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Breaking Through
1964 is a breakthrough year for women singers. Three girl groups - Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, the Shangri-las and the Supremes - all make their début on the UK singles chart. Solo singers Mary Wells and Millie have their first hits with My Guy and My Boy Lollipop. Marianne Faithfull, Lulu, Sandie Shaw and Dionne Warwick also make their first mark on the charts.
Established stars like Petula Clark (one of Lyn's favourites), Doris Day and Brenda Lee also return to the charts with top ten hits, while last year's newcomers, Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield build on their 1963 success.
With these singers and girl groups to inspire them, the Chrys-Do-Lyns take to the road. They perform at working men's clubs in England and tour Europe, appearing at venues in France, Germany and Italy.
Recalling how she first started in show business on the John Dunn Show in 1983, Lyn said:
"At weekends we used to go and do the local working men's clubs up north ... so then ... I got thrown out of school when I was fifteen for missing Monday mornings at school .... That led on then to cabaret, clubs and to just being in show business."
Incidentally ...
Walk Away (recorded by Matt Monro) is a début hit for songwriter Don Black. Black will go on to co-write two songs for Lyn Paul - Sail The Summer Winds (written with John Barry) and If Everybody Loved The Same As You (written with Geoff Stephens, who coincidentally also has a hit in 1964 when Dave Berry's recording of The Crying Game makes it to number 5 in the UK singles chart).
 
| In the News - 1964 |
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| Jan |
On 1st January Jimmy Savile presents the first edition of the BBC's new pop programme Top Of The Pops. Dusty Springfield is the first artist to perform on the show, miming to her hit single I Only Want To Be With You.
Anti-American riots in Panama cause diplomatic relations between the two countries to be severed.
On Sunday, 5th January Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantenople meet in Jerusalem. It is the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches for more than 500 years.
Billboard magazine publishes the first Country Music LP chart on 11th January.
Kenneth Kaunda is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Northern Rhodesia on 22nd January.
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| Feb |
On Monday, 6th February the British and French governments announce plans to build a tunnel under the English Channel.
On 7th February thousands of screaming fans greet the Beatles at Kennedy Airport on their first visit to the United States. Two days later an estimated 74 million people - more than 40% of the population - watch the fab four's TV appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.
There is renewed fighting in Cyprus as Greeks and Turks in Limassol take up arms against one another. The families of British servicemen stationed on the island are evacuated. 1,500 reinforcement troops are flown in.
Peter Sellers and Brit Ekland get married on 19th February.
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| Mar |
The first Ford Mustang rolls off the production line on 9th March.
Prince Edward is born on 10th March.
On Saturday, 14th March Jack Ruby is sentenced to death for the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy.
A United Nations peace-keeping force, consisting of Canadian and British troops, takes up station in Cyprus.
There is an earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska on 27th March. Measuring 9.2 on the Richter scale, the earthquake and ensuing tsunami claim 125 lives.
Radio Caroline, Britain's first pirate radio station, takes to the airwaves from a North Sea ship on 28th March.
On 29th March mods and rockers clash on Clacton beach.
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| Apr |
In Haiti, on 1st April, François Duvalier officially makes himself President for life.
The USA and Panama agree to resume diplomatic relations on 4th April.
With Beatlemania sweeping the USA, the Beatles dominate the Billboard singles chart, holding all top five places with Can't Buy Me Love, Twist And Shout, She Loves You, I Want To Hold Your Hand and Please Please Me.
The Labour Party wins the elections for the first Greater London Council on 9th April.
On 11th April the Beatles set a new record on the US singles chart, with 14 of the group's songs simultaneously occupying positions on the new Billboard Hot 100.
The Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, Winston Field, resigns on 13th April. Ian Smith forms a new government.
At the Academy Awards ceremony on 13th April Ann Bancroft presents Sidney Poitier with the Oscar for best actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. Poitier is the first black person to win the award.
The Great Train robbers are found guilty on 16th April and sentenced to 307 years in jail between them.
BBC 2 begins broadcasting on 21st April. The station's launch had been delayed by a day following an explosion and fire at Battersea Power Station, which blacked out parts of London. The first programme on air is the children's show Play School.
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| May |
On Monday, 18th May scores of mods and rockers are sent to prison following Whitsun weekend riots at resorts on the south coast of England, including Brighton, Bournemouth and Margate.
The Drifters' lead singer Rudy Lewis dies unexpectedly on 20th May, aged 27. Lewis had been scheduled to record Under The Boardwalk with the Drifters the next day. Despite his death the recording session goes ahead as planned, with Johnny Moore replacing Lewis on lead vocal.
The Indian Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, dies of a heart attack on 27th May, aged 74.
Schools in Aberdeen are closed following an outbreak of typhoid.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) is formed on 31st May to fight for an independent Palestine.
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| Jun |
The Dutch electronics company Philips launches the compact cassette in Britain.
The British newspaper owner and politician, Lord Beaverbrook, dies in Leatherhead, Surrey on 9th June, aged 85.
The Queen opens the first World Book Fair in London on 10th June.
On 11th June, at the end of an eight-month trial (begun on 10th October 1963), Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison for plotting to overthrow the South African government. Eight other defendants receive lesser sentences, and one is discharged.
The USSR and East Germany sign a 20-year treaty of friendship on 12th June.
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| Jul |
The President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson, signs the American Civil Rights Bill on Thursday, 2nd July, ending racial discrimination in education, public accommodation, union membership, voting and federally assisted programmes.
Nyasaland becomes the independent state of Malawi on 6th July, with Dr. Hastings Banda as its first Prime Minister.
Postal services in the UK are disrupted when Post Office workers implement a work to rule and overtime ban in pursuit of their pay claim. The dispute is settled on 24th July when the Union of Post Office Workers accepts the offer of a 6.5% pay increase. An official strike, due to begin at midnight on 25th July, is called off.
Sir Winston Churchill makes his final appearance in the House of Commons on 27th July.
Malcolm X founds the Organisation for Afro-American Unity.
Jim Reeves dies in an air crash on 31st July, aged 40.
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| Aug |
Northern Rhodesia is renamed Zambia.
On 10th August a cease-fire is agreed in Cyprus.
James Bond author Ian Fleming dies of a heart attack on 12th August, aged 56.
On the same day a member of the gang who carried out the Great Train Robbery in August 1963, Charlie Wilson, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham.
"Topless" dresses become the fashion in London. On 21st August three women are found guilty of indecency for wearing them.
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| Sep |
The Irish playwright Sean O'Casey dies in Torquay, Devon on 1st September, aged 80.
The Forth Road Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in the UK, is opened on 4th September.
The Sun newspaper is launched in the UK on 15th September.
On the same day the first episode of the television series Peyton Place is broadcast in the USA.
Malta gains independence within the British Commonwealth on 21st September.
The musical Fiddler On The Roof is performed for the first time on 22nd September, at the Imperial Theater, New York City.
The ceiling at the Paris Opera House, commissioned by France's Culture Minister André Malraux and painted as a gift by Marc Chagall, is unveiled on Wednesday, 23rd September.
On 24th September the authorities of West Berlin and East Germany sign a ‘Berlin Passes’ agreement, opening the Berlin Wall for a fortnight four times a year.
Harpo Marx dies on 28th September, aged 70.
On the same day the report of Warren Commission investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy is published. It concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone when he shot the President in Dallas, as had Jack Ruby when he shot Oswald two days later.
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| Oct |
Martin Luther King is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on 14th October.
Screaming Lord Sutch stands for Parliament for the first time. The Labour Party wins a four-seat majority in the UK general election held on Thursday, 15th October. Harold Wilson becomes Prime Minister.
