I used to work a 4p.m. to 1a.m. job in 1965. On the thirty-minute drive home, the radio always played Bert Kaempfert’s “3 O’clock In the Morning”. Came close to dozing off many times. Roy Orbison had an amazing range, never cut a bad record as far as I’m concerned. Ben E. King (with or without the Drifters) was great and any of the girl groups who recorded for Phil Spector, what can you say? Oh, and Booker T & the MGs!
And just like you, this music lives on, rent-free, in my head.
And I didn’t even mention the singer who, if I could sing like anyone, it would be him: Marty Robbins. His songs were pure excitement.
We still had Dean Martin, too, and Gene Pitney, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Vee, Bobby Rydell, Frankie Avalon, Paul Anka.., Oh, don’t get me started again.
And not to mention, all those folk-singing groups I didn’t mention before.
And others keep coming to mind: Ricky Nelson, Chuck Berry, Johnny Rivers, Jim Reeves, Elvis, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, the one-hit Marcels (but oh what a hit, their version of “Blue Moon”), and one-hit Lenny Welch (he can still bring tears to my eyes with that song, “Since I fell for You”). And I’m still talking strictly 1961, IIRC.