and Burma.'

14 December: 'The Presidential Commission on the Status of Women was created by Executive Order 10980 by U.S. President Kennedy, with former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt as the honorary chairman. The Commission's report, American Women, was published in 1965 and described the unequal treatment faced by women in American society.'

15 December: 'The United Nations General Assembly declined a resolution to allow the People's Republic of China membership. The vote was 36 in favor, 48 against, with 20 abstentions. On the same day, the Assembly passed United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1668, declaring Communist Chinese membership an "important question", and requiring 2/3rds approval rather than a simple majority for all future votes on admission, passed 61-34, with seven abstentions.'

        Also on 15 December: 'Soviet KGB officer Anatoliy Golitsyn, who had memorized the details of secret documents and cases, defected to the West at the American CIA station office in Helsinki. Golitsyn has been described by one author as "perhaps the most controversial and divisive defector of the Cold War".'

16 December: 'The African National Congress, frustrated with peaceful attempts to end apartheid in South Africa, began a bombing campaign with a new organization, Umkhonto we Sizwe, setting off explosions at empty government buildings in Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth and Durban. "Had we intended to attack life," Nelson Mandela would say in a statement at his trial in 1964, "we would have selected targets where people congregated, and not empty buildings and power stations." The Manifesto of Umkhonto, published the same day, began, "The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices— submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future, and our freedom."[49] The only casualty was one of the saboteurs, Petrus Molefe, who died at the Dube township in Johannesburg, when the bomb he was placing exploded prematurely. There would be 190 attacks in all until the group was suppressed in 1963, and only one other death, when a young girl was killed by a bomb.'

UK chart hits, week ending 16 December 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	Tower Of Strength	Frankie Vaughan	Philips
2	Moon River	Danny Williams	HMV
3	Take Good Care Of My Baby	Bobby Vee	London
4	His Latest Flame / Little Sister	Elvis Presley	RCA
5	Midnight In Moscow	Kenny Ball	Pye
6	Walkin' Back To Happiness	Helen Shapiro	Columbia
7	Stranger On The Shore	Acker Bilk	Columbia
8	Big Bad John	Jimmy Dean	Philips
9	The Savage	The Shadows	Columbia
10	So Long Baby	Del Shannon	London
11	Let There Be Drums	Sandy Nelson	London
12	I'll Get By	Shirley Bassey	Columbia
13	My Friend The Sea	Petula Clark	Pye
14	Johnny Will	Pat Boone	London
15	Take Five	Dave Brubeck	Fontana
16	The Time Has Come	Adam Faith	Parlophone
17	Baby's First Christmas	Connie Francis	MGM
18	I'd Never Find Another You	Billy Fury	Decca
19	Son, This Is She	John Leyton	HMV
20	The Charleston	The Temperance Seven	Parlophone
20	Toy Balloons	Russ Conway	Columbia