Author: Thomas Scovell

Let’s tune our ears back to the sounds of November, 1969…

Songs of the month

• “And When I Die” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• “Baby I’m For Real” – Originals
• “Baby It’s You” – Smith
• [new] “Backfield In Motion” – Mel & Tim
• [new] “Ball Of Fire” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• [new] “Cherry Hill Park” – Billy Joe Royal
• “Come Together” – Beatles
• [new] “Down On The Corner” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Three Dog Night
• [new] “Eleanor Rigby” – Aretha Franklin
• [new] “Eli’s Coming” – Three Dog Night
• “Everybody’s Talkin’” – Nilsson
• [new] “Fortunate Son” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• [new] “Friendship Train” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
• “Going In Circles” – Friends Of Distinction
• [new] “Holly Holy” – Neil Diamond
• “Hot Fun In The Summertime” – Sly And The Family Stone
• “I Can’t Get Next To You” – Temptations
• “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” – Tom Jones
• “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” – Lou Christie
• “Is That All There Is” – Peggy Lee
• “Jealous Kind Of Fella” – Garland Green
• “Jean” – Oliver
• [new] “Jesus Is A Soul Man” – Lawrence Reynolds
• [new] “Leaving On A Jet Plane” – “Peter Paul And Mary”
• [new] “Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn” – James Brown
• “Little Woman” – Bobby Sherman
• [new] “Mind Body And Soul” – Flaming Ember
• [new] “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” – Steam
• [new] “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” – B.J. Thomas
• [new] “Ruben James” – Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
• “Smile A Little Smile For Me” – Flying Machine
• [new] “Someday We’ll Be Together” – Diana Ross And The Supremes
• “Something” – Beatles
• “Sugar On Sunday” – Clique
• “Sugar Sugar” – Archies
• [new] “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” – Crosby Stills & Nash
• “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley
• [new] “Take A Letter Maria” – R.B. Greaves
• “That’s The Way Love Is” – Marvin Gaye
• [new] “These Eyes” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
• “This Girl Is A Woman Now” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
• “Tracy” – Cuff Links
• [new] “Try A Little Kindness” – Glen Campbell
• [new] “Undun” – Guess Who
• “Wedding Bell Blues” – 5Th Dimension
• [new] “Yester-Me Yester-You Yesterday” – Stevie Wonder
• “You – I” – Rugbys
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” – Dionne Warwick

[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 9th of the month rhe end of the daily rum ration, enjoyed by sailors of Britain’s Royal Navy for more than two centuries, was announced by the Ministry of Defence. The “tot”, consisting of 71 millilitres (2.5 imp fl oz; 2.4 US fl oz) of 95.5 proof rum, was given at mid-day as a morale-booster for the men at sea and had been a practice introduced in 1731. The serving of the rum would formally end on August 1, 1970.

Then on the 10th “Sesame Street” aired its first episode on the National Educational Television (NET) network, the predecessor to the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), starting after school at various times. As one critic noted in informing parents that the new show for preschool children presented the alphabet and numerals in the form of commercials, “The first edition of Sesame Street comes to you today… through the courtesy of the numbers 2 and 3, and the letters E, S and W.”

In parallels to today, on the 13th, U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew took the unprecedented step of accusing the three American television networks (whose affiliate stations’ broadcast rights were licensed by the United States government) of letting their newscasters and commentators of abusing “a concentration of power over American public opinion, unknown in history” and hinting that “perhaps it is time that the networks were made more responsive to the views of the nation and more responsible to the people they serve”, and urged Americans to call and write their local TV stations.

What’d Sadie think?

A week for Elvis and”Suspicious Minds” before “Wedding Bell Blues” by 5Th Dimension has two weeks at the top, with The Beatles and “Come Together” finishing up the month at number 1.

