A lot of songs with “summer” in the title this month, as befits the end of that season in September, 1966. Let’s tune our ears back…
Songs of the month
[new] “96 Tears” – Question Mark And The Mysterians
[new] “Almost Persuaded” – David Houston
[new] “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” – Temptations
[new] “Black Is Black” – Los Bravos
“Blowin’ In The Wind” – Stevie Wonder
“Born A Woman” – Sandy Posey
“Bus Stop” – Hollies
[new] “Cherish” – Association
[new] “Cherry Cherry” – Neil Diamond
[new] “Eleanor Rigby” – Beatles
“Guantanamera” – Sandpipers
[new] “How Sweet It Is” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
“I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” – Petula Clark
[new] “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” – Four Seasons
“Land Of 1000 Dances” – Wilson Pickett
[new] “Last Train To Clarksville” – Monkees
“Lil Red Riding Hood” – Sam The Sham And The Pharaohs
[new] “Mr. Dieingly Sad” – Critters
“My Heart’s Symphony” – Gary Lewis And The Playboys
[new] “Open The Door To Your Heart” – Darrell Banks
[new] “Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five
[new] “Reach Out I’ll Be There” – Four Tops
“Respectable” – Outsiders
[new] “Say I Am (What I Am)” – Tommy James And The Shondells
“Say I Am” – Tommy James And The Shondells
“See You In September” – Happenings
“Summer In The City” – Lovin’ Spoonful
“Summertime” – Billy Stewart
[new] “Sunny Afternoon” – Kinks
“Sunny” – Bobby Hebb
“Sunshine Superman” – Donovan
[new] “The Dangling Conversation” – Simon And Garfunkel
“The Joker Went Wild” – Brian Hyland
[new] “Turn-Down Day” – Cyrkle
“Wade In The Water” – Ramsey Lewis
“Warm And Tender Love” – Percy Sledge
[new] “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted” – Jimmy Ruffin
[new] “Wipe Out” – Surfaris
[new] “With A Girl Like You” – Troggs
“Working In The Coal Mine” – Lee Dorsey
“Wouldn’t It Be Nice” – Beach Boys
“Yellow Submarine” – Beatles
“You Can’t Hurry Love” – Supremes
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On the first of the month, while waiting at a bus terminal, Ralph H. Baer, an inventor with Sanders Associates, wrote a four-page document which laid out the basic principles for creating a video game to be played on a television set. As Baer, described it, he had been on New York City’s East Side, waiting to board a bus to Boston, when he noticed an advertisement for TV Guide on the wall.
Contemplating what a viewer could do with a television set if there was nothing worth watching, he remembered an idea that had occurred to him in 1951, the possibility of playing a game on a TV set, and realized that he now had the resources to develop the concept. His idea would become the Magnavox Odyssey home entertainment system, introduced on January 27, 1972. Video from the launch a few years later below:
Then on the 8th, “Star Trek”, the new science fiction television series from NBC, was broadcast for the first time on American television, with its first episode “The Man Trap”.
And on the 12th the first episode of, another childhood favourite, “The Monkees” was broadcast on the NBC network, introducing a rock band that had been assembled as part of the casting of a situation comedy, but whose records would become bestsellers. The group, composed of Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith and Peter Tork, went on to have seven gold records, starting with “Last Train to Clarksville”, released on August 16, a month before the show’s debut. It’s in our charts this week.
What’d Sadie think?
It’s a week at the top for Donovan’s “Sunshine Superman” before “You Can’t Hurry Love” by the Supremes has two, followed by Association with “Cherish”.
Loved ’em
- “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” – Temptations
- “Eleanor Rigby” – Beatles
- “How Sweet It Is” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
- “Last Train To Clarksville” – Monkees
- “Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five
- “Reach Out I’ll Be There” – Four Tops
- “Sunny Afternoon” – Kinks
- “What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted” – Jimmy Ruffin
- “Wipe Out” – Surfaris
- “With A Girl Like You” – Troggs
Plenty of great classics this month. I’ll admit to having been more of a fan of The Monkees, than The Beatles as a child. Simply because the former had a TV show (in repeat in NZ in the ’80s when I was young) one imagines. Interesting to see how blatantly they were designed to play off the latter’s success –
[Song writer of ‘Last Train to Clarksville’] Boyce has said that the song’s opening guitar part was an attempt to emulate the type of memorable and clearly identifiable riff that the Beatles had used in songs such as ‘I Feel Fine,’ ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Paperback Writer’. The latter Beatles’ song had reached number one on the U.S. charts three months earlier, around the time that ‘Last Train to Clarksville’ was written and recorded.
The lyrics, too, were inspired by ‘Paperback Writer’: Hart misheard the end of that song on the radio and thought Paul McCartney was singing ‘take the last train’; Hart then decided to use the line himself, after he found out that McCartney was actually singing ‘paperback writer.’
Liked ’em
- “96 Tears” – Question Mark And The Mysterians
- “Almost Persuaded” – David Houston
- “Black Is Black” – Los Bravos
- “Cherry Cherry” – Neil Diamond
- “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” – Four Seasons
- “Open The Door To Your Heart” – Darrell Banks
- “Say I Am (What I Am)” – Tommy James And The Shondells
- “The Dangling Conversation” – Simon And Garfunkel
- “Turn-Down Day” – Cyrkle
Leave ’em
- “Cherish” – Association
- “Mr. Dieingly Sad” – Critters
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.