Beginning and end of the Oldies era

[hornet61]

What are Oldies? I used July 1955 - July 1972 as a historical guideline for the subject, given the events they represent, nothing more, everyone has valid points about the start and end of the Oldies era. Cyberdad said it best, It's in the ear of the beholder.
For my dad Oldies were 1939-1946, for his younger brother Val, It was 1944-1954, for me 1955-1975, for my daughter 1982-1994, and so on. This wonderful music we call oldies during it's infancy, as some have pointed out, started with Big Band mixed with blues and it produced Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Joe Liggans. Blues and Gospel may have given us Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Put together black, white, gospel, western and it gave us Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Then in 1962 five young Brits put all of the above together and it was called the British invasion. Oldies are from the first cylinder recordings to the Sugarhill Gang, depending on the age of the person. I used to play a game at the record store I worked at, I'd ask their favorite song and I could guess their age within a couple of years.

 

[firepoint525]

What are Oldies? I used July 1955 - July 1972 as a historical guideline for the subject, given the events they represent, nothing more, everyone has valid points about the start and end of the Oldies era. Cyberdad said it best, It's in the ear of the beholder.
For my dad Oldies were 1939-1946, for his younger brother Val, It was 1944-1954, for me 1955-1975, for my daughter 1982-1994, and so on. This wonderful music we call oldies during it's infancy, as some have pointed out, started with Big Band mixed with blues and it produced Louis Jordan, Big Joe Turner, Joe Liggans. Blues and Gospel may have given us Sam Cooke and Little Richard. Put together black, white, gospel, western and it gave us Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Then in 1962 five young Brits put all of the above together and it was called the British invasion. Oldies are from the first cylinder recordings to the Sugarhill Gang, depending on the age of the person. I used to play a game at the record store I worked at, I'd ask their favorite song and I could guess their age within a couple of years.

If 1955-1975 were your years, then the "61" in your name must be a reference to 1961. Was that the year you were born? I am 45 myself, and I also consider the 1955-1975 time frame to be my time frame for oldies, as I said earlier. (My sister (five years younger than me) was a "child of the '80s," but I remembered coming of age more during the 1975-1985 time frame.)

There are "generational" changes in music every few years, in which something new comes in and "sweeps out" everything that came before it. I would consider the following years to be such "watershed" years for changes in music. It's usually when the youth "rise up" against whatever was going on at the time. The "watershed" years would include the following:

1955 (obviously!)
1964
1973-75 (the "softest" change, the hardest one to pin down, the most "fluid" date)
1980 (swept out disco)
1991 ("grunge" kicked out the hair bands, the first generation of "teen queens" (Tiffany, Debbie Gibson) and NKOTB)

Obviously, you could make a case for a year or two on either side of any of the above-listed years. (And I'm sure there have been some more years like that since 1991, but I'm getting too old to have "an ear to the ground" anymore! ;D)

 

[hornet61]

I think we are in agreement about the dates.......by 1961, I had been kissed a few times, my 61 is in reference to one of my high school years. I am considerably older than you

 

[semoochie]

I thought it was a reference to your car.

 

[Al Timiter]

...and regarding the term "Oldies." I think I remember reading somewhere that that word first originated circa 1960 (maybe earlier) when a Top 40 DJ (sorry I can't remember the name) wanted to play a song from a couple of years ago and hence termed it an "Oldie." If that is true, the word should always mean a non-current Top 40 hit. Because of the time in which the phrase was cointed,it was almost always identified with the first wave of Rock and Roll. However, it has come to mean different things to different people. I even started hearing the WWII generation referring to music of the 40's as "Oldies."

 

[landtuna]

...and regarding the term "Oldies." I think I remember reading somewhere that that word first originated circa 1960 (maybe earlier) when a Top 40 DJ (sorry I can't remember the name) wanted to play a song from a couple of years ago and hence termed it an "Oldie." If that is true, the word should always mean a non-current Top 40 hit. Because of the time in which the phrase was cointed,it was almost always identified with the first wave of Rock and Roll. However, it has come to mean different things to different people. I even started hearing the WWII generation referring to music of the 40's as "Oldies."

"oldies" refers to any non-current/previous version. "Oldies" refers to the first generation of Rock and Roll music specifically. You would never hear anyone in the biz refer to any version of Jazz as "Oldies" for instance although you might hear them use the term "a jazz oldie".

I have never heard any people of my parents generation ("The Greatest Generation") refer to the music of their youth as "Oldies". They have almost always used the terms "Big Band" or "Swing" to describe the music of the 30's and 40's. Likewise, you will never hear a twenty-something refer to the music of their youth as "Oldies". As a test this morning I quizzed my kids (ages from 33 to 20) on just what they did call their music and received three blank stares. But they all knew what "Oldies" meant even if they don't listen to it.

