The set list of Neal Ford and the Fanatics, 1965. Click to enlarge.
(Texas Music Collection, University of Houston)
Perhaps the most elusive aspect of 1960s music research is determining what songs bands actually played live. The best one can hope for in most cases is the retrieval of the few songs that stuck in a musician's memory as being particularly resonant with crowds -- "When we did 'Shout,' that really killed 'em!" Few set lists from the era survive today. Indeed, for much of the time, bands did not even go through the formality of writing down a set list, much less keeping copies. Set lists were constantly in flux, mirroring the constantly changing state of popular music. After a week or two, the current set list would be as obsolete as yesterday's papers.
Only a few set lists from the Houston '60s scene survive. The one pictured above is housed in the Texas Music Collection at the University of Houston. No band is listed, but it was found among the papers of Richard Ames, the manager of Neal Ford and the Fanatics, and the inclusion of their original "I Will Not Be Lonely" guarantees the identification with that band.
If this was used as a set list, it was unusually short set that night. Thirty-nine songs at approximately three minutes each would consume only two hours, about two hours short of the average duration of a live gig in 1965. However, it wasn't that uncommon for bands to be hired to play for only two hours, depending on the event. Perhaps it was not a "set list" per se, but simply a list of the bedrock of their repertoire that month. The year is certain due to the lack of any 1966 songs appearing on the list.
The 39 songs and their genres can be broken down thus:
1. Johnny B. Goode (standard)
2. Glad All Over (British Invasion)
3. Medley (unknown)
4. Round & Round (standard/British Invasion)
5. I'm Crying (British Invasion)
6. What'd I Say (Ray Charles/standard)
7. Hang on Sloopy (McCoys/Top 40)
8. Louie, Louie (standard)
9. Mojo (?)
10. You're My Sunshine (sic) (You Are My Sunshine) (standard)
11. Get Out of This Place (sic) (British Invasion)
12. Twist & Shout (standard)
13. I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better (Byrds/Top 40)
14. Tambourine Man (Byrds/Top 40)
15. She's About a Mover (Sir Douglas Quintet/Top 40)
16. Big Boy Pete (The Olympics/Paul Revere and the Raiders)
17. Satisfaction (British Invasion)
18. Do You Love Me? (Contours/British Invasion)
19. I Will Not Be Lonely (original)
20. The Turn On Song (British Invasion)
21. Wine, Wine, Wine (standard)
22. Keep on Dancin' (Gentrys/Top 40)
23. All I Really Want to Do (Byrds/Top 40)
24. Bells of Rimney (sic) (Byrds album cut)
25. Last Time (British Invasion)
26. Hard Day's Nite (sic) (British Invasion)
27. Dirt (?)
28. Hide Your Love Away (sic) (British Invasion)
29. You Can't Do That (British Invasion)
30. The Dog (The Dog? Walking the Dog?) (both Rufus Thomas)
31. House Othe Rising Sun (sic) (standard/British Invasion)
32. Are You Sincere? (standard)
33. Sleep Walk (instrumental/standard)
34. Unchained Melody (Righteous Brothers/Top 40)
35. Donna (Richie Valens? Dion?)
36. Anna (Arthur Alexander/British Invasion)
37. Cry to Me (Solomon Burke/British Invasion)
38. How Strong My Love Is (sic) (O.V. Wright/Otis Redding/British Invasion)
39. Time is on My Side (British Invasion)
Not everything here is limited to one genre, but the Fanatics' set list can roughly be categorized the following way: 10 pop/rock standards (26% of the set), 16 British Invasion songs (41%), 7 current non-British Top 40 radio hits (18%), 1 instrumental (2.6%), and 1 original (2.6%). The remainder are either undetermined, R&B/soul, or somewhat familiar songs like "Anna" that were not quite standards.
Though incomplete, the list gives us a snapshot of how a typical night at a Fanatics dance would have sounded for about two hours during the autumn of 1965. "Cry to Me" and "That's How Strong My Love Is" are most likely sourced from the recent Rolling Stones album, Out of Our Heads, rather than the originals (though this is possible). Of the three Beatles' originals present, "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" from the summer's Help! movie and soundtrack, is the most curious choice, since this moody ballad wouldn't seem to have been a crowd pleaser. The British Invasion song on the list most unfamiliar to listeners today, but not in 1965, is undoubtedly "The Turn On Song" by Ian Whitcomb and Bluesville. The title is actually "You Turn Me On (Turn On Song)," and it reached #8 on the Billboard charts in July of that year. Though a huge hit, the song has been excluded from oldies radio playlists in the ensuing decades, perhaps because Whitcomb's falsetto vocals veer too close to novelty record status for modern tastes.
It is somewhat surprising that the Fanatics included more Byrds songs than Beatles among these 39, especially the mournful "Bells of Rhymney" -- not a single, but the last track on side one of the Mr. Tambourine Man album (released June 21, 1965, so only about three months old when this set list was created). Perhaps they wanted to avoid being dismissed as mere Beatles imitators. The preponderance of Byrds songs suggests that lead guitarist Johnny Stringfellow was already using a 12-string guitar by this point, though plenty of groups transposed the Byrds to 6-string.
"Donna" is a mystery, since two different hits had that title, first by Riche Valens in October, 1958, and Dion in 1963 (actually titled "Donna the Prima Donna"). One suspects that it was the latter, though both would have sounded outdated in the fall of 1965. When we recall that Ford's singing career had begun around 1963, we shouldn't be surprised to find several songs from this slightly earlier period present on the list. (Of course, this dictum excludes evergreen Chuck Berry songs from 1957-58.)
"Mojo" points to either "Got My Mojo Working" (Muddy Waters) or a song derivative of it, "Mojo Workout" (Larry Bright, the Kingsmen, or Paul Revere and the Raiders). If it is the former, the Fanatics most likely learned it from the Zombies' first album (where they would also find "Woman," recorded the following year but not released until 1988).
Totally written out of most sixties memories are the sentimental ballads that most bands included in their sets, here represented by "You Are My Sunshine" and "Are You Sincere?" Such material became casualties in the psychedelic revolution to come in 1967, and nobody seems to have lamented their passing very much.
"The Dog" is most likely Rufus Thomas' song of the same title (covered by Otis Redding), or perhaps Thomas's answer record, "Walking the Dog," or the Rolling Stones' cover of it.
The most intriguing title here is "Dirt." This could have been the instrumental by Tom King and the Starfires, "Stronger Than Dirt," or the better-known vocal by A. Jacks and the Cleansers with the same title. The latter appeared on a small label, but appears to have been widely dispersed, as many bands had this in their repertoire for a time. Perhaps it was a band original, with no relation to other variations on the Ajax cleanser television commercial theme.
The only verifiable original, "I Will Not Be Lonely," had been a local hit when released on the Gina label a few months earlier. It is the band's best-known song today, having been continually reissued since 1980.
The McCoys' "Hang on Sloopy" entered the charts on August 14, 1965, followed several weeks later by the Gentrys' "Keep on Dancing." The presence of these two massive Top 40 hits on the set list allow us to date it to no earlier than September, 1965. The lack of anything later equally suggests that the list cannot date from very far past that month. By December, many of these songs had probably been dropped from the repertoire, and the Fanatics' set list from early 1966 must have looked markedly different from this one.
Below: The Fanatics' Johnny Stringfellow (Gretsch lead guitar) and Jon Pereles (Fender Jazzmaster rhythm guitar) in early 1965. (Facebook Photo)
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