1966!

As we look back on the year 1966 and the founding of Sing-Out South in Nashville 45 years ago this month, I thought it was important to remember what was going on in our city back then as well across the country.

As you can see, just in terms of the skyline alone, Nashville was a much smaller city in those days. But it was growing and changing. Its new four year old experiment of consolidating the city and county governments into a Metro system seemed to be working, although that would be put to the test later that year with Mayor Beverly Briley and the 40-member Metro Council facing their first re-election.

Mayor Briley (seen above on the far left) was re-elected and continued to be a strong supporter of Sing-Out and UWP throughout its existence. That included personally paying to charter several buses to take SOS to Cookevile to perform with Sing-Out '66 during a performance at Tennessee Tech University in the winter of 1966,then coming back early from a national mayor's conference to introduce the cast on stage for our opening night premiere show at Hillsboro High School in March, 1966, and finally, issusing several proclamations of support including the one above declaring it "Pace Magazine Week in Nashville" in the fall of 1967.

The Governor of the State of Tennessee in 1966 was Frank Clement who was also a great supporter, first of Sing-Out '66 and Up With People, and then Sing-Out South as well. That support included making a surprise trip to Cookeville to introduce the combined UWP/Sing-Out South show there, then the following summer in 1967(after he left office) delivering a stirring speech during the intermission of our major summer show at the Centennial Park Bandshell, helping raise significant dollars to allow many SOS cast members to go to New York for the World Sing-Out Festival a few weeks later.

Buford Ellington (seen above) became Governor of Tennessee in 1967, succeeding Clement who was term limited. He too was a supporter of SOS, including issuing the proclamation above declaring it "Sing Out South" Week in Tennessee.

On a national level, TIME MAGAZINE would look back on 1966 and declare the rising generation 25 years and younger as its Man of the Year. How perfectly that seemed to fit the young men and women of Sing-Out '66 and Sing-Out South as they performed their shows throughout this area, the nation and the world.

But as a nation at war in Vietnam, it was also clear that the fighting there (with over 400,000 troops on the ground and over 6,000 dying in 1966) was generating lots of controversy and rising protests, in particular over the continued military draft. All this coming just a year after TIME had named General William Westmoreland, the U.S. Commander in Vietnam, as its 1965 Man of the Year. Another sign of how the war was splitting the nation could be seen in the Number one song in America in 1966,"The Ballad of the Green Berets' by Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler....


But in January, 1966 when Sing-Out '66 came to Nashville popular music charts showed a different kind of split among musical tastes. As we drove to school or listened to the radio at home (on either WKDA or WMAK), the number one song for most of that month according to BILLBOARD magazine seemed to come more from the folk music genre that had been so popular earlier in the decade. The number one song was the breakout hit for Simon & Garfunkel, "Sounds of Silence" as performed here by the pair the following year at the Montery Pop Festival...


The other song that shared the top of the charts according to BILLBOARD in January, 1966 came from a completely different musical direction. It was the continuation of the British invasion that began in 1964. This month the song was another smash hit from the Beatles and "We Can Work It Out'.....


Movies can also tell you a lot about what was going on culturally during a particular time. Interestingly, the top grossing movie of 1966 ($15.53 million) was HAWAII, an epic, but largely now unremembered movie starring Julie Andrews and Max von Sydow. It was based the best-selling novel by James Mitchner and here's how a movie trailer promoted it back in the day....

Other top-grossing movies in 1966 included THE BIBLE: IN THE BEGINNING, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF,THE SAND PEBBLES and the film that swept the Oscars, A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS....


Television shows are also a great way to look back on an era. In 1966, the number one rated show, as it had been for several years was BONANZA. But there were also popular shows aimed directly at the younger audience including Hullabaloo and Shindig, which featured many rock and roll bands and other stars.Ironically, Shindig was dropped by the ABC Network in early January of 1966 and replaced by what became an even bigger hit over the next few seasons, BATMAN....

I hope this very brief look back at the politics, news and popular culture of 1966 will bring back lots of interesting memories for those of us living through those times. I hope it also helps set the stage for our look back here on this blog over the next few weeks at how the extraordinary visit to Nashville by the original cast of Up With People, Sing-Out'66 electrified a city and led to the creation of Sing-Out South.....


If you have your own thoughts to share about this period or about the visit of Sing-Out '66 to Nashville and the creation of Sing-Out South please share them below or send them to me by e-mail at pat.nolan@dvl.com.