1054 Followers
231 Following
SusannaG

SusannaG - Confessions of a Crazy Cat Lady

Just another GR refugee.  Other than that, I had a stroke in 2004, and read almost anything I can get my hands on, though I have a particular weakness for history, mystery, and historical fiction.

Currently reading

Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition
Paul Watson
Progress: 6 %
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
Ed Yong
Progress: 40 %
Wizard's First Rule
Terry Goodkind
Progress: 49 %
Thomas Cromwell: The Untold Story of Henry VIII's Most Faithful Servant
Tracy Borman
Progress: 14 %
Storm in a Teacup: The Physics of Everyday Life
Helen Czerski
Progress: 20 %
The Hanover Square Affair
Ashley Gardner
Progress: 10 %
Medieval Tastes: Food, Cooking, and the Table (Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History)
Beth Archer Brombert, Massimo Montanari
Progress: 10 %
Scars of Independence: America's Violent Birth
Holger Hoock
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari
Progress: 9 %
Elizabeth: The Forgotten Years
John Guy
Progress: 20/512 pages

Earworms: 1963

The last pre-Beatles year in American music, which was shortly to be very different.

 

Charting in 1963: It's My Party (Leslie Gore), Louie Louie (The Kingsmen), Be My Baby (The Ronettes), Blowin' in the Wind (Peter Paul & Mary - written by Bob Dylan), Bo Diddley (Buddy Holly; he had a couple of posthumous hits in 1963), Da Doo Ron Ron (The Crystals), He's So Fine (The Chiffons), Heat Wave (Martha and the Vandellas), My Boyfriend's Back (The Angels), Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash), Surf City (Jan and Dean), and Up on the Roof (The Drifters).

 

It was also a very big year for The Beach Boys (with hits including everything from Be True to Your School to Little Deuce Coupe and Surfin' USA).

 

Weirdest hit of the year: Sukiyaki.    Sung in Japanese.  To this date the only Japanese-language #1 hit song in the history of the U.S. charts.  (We heard it in class today.  The overwhelming response was TURN IT OFF!)