1960: Turn the Jukebox Way Down Low

2 — Johnny Preston: "Running Bear"

5 — Jimmy Clanton: "Go, Jimmy, Go"

5 — Mark Dinning: "Teen Angel"

7 — Jim Reeves: "He'll Have to Go"

5 — Johnny & The Hurricanes: "Beatnik Fly"

4 — Johnny Horton: "Sink the Bismark"

4 — Elvis Presley: "Stuck on You" / "Fame and Fortune"

1 — Anita Bryant: "Paper Roses"

5 — Jeanne Black: "He'll Have to Stay"

3 — Lonnie Donegan: "My Old Man's a Dustman"

7 — Connie Francis: "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" / "Jealous of You"

4 — Hank Locklin: "Please Help Me, I'm Falling"

3 — Brian Hyland: "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini"

5 — Elvis Presley: "It's Now or Never" / "A Mess of Blues"

9 — The Ventures: "Walk — Don't Run"

8 — Jimmie Rodgers: "The Wreck of the John B"

6 — Bob Luman: "Let's Think About Living"

6 — The Drifters: "Save the Last Dance for Me"

3 — Lolita: "Sailor (Your Home Is the Sea)"

3 — Johnny Horton: "North to Alaska"

7 — Elvis Presley: "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" / "I Gotta Know"

8 — Bert Kaempfert: "Wonderland by Night"

"1964 can't come fast enough". These words appear in my write up on 1959 and it's a sentiment I've been thinking to myself for quite some time. Certainly it will be nice to welcome The Beatles to Old Familiar Tunes but with them come a whole new crate of problems. First there will be all those Fab Four rip off artists or, to be slightly more charitable, groups who hit it big simply because they too happened to hail from Merseyside. Then, there's the fact that all this mostly great instrumental pop will have faded away by the time John, Paul, George and Ringo came along. Finally, '64 marks the changeover from the CHUM hit parade to the RPM listings as Canada's national chart. While it's nice that things won't be quite so Toronto-centric, the new charts will have an almost weekly turnover of number ones for the next four or five years. Forty-seven number ones in 1966? Sign me up!

I hadn't anticipated much out of 1960 and at least I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the odd number that came up. Jimmie Rodgers' "The Wreck of the John B" wasn't quite my favourite of the year but it wasn't all that far off either. That said, six entries scoring a 3 or less isn't great. Plus, there's another ten which fall in the mediocre range. Luckily, things are going to steadily improve from this point forward.

1961 looks set to be a fine if unspectacular year. The likes of The Marcels, Del Shannon, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison and Dion look set to raise the standards while the novelty hit makers of the age continue to seem content with dragging everyone down with them. Some people never learn, do they?

1964 can take its time getting here. Let's just leave it at that for now.