American Heartbeat 1961

One Day's double-disc compilation American Heartbeat 1962 collects 50 big hits from 1962. It's a year things were somewhat in flux, with lots of the original rock & rollers fading from the spotlight and a fair amount of middle-of-the-road pop making its way to the top of the charts -- this includes Acker Bilk's smash "Stranger on the Shore" -- but it also saw the rise of surf rock from the Beach Boys, sultry rock from Roy Orbison, the melodramatic Gene Pitney, the dynamite "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)" from Barbara George, the Tornados' "Telstar," and great singles from Elvis Presley and Ray Charles, all of which amounts to a very nice year indeed. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine