The 20th Anniversary Billboard Chart, 20th July 1960 is the latest in a series of anthologies based on the music industry magazine’s sales rankings for a particular week. Earlier compendiums have included such titles as The JFK Inauguration Hot 100, 20th January 1961 and American Bandstand: US Top 100, 5th August 1957. The new set covers the week that marked 20 years since the publication began printing full-page charts in 1940. The collection spans four CDs and comes with a booklet that contains an essay about the Hot 100 chart for July 20, 1960, as well as detailed notes about every track. Like the earlier packages, this latest compendium does a great job of capturing a musical moment.
If you listen to oldies or are an oldie yourself, you’re likely already familiar with most of the songs from the upper portions of the Billboard chart featured here. Among them are such titles as Brenda Lee’s “I’m Sorry” (the No. 1 tune on the Hot 100 for July 20), the Everly Brothers’ “Cathy’s Clown,” Sam Cooke’s “Wonderful World,” and Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely.” You probably also know some of the songs closer to the bottom of the chart that were on their way to or from the Top 10 in the week of July 20, such as Elvis Presley’s “Stuck on You,” which was stuck on No. 93 then but had already spent four weeks in the No. 1 position.
However, you’ll also find lots of little-known tunes among the 97 tracks here. (Copyright issues prevented the inclusion of three selections.) Some of them are excellent, and others are notable for reasons other than artistic merit.
Typical of the period, several versions of some songs appeared simultaneously on the chart. There are multiple renditions of “Look for a Star,” for example, including the original by British singer Garry Mills and three American covers – among them one by an artist who billed himself as Garry Miles in the hope of being confused with Mills. (The ploy might have worked, as Miles’s reading peaked at No. 16 while Mills’s made it no higher than No. 28.)
Also interesting is Johnny Cash’s “Down the Street to 301,” composed by Jack Clement. It sounds like the songwriter’s attempt to create a carbon copy of his earlier “Ballad of a Teenage Queen,” which topped the charts for Cash. And then there’s “There’s a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere No. 2 (The Ballad of Francis G. Powers),” a Cold War tribute to America’s captured spy pilot by an artist who billed himself as Red River Dave. (“In a lonesome prison cell in darkest Russia,” begins the song.)
As you may know, 1960 is not exactly considered a peak year for popular music; on the contrary, the period from 1958–59 (when Elvis entered the Army and Buddy Holly died) to 1962 (before the Beatles exploded) is often regarded as a musical wasteland. There’s no shortage of drivel here to support that argument, such as Bobby Rydell’s “Swingin’ School,” Annette’s “Train of Love,” Paul Evans’s “Happy-Go-Lucky Me,” and Brian Hyland’s “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini.” But there are also dozens of great songs from Orbison, Cooke, the Everly Brothers, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, and many others that belie the era’s reputation.
Also Noteworthy
Various artists, Salsa de la Bahia Vol 3: Renegade Queens. Female musicians in the San Francisco Bay Area might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of salsa. That could change, however, after you listen to this fine anthology. According to filmmaker Rita Hargrave, who co-produced the collection with arranger and trombonist Wayne Wallace, the two-disc set highlights “the pioneering role of women artists in shaping the hybrid nature of Bay Area Latin music.”
The set opens with a lively, previously unreleased big band mambo by a group called the Renegade Queens. The 18 remaining tracks, all originally issued between 1991 and 2023, include such numbers as “Love Walked In,” a salsa interpretation of the George and Ira Gershwin standard by singer Jackie Ryan with the Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet; “The Peanut Vendor,” which features Cuban singer Bobi Cespedes, also with Wallace’s Quintet; and the sprightly, rhythmic “La Lagrima,” a traditional Venezuelan tune beautifully sung by Caracas-born Maria Marquez.
Lance Cowan, Against the Grain. Lance Cowan spent three decades as a music publicist before issuing his debut CD, So Far, So Good, last year. Now, this late-blooming folk/Americana singer/songwriter has a second album, and it evidences no sophomore slump; in fact, Against the Grain is at least as likable as its excellent predecessor.
Cowan provides guitar and affecting lead vocals and composed all 10 songs, half of them with co-writers and many of them about aspects of love. Backup musicians add pedal steel, lap steel, electric and acoustic guitars, percussion, piano, organ, bass, and, on one track, cello.
Not every number hits its mark, and an occasional cliché slips into the lyrics. (“Her love kept me warm inside,” Cowan sings at one point.) But songs you’ll likely want to return to predominate on this gently delivered album, much of which has a Laurel-Canyon-in-the-seventies feel. “One More Chance” and “I Can’t Stand the Winter” are among several selections that sound like ones the Eagles might have recorded.
Antonio Andrade, Here We Go!. The year is young, but it’s safe to say that when it’s over, this covers collection from Pennsylvania-based singer-songwriter Antonio Andrade will rank among the most unusual releases of 2025.
For starters, there’s the program, which includes extremely unlikely bedfellows. Besides containing medleys from both Looney Tunes cartoons and the Eurythmics, the set mixes vintage mainstream pop songs such as “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby,” and “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with numbers like the B-52s’ “Love Shack,” the Cars’ “Drive,” and Neil Young’s “Ohio.” Also here is Rod Stewart’s “Forever Young,” in a version that finds Andrade ill-advisedly fiddling with the lyrics. (“May gesundheit be with you down every road you roam,” he begins.)
Then there’s Andrade’s idiosyncratic delivery and sometimes raspy voice. You’d be well advised to listen to a few of the tracks on Here We Go! before buying the CD to make sure that the singer’s sound isn’t a turnoff for you.
That said, Andrade’s vocals seem to these ears to be a good fit for his atmospheric reimagined versions of some of these tracks, including Bob Marley’s “Waiting in Vain” and J.J. Cale’s “Magnolia.” You might want to skip over several of the other numbers, though.
Jeff Burger’s website, byjeffburger.com, contains five decades’ worth of music reviews, interviews, and commentary. His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters.
