"Funky Broadway" #8 9/30/1967

Originally done by Dyke and the Blazers, the Broadway referenced in this #1 R&B hit from Wilson Pickett isn't the one in NYC, but in Buffalo where Arlester "Dyke" Christian was from. It's also said to be about Broadway Road in Phoenix, where Mr. Christian and his band were broke and stranded once upon a time. This was recorded in Muscle Shoals and was Wilson's last Top 10 pop hit.

"It Could Be We're In Love" #85 9/23/1967

This just barely charted nationally (gaining traction at different times in different areas of the country has that effect) but in their hometown of Chicago, the Cryan' Shames reached #1 on both WLS and WCFL, the two local powerhouse AM Top 40 stations. It's a curious little record but the harmonies are really quite good. Maybe it was just a tad too quirky or something. Soon, the band kind of fell apart. Several members eventually re-formed and are still doing gigs around Chicagoland.

"Blues' Theme" #37 9/23/1967

The opening theme to a low-budget biker movie called "The Wild Angels." It starred a pre-"Easy Rider" Peter Fonda with Nancy Sinatra, Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd. You may have seen it at the drive-in back in the day...or maybe not, if you had something else going on at the drive-in ;) Davie Allan and the Arrows played on a bunch of those type of soundtracks. Davie had a badass sound with lots of distortion and other effects. Eddie Van Halen said this record was one of his first influences, and he learned to play guitar as a result. That kinda worked out well for Eddie, dontcha think?

"Groovin' " (Booker T. & the MG's) #21 9/23/1967

An instrumental remake of the Young Rascals' #1 from earlier in the year became a Top 10 R&B tune for Booker T. and the MG's. They were basically the house band at Stax Records in Memphis, playing on virtually all the label's hits. These guys were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 - and deservedly so.

"I Had A Dream" #17 9/23/1967

Paul Revere and the Raiders and Terry Melcher would part ways shortly after this single. Terry produced all of their early hits but as a staff producer at Columbia Records, he was spending a lot more time working with other acts and less with the Raiders. A guy would soon audition for Melcher by the name of Charlie Manson. After he was turned down and not signed...well, the Manson "family" invaded Melcher's old house in 1969 looking to kill him (Terry had already moved), and they wound up murdering Sharon Tate and the others. Wrong place, wrong time.

"I Dig Rock And Roll Music" #9 9/23/1967

The fifth Top 10 from Peter, Paul and Mary. The trio was one of the leading folk music acts of the early 60's but hadn't had a real hit in a few years. Here, they parodied the styles of the Mamas and the Papas, Donovan, and the Beatles. They broke up in 1970 after Peter Yarrow was convicted of making moves on a 14-year-old girl. P, P & M reunited in 1978 and toured off and on until Mary Travers died of leukemia in 2009.

"Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" #6 9/23/1967

The initial hit for Allentown, PA's Jay and the Techniques, one of the first integrated rock bands of the 60's. Lead singer Jay Proctor was the only member appearing on the record, though, as producer Jerry Ross chose to have Philadelphia studio musicians perform instead. The song had been offered to Bobby Hebb as a followup to "Sunny" but he turned it down.

"The Letter" #1 9/23/1967

Gimme a tiggit for an arrowplane! One of the shortest #1's ever (1:58) and Billboard's rock single of the year for 1967 was the first hit from the Box Tops, featuring 16-year-old Alex Chilton on lead vocals. It was a shock when people found out this wasn't sung by some middle-aged black dude, but by a white teenager from Memphis. Written by Wayne Carson Thompson, who went on to compose a boatload of rock and country hits until he passed away in 2015. Chilton died in 2010 of a heart attack. The band just looks completely buzzed in this video, however...

"Sheila" #1 9/1/1962

From September 1962, the first of two career #1's for Tommy Roe was a pretty clear knockoff of Buddy Holly's "Peggy Sue." Tommy originally named the song "Frita" after a high school classmate, but was asked to change the title. It just so happened his Aunt Sheila came by to visit, and a hit was born. Fellow Georgian Jerry Reed played guitar on the session.