I don't necessarily agree with this use of the term but it was apparently coined by a music rating service and the name stuck. I'd prefer a more accurate name to describe the various generations of RnR but since there are very few stations still playing Oldies it probably is a moot point.

 

[hornet61]

Until written proof pre-dates Art Laboe "Oldies But Goodies" series we have to credit Art Laboe with coining the Term "Oldies". Otherwise It's just memory......I heard this DJ in 195X or 196X, in Ohio or Dallas or what ever. I don't have the exact date of the Laboe Series (somwhere late 60's - early 70's) and I can't seem to find that elusive date, but I am continuing to look.

 

[Silkie]

They're just good music, performed by real people who were not prefabricated and cast to work together, performed with real musical instruments, written by people who actually knew how to read and write music.

If we were to place the circle of fifths in front of most today, and I venture a guess that rappers, hip hoppers, dysfunctional teen queen wannabes and prepackaged by interview to pretend might try to decode the secret meaning.

 

[GridLeakBias]

They're just good music, performed by real people who were not prefabricated and cast to work together, performed with real musical instruments, written by people who actually knew how to read and write music.

This statement has more truth than many would believe.

A large percentage of 50s/60s R&R hits were recorded using studio and pick-up musicians. A small portion of the instrumentalists, it turns out, did not read music at all but were self taught. There were those, who if asked to lay down a C#dim7 or an F9sus in the second bar of the break would say, “HUH?” But play the phrase for them and they could fill with beautiful chord progressions, riffs or counter-point.

If we were to place the circle of fifths in front of most today, and I venture a guess that rappers, hip hoppers, dysfunctional teen queen wannabes and prepackaged by interview to pretend might try to decode the secret meaning.

Ask some of the aforementioned for the definition of a Perfect Fifth, I’m sure the answer would be: “An unopened bottle of Jack Daniels.”

 

[radioman148]

Until written proof pre-dates Art Laboe "Oldies But Goodies" series we have to credit Art Laboe with coining the Term "Oldies". Otherwise It's just memory......I heard this DJ in 195X or 196X, in Ohio or Dallas or what ever. I don't have the exact date of the Laboe Series (somwhere late 60's - early 70's) and I can't seem to find that elusive date, but I am continuing to look.

The first time I ever heard the term "oldies" was when Dick Biondi used it on WLS in the early 60s.
Every other record he played on the last hour of his Saturday night show on WLS was what he then referred to as an "oldie".

 

[landtuna]

"Those Oldies But Goodies" by Little Caesar was released in 1961 and it is, to my knowledge, the first time I had heard the phrase.

 

[hornet61]

Little Caesar and the Romans were on Del-Fi an LA label, and Bob Keene was good at Capitalizing on a trend, by 1961 (two years after Art Laboe) the "Oldies" craze was sweeping across America...........one source (60x50 Blogspot) has "Oldies But Goodies" Vol 1 as released late summer of 1959, and peaking at #12 on Billboard in Sep, 59. And what I didn't know, was that this may also be, the first "compilation" LP of the Rock N Roll Era. So, we have a documented starting point for Art Laboe, Jul-Aug 1959.

 

[radioman148]

I seem to remember it before 1961. 59 sounds more accurate I think.

 

[candy_kisses69]

I think everyone has their own opinions what is considered oldies. I think of oldies being around the time of Rock Around the clock to any song from 1969. I don't consider any song from the 70s and 80s oldies. I suppose its because I grew up during that era. Of course obviously alot of the young kids consider 70s and 80s oldies as well as some of these people who run the radio stations on the net. Terrestrial radio considers 60's through early 80s classic hits. As for Disco I would say around starting 1976 is the start of Disco and that ended maybe 1980 or atleast 1979. Personally, 79 was a good year in my opinion. I suppose it was the first year I had my first radio.

 

[radioman148]

>>Personally, 79 was a good year in my opinion. I suppose it was the first year I had my first radio.>>

For most of us the best music was when we started listening to the radio.

 

[Starbucks]

I think everyone has their own opinions what is considered oldies. I think of oldies being around the time of Rock Around the clock to any song from 1969. I don't consider any song from the 70s and 80s oldies. I suppose its because I grew up during that era. Of course obviously alot of the young kids consider 70s and 80s oldies as well as some of these people who run the radio stations on the net. Terrestrial radio considers 60's through early 80s classic hits. As for Disco I would say around starting 1976 is the start of Disco and that ended maybe 1980 or atleast 1979. Personally, 79 was a good year in my opinion. I suppose it was the first year I had my first radio.

As for Disco I would say around starting 1976 is the start of Disco and that ended maybe 1980 or atleast 1979.

73' Started the Disco era with Barry White. It died mid 1980. even though there were still some disco styles hits recorded as long as 2 years later.

