"I've Passed This Way Before" #17 1/28/1967

Jimmy Ruffin always seemed to get lost in the shuffle at Motown. Songs he recorded first would frequently be covered by others at the company, including his brother David's group, the Temptations. Jimmy left Motown in the 70's and had very little success except for one record, "Hold On (To My Love)" in 1977.

"Knight In Rusty Armor" #15 1/28/1967

Peter and Gordon continued the medieval theme of their previous record with this ditty about a guy in rusted chain mail. It would be their last UK hit; they had one more US Top 40 entry before splitting up in '68. Peter Asher became a successful record producer working with James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt among others. They would eventually reunite in 2005 and do some shows until Gordon Waller passed away in 2009.

"Nashville Cats" #8 1/28/1967

An ode to the session musicians of Music City, this was the seventh single by the Lovin' Spoonful and also their seventh in a row to reach the Top 10. It makes reference to the "yellow Sun Records in Nashville." The label on the record was definitely yellow but Sun, the first home of Elvis, was actually based in Memphis. Close enough for the thirteen hundred and fifty-two guitar pickers.

"Tell It Like It Is" #2 1/28/1967

New Orleans' own Aaron Neville said that many people told him this song either brought them back together with their significant others - or broke them up for good. He wouldn't have another solo hit until the 90's, but had a Top 5 duet with Linda Ronstadt and "Don't Know Much." Aaron and his brothers are one of the finest live acts around. The Neville Brothers can play any - ANY - style of music and pull it off.

"Alley Oop" #1 7/16/1960

A #1 from July 1960 by the Hollywood Argyles, a studio group that took their name from Argyle Street in L.A., located a block from the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine. Reportedly everyone at the session was drunk out of their gourds. Their one hit was based on a popular comic strip caveman and written by Dallas Frazier, who also wrote "Elvira" and "There Goes My Everything." The brains behind the record, Gary S. Paxton, also produced "Monster Mash."

"Wack Wack" #40 1/21/1967

The first (albeit minor) hit for bassist Eldee Young and drummer Red Holt after they parted ways with Ramsey Lewis and brought in a new pianist to fill out their trio. They soon changed their name to Young-Holt Unlimited and scored with "Soulful Strut" two years later, although it's believed neither Young or Holt actually played on that track. Whoever put together this video had some real issues about spanking. Wack Wack!

"Gallant Men" #29 1/21/1967

One of the few spoken word records to reach the Top 40, our selection today is notable on several fronts. The very patriotic poem was written and recited by Sen. Everett Dirksen of Illinois, although Rep. Sonny Bono remains the only member of Congress to ever have a #1 record. Yes, that's an unfair comparison. The backing music was co-written by Charles Wood III, better known by his professional name of Charles Osgood, longtime CBS newsman. Before joining the network, Osgood spent a few years in Washington, DC local radio, notably at WTOP, WGMS and WPGC.

"Color My World" #16 1/21/1967

Not to be confused with the similarly titled Chicago song from several years later. Petula Clark returned to the Top 20 in America, but it was her second straight flop in the UK. The song did gain some notoriety over there as it was used in promos touting BBC2's color (or colour) TV broadcasting debut a few months later. Her next single would do much, much better on both sides of the pond. Backing vocals as usual were by the Breakaways, and by now even Pet's songs were using a sitar.

"Tell It To The Rain" #10 1/21/1967

A little psychedelia here (if you stretch it a bit) and the twelfth Top 10 record from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. As documented in the "Jersey Boys" musical and movie, the group hit some rough patches in real life around this time. By early 1967, a lot of folks were doing radically different song arrangements after the Beatles expanded the horizons of what could be done in the studio.

"Standing In The Shadows Of Love" #6 1/21/1967

The Motown songwriting and production team of Holland-Dozier-Holland supposedly got more than a few ideas from daytime TV soaps. They must have watched a real downer the day they wrote this, the fourth Top 10 pop hit for the Four Tops. It's essentially the same arrangement as H-D-H's previous effort for them, "Reach Out I'll Be There" but with a much different, darker mood.

"Words Of Love" (Mamas and Papas) #5 1/21/1967

After the relative disappointment of their previous single, the Mamas and the Papas got back into the Top 5 here. Mama Cass Elliot certainly belted this one out, but then, she was basically the only member singing on the record. Michelle Phillips had a one word contribution ("NO!") and neither Papa John Phillips or Denny Doherty sang at all, even though Papa John wrote it. Things were definitely strained within the group by now.

"Everybody's Somebody's Fool" #1 7/2/1960

This was the first #1 by a solo female artist of the Hot 100 era, which began in 1958. Connie Francis (born Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero) ran into serious opposition from her label, with the suits telling her it would be career suicide to put out an almost country sounding record. They wanted this as a B-side. However, she was one of the first artists to have near-total control of their music, so Connie held her ground and had the song released as an A-side. All it did was become her first chart topper.

