Leave us not forget: Payola - Payola
My buddy Norman Mailer used to say “fug you, man” to me all the time. Is that acceptable?
While I’m at it The Fugs came along later in the '60s and were definitely cool. Say hello to all the people, Suzie Slumgoddess!
Ah, yes, the defining song of a generation, the East Coast answer to West Coast “Mothers”…
Do you like boobs a lot?
Yes, I like boobs a lot.
Do you wear your jock a lot?
Yes, I wear my jock a lot…
(Holy Modal Rounders did a much more musical version, probably linked on the right)
Here are some more, starting from July 1955 (when Rock Around the Clock hit #1 on the charts) and going through 1959:
[ul]
[li]The Yellow Rose of Texas - Mitch Miller[/li][li]Autumn Leaves - Roger Williams[/li][li]Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing - Four Aces[/li][li]Love and Marriage - Frank Sinatra[/li][li]Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) - Perry Como[/li][li]Moonglow and Theme from “Picnic” - Morris Stoloff[/li][li]On the Street Where You Live - Vic Damone[/li][li]Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be) - Doris Day[/li][li]Mama from the Train - Patti Page[/li][li]A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation - Marty Robbins[/li][li]Love Letters in the Sand - Pat Boone[/li][li]Honeycomb - Jimmie Rodgers[/li][li]Fascination - Jane Morgan[/li][li]Chances Are - Johnny Mathis[/li][li]Catch a Falling Star - Perry Como[/li][li]Who’s Sorry Now? - Connie Francis[/li][li]Sugartime - The McGuire Sisters[/li][li]Chanson D’Amour - Art & Dotty Todd[/li][li]Petite Fleur - Chris Barber Jazz Band[/li][li]Battle of New Orleans - Johnny Horton[/li][li]Mack the Knife - Bobby Darin[/li][/ul]
Some of this is really good music - it’s just not the type of stuff that most teenagers listened to.
you know ive noticed the last 2 years of a decade and the first 2 of the new one is usually musically up for grabs and we get more 1 or 2 hit wonders … …
I mean like 88-92 its like people said what ever sounds good … I mean would c&c music factory and roxette have a chance earlier or later ? the hair metal bands were dead or dying same with the boy bands of the age grunge was 2-3 years away having hip hop getting serious also helped …
in the 90s to 00s it was the grunge and hardcore genres fading and Brittney and co was coming in to fill in …
I wouldn’t call Bob Dylan (start of the 60’s) a one-hit wonder. Or the various Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and/or Poco permutations one hit wonders.
What you see happening is that the calendar decades don’t completely correspond to the pop-culture decades- the pop-culture decades usually lag by 2-3 years vs. the calendar, and there’s usually a transition year where things are kind of in flux This seems to hold true for music, fashion and everything else.
The only decade where I’m not quite sure where it changed exactly is the most recent one that we’re in the midst of right now, versus the early 2000s. Being 44, it’s not quite as obvious to me anymore what defines the pop-culture sea changes.
Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that Frank Sinatra did something that was “uncool”??? Is that even possible? I mean, by definition, whatever Frank does is cool. Right? 
I’m 59. When I was a kid, Sinatra was considered uncool and unhip by most people my age. The generation gap was a big thing then, and most kids hated the music their parents liked (and vice versa).
Today’s young people see Sinatra as cool. He no longer represents one side of a cultural rift.
My parents took me to the opening concert at the Richfield Coliseum (midway between Cleveland and Akron) just shy of my 14th Bday in October, 1974. So I got to hear Frank Sinatra while he was still in very good voice. Hated it at the time, but I am SO GLAD they did it.
In 1975 I attended my first-ever rock concert, also at Richfield. Jethro Tull.
Parents also took me to one of the old theaters in Cleveland’s Playhouse Square to hear Mel Torme. Again, SO GLAD.
I now, at 55, own dozens of Frank and Mel records, and no Jethro Tull.
When my son was little, we listened to a radio station’s Frank Sinatra retrospective one morning while we were on a long drive. Once we got out of the car he said, “I love Mommy, Daddy, and Frank Sinatra.”
There’s a tug-of-war between the record companies and the more creative artists. When the companies are in charge, which is most of the time, we get a lot higher percentage of bland stuff. E.g., the early 60s teen idol phase between Buddy Holly and The Beatles. The last dozen years or so. Etc.
When something changes the game, the good artists break out and we get a lot more good stuff. E.g., Rock 'n Roll in the mid 50s, all the mid-60s to early 70s music, the MTV effect in the early 80s, the college radio-indie music of the late 90s early 2000s. Smaller blips like punk. Whole separate universes like Hip Hop.
How controlling were the record companies c1962? Both teen stars of The Donna Reed Show: Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen had Top 10 hits. A few years later, that would not happen.
The post-Buddy Holly pre-Beatles Elvis-Army years were the overlap between the Folk revival (as mentioned above), and the Bobbys: Bobby Vinton, Bobby Rydell, Bobby Van, Bobby Darin…and their ilk, like Frankie Avalon. Teen heartthrob unthreatening crooners.
No, instead you’d find about a half-dozen songs by The Monkees and The Archies. 
ALMOST 100% by definition. Violets For Your Furs was cool. Somethin’ Stupid was creepy.
What’s the UL?
Short version: Dylan showed up in 1965 with Mike Bloomfield and an electric rock band. Started to play “Maggie’s Farm” really loud. The folkie crowd wasn’t used to it and considered Bob a traitor to serious political music, trying to cater to Beatles-loving teenyboppers. Pete Seeger was so incensed he tried to cut the power cable with a fire ax.
The Pete Seeger part probably isn’t true.
Kid: Can Caroline come out and play?
JFK: No, she’s in Italy with her mother.
Kid: Oh. Well what’s Lyndon doing?
And Ricky Nelson. But you also had The Everly Bros, who certainly influenced The Beatles.