It’s my actual birthday week in 2025, and precious few years in our journey through the past until my own birth year. Let’s hear what April, 1969 has in store for us!
Songs of the month
“25 Miles” – Edwin Starr
“Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In” – 5Th Dimension
[new] “Atlantis” – Donovan
“Baby Baby Don’t Cry” – Smokey Robinson And The Miracles
[new] “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show” – Neil Diamond
“Build Me Up Buttercup” – Foundations
“Dizzy” – Tommy Roe
“Do Your Thing” – Watts 103Rd Street Rhythm Band
[new] “Don’t Give In To Him” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
“Everyday People” – Sly And The Family Stone
“Galveston” – Glen Campbell
[new] “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” – Crazy Elephant
[new] “Gitarzan” – Ray Stevens
[new] “Hair” – Cowsills
[new] “Hawaii 5-0” – Ventures
“Hot Smoke And Sasafrass” – Bubble Puppy
[new] “Hot Smoke And Sassafrass” – Bubble Puppy
[new] “I Can Hear Music” – Beach Boys
[new] “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing” – James Brown
“I’ll Try Something New” – Diana Ross & Supremes & Temptations
“Indian Giver” – 1910 Fruitgum Co.
“It’s Your Thing” – Isley Brothers
“Mendocino” – Sir Douglas Quintet
“Mr. Sun Mr. Moon” – Paul Revere And The Raiders
[new] “My Way” – Frank Sinatra
“My Whole World Ended” – David Ruffin
“Only The Strong Survive” – Jerry Butler
“Proud Mary” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
“Rock Me” – Steppenwolf
“Runaway Child Running Wild” – Temptations
[new] “Sweet Cherry Wine” – Tommy James And The Shondells
[new] “The Boxer” – Simon And Garfunkel
[new] “The Chokin’ Kind” – Joe Simon
[new] “The Letter” – Arbors
“Things I’d Like To Say” – New Colony Six
“This Girl’s In Love With You” – Dionne Warwick
[new] “Time Is Tight” – Booker T & Mg’s
“Time Of The Season” – Zombies
“Traces” – Classics Iv
[new] “Try A Little Tenderness” – Three Dog Night
“You Gave Me A Mountain” – Frankie Laine
“You’ve Made Me So Very Happy” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
[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 1st of the month at Houston, NASA Engineer Max Faget showed 20 colleagues a small balsa wood and paper model with “straight, stubby wings and a shark-like nose” and told them. “We’re going to build America’s next spacecraft. It’s going to launch like a spacecraft; it’s going to land like a plane.” Faget, the director of engineering and development at the Manned Space Center, was introducing the assembled group to a planned reusable spacecraft, the American Space Shuttle before NASA had even landed on the moon.
And in another early shoots of technology story, UCLA graduate student and computer scientist Steve Crocker wrote and circulated the very first Request for Comments (RFC) publication to be circulated among the Network Working Group that was developing the communication protocols for the upcoming ARPANET, the forerunner of the Internet. The very first RFC summarized the tentative agreements that the group had settled on for the Interface Message Processor (IMP) routers in the network sites, with initial messages being limited to 8,080 bits.
Then on the 11th, the final first run episode of “The Wild Wild West” was broadcast, bringing an end to the western sci-fi hybrid series after four seasons. I’d never heard of this series at all, so it passed me by twice as it were!
Developed at a time when the television Western was losing ground to the spy genre, this show was conceived by its creator as “James Bond on horseback.” Set during the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869–1877), the series followed Secret Service agents James West and Artemus Gordon as they foiled the plans of megalomaniacal villains to take over part or all of the United States, protected the President, and solved crimes. The show featured a number of fantasy elements, such as the technologically advanced devices used by the agents and their adversaries. Leading it to be referenced as an early example of the “steampunk” genre.
Despite high ratings, the series was apparently cancelled near the end of its fourth season as a concession to Congress over television violence.
What’d Sadie think?
Just a week at the top for “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe before “Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In” by 5Th Dimension takes the crown for the remainder of the month.
Loved ’em
- “Atlantis” – Donovan
- “Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show” – Neil Diamond
- “I Can Hear Music” – Beach Boys
- “I Don’t Want Nobody To Give Me Nothing” – James Brown
- “My Way” – Frank Sinatra
- “The Boxer” – Simon And Garfunkel
Liked ’em
- “Don’t Give In To Him” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
- “Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’” – Crazy Elephant
- “Hair” – Cowsills
- “Hawaii 5-0” – Ventures
- “Hot Smoke And Sassafrass” – Bubble Puppy
- “Sweet Cherry Wine” – Tommy James And The Shondells
- “The Chokin’ Kind” – Joe Simon
- “The Letter” – Arbors
- “Try A Little Tenderness” – Three Dog Night
Leave ’em
- “Gitarzan” – Ray Stevens
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.