Featuring the top rebel-approved (6.5+) cut from each of the 1961 albums of the year @ TJR: www.thejukeboxrebel.com/album-chart-of-1961 runtime: 1h 11m WORLD ACCLAIM FOR THE BIG O The seismic musical shift from the 1950s to the 1960s was never more perfectly encapsulated than with the work of Roy Orbison, as those wide-eyed 12 bar shooby-doo-wops gave way to something altogether more elegiac, melodramatic and sophisticated. Pop music was growing up right before your eyes. Producers everywhere were experimenting with new techniques and ideas – the close-mike vocals and the lush pop strings of the “Nashville Sound”, showcased this year in the albums of both Roy Orbison and Patsty Cline, was one shining example of innovative studios at work. Scepter maintain their winning formula with the Shirelles sound, whilst Berry Gordy’s Tamla label responds with their Marvelettes. Immune to such fashionable trends is Ivor Cutler who launches his debut full-length, keeping things wonderfully surreal. Top blues LPs appear from Jimmy Reed and John Lee Hooker, and the ever-reliable Fats Domino places two sets in my Top 15 of the year. The bonnie partnership of folk-revivalists Ewan McColl and Peggy Seeger is fruitful this year with two LPs in my Top 10. There are new albums from Jacques Brel and Édith Piaf, who deliver chansons of fine quality, keeping the mix interesting for those with a cosmopolitan outlook. The Jukebox Rebel 09-Dec-2015 (revised 22-Mar-2019)