The 50's are the 50's & the 60's are the 60's!

I disagree with SiriusXM's format of both the "50's On 5" and "60's On 6" channels. Currently, the 50's Channel covers all of the 1950's up to and including 1963. When I inquired about this I was told that the Beatles arrival in 1964 changed the direction of music drastically from any previous years and the 60's Channel would cover the rest of the 1960's from 1964 on. I don't think any dedicated time period channel (40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, etc.), should reflect anything other than that specific ten year period - no carry over of 1960 thru 1963 on the "50's On 5" channel. Likewise, the 60's Channel should cover all music from January 1, 1960 thru December 31, 1969. In short, I think these channels should represent the music's historical dates exactly and not be convoluted by it's progressive change of direction.

I agree. When XM launched in 2001, the '50s Channel played '50s music -- all of it, including the MOR artists and the early R&B artists -- and the '60s Channel played music from all ten years of the decade. SiriusXM has valid reasons for the 1954-63 and 1964-69 divisions so I think they should rename the channels. The 1954-63 channel could be SiriusXM Gold and the 1964-69 channel could be '60s Revolution or '60s Invasion.

By the way, the '40s Junction channel plays songs from as far back as 1920 (Paul Whiteman, Al Jolson, Marion Harris) and as recent as the late 1950s (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Nat "King" Cole). That channel, too, should be renamed. Any ideas?

For many years, the '60s channel has played only songs from 1963-69 during regular programming. In January 2018, the channel finally re-added some songs from 1961-62: Crying, Runaway, Runaround Sue, The Wanderer, The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Stand By Me, Ruby Baby, Devil In Disguise, Please Mr Postman, Can't Help Falling In Love.......but every one was a top-five hit. Where are the lower-charting songs? Where are the songs from 1960? But it's a start. Program director Ken Merson finally figured out that there were more than seven years in the decade of the 1960s.

The Schoolboys quintet formed in 1954 at Cooper Junior High School in Harlem. In 1955, after they performed -- and won -- on the DuMont network's The Original Amateur Hour program hosted by Ted Mack, WWRL disc jockey Tommy "Dr. Jive" Smalls arranged for them to sign with Okeh Records and record a single. Please Say You Want Me quickly became a hit in the New York area and eventually reached #13 on the Billboard r&b chart. (In Canada, it was released on Epic Records.) The B-side, Shirley, got to #15 on the r&b chart and #91 on the Top 100. The Schoolboys released two more singles on Okeh and one single on the Juanita label before breaking up in 1958. Today the '50s Channel played Please Say You Want Me. Golly gee! Here are the Schoolboys with soprano Leslie Martin singing lead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Of9IUfswFIQ