Loved ’em

• “Down On The Corner” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Eleanor Rigby” – Aretha Franklin
• “Fortunate Son” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Let A Man Come In And Do The Popcorn” – James Brown
• “Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head” – B.J. Thomas
• “Someday We’ll Be Together” – Diana Ross And The Supremes
• “Yester-Me Yester-You Yesterday” – Stevie Wonder

Liked ’em

• “Backfield In Motion” – Mel & Tim
• “Ball Of Fire” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Cherry Hill Park” – Billy Joe Royal
• “Eli’s Coming” – Three Dog Night
• “Friendship Train” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
• “Holly Holy” – Neil Diamond
• “Leaving On A Jet Plane” – “Peter Paul And Mary”
• “Mind Body And Soul” – Flaming Ember
• “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye” – Steam
• “Ruben James” – Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
• “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” – Crosby Stills & Nash
• “Take A Letter Maria” – R.B. Greaves
• “These Eyes” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
• “Try A Little Kindness” – Glen Campbell
• “Undun” – Guess Who

Leave ’em

• “Jesus Is A Soul Man” – Lawrence Reynolds

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

We’re near to closing out the decade, with the sounds of October, 1969 this week. Before we listen to them a big shout out and thanks to friend-of-the-show Carl, who noted that the [new] tags were missing from the song list the past couple of weeks. Good catch sir!

We had updated the posting template that is automatically created when I generate a new playlist, and that fall off, oops!

Anyway, onto the sounds!

Songs of the month

• “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash
• [new] “And When I Die” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• [new] “Baby I’m For Real” – Originals
• [new] “Baby It’s You” – Smith
• [new] “Carry Me Back” – Rascals
• [new] “Come Together” – Beatles
• [new] “Easy To Be Hard” – Marvin Gaye
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Three Dog Night
• “Everybody’s Talkin’” – Nilsson
• “Get Together” – Youngbloods
• [new] “Going In Circles” – Friends Of Distinction
• “Green River” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones
• “Hot Fun In The Summertime” – Sly And The Family Stone
• “Hurts So Bad” – Lettermen
• “I Can’t Get Next To You” – Temptations
• “I’d Wait A Million Years” – Grass Roots
• “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” – Tom Jones
• “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” – Lou Christie
• [new] “Is That All There Is” – Peggy Lee
• [new] “Jealous Kind Of Fella” – Garland Green
• “Jean” – Oliver
• “Keem-O-Sabe” – Electric Indian
• “Lay Lady Lay” – Bob Dylan
• “Little Woman” – Bobby Sherman
• [new] “Make Believe” – Wind
• “Oh What A Night” – Dells
• [new] “Smile A Little Smile For Me” – Flying Machine
• [new] “Something” – Beatles
• [new] “Sugar On Sunday” – Clique
• “Sugar Sugar” – Archies
• “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley
• “That’s The Way Love Is” – Marvin Gaye
• “This Girl Is A Woman Now” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
• [new] “Tracy” – Cuff Links
• [new] “Walk On By” – Isaac Hayes
• [new] “Wedding Bell Blues” – 5Th Dimension
• “What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am” – Bill Deal And The Rhondells
• “What’s The Use Of Breaking Up” – Jerry Butler
• “When I Die” – Motherlode
• “You – I” – Rugbys
• [new] “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” – Dionne Warwick
• [new] “Your Good Thing” – Electric Indian
• “Your Good Thing” – Lou Rawls

[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 5th British comedy Monty Python’s Flying Circus first aired, appearing on BBC One at 10:55 at night. The first show was described in the news as “Latest late-night show which will, we are warned, be ‘nutty’.” Quite!

And in other nutty, but in a different way, TV – on the 22nd, during a live broadcast on San Francisco’s KGO-TV morning program  “The Jim Dunbar Show”, a voice who confirmed to be the Zodiac Killer was heard for the first time. The voice, who later turned out wasn’t the Zodiac, called in at least five times over a 90 minute period. Dunbar’s guest was the famous criminal defense attorney, Melvin Belli, and the first call came at 7:10, as the caller threatened to commit more murders if he wasn’t allowed to talk to Belli on the air.

