Old movies have given us some of the best music of all time. One source for great music was the old children’s movie, “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”. In addition to the theme song, other memorable tunes, like ME OLD BAMBOO and TOOTS SWEETS can be found. My favorite, however, is the DOLL ON A MUSIC BOX song from that movie. In the video clip below is the actual footage from the movie of that song.

The sixties were a decade of extremes in the musical world. The Beatles, Elvis, The Yardbirds, Patsy Cline. Almost all of the groups and solo artists were worth listening to (with the exception of things like “I Am The Walrus” by the Beatles. Thanks a lot, John!). On the other hand, The Lawrence Welk Show and it’s big band sound was still going strong. And, somewhere in the middle of all that were singers like Claude King. What follows is his 1962 hit, WOLVERTON MOUNTAIN.

Although the kids of the eighties thought it was a brand new thing when the Bangles hit the scene, girl groups were not new. They flourished in the sixties, for example. In this classic teen song, LEADER OF THE PACK, the Shangri Las give a rather melodramatic warning to all teen girls. Might be an idea to take heed of the warning, ladies!

The name Bobby Dann doesn’t always spark a lot of recollection, even among music fans. Bobby Dann died in December of 1973, and so has not stayed in the spotlight. To my knowledge, he had only one big hit. What follows is his final television performance, which occurred nine months before his death. I am categorizing this in two places here, because the performance was done in the seventies but it is a sixties hit… SPLISH SPLASH.

One of the more popular songs of the sixties was SNOOPY VS. THE RED BARON, by The Royal Guardsmen. I had actually never seen the band until I watched this clip, but I have loved the song since the first time I heard it. The clip shows them in all their Beatles-bowl cut haired glory. It was very entertaining. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

My granddaughter, Nancy, has always loved hot dogs. As a very young child, her mother was hard pressed to get her to eat anything else. We thought she was going to turn INTO a hot dog. In this classic clip from the Lawrence Welk show, we meet a young lady with the same tastes.

Watching the Lawrence Welk show may seem dull to today’s generation, but there isn’t a member of this family from ANY generation that isn’t familiar with the closing credits theme from the show, which I have here today. We still watch the show every week when it airs on PBS. Hope this brings back fond memories for you as well!

I’m going to include two versions on this one. The first is the classic Marilyn Monroe version, pulled from the movie, and the second, Jane Russell’s version, from that same movie. There is actually a third version, which I tend to like better, done by Carol Channing, but I couldn’t find that one. It, incidentally, was from a completely different movie that starred Carol Channing and Marilyn Monroe.

Anita Bryant was always a bit controversial, once she hit adulthood. From the risque (at the time) beach movies to her political views, a lot of people had a lot to say, and much of it wasn’t good. But no matter what you thought of the woman herself, you couldn’t argue with her music. Her voice is incredible. Here, she sings OH HOLY NIGHT.

Patsy Cline was the ultimate female country singer of the sixties. There are very few people even today who can’t hum at least one of her hits, and most even know who sang them. Patsy Cline was yet another of several performers who died young and tragically. With many others, you have to wonder if they would have been so famous if they had lived, but Patsy was already a legend before the plane crash took her life.