6 of the 60s: 7/10/13 (1963)...

Hey gang, it's time for this week's trip back to the 60's, and now I'm returning to 1963, the year the US Postal Service introduced ZIP codes....

Jan & Dean - "Surf City"
from the album Surf City and Other Swingin' Cities (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1 
Songwriters: Jan Berry, Brian Wilson

Before the Beach Boys dominated the genre, these two set the stage for teens all over America to begin to take over what pop radio would be playing and juke boxes would be selling...

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Johnny Thunder - "Loop De Loop"
from the album Loop De Loop (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
Songwriter: Teddy Vann

The man born Gil Hamilton in Florida toured with the Drifters and sang backup for Dionne Warwick, and even recorded an early version of the Exciters' hit "Tell Him". But he did get a short moment in the sun with this frivolous soul bounce.

The Kingston Trio - "Reverend Mr. Black"
from the album The Kingston Trio #16 (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Songwriters: Jed Peters (Mike Stoller & Jerry Lieber), Billy Edd Wheeler

The biggest group of the pre-British invasion era, the folkies took this adapation of a 30s folk song into a pop hit that was daring in the age of teeny boppers and old school vocalists on different worlds...

Nat "King" Cole - "That Sunday, That Summer"
from the album Those Lazy-Hazy-Crazy Days Of Summer (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12
Songwriters: Joe Sherman, George David Weiss

The smooth, sweet voice of Cole was perfect for falling asleep in a hammock in these warm months..

The Orlons - "Cross Fire!"
from the EP Cross Fire! (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19
Songwriters: Dave Appell, Kal Mann

The Philly vocal group didn't win me over on this until the last soulful wails of this moderate hit single.

Roy Orbison - "Blue Bayou"
from the album In Dreams (1963)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29
Songwriters: Roy Orbison, Joe Melson

Linda Ronstadt would take this song to greater heights in the 70s, but Orbison's achy voice is truly what this song had been intended for.

That's it for this week's half-dozen nuggets from the sixties...tomorrow I'll be back with 7 more from 1973 and 8 from 1983.