Various Artists - A Year In Your Life: 60s Vol. 1 (2001)

I saved a number of discs from the trash heap this past weekend and I'll spin a few I rescued from this series this week. It's a budget-priced nostalgia sampler, complete with '60s trivia questions in the liner notes and a general decade recap:

According to a now-defunct website, the A Year In Your Life series

provides a nostalgic trip down memory lane for Baby Boomers, Hippies and Generation X alike. An extensive 75 volume (and growing!) collection of music spanning the very best Rock, Pop and R&B hits from the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s, the series is a year by year and decade by decade anthology of the music that was the soundtrack to your life.

Currently, Discogs only lists 21 CDs so I'm unsure how many volumes were ever released; I have three.

Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart

Tracks: 10 tracks, 26 minutes. Not much bang for your buck, but the selections were definitely all hits. This volume skews towards early '60s R&B and that's just fine with me. Today, my favorite track is Hello Stranger.

Artist	Song	Year	Hot 100	R&B
Gene Chandler	Duke Of Earl	1962	1	1
Barbara Lewis	Hello Stranger	1963	3	1
The Ad Libs	Boy From New York City	1965	8	6
Jerry Butler	He Will Break Your Heart	1960	7	1
Gladys Knight	Every Beat Of My Heart	1961	6	1
Lenny Welch	Since I Fell For You	1963	4	-
Soul Survivors	Expressway To Your Heart	1967	4	3
Mel Carter	Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me*	1965	8	-
Dee Clark	Raindrops	1961	2	3
Paul & Paula	Hey Paula	1963	1	1

*A closer inspection of the liner notes reveals the Mel Carter cut is "not the original recording but rather a re-recorded version by the original artist."

Personal Memory Associated with this CD: I was familiar with most of the tunes, but was first introduced to many of them through covers in the '70s and '80s from the likes of Yvonne Elliman, Al Jarreau, Manhattan Transfer, Blues Brothers, etc.