Then on the 29th iin the evening at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus, the first message was sent over ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet. Leonard Kleinrock would recall later that the first message, transmitted from UCLA to the computer at the Stanford Research Institute (SRI) was intended to be transmitting the letters “L-O-G”, after which Stanford would add two more letters to send back the word “LOGIN”. Charley Kline, a 21-year old UCLA student, attempted to send a message on the department’s SDS Sigma 7 computer to a Sigma 7 at SRI. Kline sent the “L”, then asked over the telephone whether it had been received, then sent the “O”. Before UCLA could transmit the letter “G”, the SRI computer crashed and, as Kleinrock would note later, “History now records how clever we were to send such a prophetic first message, namely ‘Lo’”. Fitting!

What’d Sadie think?

It’s two weeks at the top for “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies then two for the Temptations with”I Can’t Get Next To You”.

Loved ’em

• “Come Together” – Beatles
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Marvin Gaye
• “Something” – Beatles
• “Walk On By” – Isaac Hayes

Liked ’em

• “And When I Die” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• “Baby I’m For Real” – Originals
• “Baby It’s You” – Smith
• “Carry Me Back” – Rascals
• “Going In Circles” – Friends Of Distinction
• “Is That All There Is” – Peggy Lee
• “Jealous Kind Of Fella” – Garland Green
• “Make Believe” – Wind
• “Smile A Little Smile For Me” – Flying Machine
• “Sugar On Sunday” – Clique
• “Tracy” – Cuff Links
• “Wedding Bell Blues” – 5Th Dimension
• “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” – Dionne Warwick
• “Your Good Thing” – Electric Indian

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

Autumn approaches in 2025 and we find ourselves near the tail end of our last year in the ’60s! Let’s hear what September, 1969 sounds like…

Songs of the month

• “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash
• “Baby I Love You” – Andy Kim
• “Birthday” – Underground Sunshine
• “Commotion” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Three Dog Night
• “Everybody’s Talkin’” – Nilsson
• “Get Together” – Youngbloods
• “Give Peace A Chance” – Plastic Ono Band
• “Green River” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones
• “Hot Fun In The Summertime” – Sly And The Family Stone
• “Hurts So Bad” – Lettermen
• “I Can’t Get Next To You” – Temptations
• “I’d Wait A Million Years” – Grass Roots
• “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” – Tom Jones
• “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” – Lou Christie
• “In The Year 2525” – Zager & Evans
• “Jean” – Oliver
• “Keem-O-Sabe” – Electric Indian
• “Laughing” – Guess Who
• “Lay Lady Lay” – Bob Dylan
• “Little Woman” – Bobby Sherman
• “Oh What A Night” – Dells
• “Polk Salad Annie” – Tony Joe White
• “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” – Jackie Deshannon
• “Share Your Love With Me” – Aretha Franklin
• “Soul Deep” – Box Tops
• “Sugar Sugar” – Archies
• “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley
• “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond
• “That’s The Way Love Is” – Marvin Gaye
• “The Nitty Gritty” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
• “This Girl Is A Woman Now” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap
• “What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am” – Bill Deal And The Rhondells
• “What’s The Use Of Breaking Up” – Jerry Butler
• “When I Die” – Motherlode
• “Workin’ On A Groovy Thing” – 5Th Dimension
• “You – I” – Rugbys
• “Your Good Thing” – Lou Rawls

[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 2nd the first automatic teller machine in the United States, called the “Docuteller”, was installed at a branch of the Chemical Bank in Rockville Centre, New York. And so for a period of a few decades we used cards to get cash out of holes in the wall, until we worked out how to just use the cards to pay directly for things. Technology eh!

On the 13th  “Scooby-Doo”, was introduced to Saturday morning television as part of a response by the three American TV networks to complaints that cartoons had become too violent, after three years of superhero and adventure shows. Hanna-Barbera co-producer Joseph Barbera told reporters that “Violence will be out of children’s programming this fall,” and explained that “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is a series about a chicken-hearted Great Dane which, along with four high school students, solves tales of the supernatural,” and predicted that the combination of “comedy and music, which we’ve always known to be popular with kids” could be marketed successfully. And indeed it was.