"Cathy's Clown" #1 5/28/1960

This #1 from the late spring of 1960 was the first release for the Everly Brothers after they jumped labels from Cadence to Warner Brothers in a million-dollar deal. The record's hook was the distinctive snare drum part. Nashville piano great Floyd Cramer played on this session, as he did on many of the Everlys' singles.

"Stuck On You" #1 4/30/1960

The record that succeeded Percy Faith at #1 was the first Elvis single released after his discharge from the Army in early 1960. Almost as soon as the King got back in the States, Col. Parker set up several marathon recording sessions to crank out the new material. Although he still sold a boatload of records after his military stint, Elvis never quite got back to that raw, rockin' sound from prior to getting drafted. I do dig his delivery here of "grizz-ah-lee bear." As was common throughout his career, he was backed on this one by the Jordanaires, a fine gospel group in their own right.

"Theme From 'A Summer Place' " #1 2/27/1960

We return to 1960 #1 tunes with the most successful instrumental of the rock era. But it wasn't rock, and wasn't the primary theme to the movie in which it appeared. Percy Faith and his Orchestra took this to #1 for nine weeks, a feat unmatched on the pop charts until "Hey Jude" in 1968. Percy helped to move instrumental music away from brass arrangements and far more into strings.

"(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" #20 1/14/1967

A rockin' Monkees tune which was the B-side of "I'm A Believer." Like their first hit, this was written by Boyce and Hart and sung by Micky Dolenz, once again the only group member on the session. It first appeared on a Paul Revere and the Raiders album in the spring of 1966. Notice the lack of continuity as Mike Nesmith plays two different guitars on stage during the song, a six string and then a twelve string! One of my personal favorites.

"Talk Talk" #15 1/14/1967

A one-hit wonder from the Music Machine, one of the first bands to dress in all black on stage, matching the dark mood of this record, and one of the first to de-tune their guitars, which everybody does today. The bass was run through a fuzz box, which Paul McCartney was thought to have originated. It rocked pretty hard for the times and the 45 came in at under two minutes, which almost guaranteed lots of radio airplay. This is generally acknowledged as a forerunner of the punk movement.

"Good Thing" #4 1/14/1967

Columbia Records was notorious in the 50's and 60's for its dislike of rock and roll. Their head of artists and repertoire, Mitch Miller (as in "Sing Along With Mitch") not only took a pass on signing Elvis and Buddy Holly, but also turned down the Beatles. Columbia only joined the frenzy when public demand (and all that money to be made) forced their hand. The first rock group they signed was...Paul Revere and the Raiders. Here's their third Top 10 single, as they worked for the label that originally hated rock.

"Teen Angel" #1 2/13/1960

Yes, another record where someone dies. This teen tragedy or "death dirge" from one-hit wonder Mark Dinning was so morbid a lot of radio stations wouldn't play the single, yet it still reached #1 in February 1960. It was banned by the BBC, and was also on the soundtrack of "American Graffiti." Three of his sisters formed a successful singing group in the 1940's (sister Jean wrote this song with her then-husband) and his nephew Dean was the bass player for 90's band Toad the Wet Sprocket.

"Running Bear" #1 1/23/1960

Like "El Paso" the protagonist here dies at the end of the song. Kind of a Native American "Romeo and Juliet." It was written and first done by J.P. Richardson (a.k.a. The Big Bopper) just before his own death in 1959 with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens. He gave the song to his friend Johnny Preston who took it to the top after some legal issues delayed its release. Factoid #1: One of the backing chanters on J.P.'s original was his buddy and fellow East Texan, George Jones. Factoid #2: The "ooogah cha gah" chant on both versions was appropriated for Blue Swede's "Hooked On A Feeling" in 1975.

"El Paso" #1 1/9/1960

Out in the West Texas town of El Paso...Definitely a personal all-time favorite. One of the greatest story songs of them all came from country star Marty Robbins. It was a rarity in that the edited version still ran over four minutes at a time when radio usually wouldn't touch a record that long. The full version came in at nearly five minutes. He was a pretty fair stock car driver, too, earning respect with six top 10 finishes in NASCAR's major series. He surprised folks once at Talladega by running 10-12 MPH faster in the race than in qualifying. The car failed the post-race inspection as Marty said he took the restrictor plate off just to see what it felt like to run up front there. (NASCAR fans know what I'm talking about.) The regulars said if he had raced full time, Marty would've been a star in that field as well.

