Music that Drives Me!

William Kercher
Feb 6, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Oct 1, 2020

Blog readers,

The other day, I was looking over the collection of music I have on my computer. For no particular reason, I hit the link for the song - I Want Candy.

For those of you who do not know, or do not remember, I Want Candy was released in 1965 by a one-hit-wonder group, The Strangeloves. The Strangeloves were part of the “British Invasion” that followed the complete takeover of music by The Beatles in 1964.

As I listened to that song, I was struck by what an incredible drum beat that song had. The hard pounding drums got to me. It reminded me of a line from one of the songs by Huey Lewis and the News, The Heart of Rock n Roll. That song states that - “The heart of Rock and Roll is the beat.” That really says it all. And it is that beat, that hard driving beat that, for me, is Rock and Roll.

I wondered how many other songs in my collection had that same hard driving beat. After a quick search, I found many, but there were several that stood out.

Listening to these songs, made me think of an author, a friend of mine – Freddie Downs. Freddie died of cancer this past Spring. His books are highlighted on this website. He was an expert, an historian and an avid fan of all types of music. One of his books, THE FIVE SHAKEOUTS OF ROCK & ROLL, is as complete a history of rock and roll, from the beginnings in the early 1950s until today, as I have ever seen.

Because of his extensive knowledge of popular music, he was also my sounding board, my music information go-to-person for all thing’s music. I’d find something I liked and send him an Mp3 copy, just to get the full history of it. He would send me a page or two of notes on the people who recorded that song and any interesting tid-bits he had on them. As I was collecting this current list of songs, I wondered what Freddie would think of my choices.

So, my blog readers, will you be my sounding board? Let me know what you think of the list of songs I compiled. Admittedly, they are old, but do you like their hard driving beat? Are there any songs you think should be included on my list of songs with a kick-ass beat?

The songs and the artists that I picked are: