I’m taking a short break from fulfilling medley requests and going back to spending a week focusing on a particular year in music. This week that year is 1963.

It was the year President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and his alleged killer, Lee Harvey Oswald was shot and killed on national TV; George Wallace was sworn in as governor of Alabama with a pledge of “”segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”; the “Onion Field” killing took place in Bakersfield, CA; Alcatraz prison closed; the “Birmingham Bombing” killed 4 young girls; Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.
Pope John XXIII died; Medgar Evers was fatally shot in front of his home in Jackson, MS; the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 to strike down rules requiring the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer in public schools; the first members of football’s Hall of Fame were named; Patsy Cline, “Cowboy” Copas and “Hawkshaw” Hawkins died in a plane crash; poet Robert Frost died.

Cleopatra, Lilies Of The Field, The Great Escape, The Pink Panther, Dr. No, The Birds, PT 109 and Tom Jones all premiered in U.S. theaters; Wild Kingdom, The Fugitive, Outer Limits, My Favorite Martian and General Hospital all premiered on television.

The average income in the U.S. was $5,800; the average cost of a new home was $12,600; the average cost of a new car was $3,200; gasoline was 29 cents per gallon; the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed the year at 762.

And in music?

It was the last gasp for many American singing stars. As the year ended, the British Invasion was just around the corner and while females fared somewhat better than their male colleagues in 1964, both had no idea what the music from “across the pond” was going to mean to their careers.

Please Note… I will be getting back to the medley requests next week. If you have 7-10 oldies (preferably between 1955 and 1980) you want to hear in a medley, please send the names of the songs to me at Raylemire@aol.com.

Play button is on the left … Volume slider is on the right

Vintage 1963 Medley / Part 1

Chiffons – Jimmy Gilmer & The Fireballs
Crystals – Dale & Grace – Steve Lawrence
Rooftop Singers – Bobby Vee – Bobby Darin