"Why" #1 1/2/1960

There wasn't much happening on the pop charts the first few weeks of 1967, so we'll throw in some #1 songs from the pre-British Invasion time frame of 1960-63. Here's the first of those from teen idol Frankie Avalon. He had another chart-topper in 1959 with "Venus." Frankie later teamed up with Annette Funicello in all those beach party movies and also had a small part in the movie version of "Grease" in 1978.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" Album cut

IMHO, this track (the first recorded for the "Revolver" LP) represents all that was good and bad about the Beatles from then up until their end in 1970. Almost everything they did, drug-influenced or not (and this was pretty LSD-trippy) was sheer brilliance. The bulk of this song consists of tape loops the four of them put together individually, which George Martin assembled into a finished product. From a technical standpoint, their recording process was absolutely groundbreaking. They did things in the studio nobody else had even attempted at the time. But a few songs, like this one, came off as very self-indulgent. Apparently I hold a minority view because a sizable number of people say this was one of the greatest Beatle tracks ever. I respectfully disagree.

"I (Who Have Nothing)" #46 1/7/1967

You really can't call this group a one-hit wonder, as their highest charting record didn't make the Top 40, which is the accepted criteria. Terry Knight and the Pack were still very popular regionally on the Michigan music scene. This Italian song was first done in English by Ben E. King in 1963, with the biggest hit version in 1970 by Tom Jones. The drummer and guitarist of the Pack were Don Brewer and Mark Farner, who became the nucleus of Grand Funk Railroad in a couple of years as Terry Knight became that group's manager for a time. GFRR and Knight later had a falling out.

"Coming Home Soldier" #11 1/7/1967

The logical followup (albeit two years later) to "Mr. Lonely" from Bobby Vinton. Both songs dealt with a soldier stationed overseas and longing for home. This time around, our main character gets to achieve his goal of coming back to his girl - and doing so while still breathing!

"It's All Over Now" #26 9/19/1964 Bonus

From September '64, the third US single for the Rolling Stones and their first UK #1. Co-writer Bobby Womack had to be talked into allowing the Stones to record his song, but when that first royalty check came, he said Mick and the boys could record anything of his they wanted. I think this finally catches me up on 1964 songs that were left out in syncing up my FB posts and blog posts. Thank you for indulging me!

"Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" #30 12/31/1966

A very psychedelic song from the Yardbirds, and one of only three of their recordings to feature both Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page on guitar. It was their last Top 40 single in the States. John Paul Jones played bass here as he and Page went on to form the New Yardbirds, which morphed into Led Zeppelin.

"Help Me Girl" (Animals) #29 12/31/1966

The Animals released their version of this song at the same time as the Outsiders. Perhaps that's why neither one did very well. The Animals started out as a jazz group with Eric Burdon on trombone. He switched to lead vocals when it turned out he was a lousy trombonist. By now the first version of the band had pretty much disintegrated and Burdon put together a new group that would lean more toward psychedelia.

"East West" #27 12/31/1966

The first US single for Herman's Hermits that didn't make the Top 20. It kinda gets lost in the shuffle for that reason. Yet another of their songs written by Graham Gouldman, and quite an interesting tune.

"Single Girl" #12 12/31/1966

The second hit for Sandy Posey was the 180 degree polar opposite of her first. Whereas "Born A Woman" was a precursor of the feminist movement, this was from the viewpoint of a near-wallflower dependent on a man to complete her life. Kinda sums up the extremes of the 60's in a nutshell, eh?

"I Know I'm Losing You" (Temptations) #8 12/31/1966

The Temptations took another step away from the mellow sound of their days with Smokey Robinson behind the console. Producer Norman Whitfield definitely had the group moving toward a harder edge. In the early 70's there were two decent rock remakes of this one, by Rare Earth and another by Faces with Rod Stewart on lead vocals.

"Sugar Town" #5 12/31/1966

It's been said this song had some of the dopiest lyrics of the 60's, in several ways. Its writer, Lee Hazlewood, admitted as much. He went to a club in L.A. one night and saw some people with sugar cubes and an eye dropper containing LSD. He didn't partake but was told they were all headed to "Sugar Town." Lee was careful to conceal the true drug-laden purpose of the words. Nancy Sinatra gave a laid-back delivery because she knew the meaning too, but kept it disguised.

"Snoopy vs. The Red Baron" #2 12/31/1966

We begin 1967 with a novelty record by Ocala, Florida's Royal Guardsmen that was kept out of the top spot for four straight weeks by "I'm A Believer." They were another group who took on a British-sounding name to sell some records. The song was based on the comic strip "Peanuts" and the dreams of Charlie Brown's beagle Snoopy as a World War I pilot. The phrase at the beginning roughly translates to "We will now sing together the song of a pig-headed dog, and our beloved Red Baron." (The lead singer actually spoke German.) Listen for a few bars of "Hang On Sloopy."