"There's Always Me" #56 9/16/1967

Another case of a years-old Elvis song being dredged from the vaults to be issued as a 45. This came from a 1961 album called "Something For Everybody." Col. Parker's strategy of Elvis only recording songs for his movies just wasn't working any more. The soundtracks were so weak nothing on them could be put out as singles, and releasing older material for that purpose only showed how dated those songs sounded, compared to what the Beatles and others were doing by now.

"Things I Should Have Said" #23 9/16/1967

The last Top 40 record from the Grass Roots until "Midnight Confessions" came out the following year. They were becoming a pretty strong live band by now. Lead singer Rob Grill was a force on their records as well. They still depended quite a bit on the Wrecking Crew in the studio, however. Never uncool to rely on the best.

"Twelve Thirty (Young Girls Are Coming To The Canyon)" #20 9/16/1967

Here's one of the first songs Papa John Phillips wrote shortly after the Mamas and the Papas relocated from Greenwich Village to L.A., but took two years to make it onto a record. He'd seen drunk and/or stoned girls wandering out of the fancy homes in the canyons after some wild parties. Papa John built a state of the art recording studio at his and Michelle's house in the Hollywood Hills, but those sessions didn't go well. A disastrous 1967 concert tour of England started out badly with Mama Cass being arrested on trumped-up charges over an old unpaid hotel bill. That led to discord, backstage shouting matches, cancelled shows, and the group desperately needing time away from work. They never quite fully recovered.

"There Is A Mountain" #11 9/16/1967

Donovan based this on an old Zen proverb which stated, "First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is." I suppose it meant if you look at an obstacle long enough, it disappears from one's conscious self, so you can then surmount said obstacle when it reappears. That, or they had some damn good weed in the studio. The meter of the song is very free-form.

"San Franciscan Nights" #9 9/16/1967

Lots of flower power over the next few days. Mark Twain once said, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco," so it seemed a little odd that Eric Burdon and the Animals would write a song about a warm night in the City by the Bay. It contained all the Love Generation themes, like peace, love, strobe lights, moving walls, and an anti-cop message, too. Sorta touched all the hippie bases.

"You're My Everything" #6 9/16/1967

The tenth Top 20 entry for the mighty Temptations, and one of the rare singles by this point where Eddie Kendricks mostly handled the lead vocals. David Ruffin is out front during the bridge and near the end, though. Written by Roger Penzabene, who was a tragic footnote in Motown's history. He wrote this uplifting love song for his wife but found out later she was messing around on him. Roger composed a couple more tunes for the Temps with an unhappier tone, then committed suicide.

"The Loco-Motion" #1 8/25/1962

From August of 1962, another #1 written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. They just hired Eva Boyd as a nanny and upon discovering she could sing, had her do a demo of this song. They offered it to Dee Dee Sharp ("Mashed Potato Time") but she turned it down, so the newly-christened Little Eva re-recorded it herself and took it to the top. Grand Funk took it back to #1 in 1974, and Kylie Minogue had a Top 5 with her version in 1988. Ms. Boyd left the business, wound up on welfare, and passed away from cervical cancer in 2003. Video is from "Shindig."

"Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" #1 8/11/1962

As teenagers, Neil Sedaka dated Carole King and even wrote "Oh, Carol!" about it. They eventually married others (Neil proposed to his future wife over the phone), but they both became prolific songwriters at the Brill Building in NYC. Today's tune became Neil's first #1 in August 1962. He re-did this with a much slower arrangement in 1975, and joined the Ventures with "Walk, Don't Run" as the only rockers to reach the Top 10 with two totally different versions of their own song. Video is from a "Bandstand"-type show called "Saturday Hop" on the former WLBW-TV in Miami, now WPLG Channel 10.

