15 Songs That Defined the Boomer Generation.

[Taltarzac725]

The 15 Songs That Defined the Boomer Generation - Next Avenue (http://www.nextavenue.org/15-songs-defined-boomer-generation/?utm_content=buffer143f1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

Born on 2-24-1959, so I guess I am a boomer? :welcome:

[Chi-Town]

Fun post. I'm tweaking the list now. Thanks.

[MikeV]

good to know.

[ugotme]

All good choices but I don't think I could ever get it down to just 15.
Maybe . . . MAYBE 150 but that would be pushing it. LOL

[Fredwms]

The 15 Songs That Defined the Boomer Generation - Next Avenue (http://www.nextavenue.org/15-songs-defined-boomer-generation/?utm_content=buffer143f1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

Born on 2-24-1959, so I guess I am a boomer? :welcome:

You were only 21 days old when Buddy Holly died with the Big Bopper and Richie Valens. Elvis was going strong when you were still a twinkle in your dad's eyes. The late 50's and early 60's defined rock & roll.

:coolsmiley:

[chuckinca]

make that late 60's and early 70's

.

[fred53]

make that late 60's and early 70's

.

the early 70's as...bleech...disco came into vogue in the 70's..

[DonH57]

I guess now I know why some, and I'm trying to be respectful to older folk look at me and our golf cart and mutter, "damn kids" ! "There goes our village"!

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

One of the few lists that I agree with. Of course, we all might have our favorites or songs that mean more to us, but this is a pretty good list.

The one I'd leave off is Marvin Gaye's "What Going On". It meant nothing to me and my crowd, but then again, I was a white kid from a Boston suburb. I'm sure that it meant a lot to a lot of other people.

[rubicon]

What happened to "Every little breeze seems to whisper Louise"?:D

[l2ridehd]

Just get the sound track from the movie "The Big Chill" and you have my list.

[golfing eagles]

Not a bad list---would have liked to see something from the Four Seasons such as "Big Girls don't Cry" or "Sherry" included

[Number 6]

I don't know about any list that is not personal. I mean they left off "Mr. Tambourine Man" by the Byrds as well as "Do You Believe in Magic" by the Spoonful. How about "Ball and Chain" by Big Brother or "Light My Fire" by the Doors. You see the problem.

If there is one song that defines where my generation was at it would by "Strawberry Fields Forever" I remember hearing it for the first time like it was yesterday. I was riding in the car with my parents on Sheridan Drive outside of Buffalo when the new Beatles song came on (WKBW). It just knocked me for a loop.

[John_W]

Here's the List, the ones in bold are the ones I can relate to;

Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock
Buddy Holly - That'll Be the Day
Danny & the Juniors - At the Hop
Chuck Berry - Johnny B Goode
Ray Charles - What I Say
Chubby Checker - The Twist
The Beatles - I Want Hold your Hand
Martha and the Vandellas - Dancing in the Street
Rolling Stones - I Can't get no Satisfaction
Bob Dylan - Like a Rolling Stone
The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations
Aretha Franklin - Respect
The Doors - Light my Fire
The Beatles - A Day in the Life
Marvin Gaye - What's Going On



It looks like 1969 was the cut-off year, so with that in mind. Instead of Aretha Franklin, why not Jimi Hendrix - Purple Haze, instead of Martha Reeves I'd rather see Creedence Clearwater - Bad Moon Rising, instead of Chuck Berry how about Little Richard - Good Golly Miss Molly, instead of Ray Charles how about Jerry Lee Lewis and Great Balls of Fire, instead of Marvin Gaye how about The Chambers Brothers - Time Has Come Today, and instead of Danny & the Juniors how about Led Zeppelin - Whole Lotta Love. I think the list would rock a little more, and isn't that really what's important here, otherwise if you want ballads, put on Frank Sinatra.

[gomoho]

The first boomers were born in 46. The first song they mention was 57. Back in the day 11 years old was maybe the start of paying attention to music - lots of kids were still playing cowboys and Indians, jacks and starting to think about the opposite sex. Know all the songs, but thing maybe they should have started in 59 and on. Just one person's humble opinion.

[chuckinca]

"Various authors have delimited the baby boom period differently. The United States Census Bureau considers a baby boomer to be someone born during the demographic birth boom between 1946 and 1964.[11] Landon Jones, in his book Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation (1980), defined the span of the baby-boom generation as extending from 1943 through 1960, when annual births increased over 4,000,000. Authors William Strauss and Neil Howe, well known for their generational theory, define the social generation of Boomers as the cohorts born from 1943 to 1960, who were too young to have any personal memory of World War II, but old enough to remember the postwar American High.[12]"

.

[CathyandSteveG]

I was born in 55...and none of these songs would be on my list

[Chi-Town]

Louie Louie by the Kingsmen would have to be in my baby boomer list.

[Laurie2]

The 15 Songs That Defined the Boomer Generation - Next Avenue (http://www.nextavenue.org/15-songs-defined-boomer-generation/?utm_content=buffer143f1&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer)

Born on 2-24-1959, so I guess I am a boomer? :welcome:


The list is fun to think about.

I had never heard of the site nextavenue.org and found lots of interesting things there. Thank you.

