The old timers who held off the British Invasion

Bobby Vinton was on a roll during the early 1960s.

His success, like the success of many in the music industry was a combination of talent and pure luck.

Though Vinton is known now as a singer, he was under contract to a record company as a bandleader, but the contract had not worked out well for either side. Vinton had no chart success and was about to be let go by the company when he took a chance on doing a song no one else wanted to perform.

"Roses Are Red," was a top 10 hit and began a string of chart successes like Vinton, with hits such as "Blue Velvet," "Blue on Blue," and the one that reached number one on the charts for four weeks right at the beginning of 1964.







Vinton, who had several hits digging into songs from previous decades, took a 1945 Vaughn Monroe song, "There I've Said It Again," and made it my own. "There I've Said It Again" was always my favorite Vinton song and also holds a significant place in rock history.

It was the last number one song before the British Invasion.

Vinton's song was knocked out of the number one slot the following week by "I Want to Hold Your Hand" by the Beatles and after that it was hard to find a week when the charts were not dominated by British groups with everyone from the ones with staying power like the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks and the Hollies to steadily reliable groups like the Dave Clark Five, Herman's Hermits, Gerry and the Pacemakers and the Searchers.

Many of those who had hits in the early 60s vanished from the charts. No more hits from Chubby Checker, Bobby Vee, Bobby Rydell, Neil Sedaka and the many child actors who recorded hits like Annette Funicello, Paul Peterson, Johnny Crawford and Shelley Fabares.

The idea that the Beatles and the British acts ran everyone else off the charts is fiction, however.

Some of the groups and performers that were having hits before the British invasion continued to crack the top 10 every time out.

The Beach Boys released their first number one hit, "I Get Around" and also charted with "Don't Worry Baby" in 1964, while the Four Seasons continued to ride high with "Rag Doll" and "Dawn (Go Away). All of the Motown performers were successful, including the Supremes who reached number one five straight times.

Bobby Vinton also continued to have success in 1964 with "My Heart Belongs to Only You" reaching number nine and "Mr. Lonely" taking him back to the top of the charts.

Two legends of early rock and roll also held their own with the British groups.

Though he was in the middle of his movie star phase, Elvis Presley charted with a number of songs, including "Such a Night" and "Kissin' Cousins," and the St. Louis' Chuck Berry had two hits, "No Particular Place to Go" and "You Never Can Tell."

Some of those who had great success during the British Invasion era were great talents of an earlier era who may have seemed a bit old fashioned but unexpectedly had success in 1964 and 1965, simply by turning out great songs.

Here's a look at three of those legends.

Louis Armstrong

After the Beatles knocked Bobby Vinton's "There I've Said It Again" out of number one, the Fab Four held the spot for the next three months with their first three singles, until an unlikely artist knocked them out of the top spot.

Louis Armstrong was the greatest jazz musician in history and was no stranger to success in the music industry, but his hits were in the '20s and '30s. His rendition of the song "Hello Dolly" from the Broadway musical of the same name made him the oldest performer to ever hit number one on the Billboard charts at age 63.




Dean Martin

The Beatles continued to dominate the charts later in 1964, with their number one hits including the title song from their movie "A Hard Day's Night."

Its reign at number one ended thanks to another oldtimer, though not quite as old as Louis Armstrong.

Dean Martin had not had a Top 10 hit since "Return to Me" in 1957 and it had been even longer since he reached number one in 1956 with "Memories Are Made of This." He had spent more time as an actor, but his return to the recording studio not only landed him an unexpected success with "Everybody Loves Somebody," but launched a string of hits and helped him land a spot as the host of the highly successful "Dean Martin Show" on NBC.

Martin, like Armstrong, was a major musical talent, though his seemingly carefree attitude caused a lot of his musical work to be overlooked.





Frank Sinatra

Unlike Martin, Sinatra had never left the charts, having been a fixture since the early '40s, but he, like Martin, had not been in the top 10 since 1957 when he reached number two with "All the Way" and his last number one was "Learnin' the Blues" in 1955.

While Sinatra continued to reach the top 40 the first and second years of the British Invasion, it wasn't until 1966 when "Ol' Blue Eyes' broke through, scoring with "That's Life" and then his number one hit "Strangers in the Night."

He was 50 at the time.

After that, he continued to chart into the 1980s, including recording such classics as "It Was a Very Good Year," "My Way," and "New York, New York."

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Three interesting tidbits about "Strangers in the Night."

1. Sinatra hated the song.

2. Glen Campbell played rhythm guitar.

3. The scat phrase Sinatra used in the song, "dooby dooby doo," inspired the name of the cartoon dog Scooby Doo.