We find ourselves midway through the Summer of Love, 1967…let’s go back and listen to July!
Songs of the month
[new] “A Girl Like You” – Young Rascals
[new] “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” – Procol Harum
“Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye And Tammi Terrell
“Alfie” – Dionne Warwick
[new] “All You Need Is Love” – Beatles
“C’mon Marianne” – Four Seasons
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” – Frankie Valli
[new] “Carrie Anne” – Hollies
“Come On Down To My Boat” – Every Mother’s Son
“Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” – Fifth Estate
“Do It Again A Little Bit Slower” – Jon And Robin And The On Crowd
[new] “Don’t Go Out Into The Rain” – Herman’s Hermits
“Don’t Sleep In The Subway” – Petula Clark
[new] “For Your Love” – Peaches And Herb
[new] “For Your Precious Love” – Oscar Toney Jr.
“Groovin'” – Young Rascals
“Here We Go Again” – Ray Charles
[new] “Hypnotized” – Linda Jones
[new] “I Like The Way” – Tommy James And The Shondells
[new] “I Take It Back” – Sandy Posey
[new] “I Was Made To Love Her” – Stevie Wonder
[new] “Jackson” – Nancy Sinatra And Lee Hazelwood
“Let’s Live For Today” – Grass Roots
“Light My Fire” – Doors
“Little Bit O’ Soul” – Music Explosion
[new] “Make Me Yours” – Bettye Swann
[new] “Mary In The Morning” – Al Martino
[new] “Mercy Mercy Mercy” – Buckinghams
[new] “More Love” – Smokey Robinson And The Miracles
[new] “My Mammy” – Happenings
“New York Mining Disaster 1941” – Bee Gees
[new] “Pay You Back With Interest” – Hollies
[new] “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – Monkees
“Release Me” – Engelbert Humperdinck
“Respect” – Aretha Franklin
“San Francisco” – Scott Mckenzie
“Seven Rooms Of Gloom” – Four Tops
“She’d Rather Be With Me” – Turtles
[new] “Silence Is Golden” – Tremeloes
“Society’s Child” – Janis Ian
“Somebody To Love” – Jefferson Airplane
[new] “Soul Finger” – Bar-Kays
[new] “Step Out Of Your Mind” – American Breed
“Sunday Will Never Be The Same” – Spanky And Our Gang
[new] “There Goes My Everything” – Engelbert Humperdinck
“Tracks Of My Tears” – Johnny Rivers
“Up Up And Away” – 5Th Dimension
[new] “White Rabbit” – Jefferson Airplane
“Windy” – Association
[new] = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
The first colour television broadcasts in the United Kingdom began at 2:00 in the afternoon as BBC Two telecast a match from Centre Court of Wimbledon between Cliff Drysdale and Roger Taylor. “It was a Wimbledon no one has ever seen on television before”, a reporter noted the next day. “The clothes of the players were whiter than white, the Centre Court an inimitable green.”. Brilliant!
One of those videos that won’t embed, but you can see it here.
On 10 July 1967 New Zealand abandoned pounds, shillings and pence and adopted decimal currency. This ad was used to promote the new currency…
On the 14th The Bee Gees released “Bee Gees’ 1st,” which went on sale in the United Kingdom. Although it was their third album, it was the first to be distributed in the UK and the United States (where it would be released on August 9). The first two albums had been released only in Australia and New Zealand – a thing I had totally no idea about. Apparently they’d resided in Australia for some years and found moderate success.
I normally try and pick “historic” events, and ones where there is a video to be found as it gives colour to the time. But this story is too good not to share… On the 21st the town of Winneconne, Wisconsin, announced secession from the state of Wisconsin (though not from the United States) because it had not been included in the official maps in an omission from the map “blamed on an artist’s oversight”, and issued a mock declaration of war. The events, which included the raising of a “state flag”, took place while tourists were in town to watch the “midwest regional outboard motor boat races”. Town Mayor James Coughlin was named “president” of the new American state, and town chamber of commerce leader Vera Kitchen was proclaimed “prime minister”. The secession, which “proved a financial success for the community”, ended on July 23 at noon. On August 15, the Wisconsin Highway Commission would announce that it would print a new map in 1968 that would include Winneconne.
What’d Sadie think?
A solid four weeks at the top by “Windy” by Association before household favourite “Light My Fire” by the Doors takes it.
Loved ’em
Song of the week has to be Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit”. The drug-laden surrealist nature of it feels unlike almost anything else we’ve had in the past 17 years. This intro from Dick Clark on American Bandstand, which talks about “the scene” in San Francisco is classic.
Lead singer Grace Slick, who actually brought the song over from her previous band, said the song was “supposed to be a wake-up call to parents who read their children novels such as [Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland] and then would wonder why their children used drugs”. She also said that all fairytales read to little girls have a Prince Charming who comes and saves them. But Alice did not, she was “on her own… in a very strange place, but she kept on going and she followed her curiosity – that’s the White Rabbit. A lot of women could have taken a message from that story about how you can push your own agenda”.
- “A Girl Like You” – Young Rascals
- “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” – Procol Harum
- “All You Need Is Love” – Beatles
- “I Was Made To Love Her” – Stevie Wonder
- “Jackson” – Nancy Sinatra And Lee Hazelwood
- “Make Me Yours” – Bettye Swann
- “Mercy Mercy Mercy” – Buckinghams
- “More Love” – Smokey Robinson And The Miracles
- “Pleasant Valley Sunday” – Monkees
- “Silence Is Golden” – Tremeloes
- “White Rabbit” – Jefferson Airplane
Liked ’em
- “Carrie-Anne” – Hollies
- “Don’t Go Out Into The Rain” – Herman’s Hermits
- “For Your Precious Love” – Oscar Toney Jr.
- “Hypnotized” – Linda Jones
- “I Take It Back” – Sandy Posey
- “Mary In The Morning” – Al Martino
- “Pay You Back With Interest” – Hollies
- “Soul Finger” – Bar-Kays
- “Step Out Of Your Mind” – American Breed
- “There Goes My Everything” – Engelbert Humperdinck
Leave ’em
- “For Your Love” – Peaches And Herb
- “I Like The Way” – Tommy James And The Shondells
- “My Mammy” – Happenings
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.