The Worst Best Album of 1963
A new Riff series
For this series, I’m starting in a place where I can actually remember listening to music, that magical year of 1963, when I turned seven years old. Everything here is totally subjective (as if nothing else I write is). So…
Check out this list of the 100 top selling albums of 1963:
It’s a pretty incredible list, given how the music was shifting and really all over the place. Yes, the Beatles (# 3, 8, 72, & 96) made a big mark, but so did the Beach Boys (# 11, 15, 21), Peter, Paul, & Mary (# 4, 5, & 9), and a host of others from Henry Mancini to Barbra Streisand, to…The Searchers.
As you’ll note, the number one album of 1963 was James Brown’s Live at the Apollo, and the #100 album of the year was The Smothers Brothers’ The Two Sides of The Smothers Brothers. Unbelievably, I own neither of these albums and hate myself pretty badly for it. Many others on the list I don’t and likely never will own, and I’m thinking mainly about Allan Sherman’s My Son the Celebrity (#29) and the Swingle Singers’ Bach’s Greatest Hits (#30), though I have to admit that I would like to hear what the hits sound like sung by this…group whom until right now, I had never heard of.
There are some incredible records on this list, like Roy Orbison’s In Dreams (#36), Del Shannon’s Little Town Flirt (#46), Bill Evans’ Conversations with Myself (#52), Dylan’s The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (#2), Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco (#12), and Elvis’s Golden Records Vol. 3 (#17),
However, there are also some…questionable records, and since I am choosing to nominate only one for this and every year’s Worst Best Album, here is 1963's:
Richard Chamberlain’s Richard Chamberlain Sings (#44).
Though it was released in 1962, it found its home in the following year, capitalizing on the actor’s popularity in the hit TV show, Dr. Kildare. Now, in true confession mode, I once knew someone who had the record as, apparently, many did, though I don’t recall her ever playing it for me — she had a crush on Dr. Kildare as, again, many others did.
And maybe it is really great.
It includes Chamberlain’s version of The Everly Brothers’ hit “All I Have to Do is Dream,” but most astoundingly, it also includes “The Theme From Dr. Kildare (Three Stars Will Shine Tonight),” written by Jerry Goldsmith, Hal Winn, and Pete Rugolo, a single which reached #10 on the Billboard hit chart.
Still, when an album announces that anyone who hasn’t yet, to our knowledge “Sings,” I’m thinking that if we have to be told, all is likely lost (He acts, he SINGS!!!!!!!!!). What else will he do next?
And please remember, 56 albums ranked below this one, including Johnny Cash’s Ring of Fire (#80), Buddy Holly’s Reminiscing (#56), and Patsy Cline’s Patsy Cline Story (#55).
Okay, I just listened to that theme song, so as to not be one who comments about something he hasn’t heard.
Ugh.
Give me Andy Williams any day (his Moon River and Other Movie Themes, beat out Chamberlain by 17 places at #27).
This is all relative and for fun, so if Mr. Chamberlain was once your guy, no hard feelings, right?
Coming soon to a Riff discussion near you, 1964.
All shots welcomed, right Noah Levy, Kevin Alexander, Rob Janicke, Jessica Lee McMillan, Nicole Brown, David Acaster (host of October’s Riff album discussion featuring Willie Nelson’s 1982 hit, Always On My Mind), Steven Hale, Paul Combs, Chris Zappa, Pierce McIntyre, TheWellSeasonedLibrarian, Jim Mowat, If Ever You’re Listening, Michael Hall, Zsófia Vera, Brandy Niremburk, Danielle Loewen, Reuben Salsa, JP Timko, Alex Markham, Alexander Briseño, and Kathryn Dillon?