[queasy27]

Well, I know the first LP I ever bought on my own was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly.

My personal defining list would lean a lot more towards songs from Cream, Moody Blues, CSN, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, Cat Stevens, Rita Coolidge, etc.

Also Beatles, but I think of those songs more as the soundtrack of my teenybopper years and mooning over John in fan magazines. (Sorry Dr. Boogie).

[Jima64]

The late 50's to through them60's was such a great time for music to me. Early 70's I was licing in San Francisco and can't get any better than that for music.

[JerryLBell]

One of the few lists that I agree with. Of course, we all might have our favorites or songs that mean more to us, but this is a pretty good list.

The one I'd leave off is Marvin Gaye's "What Going On". It meant nothing to me and my crowd, but then again, I was a white kid from a Boston suburb. I'm sure that it meant a lot to a lot of other people.
I was a white kid from a rural area in Michigan and I found "What's Going On" to be one of the truly great songs of that era. I can still listen to it and be transported. It's a slice of audio heaven. That said, I'm sure I can look at the list and pick out songs that make me wonder "What were they thinking when they included this one?"

Lists like this don't tell you as much about the music as they do about the person making the list. It's just way too subjective.

[Walt.]

One of the few lists that I agree with. Of course, we all might have our favorites or songs that mean more to us, but this is a pretty good list.

The one I'd leave off is Marvin Gaye's "What Going On". It meant nothing to me and my crowd, but then again, I was a white kid from a Boston suburb. I'm sure that it meant a lot to a lot of other people.

That's exactly what I thought as I went down the list... yep.. yep... yep... how did that get in there?

I think instead of "What's Going On" they should have included either Del Shannon's "Runaway" or perhaps The Four Seasons' "Big Girls Don't Cry." How about "The Sounds of Silence"
I think WGO may have been a somewhat "insincere" inclusion...

[l2ridehd]

And how could they leave off "My Girl by the Temptations? That song was rated the number one song of the 60's several times.

[mike1921]

I think this is why it is so hard to define a generation in just 15 songs. I agree with ugotme. I would take a lot more songs to do this. There are many ways to define the boomer generation. We could define it just by the music that moves us as many here choose to. Or we could consider the boomer generations participation in the social and political changes that took place in the last part of the 1900's. Music had a great impact on that as well as all of the festivals and concerts that they participated in. If we do that, then songs like "What's Going On" and "Time" take a place on the list as well as well as many many more.

[luvmagic2]

Two I have to add would be: "War" by Edwin Starr with lyrics of "War, huh, yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, uh-huh, uh-huh" and "If You're Going to San Francisco" with lyrics like "All across the nation
Such a strange vibration
People in motion
There's a whole generation
With a new explanation
People in motion
People in motion"

[golfing eagles]

Over the last 20 or 25 years, when I've heard an oldies station do a top 500 of all time on a holiday weekend, consistently the number one song is "In the Still of the Night"

[manaboutown]

The first R&R song I remember is "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets, 1954, I think. Kids were jitterbugging/swing dancing to it. Sometime after that the dancing changed from contact to just get out there and jump around however you want. When the Beattles went on the Ed Sullivan show their sound changed R&R. Of course Elvis the Pelvis going on the same show years earlier surely changed things at that time.

My tongue in cheek favorites were "Purple People Eater", Alley Oop" and "Party Doll".

[big guy]

The first R&R song I remember is "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets, 1954, I think. Kids were jitterbugging/swing dancing to it. Sometime after that the dancing changed from contact to just get out there and jump around however you want. When the Beattles went on the Ed Sullivan show their sound changed R&R. Of course Elvis the Pelvis going on the same show years earlier surely changed things at that time.

My tongue in cheek favorites were "Purple People Eater", Alley Oop" and "Party Doll".

I agree about "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets. First rock n roll song I ever heard and it drove me wild! There was a movie by the name of Blackboard Jungle, with Rock Around the Clock & Jailhouse Rock as theme songs, about a school in New York (I think Brooklyn). I was never a fan of Elvis but Bill Haley recorded "Jailhouse Rock" before Elvis.

[scot_atc]

Baby Boomers are a huge group over maybe too large a time span for lists like these. I was born in 1960 and fall in this group, but by the time I'm turning 10 even the Beatles are calling it quits. I'm a BTO, Aerosmith, Ted Nugent era guy. Won't be hearing much of that in the squares any time soon. Me and my iPod and drumset are on our own.

[big guy]

I agree about "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and his Comets. First rock n roll song I ever heard and it drove me wild! There was a movie by the name of Blackboard Jungle, with Rock Around the Clock & Jailhouse Rock as theme songs, about a school in New York (I think Brooklyn). I was never a fan of Elvis but Bill Haley recorded "Jailhouse Rock" before Elvis.

I found this on Wikipedia which agrees that "Rock Around the Clock" was the first Rock and Roll song:

"Their first session, on April 12, 1954, yielded "Rock Around the Clock", which would go on to become Haley's biggest hit, and one of the most important records in rock and roll history.

Although Haley's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" never achieved the same level of historical importance as "Rock Around the Clock", it actually predated it as the first major international rock and roll hit, although it did not attain the Number 1 position in the American charts, but became his first gold record."