{"id":653244,"date":"2026-05-19T22:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653244\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:49:09","slug":"3-forgotten-radio-hits-that-every-1960s-teen-secretly-loved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/653244\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Forgotten Radio Hits That Every 1960s Teen Secretly Loved"},"content":{"rendered":"

One thing will always be true about teenagers, no matter when or where they are born: they will likely always go through independent phases where they think they\u2019re just too cool for school. If you were a 1960s<\/a> teen, you probably pretended that you didn\u2019t love these mainstream pop radio hits from the era, instead opting to listen to counterculture tracks or niche genres. At least for a little while. But I know you probably sang along to all three of these tracks in your head. Let\u2019s revisit some pop gems, shall we?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Twist\u201d by Chubby Checker from \u2018Twist With Chubby Checker\u2019 (1960)<\/p>\n

Rock and roll dominated the 1950s. In the 1960s, it was still a popular genre. But the counterculture movement and various new iterations of rock, such as psychedelic rock, Southern rock, and folk rock, eventually took over the airwaves. That didn\u2019t affect mainstream listeners much when \u201cThe Twist\u201d hit the radio in 1960. It was a smash hit, an incredibly danceable pop tune that hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Some too-cool teens likely pretended they weren\u2019t into it but couldn\u2019t help but tap along to that unbelievably catchy melody.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeen Angel\u201d by Mark Dinning from \u2018Teen Angel\u2019 (1959)<\/p>\n

Alright, this one\u2019s technically from the 50s. But \u201cTeen Angel\u201d dropped very late in the year 1959 and didn\u2019t hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until early 1960<\/a>, so I\u2019ll go ahead and include it on this list. Either way, it definitely made it to the ears of 60s teens early in the decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeen Angel\u201d is a very teen-oriented pop song (\u201cteen\u201d is in the name, after all) that became a smash hit at No. 1 on the Hot 100, likely due to Mark Dinning\u2019s young fanbase. If you were too cool for school, you probably pretended to ignore it. But you probably shed a tear to it while listening to the radio alone in your childhood bedroom.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe My Baby\u201d by The Ronettes from \u2018Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes\u2019 (1963)<\/p>\n

This pop R&B classic is The Ronettes\u2019 most recognizable song. It was a smash hit in 1963, too, peaking at No. 2 in the US. It was one of the most memorable radio hits of the early 1960s, and tons of teen listeners loved it. Some edgier teens might have tried to ignore it in favor of the growing trend of new rock music iterations. But one can\u2019t deny that it influenced many of the musicians that 60s teens would grow to love, from Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys to Andy Kim to Jody Miller.<\/p>\n

Photo by: Joe Sohm\/Visions of America\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing will always be true about teenagers, no matter when or where they are born: they will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":653245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[24911,88,216,17172],"class_list":["post-653244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}