The Year's The Thing: 1963

It’s the second week of the month and as always, I tried to find a unique topic to promote. This week, “The Year’s the Thing” – songs with years in their titles – is our feature. Unfortunately, some songs you may expect to be featured will not have a presence this week. The obvious omission will be Prince’s “1999” as Warner Brothers will not allow this song to be posted on YouTube. Another possible favorite, Zager and Evans’ “In the Year 2525” was already featured in 2012.

To start us off, the year is “1963” from the English dance band New Order. It was released as the “B” side to the band’s 1987 single “True Faith” and also appeared on the “Substance” album. “True Faith” only made it to #32 on the Hot 100, but was a #3 song on the dance charts. As for “1963,” the protagonist, Johnny, kills his wife so he could marry another woman. It really is a dismal story, but you can obviously dance to this strange little song.