Echoes of the Sixties

By MARTI SMILEY CHILDS and JEFF MARCH

Echoes of the Sixties, the first book by EditPros co-owners Marti Smiley Childs and Jeff March, has been reissued in digital form. The book, which Billboard Books published as a trade paperback in 1999, has been out of print since August 2001. Although several online retailers have continued to offer used and "remaindered" copies of Echoes of the Sixties (for which we receive no royalties), numerous readers have requested an e-book version for electronic readers.

Preserving the original book manuscript, the e-book version of Echoes of the Sixties consists of 12 chapters, each focusing on a musical group or solo artist who first achieved popularity in the 1960s. Every chapter begins with an essay documenting the recording achievements of each band or soloist, followed by individual biographies examining the lives of each of the 43 featured performers. The book contains photographs of the musical artists with whom we had wide-ranging conversations, showing them as youths and as mature adults.

Organized chronologically, Echoes of the Sixties includes chapters about:

• THE FIREBALLS, with vocalists Chuck Tharp and Jimmy Gilmer, whose million-selling song "Sugar Shack" held the No. 1 position on the national charts for five weeks in the autumn of 1963;
  
  

• GARY "U.S." BONDS, whose five top-10 hits included "Quarter To Three," which held the No. 1 spot for two weeks in the late spring of 1961;
  
  

• THE TOKENS, whose African-inspired, million-selling song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" captivated fans and remained on the charts for 13 weeks, including three weeks at No. 1, in the late autumn of 1961;
  
  

• THE ANGELS, the New Jersey trio whose wildly popular condemnation of male boorishness, "My Boyfriend's Back," held the No. 1 spot on the national charts for three weeks in August 1963;
  
  

• PETER AND GORDON, whose No. 1 hit "A World Without Love" distinguished the duo as the first "British Invasion" performers after the Beatles to hit the top of the American charts;
  
  

• MIKE PINDER of the Moody Blues, the band whose brilliant fusion of pop and classical music yielded seven gold and six platinum albums, songs on which included the hauntingly melodic "Nights In White Satin";
  
  

• THE BEAU BRUMMELS, whose hit recordings "Laugh, Laugh" and "Just a Little," produced by Sylvester Stewart (later known as Sly Stone), were at the leading edge of the 1960s musical evolution of San Francisco;
  
  

• SAM THE SHAM AND THE PHARAOHS, the whimsically attired band whose raucously improbable blend of Tex-Mex salsa and Memphis rhythm and blues resulted in the million-selling 1965 hit "Wooly Bully";
  
  

• THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL, whose belief in jug band music and rhythm and blues, as well as folk and rock music, led to seven top-10 hits, including the million-selling "Summer In The City" in the summer of '66;
  
  

• GARY PUCKETT AND THE UNION GAP, whose chart successes during a potent two-year chart run encompassed four successive million-selling rhythmic ballads, including "Young Girl" and "Lady Willpower";
  
  

• COUNTRY JOE AND THE FISH, the band that emerged from the Free Speech Movement at UC Berkeley and assumed the mission of mobilizing opposition to the Vietnam War through the medium of music, exemplified by its satirical antiwar anthem, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die Rag"; and
  
  

• IRON BUTTERFLY, the psychedelic heavy-metal Southern California band whose monumental LP In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, featuring the 17-minute title track, remained on the charts for 140 weeks, more than half of that time in the top 10.

The authors

Marti Smiley Childs (left) and Jeff March with 1951 Seeburg 100c Select-O-Matic jukebox (from the collection of Cindy and Terry Knight).

Photo and book cover design by Amanda Domingues.

"Like" our "Where Have All the Pop Stars Gone" Facebook page for daily posts celebrating  anniversaries in the history of pop and rock music.