Your favorite singers from the '60's

FYI, The Carpenters would be early 70's - "Close To You", their first hit, came out in 1970.

Male: John Lennon
Female: Joni Mitchell

walrus

Mickey Dolenze

Lulu

Like Tom I grew up with lotsa Motown in my ears, in my case both on the radio and in my collection of 45s. I also grew up about 20 minutes away via car (a bit longer via bike!) from Hitsville USA. Each time my folks & I visited my dad's brother and his wife, the drive there and back took us past Marvin Gaye's house on Outer Drive. Marvin & Smokey Robinson were my main guys and the Supremes & Tammi Terrell my gals. I listened to lots of other music too, but I don't remember being that aware of individual singers with that music.

-Dave-

Tommy James was great mid 60's sound

Here are more sound's of the 60's, I was born in 54 so the heavy drug era did not kick in so i was there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1696pN-yE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMbQsKJ64S0

Hello

First - I will leave out our national artists, that never got popular worldwide !
Plus I will include more than one, since it is impossible to compare them all . . .

I have two versions - no particular order.

First one is what I think I remember that I liked back then
- female - Aretha Franklin - Esther Ofarim - Mireille Mathieu
- male - Donovan - Dylan - Simon&Garfunkel - Tom Jones - Frank Sinatra

Second one is how I feel now - having heard many that I did not know at the time or did not know the name
- female - Joni Mitchell - Astrudo Gilberto
- male - Donovan - Dylan - Simon&Garfunkel - Tom Jones - Frank Sinatra

Naturally there were oodles of great singers who appeared only short time - and then there were those who were technically about perfect but sang nonsense or rubbish - like in my list Dylan and Donovan are not exactly known for their sweet voices, but the songs are meaningfull . . . But then - OP asked "favorite"

Stephen Stills
Karen Carpenter

Everly Brothers.

griehund said:

Everly Brothers.

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That was the 50's, and yes they were great and I got to meet them once at the Greek Theater in L.A.

deebeewhy said:

Tom in Vegas, you raise a really interesting point, about which I happen to have an opinion. To my mind, the 60s began in late 1963 with a well-known and harrowing event. Until then, the vibe and sensibilities of the 50s were uninterrupted. The 60s ended in August 1974, when Nixon resigned (or maybe 6 months later when Saigon fell). Until then, peace/love/sex/drugs/rock 'n roll were uninterrupted. While I'm at it, the 80s began when lame duck Jimmy Carter was replaced by Reagan in Jan. '81. My two cents!

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While I agree with your "start" date, there was also a significant musical event here in the US that makes an appropriate demarcation point, I think:

Released December 26 1963.

But I respectfully disagree with the era of "peace/love/sex/drugs/rock 'n roll" ending in '74.
I would put it much earlier, at least musically, maybe with the deaths of Jimi, Janis, and Jim all occurring within a year, and the last "real" Jefferson Airplane album, and the take-over of the AM airwaves by the acoustic based "singer-songwriters" I couldn't stand at the time because they were so wimpy and didn't have any feedback...even my hero John Lennon wimped out and released "Imagine" in '71, so that's where I'd peg the "end of the '60's", musically.
Or maybe '72:
March 31 – Official Beatles fan club closes down.
September 21 – ABC premieres the new TV series In Concert. The first episode features Alice Cooper.
And take a look at Wiki's "1972 in Music: Albums released".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_in_music
Not a whole lotta peace'n'love there, very little rock'n'roll, and a whole lotta fluff:
(Bread, the Osmonds, and the Doors' Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine somehow seems like a fitting nail in the coffin)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1972_in_music.
Now that I'm thinking about it, Watergate started in June of '72.
I think Agnew's "Silent Majority" started thinking maybe all the anti-government protesters of the '60's might have been right.
So the revolution wasn't radical anymore, it was being acted out in Congress in our living rooms on TV.
But still it was pretty scary stuff to deal with, and I think they wanted their pop music to be completely non-threatening.
In fact, take a look at Billboards' top 100 of '72.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1972
It was the year of "American Pie" and "Heart of Gold".
The 2 closest things to hard rock on the chart are "Layla" and Argent's "Hold Your Head Up".
Yeesh I'm feeling the starvation for sex/drugs/rock 'n roll music all over again just reading that list.
By '74 sex'n'drugs'rock'n'roll was making a comeback but it was all about glam and mindless partying, there wasn't any political context anymore.
Maybe because the young men of the nation weren't worried about draft notices anymore.
Anyway, that's just my "case" for my opinion.
Favorite singers?
I will unabashedly admit to Mickey Dolenz (the Monkees) being my first vocal hero, then John Lennon for "Tomorrow Never Knows", then John Kay of Steppenwolf for his hoarse growl.
I didn't really discover Jack Bruce later until later, around '69.
And Jim Morrison, yes, but not until '68.
As a garage band singer wannabe those were probably my main influences.
The Temptations for "Can't Get Next to You" and "Ball of Confusion". They were all great.
I didn't really appreciate Elvis until much much later but I liked "Suspicious Minds", that was in '69.
Females?
In fact I can remember singing Petula Clark's "Downtown" and "Don't Sleep in the Subway" while riding around on my bike in grade school (thanks for the reminder!)
Bobby Gentry for "Ode to Billy Joe".
Didn't discover Joni Mitchell until well into the '70's except for the single "Big Yellow Taxi", but she has to top the list in retrospect for Ladies of the Canyon (ok, released in '70 but recorded in '69) and for her sheer magnificent career output.
And Janis for Cheap Thrills.
Grace Slick? I actually liked her politics more than her solo voice, except for a couple of cuts on Baxter's.
I liked her best when harmonizing with Balin and Kantner.
I didn't appreciate Dionne Warwick until years later for "I Say A Little Prayer".
Same for Diana Ross and the Supremes in all the various iterations.
Maa, looking back at those top 100's really makes it clear how far male singers outnumbered female.
Coupla my favorites only appeared in group contexts, I think:
The Seekers "Georgy Girl" and We Five "You Were on my Mind" ; and the Mamas and the Papas.
Heck they had both sides of the fence covered, possibly one of the greatest harmony acts of all time in the original group?
Think of "Monday Monday", "I Saw Her Again" and "Creeque Alley" and not just "California Dreamin' "...

