POP MUSIC RULED MY GROWING UP YEARS

The early 1960s were my coming of age years. I was in high school then till 1964 when I completed my Form 5. I was a typical teenager, enamoured of all things British or American, especially the pop music scene of those days. I learned to dance the twist, the locomotion and the limbo. My grades took a dip when I discovered Billboard Top Hits, UK's Top of the Pops and our own Top 10. I followed all the song request programmes on radio, and was familiar with the names of the popular DJs of the time, names like Vicky Skelchy, Alan Zachariah and Constance Haslam. They played chart-topping songs broadcasted over RTM and Rediffusion. I had my own collection of LPs and EPs, those black vinyl records that I would play over and over again on the turn-table. We had no TV or CD players then.

If I had some money saved, I would buy Tigerbeat. It was the #1 teen magazine then. I would cut out pictures of my favourite teen idols like Ricky Nelson, Cliff Richard and Dusty Springfield, and paste them into my voluminous song-book containing hundreds of lyrics all hand-written. We had no computers then.

Just the other day I was browsing Youtube when I came across these vintage songs from the 1960s. In those days, songs were sung with emotion and lyrics held meaning. A far cry from the majority of today's top hits. 

My taste in music is eclectic. I enjoy folk, country, blues, rock, and even gospel but pop was where I started. Here's a very small selection of songs from some of my teenage idols for your listening pleasure. I hope they trigger some happy memories of the good old days when the world was our oyster to explore and discover. 

 

 

 

Then came 1969, and Woodstock. My taste in music changed, but that's another story for another day.....

(Updated from an earlier article posted in 2012.)