And in more pop-culture classics, on the 26th “The Brady Bunch”, a situation comedy about a “blended family” created by the union of two people with children from previous marriages, was introduced as one of the new television shows on the ABC network in the United States. Syndicated TV columnist Dick Kleiner described it as having “all the elements of trite-and-true television— a bunch of children (cute) and two parents (appealing) and a dog (lovable) and a maid (witty)”. The San Francisco Examiner commented “the six kids and a dog and a cat, and a maid, and absurd slapstick… made the first show a shambles. Verdict: Too blamed precious.” Either way audiences loved it and it become major touchstone for 70s culture which we are soon to experience…

What’d Sadie think?

Two weeks at the top for “Honky Tonk Women” by Rolling Stones before the Archies get two with “Sugar Sugar”.

Loved ’em

• “Everybody’s Talkin’” – Nilsson
• “Suspicious Minds” – Elvis Presley

Emily notes that Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson is a real favourite of her father, Marty. The original was by Fred Neil from 1966.

It was composed towards the end of his album recording session the end of that year, after he had become anxious to wrap the album so he could return to his home in Miami, Florida. Manager Herb Cohen promised that if Neil wrote and recorded a final track, he could go. “Everybody’s Talkin’”, recorded in one take, was the result.

Harry Nilsson recorded a cover in 1967 and it was eventually released as a single in July 1968, where it managed to reach only No. 13 on the “Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart”. (We take the songs from the top 30 of the main chart each week)

As director John Schlesinger was working on the 1969 film Midnight Cowboy, Derek Taylor recommended Nilsson for the soundtrack to Schlesinger. While Nilsson wrote a new song intended for the film’s soundtrack (“I Guess the Lord Must Be in New York City”), Schlesinger instead preferred “Everybody’s Talkin’”, and used it as the film’s theme song. Nilsson re-recorded the song with a slightly different arrangement from the Aerial Ballet version, to better adapt to the music lengths required for various sequences in the film.

Liked ’em

• “Commotion” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Hot Fun In The Summertime” – Sly And The Family Stone
• “I’m Gonna Make You Mine” – Lou Christie
• “Jean” – Oliver
• “Little Woman” – Bobby Sherman
• “That’s The Way Love Is” – Marvin Gaye
• “What Kind Of Fool Do You Think I Am” – Bill Deal And The Rhondells
• “What’s The Use Of Breaking Up” – Jerry Butler
• “When I Die” – Motherlode
• “You – I” – Rugbys
• “Your Good Thing” – Lou Rawls

Leave ’em

• “This Girl Is A Woman Now” – Gary Puckett And The Union Gap

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

August, 1969 is 51 years  before Sadie is born, let’s send our ears back there…

Songs of the month

• “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash
• “Along Came Jones” – Ray Stevens
• “Baby I Love You” – Andy Kim
• “Bad Moon Rising” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Birthday” – Underground Sunshine
• “Choice Of Colours” – Impressions
• “Colour Him Father” – Winstons
• “Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Three Dog Night
• “Get Together” – Youngbloods
• “Give Peace A Chance” – Plastic Ono Band
• “Good Morning Starshine” – Oliver
• “Good Old Rock N Roll” – Cat Mother And The All Night News Boys
• “Green River” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones
• “Hurts So Bad” – Lettermen
• “I Can’t Get Next To You” – Temptations
• “I Turned You On” – Isley Brothers
• “I’d Wait A Million Years” – Grass Roots
• “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” – Tom Jones
• “In The Year 2525” – Zager & Evans
• “It’s Getting Better” – Mama Cass
• “Keem-O-Sabe” – Electric Indian
• “Laughing” – Guess Who
• “Lay Lady Lay” – Bob Dylan
• “Love Me Tonight” – Tom Jones
• “Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet” – Henry Mancini
• “Marrakesh Express” – “Crosby Stills And Nash”
• “Mother Popcorn” – James Brown
• “My Cherie Amour” – Stevie Wonder
• “My Pledge Of Love” – Joe Jeffrey Group
• “Nitty Gritty” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
• “Oh What A Night” – Dells
• “One” – Three Dog Night
• “Polk Salad Annie” – Tony Joe White
• “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” – Jackie Deshannon
• “Quentin’s Place” – Charles Randolph Grean Sounde
• “Reconsider Me” – Johnny Adams
• “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town” – Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
• “Share Your Love With Me” – Aretha Franklin
• “Soul Deep” – Box Tops
• “Spinning Wheel” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• “Sugar Sugar” – Archies
• “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond
• “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – Beatles
• “The Nitty Gritty” – Gladys Knight And The Pips
• “What Does It Take” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
• “Workin’ On A Groovy Thing” – 5Th Dimension
• “Yesterday When I Was Young” – Roy Clark