Right Al, some think James Taylor killed rock and roll

Rick Schmidlin said:

Tommy James was great mid 60's sound

Here are more sound's of the 60's, I was born in 54 so the heavy drug era did not kick in so i was there!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml1696pN-yE


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMbQsKJ64S0

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Only just caught up this but Rick I was thinking of "Brand New Key" earlier!, except it came out in '71, I was a sophomore in high school and I wanted her bad!!
:biggrin-new:
She played "Lay Down" at Woodstock, though.
:friendly_wink:

Kinda surprised though, at about 2 years older than me I woulda thought you had more opportunity to get caught up in the "psychedelic wars" than me.
But maybe it took those extra couple of years to filter down to my age group.
Lotta stuff was pretty readily available by the time I hit high school in '70.
Also, I suspect you basically had one of those "prefer staying straight" philosophies or you wouldn't have got along with Zappa.....

Yes Lay Down was the 60's and I had a crush two on her!

Lets think the American sound of The Loving Spoonful and The Byrds that John and Roger had the voices.

Here another 60's crush

All three the one on the left became Jimi Hendrix wife

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH2oI2H2lGE

Rampside: Boy those are two tough choices to argue with, Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline!

Ain't nobody even mentioned Etta James yet...

CosmicArkie: Those two were iconic, Jim and Patsie. I think my Dad had every Jim Reeves album ever recorded, he would file through the bargain bins and buy the Jim Reeves records.

End of the '60's: 12/6/69. Altamont Speedway Free Festival.

walrus

dreadnut said:

Rampside: Boy those are two tough choices to argue with, Roy Orbison and Patsy Cline!

Ain't nobody even mentioned Etta James yet...

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Again this is the 50's but those moved on for decades.

McCoy Tyner a friend said the 60's were really 65-75, also Bob Dylan said that as well. Two icons!

Rick Schmidlin said:

Yes Lay Down was the 60's and I had a crush two on her!

Lets think the American sound of The Loving Spoonful and The Byrds that John and Roger had the voices.

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I was thinking of Sebastian earlier too, but I liked the totality of the band more than Sebastian as a favorite singer.
Same thing with the Byrds, but Crosby was an essential harmony element there, too. ("Rock'n'Roll Star") which also leads to the Crosby/Stills connection.
Was thinking of Stills for his Buffalo Springfield and CSN (+Y) stuff as well but just decided to keep the list short.
Stills favorites "For what It's Worth" and "4+20".
Makes me kinda surprised to realize nobody's mentioned them (CSNY) yet either, although it'd be hard to single out just one guy in that group.

Rick Schmidlin said:

Here another 60's crush

All three the one on the left became Jimi Hendrix wife

]

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Rick I think all those hours with Frank musta taken their toll, don't think Jimi ever got married, but there's a comment that says she became Chris Wood's wife (Traffic for those who might be drawing a blank), which reminds me of what a great singer Dave Mason was, actually prefer him to Winwood.
More "American sound", a string of one-hit wonders as Nuuska mentioned, but still on my all-time faves list and all with great vocals:
"Judy in Disguise"
"Grazin' in the Grass"
"Bend Me Shape Me"
"Mercy Mercy"
"Kind of a Drag"
"96 Tears"
"You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'"
"Runaway"
"Along Comes Mary" (and "Windy")
"Time Won't Let Me"
"The Letter"
"Little Bit o' Soul"
"We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"
"You Showed Me"
"Wichita Lineman"
"spooky"
"Let's Live For Today" (and "A Million Years")
"Darkness Darkness"
And I just remembered Johnny Rivers' "Memphis".
And apologize for the sparsity of country and soul.... I never "got" James Brown until the '90's, but "Poppa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" oughta be on there too.
And "Ring of Fire" and "Folsom Prison Blues"
OK I yield the mic now.

Westerly Wood said:

Right Al, some think James Taylor killed rock and roll

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You mean he didn't?

Great list above, what great AM radio hits to cruise to,

Yes she did not get to be his wife but look here.

She was hot!

https://www.google.com/search?q=Jea...ei=MQdoWbn4MMHQmwH2sZUQ#imgrc=iigTIEvhUxaA_M: