3 Nostalgic Songs You’ll Remember if You Were a Kid in 1961

The early 1960s were quite an important time in music. By the end of the decade, rock and pop as we know it would radically change into something new, psychedelic, and legendary. The classic 1950s era of rock and roll would start it all. And some musicians in the early years of the 1960s helped to evolve the genre in a big way. Let’s take a look at just a few pop, rock, and country songs that anyone who was a kid in 1961 would feel nostalgic over!

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“Travelin’ Man” by Ricky Nelson

How about this somewhat forgotten gem in the doo-wop and pop genres? “Travelin’ Man” by Ricky Nelson was released in April 1961. It became a No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. 

Fun fact: Songwriter Jerry Fuller originally wrote this tune for Sam Cooke to sing. However, Cooke’s manager wasn’t particularly impressed, and the song was passed on to Nelson. It worked out in his favor, as Nelson’s “Travelin’ Man” topped the charts in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

“Crying” by Roy Orbison

How about a little Roy Orbison? This wouldn’t be a proper list of early 60s hits without mentioning one of his nostalgic songs from 1961. “Crying” was released in July 1961 and quickly became a big hit for the singer. The song was the title track of Orbinson’s third album of the same name. “Crying” made it all the way to No. 2 on the Hot 100 chart. The song did quite well in Canada and the UK, too. Don McLean would later cover the song in the late 1970s, and that version would hit No. 1 in the UK.

“I Fall To Pieces” by Patsy Cline

This Patsy Cline hit was one of the late country crooner’s finest. And it’s definitely one of the most nostalgic songs to debut in the year 1961. “I Fall To Pieces” was released early in 1961 and was written by Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. The single was an immediate success for Cline after some smart promotional efforts, despite not getting much airplay in those early months. Today, “I Fall To Pieces” is considered one of the finest country songs of all time, if not the best to come out of the 1960s.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns