Pop Music: The Soundtrack to My Childhood

But not everyone felt the love

catalogue from which my dad bought his stereo kit (my own photo)

I fell in love with pop music at an early age. My young ears regularly listened appreciatively to chart hits that my parents had illicitly recorded from the radio onto a reel-to-reel tape recorder. These included Sacha Distel’s This Guy’s in Love With You, Chris Montez’s The More I See You and The Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones. My real love during those formative years was, however, The Beatles.

My dad, owner of the aforementioned tape recorder, was a bit of a home audio buff. He constructed a stereo record player from a kit (catalogue above), which he tested out with a James Last album. I remember being almost mesmerised at the way individual instruments came through the separate wooden speakers. I got to appreciate my dad’s efforts even more when he bought the Beatles’ album A Hard Day’s Night, which he played frequently.

Wacky Weirdness

With the soundtrack to my childhood provided by Radio One and Top of the Pops, I went on to be a pretty clued-up kid on the pop music scene. I knew my Dylan from my Donovan, my Honeycombs from my Honeybus, and my PJ Proby from my Billy J Kramer. I loved the wacky weirdness of the fashions and the hairstyles, and, even at that young age, I became thoroughly absorbed in this fresh and vibrant…