This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1962.
Bernard Stanley "Acker" Bilk, was an English clarinetist and vocalist known for his breathy, vibrato-rich, lower-register style, and distinctive appearance – of goatee, bowler hat and striped waistcoat.
The twist is a dance that was inspired by rock and roll music. From 1959 to the early sixties it became a worldwide dance craze, enjoying immense popularity while drawing controversies from critics who felt it was too provocative. It inspired dances such as the Jerk, the Pony, the Watusi, the Mashed Potato, the Monkey, and the Funky Chicken, but none was as popular.
Helen Kate Shapiro is a British pop and jazz singer and actress. While still a teenager in the early 1960s, she was one of Britain's most successful female singers. With a voice described by AllMusic as possessing "the maturity and sensibilities of someone far beyond their teen years", Shapiro recorded two 1961 UK chart toppers, "You Don't Know" and "Walkin' Back to Happiness", when she was just 14 years old.
Trad jazz, short for "traditional jazz", is a form of jazz in the United States and Britain that flourished from the 1930s to 1960s, based on the earlier New Orleans Dixieland jazz style. Prominent English trad jazz musicians such as Chris Barber, Freddy Randall, Acker Bilk, Kenny Ball, Ken Colyer and Monty Sunshine performed a populist repertoire that also included jazz versions of pop songs and nursery rhymes.
Kenneth Daniel Ball was an English jazz musician, best known as the bandleader, lead trumpet player and vocalist in Kenny Ball and His Jazzmen.
Donald Christopher Barber was an English jazz musician, best known as a bandleader and trombonist. He helped many musicians with their careers and had a UK top twenty trad jazz hit with "Petite Fleur" in 1959. These musicians included the blues singer Ottilie Patterson, who was at one time his wife, and Lonnie Donegan, whose appearances with Barber triggered the skiffle craze of the mid-1950s and who had his first transatlantic hit, "Rock Island Line", while with Barber's band. He provided an audience for Donegan and, later, Alexis Korner, and sponsored African-American blues musicians to visit Britain, making Barber a significant figure in launching the British rhythm and blues and "beat boom" of the 1960s.
Kenneth Colyer was an English jazz trumpeter and cornetist, devoted to New Orleans jazz. His band was also known for skiffle interludes.
Monty Sunshine was an English jazz clarinettist, who is known for his clarinet solo on the track "Petite Fleur", a million seller for the Chris Barber Jazz Band in 1959. During his career, Sunshine worked with the Eager Beavers, the Crane River Jazz Band, Beryl Bryden, George Melly, Chris Barber, Johnny Parker, Diz Disley and Donegan's Dancing Sunshine Band.
Robert Wallis was a British jazz musician, who had a handful of chart success in the early 1960s, during the UK traditional jazz boom.
Alex Welsh was a Scottish jazz musician who played cornet and trumpet and was also a bandleader and singer,
Terence Lightfoot was a British jazz clarinettist and bandleader, and together with Chris Barber, Acker Bilk and Kenny Ball was one of the leading members of the trad jazz generation of British jazzmen.
Malcom Bruce Turner was an English jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and bandleader.
Richard Anthony Charlesworth was an English jazz clarinettist, saxophonist and bandleader.
"Riverboat Shuffle" is a popular song composed by Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Mills, and Dick Voynow. Lyrics were later added by Carmichael and Mitchell Parish.
Ian Hunter-Randall was an English trad jazz trumpeter born in London.
Douglas Frank Richford (1920-1987) was a British jazz clarinetist, and saxophonist.
Band of Thieves is a 1962 British second feature ('B') musical film directed by Peter Bezencenet and starring Acker Bilk, Geoffrey Sumner and Jennifer Jayne. It was written by Lyn Fairhurst and Harold Shampan, and was produced in an attempt to cash in on the Trad jazz craze.
