Acclaimed Music Top 40 Songs from 1964 poll

anyway it's either between them and "where did our love go." the harmonies in the latter will never stop sounding so divine.

As in 32 the righteous brothers

Just a snapshot--there are a whole bunch of songs on here I would have ranked top two or three at some point:

1. "Eight Days a Week"
2. "Downtown"
3. "Walk on By"
4. "It's All Over Now"
5. "Promised Land"

Song I've never heard: "Amsterdam"

It's marvelous, you should hear it.

I can't help but wonder how some of these songs would sound if decades of overplay on radio and overuse in movies and commercials hadn't leeched so much of the life from them. Discovering early-'60s pop that hasn't suffered those ravages has been revelatory.

"The Girl from Ipanema" is the worst in that regard. I like it a lot, especially now that I've heard more from those artists and have a bit of context for bossa nova, but it took a while to hear it as a song and not as stock film music.

(xpost) The problem I have every time I vote in one of these polls. Should I weight how I've felt about a song over time, or just vote based on right here, right now? I always go with the latter. (I should have added "Dancing in the Street" to my list above, though.)

As in 32 the righteous brothers

lol

everything is from: http://www.acclaimedmusic.net

so they do year, decade and also all-time rankings. when i copy the list it has the year ranking and then the all-time rank. at first i started to edited out the all-time ranking but that took too much time so now i just leave it in. so the 32 is actually the all-time ranking.

i'm laughing at myself for not figuring out what you meant.

i agree, this list is almost impossible.

Eight days a week is not enough to show I care
And she says "Don't worry baby"
and when she passes, each man she passes goes Aaah!
Girl, you really got me goin' you really got me
All day and all of the night

This is a tough one, but not impossible. "Walk On By" just ahead of "I Feel Fine," and a 39-way tie for 3rd.

A lot of these songs are so classic it's incredible to think that a lot of them are 50 years old now. It's made me take a look at what was happening 50 years prior to these songs being released...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1914_in_music

I mean, christ, 1964... all of this music is now basically antique stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaZ9HTH6qPs

I read this great essay by Glenn Gould explaining why Petula Clarks music is genious, while The Beatles is overrated pap. Looking back on that... voted for Clark anyway.

18 697 Sam Cooke - Shake

Funny, this was a top ten hit, but I don't remember hearing it much or at all during my years of listening to oldies radio and such. I know the Otis Redding version better.

Voting "My Girl" over, gosh, "Don't Worry Baby" and "I Feel Fine" and lots of others.

the best part of that Top 100 list is that there is a "Bubbling Under the Hot 100" section." there was so much good music coming out that they needed to add an extra 35 slots.

oh, and that "Amsterdam" clip is fucking amazing. thanks seandalai!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

1. House of the Rising Sun
2. All Day and All of the Night
3. Gloria
4. My Girl
5. She's Not There

"Don't Worry Baby" is such an amazing song - it's all about car racing, and yet it's so not about car racing. It pains me I can't vote for it.

Don't worry, I gotcha covered.

Re: "antique stuff" just think: if ilx had existed in 1964 they would have been polling the top songs of 1914 at this point.

Somebody would have been stabbing for James Reese Europe.

*stanning, stupid autocorrect.

Stabbing was a fairly common sign of critical approval in '64 IIRC.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

you've lost that most acclaimed feelin', whoa that most acclaimed feelin', bring back that most acclaimed feelin' now it's gone gone gone, whoa-oh-oh

Acclaim Is Gonna Come

"A Change is Gonna Come" may be the most absurdly great song ever relegated to the B side of a single