 

[landtuna]

Little Caesar and the Romans were on Del-Fi an LA label, and Bob Keene was good at Capitalizing on a trend, by 1961 (two years after Art Laboe) the "Oldies" craze was sweeping across America...........one source (60x50 Blogspot) has "Oldies But Goodies" Vol 1 as released late summer of 1959, and peaking at #12 on Billboard in Sep, 59. And what I didn't know, was that this may also be, the first "compilation" LP of the Rock N Roll Era. So, we have a documented starting point for Art Laboe, Jul-Aug 1959.

Digging through my motley collection of old vinyl I came up with a Vol 6 of Oldies But Goodies album. There is a picture of Art Laboe on the back. He is identified as a "disc jockey from L.A." but looks much more like an engineer (white shirt, tie and obligatory wrist watch).

There is no date on the album but I think I remember buying this recording sometime in 1963 in either L.A. or Long Beach while stationed there in the navy.

 

[radioman148]

Little Caesar and the Romans were on Del-Fi an LA label, and Bob Keene was good at Capitalizing on a trend, by 1961 (two years after Art Laboe) the "Oldies" craze was sweeping across America...........one source (60x50 Blogspot) has "Oldies But Goodies" Vol 1 as released late summer of 1959, and peaking at #12 on Billboard in Sep, 59. And what I didn't know, was that this may also be, the first "compilation" LP of the Rock N Roll Era. So, we have a documented starting point for Art Laboe, Jul-Aug 1959.

Digging through my motley collection of old vinyl I came up with a Vol 6 of Oldies But Goodies album. There is a picture of Art Laboe on the back. He is identified as a "disc jockey from L.A." but looks much more like an engineer (white shirt, tie and obligatory wrist watch).

There is no date on the album but I think I remember buying this recording sometime in 1963 in either L.A. or Long Beach while stationed there in the navy.

In most of the pictures I've seen of Art, he was always dressed up.

 

[hornet61]

Starbucks Disco Era start date 1973 sounds right to me , added to Barry White you could include Earth Wind and Fire , BT Express and the Ohio Players. This phenom was like volcano that was building up a few years that erupted with movie Saturday Night Fever in 1977..........The soundtrack included a Bee Gees song from 1975, Jive Talking.........Disco Lady Johnny Taylor is dated to apr 1976. If you were fortunate enough to each see "Soul Train" in you TV area, they were Disco'ing In the early 70's.. I Loved Don Corneius message at the end of the show "Love, Peace and Soul". Love It Or Hate, there was some great music during the Disco Era.
The term "Disco" which dates back to the late fifties and early 60's , when it meant, Discoteque , "A Club that played records" or the spanish meaning "Record Store" , that term was shortened and changed in the 70's to mean more "A style of music and a style of Dance"
The start and end of "Disco Era" is the same arguement of the original subject here, there are elements of that style of music the pre-dates the "Disco Era" and there are some cuts thru the 80's that could be labeled Disco. I prefer to use the "John Travolta theory" Travolta put Disco on the Map with Sat Night Fever 1977 and then in 1978 he took what American Graffitti started and elevated Oldies back to the top with "Grease" and as a mobile DJ back when all this happening I witnessed the surge in Country Music and a decline in Disco with "Urban Cowboy" in 1980, thats, what I call the John Travolta theory.


Radioman148, if you bought in 1963 you have an original version.......To complicate matters with The Art Laboe Series "Oldies But Goodies" vol 1-XXX, he did the unthinkable, the mortal sin of record collecting.......after many re-issues of the originals, he revised the Lps all the way back to vol 1, taking out the oldest cuts and lower charting cuts and adding 60's and 70's stuff, for his younger listening audience in East LA.
For instance things like "Tell Me Why" by the Rob Roys -would be replaced by "Midnight Train To Georgia" or "The Way You Look tonight" by the Jaguars could be replaced by Al Wilson "Show and Tell" . If I remember correctly the original vol 1-8 were 90% 50's cuts with a few 60'-62' cuts.

 

[Starbucks]

The term Discoteque goes back to the local TV disc jockey shows , even Jerry Blavat used that term way back in the 60's. He was the few that evolved in the pre to the pure disco era so smoothly. But what I'm refering as the pure disco area is the silk shirts club scene, where funk, soul, were evolving with groups like the First Choice, Ecstasy Passion And Pain, where already putting out club hits before hitting the airwaves, Pretty much what Sir Monti Rock was refering to with his Discotex/Sexolettes. This was all 73-75 right before it exploded in 76 and dominating the airwaves until most of 79. Many of the songs were still soul flavored that became disco or played in the clubs as well, like alot of Gamble & Huff.
Stephanie Mills, and Patrice Rushen were still a few artist able to penned a few disco style hits outside the Disco era even though it was evolving into the sound called Urban/funk of the 80's.