[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, high off the moon landing, NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine told a crowd that a crewed mission to both Mars and Venus would be feasible in the 1980s. The possibility, however, would depend on whether the American public was willing to commit to a cost of $24 billion. On September 15, Paine and U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, both advocates for a human landing on Mars, would present their task force report to U.S. President Richard Nixon, who accepted their recommendations “subject to budgetary considerations”. Obviously we’re still waiting.

On the 7th all but 10 of the residents of the small town of Greenfield, Iowa (population 2,243) pledged to give up (or never to start) smoking cigarettes, as well as cigars and pipes, in advance of the shooting of a film produced and directed by Norman Lear. A total of 2,464 cards pledging to quit smoking or not to start were signed after lobbying by local leaders with the assistance of the Girl Scouts. Starring Dick Van Dyke and Bob Newhart, the movie “Cold Turkey” (about the fictitious town of “Eagle Rock, Iowa” quitting tobacco “cold turkey”), would not be released until 1971.

And then on the 15th the Woodstock Festival began as an estimated 200,000 people arrived at the dairy farm of Max Yasgur in Sullivan County, New York, near the town of Bethel in the Catskill Mountains.  Complaints were made to local authorities by people living next to Yasgur’s 600-acre (240 ha) farm, and heavy rainfall turned the fields into what a UPI reporter called “a sea of mud, sickness and drugs at the hippie-style Woodstock Music and Art Fair”.

What’d Sadie think?

Three more weeks for novelty song, “In The Year 2525” by Zager & Evans before “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones has 2 weeks at the top.

I’ve never substantiated this, but it always seems like we get more new songs on the charts mid-year. My working theory is that it would have been summer in the USA and thats a good time for releases to catch consumers on holiday?

Loved ’em

• “A Boy Named Sue” – Johnny Cash
• “Give Peace A Chance” – Plastic Ono Band
• “Green River” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Lay Lady Lay” – Bob Dylan
• “Nitty Gritty” – Gladys Knight And The Pips

Liked ’em

• “Birthday” – Underground Sunshine
• “Easy To Be Hard” – Three Dog Night
• “Get Together” – Youngbloods
• “Hurts So Bad” – Lettermen
• “I Can’t Get Next To You” – Temptations
• “I’d Wait A Million Years” – Grass Roots
• “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” – Tom Jones
• “It’s Getting Better” – Mama Cass
• “Laughing” – Guess Who
• “Marrakesh Express” – “Crosby Stills And Nash”
• “Oh What A Night” – Dells
• “Put A Little Love In Your Heart” – Jackie Deshannon
• “Reconsider Me” – Johnny Adams
• “Share Your Love With Me” – Aretha Franklin
• “Soul Deep” – Box Tops
• “Sugar Sugar” – Archies
• “What Does It Take” – Jnior Walker And The All Stars
• “Workin’ On A Groovy Thing” – 5Th Dimension

Leave ’em

• “Along Came Jones” – Ray Stevens
• “Keem-O-Sabe” – Electric Indian

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

It’s 51 years and 1 months before Sadie is born and 7 years and 7 months before Thomas is, let’s hear the sounds of July, 1969!

