6 of the 60s: 9/18/13 (1961)...

I'm ready to go back, back in time, back to the 60s, and this week I arrive in 1961, the year that the Eritrean War for Independence started, where the east African nation of Ethiopia was split after a 30-year conflict.

The Highwaymen - "Michael"
from the album The Highwaymen (1960)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #1
Songwriter: Traditional (arrangement by Dave Fisher)

Five college boys from Wesleyan stripped most of the soul and added a heap of harmony to this African-American spiritual from the 1860s and topped the chart a century later.

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James Darren - "Goodbye Cruel World"
from the album Sings For All Sizes (1962)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #3
Songwriter: Gloria Shayne

Another Philly boy that sounds like he was pushed into singing along with his acting career, the former Gidget star released this the same year he tried going adult in The Guns Of Navarone...

Ferrante & Teicher - "Tonight"
from the album Tonight (1961)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Songwriters: Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim

This pair of dueling pianists had the highest-charting version of this classic from West Side Story, though the album sales from the movie and Broadway show I'm sure dwarfed this.

Bobby Edwards - "You're The Reason"
from the album Hard To Find 45s on CD: Pop & Country Classics (2002)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #11
Songwriters: Bobby Edwards, Terry Fell, Fred Henley, Mildred Imes

This obscure country singer's had a brief moment in the sun with this top-10 country hit for the man surnamed Moncrief. 

Al Caiola - "Bonanza"
from the album Golden Hit Instrumentals (1961)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #19
Songwriters: Ray Evans, Jay Livingston

While the official version of the TV show theme was recorded by stripper-lover David Rose, the legendary guitarist from Jersey City ruled the radio and sales charts with his cover.

The Brothers Four - "Frogg"
from the album Roamin' (1961)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #32
Songwriters: Bob Flick, Dick Foley, Mike Kirkland, John Paine (taken from a traditional song)

I'll end with another college folk group (this time from the University Of Washington) taking on another traditional song, an old English piece from the 1500s, done in a less reverent but just as blandly harmonic as the first.

That does it for this 60s flashback...I'll return tomorrow with 7 more from 1971 and 8 from 1981...