I hated Sunday afternoons—as a teenager I worked all alone in a small grocery store cleaning windows and washing floors. But I was able to blast my portable radio as loud as I wanted.

One Sunday afternoon I was listening to Chicago radio station WLS or WCFL but for some reason I changed stations. I was soon blown away by a group called the Kinks. I stopped wiping glass and just stood there dumbfounded. For one hour on Sunday afternoon the local rock radio station played a syndicated program that featured the top 15 or 20 songs on the British Charts.

After the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 it seemed like every week a new British group or artist would enter the U.S. charts. For 60 minutes every Sunday I would be in awe listening to the new sound that was threatening to take over the U.S. radio airwaves. I took notes so I could remember the artist’s names and the titles of the songs. And on Monday I called the record shops and special-ordered the titles that I hoped would soon be released in America. Some records I never was able to find but I located most of what I deemed necessary. Needless to say I was definitely in the know. Eventually I located a record shop in the UK.

Life was definitely good….Prior to the Beatles there had been very few British artists that had made much of an impact on the American airwaves. There was Lonnie Donegan in the Fifties with “Rock Island Line” and then again in the early Sixties with “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor (on the Bedpost Overnight)?”

In 1962 Acker Bilk had a number one hit with “Stranger on the Shore.” Also in 1962 the Tornadoes became the first British instrumental group to hit the top spot on the American charts with “Telstar.” The Beatles changed everything–for the better….Certainly we all have our favorites when it comes to the British Invasion.

Here are Cliff’s favorites!

Adam Faith…Animals…Bachelors…Beatles…Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas…Chad and Jeremy…Cilla Black…Dave Clark Five…Donovan…Dusty Springfield……Fortunes…Freddy and the Dreamers…Fourmost…Georgie Fame…Gerry and the Pacemakers…Hedgehopper’s Anonymous…Herman’s Hermits…Hollies…Honeycombs…Hullaballoos…Ian Whitcomb…Ivy League…Jonathan King…Kinks…Lulu…Manfred Mann…Marianne Faithful…Moody Blues…Nashville Teens…Overlanders…P.J. Proby…Peter and Gordon…Petula Clark…Pretty Things…Rockin’ Berries…Rolling Stones…Sandie Shaw…Searchers…Seekers…Spencer Davis Group…Swinging Blue Jeans…Tom Jones…Tremeloes…Troggs…Unit 4 + 2…Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders…Walker Brothers…Who…Yardbirds…Zombies

Check out this video of The Springfields, a British folk trio which included a young Dusty Springfield and her brother Tom…