The world changed dramatically during the second half of the Twentieth Century, as the United States became the most powerful nation both politically and culturally. One American phenomenon that has left its mark in all corners of the world is pop music. Here is my list of the most important pop songs of the Twentieth Century, in chronological order. Perhaps they were not the first, the best or the most original, but they were the right thing at the right time, and they changed history.
1. "Rock Around the Clock," (1954). Bill Haley and the Comets. In the early years of Rock music, the inclusion of this song would be a no brainer. It was the first great Rock and Roll hit, selling 25 million copies. Nowadays, we may have a desire to right the record, and say that black performers like Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley and Ike Turner were the real originators of the style, but the fact is that in the segregated atmosphere of that time, it was necessary for a talented white group to champion the music to a larger audience. The Comets were able to rise to the occasion.
2. "Only You," (1955). The Platters. They became the personification of the emerging doo-wop style which was a blend of rock and roll combos and vocal styling that can be traced back to the Ink Spots and other performers of the Big Band era. Doo-wop was first successfully introduced by the Penguins a year earlier, with "Earth Angel," but it was The Platters, a classy act from the West Coast that really established the genre. Their many hits, such as "The Great Pretender" and "My Prayer," served as a standard of quality for other groups to strive for. With its popularity in the multi-ethnic society of the Northeast, doo-wop was the first racially integrated style, and it still has a devoted following to this day, thanks to the many brilliant vocal performances.
3. "Hound Dog," (1956). Elvis Presley. In that year Elvis exploded on the scene with this hit, plus "Blue Suede Shoes", "Heartbreak Hotel" and others. He was revolutionary in the McCarthy era age of conformity. The influence of Elvis Presley cannot be underestimated: he introduced national audiences to rockabilly music, white audiences to black rock and roll and his on-stage persona made venues accessible for the even more flamboyant acts like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. He created the Rock and roll version of the teen idol, updating the image from Frank Sinatra's time.
4. "La Bamba," (1958). Ritchie Valens. This song is important on two counts: it brought the Spanish language and Mexican tradition into the mainstream of Rock music. The opening phrase, "Para bailar la Bamba," sounds like an historic cry, "un grito." It is also important because it launched the fad of dance songs that conceived of dance as an expression of the inner self, rather than a dating ritual. "In order to dance the Bamba, you have to have a touch of grace," and listeners began to see dancing in a new light, as communication with their own bodies.
5. "Shop Around," (1960). Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. A perfectly crafted blend of doo-wop vocals and driving rock and roll beats, this is the recording that launched Motown. The Shirelles, a New York "girl group" had scored a hit a few months earlier with "Dedicated to the One I Love," (1959), thus establishing the genre. The Shirelles were trailblazers, building on the success of the earlier doo-wop oriented Chantels and leading to many other girl groups, but it was Motown that became the spiritual home of this new musical style that eventually came to be called "soul music," and so the Motown recording is the one that made history. Motown was one of the richest veins of pop music of this entire period, culminating in the landmark recording, "Papa was a Rollin' Stone," (1972) by the Temptations. By that point the cultural revolution that was the 1960s had transformed the Motown sound into something completely different.
6. "At Last," (1961). Etta James. Mixed the styles of raucous R and B, Rock and roll and the female slow groove. She did not have the jazz cachet of her contemporary Dinah Washington, instead she represented a new, rebellious era of earthy hedonism. She opened the way for the acceptance of other iconoclastic female performers like Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin (with her distinctive version of "Summertime"). It proved to be fertile ground for male singers, as well, notably, Percy Sledge with "When a Man Loves a Woman," (1969).
7. "She Loves You," (1963). The Beatles. Though not an American group, they had an enormous influence on the history of American music and the pop culture of the 1960s. "I Wanna Hold your Hand" was their first U.S. hit in January, 1964, and was followed almost immediately by this song. The two songs taken together illustrate the innovative quality of the Beatles in terms of melody, song structure and vocal harmonic style. "She Loves You," however, was the more iconic of the two, with its "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" refrain that came to symbolize this genre. The British Invasion that followed changed music history.