Songs of the month

• [new] “Baby I Love You” – Andy Kim
• “Bad Moon Rising” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Black Pearl” – Sonny Charles And The Checkmates Ltd.
• [new] “Choice Of Colours” – Impressions
• “Colour Him Father” – Winstons
• “Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Everyday With You Girl” – Classics Iv
• “Get Back” – Beatles
• “Good Morning Starshine” – Oliver
• [new] “Good Old Rock N Roll” – Cat Mother And The All Night News Boys
• “Grazing In The Grass” – Friends Of Distinction
• [new] “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones
• [new] “I Can Sing A Rainbow / Love Is Blue” – Dells
• [new] “I Turned You On” – Isley Brothers
• “In The Ghetto” – Elvis Presley
• [new] “In The Year 2525” – Zager & Evans
• “Israelites” – Desmond Dekker And The Aces
• “Let Me” – Paul Revere And The Raiders
• “Love Can Make You Happy” – Mercy
• “Love Me Tonight” – Tom Jones
• “Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet” – Henry Mancini
• “Medicine Man” – Buchanan Brothers
• “Moody Woman” – Jerry Butler
• “More Today Than Yesterday” – Spiral Staircase
• “Mother Popcorn” – James Brown
• “My Cherie Amour” – Stevie Wonder
• [new] “My pledge Of Love” – Joe Jeffrey Group
• “One” – Three Dog Night
• [new] “Polk Salad Annie” – Tony Joe White
• [new] “Quentin’s Theme” – Charles Randolph Grean Sounde
• [new] “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town” – Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
• “See” – Rascals
• “Spinning Wheel” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• [new] “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond
• “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – Beatles
• [new] “The Popcorn” – James Brown
• “These Eyes” – Guess Who
• “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” – Marvin Gaye
• “What Does It Take” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
• [new] “Yesterday When I Was Young” – Roy Clark

[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 5th The Rolling Stones performed a live rock concert in front of at least 250,000 fans at Hyde Park in London. The event was their first public concert in more than two years, and had originally been planned as the debut of guitarist Mick Taylor, who had joined the Stones after Brian Jones had quit the band in May. Jones would later die in an accident two days before the Hyde Park Festival.

And on the 20th, as the world watched on live television, Neil Armstrong piloted the descent of the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Eagle, and, at 4:17 in the afternoon EDT , he and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin became the first human beings to land on another world.

Then on the 31st Elvis Presley returned to live performances for the first time since 1961, starting with his “comeback special” at the International Hotel in Las Vegas – which, unlike his 1968 TV comeback, was not professionally recorded. He would go on to break all previous Las Vegas attendance records playing to over 100,000 people in 30 days.

What’d Sadie think?

One week at the top for “Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet” – Henry Mancini before new comer, “In The Year 2525” by Zager & Evans takes it for 3 weeks.

The latter is an interesting one-hit wonder, that is described as, “a song about the journey of mankind over a 10,000-year span. It predicts that man’s thoughts, relationships and body will be negatively impacted by technological advances and ends with man’s extinction.”

Sounds worryingly prescient currently!

Loved ’em

• “Choice Of Colours” – Impressions
• “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones
• “In The Year 2525” – Zager & Evans
• “Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town” – Kenny Rogers And The First Edition
• “Sweet Caroline” – Neil Diamond
• “The Popcorn” – James Brown

Liked ’em

• “Baby I Love You” – Àndy Kim
• “Good Old Rock N Roll” – Cat Mother And The All Night News Boys
• “I Can Sing A Rainbow / Love Is Blue” – Dells
• “I Turned You On” – Isley Brothers
• “My Pledge Of Love” – Joe Jeffrey Group
• “Polk Salad Annie” – Tony Joe White
• “Yesterday When I Was Young” – Roy Clark

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

We’re late posting this week, so lets just get straight into the tunes of June, 1969!