On the same day the 70-year-old Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev announces that he is stepping down. Leonid Brezhnev replaces him as leader of the Soviet Communist Party. Alexei Kosygin takes over as Prime Minister.
Cole Porter dies on 15th October, aged 73.
On 16th October China explodes its first atomic bomb at a test site in Sinkiang.
Former US President Herbert C. Hoover dies in New York on 20th October, aged 90.
On 27th October Harold Wilson warns Southern Rhodesia against declaring independence.
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| Nov |
Lyndon B. Johnson, who first became US President after the assassination of President Kennedy, wins a landslide victory in the Presidential election on 3rd November.
On 17th November the UK bans arms exports to South Africa.
The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge linking Brooklyn with Staten Island is opened on 21st November.
The UK's first commercial radio station, Radio Manx, starts broadcasting on 24th November.
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| Dec |
On 11th December Kenya becomes a republic, with Jomo Kenyatta as its first President.
Sam Cooke is shot dead on 11th December by the manager of a Los Angeles motel.
Dusty Springfield is ordered to leave South Africa following her refusal to sing to segregated audiences.
On 15th December Canadian MPs approve the design for a new Canadian flag - a red maple leaf on a white background with red strips either side.
In the UK MPs vote on 21st December to end the death penalty for murder.
A cyclone hits southern India and Ceylon on 23rd December, killing more than 2,000 people.
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Remember then?
Send an e-postcard celebrating the Sixties by clicking on this image.
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Who said that?
Fifteen
Young, free and innocent, you haven't got a care,
Apart from decidin' on the clothes you're gonna wear.
The street's turned into paradise,
The radio's singing dreams,
You're innocent, immortal, you're just fifteen.
Willy Russell, 'Blood Brothers'
England and the English
The English may not like music but they absolutely love the noise it makes.
Sir Thomas Beecham, 'A Mingled Chime'
The English never draw a line without blurring it.
Winston Churchill
An Englishman is a man who lives on an island in the North Sea governed by Scotsmen.
Philip Guedalla, 'Supers and Supermen'
There'll always be an England, even if it's in Hollywood.
Bob Hope
England is the most class-ridden country under the sun. It is a land of snobbery and privilege, ruled largely by the old and silly.
George Orwell, 'The Lion and the Unicorn'
It is easy to understand why the most beautiful poems about England in the Spring were written by poets living in Italy at the time.
George Sanders, 'The Ghost and Mrs. Muir'
England is the paradise of individuality, eccentricity, heresy, anomalies, hobbies and humours.
George Santayana
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle, ...
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea, ...
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.
William Shakespeare,
'King Richard II' (Act II, Scene I)
Abroad
If adventures do not befall a young lady in her own village, she must seek them abroad.
Jane Austen
France
The French will only be united under the threat of danger. Nobody can simply bring together a country that has 265 kinds of cheese.
Charles de Gaulle
The French drink to get loosened up for an event, to celebrate an event and even to recover from an event.
Geneviève Guérin
The overall impression from the British is that they love France but would prefer if the French didn't live there.
John Mortimer
Germany ...
In Germany, everything is forbidden unless it is permitted.
P.J. O'Rourke
... and Italy
In Italy, everything is permitted whether it is forbidden or not.
P.J. O'Rourke
Italy is not a country, it's an emotion.
Juliet Mills, 'Avanti!'
In Italy, the whole country is a theatre and the worst actors are on the stage.
George Bernard Shaw
The Italians are the most civilized people. And they're very warm. Basically, they're Jews with great architecture.
Fran Lebowitz
Blanche: Is that all you Italians know how to do - shout and hit?
Sophia: No, we also know how to make love and sing opera.
'The Golden Girls'
The Italians should never, ever been let in on the invention of the motor car.
Bill Bryson
In Milan, traffic lights are instructions. In Rome, they are suggestions. In Naples, they are Christmas decorations.
Antonio Martino, Italian Defence Minister, 2002
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