Songs of the month

• “Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In” – 5Th Dimension
• “Atlantis” – Donovan
• “Bad Moon Rising” – Creedence Clearwater Revival
• [new] “Black Pearl” – Sonny Charles And The Checkmates Ltd
• “Cissy Strut” – Meters
• [new] “Colour Him Father” – Winstons
• [new] “Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Day Is Done” – “Peter Paul And Mary”
• [new] “Don’t Let The Joneses Get You Down” – Temptations
• “Everyday With You Girl” – Classics Iv
• “Get Back” – Beatles
• “Gitarzan” – Ray Stevens
• [new] “Good Morning Starshine” – Oliver
• “Goodbye” – Mary Hopkin
• “Grazing In The Grass” – Friends Of Distinction
• “Hair” – Cowsill
• “Happy Heart” – Andy Williams
• “In The Ghetto” – Elvis Presley
• [new] “Israelites” – Desmond Dekker And The Aces
• “It’s Your Thing” – Isley Brothers
• [new] “Let Me” – Paul Revere And The Raiders
• “Love Can Make You Happy” – Mercy
• [new] “Love Me Tonight” – Tom Jones
• “Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet” – Henry Mancini
• [new] “Medicine Man” – Buchanan Brothers
• [new] “Moody Woman” – Jerry Butler
• “More Today Than Yesterday” – Spiral Staircase
• “Morning Girl” – Neon Philharmonic
• [new] “Mother Popcorn” – James Brown
• [new] “My Cherie Amour” – Stevie Wonder
• “Oh Happy Day” – Edwin Hawkins Singers
• “One” – Three Dog Night
• [new] “See” – Rascals
• [new] “Spinning Wheel” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”
• [new] “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – Beatles
• “The Boxer” – Simon And Garfunkel
• “These Eyes” – Guess Who
• “Time Is Tight” – Booker T & Mg’s
• “Too Busy Thinking About My Baby” – Marvin Gaye
• [new] “What Does It Take” – Junior Walker And The All Stars
• “Where’s The Playground Susie” – Glen Campbell

[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 5th, in the first authenticated case of falling space debris causing damage on Earth, the Japanese freighter ship Dai Chi Chinei was heavily damaged by wreckage from a Soviet spacecraft that had re-entered Earth’s atmosphere. Five of the crewmen on the Dai Chi Chinei were seriously injured by a chunk of debris while the freighter was traversing the Strait of Tartary between the island of Sakhalin and mainland Siberia. Let’s remember this back in 2025 as billionaires start talking about hastily de-orbiting the ISS…

On the 13th The “Amen break”, a 6-second drum solo that would become “the most sampled musical track of all time”was recorded for the first time. Drummer Gregory C. Coleman of The Winstons performed the 4-bar beat 86 seconds into the song “Amen, Brother”, which then became the “B-side” of the 45 rpm vinyl recording of The Winstons’ hit single “Color Him Father”. For 15 years, “Amen, Brother” would be forgotten until the mid-1980s, when sampling came into use when DJs in hip hop music dance clubs used Coleman’s six-second “snare-and-cymbal sequence” to make the transition between one song and the next. By 2015, the “Amen break” would be part of more than 1,500 songs.

And on the 21st Royal Family, a candid documentary about the home life of Queen Elizabeth II, her husband and her four children, was broadcast for the first time and proved to be one of the most highly watched programs in the United Kingdom. The 110 minute feature, directed by Richard Cawston, brought cameras inside Buckingham Palace and was watched by an estimated 30,000,000 viewers, or more than half the UK’s population at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfjLvUs7nYY&t=3869s

Then on the 28th the Stonewall riots, a milestone in the modern gay rights movement in the United States, began in New York City when an angry crowd of bystanders began throwing bottles, rocks and even a parking meter at NYPD patrolmen who were carrying out a routine raid on the Stonewall Inn, a gay hangout at 53 Christopher Street in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan. Also remember this 2025.

What’d Sadie think?

It’s 3 weeks at the top for “Get Back” by the Beatles before Henry Mancini’s “Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet” takes it for a week.

Loved ’em

• “Black Pearl” – Sonny Charles And The Checkmates Ltd.
• “Israelites” – Desmond Dekker And The Aces
• “Medicine Man” – Buchanan Brothers
• “My Cherie Amour” – Stevie Wonder
• “Spinning Wheel” – “Blood Sweat And Tears”

Liked ’em

• “Colour Him Father” – Winstons
• “Crystal Blue Persuasion” – Tommy James And The Shondells
• “Don’t Let The Joneses Get You Down” – Temptations
• “Good Morning Starshine” – Oliver
• “Let Me” – Paul Revere And The Raiders
• “Love Me Tonight” – Tom Jones
• “Moody Woman” – Jerry Butler
• “Mother Popcorn” – James Brown
• “See” – Rascals
• “The Ballad Of John And Yoko” – Beatles
• “What Does It Take” – Junior Walker And The All Stars

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.