"Roses Are Red (My Love)" #1 7/14/1962

Back to 1962 we go! Bobby Vinton was on the verge of being dropped by Epic Records as he had released two albums with zero success. Bobby found this song in a reject pile and had to do his own promotion of the single. So he kept 1,000 copies and hired a pretty female to deliver them (along with a dozen roses each) to his hometown Pittsburgh-area radio stations. It worked, and this became the first of his four #1's.

"Little Ole Wine Drinker, Me" #38 9/9/1967

A commercial from the 60's for Italian Swiss Colony wine contained the phrase "the little old winemaker, me!" voiced by Mr. Magoo and Thurston Howell III himself, the great Jim Backus. A song that parodied that tag line became a Top 5 easy listening hit for that little ole wine drinker from Steubenville, Ohio, Dean Martin.

"Baby I Love You" #4 9/9/1967

Not the Ronettes song with the same title, but a #1 R&B smash and the followup to "Respect" for Aretha Franklin. Lady Soul had a real run of hits in the late 60's and early 70's. She came from a gospel background as her dad was a minister, and came a long way from her early secular recordings. Those produced one minor Top 40 effort, a 1961 remake of "Rock-A-Bye Your Baby With A Dixie Melody" first done by Al Jolson in 1918.

"Come Back When You Grow Up" #3 9/9/1967

Bobby Vee was one of the many American rock and rollers whose career was blown out of the water by the British Invasion. He hadn't had a Top 40 record since 1963 until this Top 5 hit written by Martha Sharp, who wrote "Born A Woman" for Sandy Posey. Martha went on to become a VP at Warner Brothers Records, and was credited with signing country star-to-be Randy Travis to the label.

"Reflections" #2 9/9/1967

The first single billed as Diana Ross and the Supremes. There were more changes taking place as well. Florence Ballard had already been fired by the time this hit the charts because of her erratic, disruptive on and off-stage conduct. She was replaced by Cindy Birdsong. The group's main songwriting/production team, Holland-Dozier-Holland, also would soon depart Motown over the dreaded "creative differences." Oh, yeah, and $$$. There were some unique electronic effects that distinguish the song, which you may remember as the theme to TV's "China Beach." The bass part by James Jamerson is just unreal.

"Good Morning Good Morning"

The inspiration for this "Sgt. Pepper" album cut came from a TV ad for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. The meter of the song is all over the place - John sometimes wrote the lyrics first and then made the timing fit the words. Paul played the ridiculous guitar solo, and some of Ringo's better drum work is in there, too. Clip is from the "Rock Band" video game.

Beatles - Good Morning Good Morning

"The Stripper" #1 7/7/1962

Another #1 song from 1962 that was written off-the-cuff during the last few minutes of a recording session. Composer David Rose told his orchestra to go completely over the top, which explains those wild trombone slides. It sat in the vaults unreleased for four years until his label quickly needed a B-side for a single of David's. An office boy was sent to fish through tapes, and found this one. Rose was with Red Skelton for over 20 years on radio and TV as his musical conductor. You may remember this was used in 60's ads for Noxzema shaving cream. Take it off! Take it all off!

"I Can't Stop Loving You" #1 6/2/1962

I've mentioned several times how much Ray Charles loved country music. There was never a better example than his landmark album "Modern Sounds In Country And Western Music," released in 1962 and containing this song, written and first done by Don Gibson. This reached #1 on the pop, easy listening and R&B charts. Willie Nelson once said "Modern Sounds" "did more for country music than any one artist has ever done." Willie was right!

"Branded Man" #1 Country 9/2/1967

The second of his 38 #1 country records topped that chart for Merle Haggard this week in 1967. It dealt with a paroled prisoner being accepted in society, a theme he knew all too well. Hag had been in and out of correctional facilities since the age of 13, even doing time in the notorious San Quentin prison for armed robbery. When that info became public, nobody made a big deal of it. While incarcerated at San Quentin in 1959, Merłe saw Johnny Cash perform there, and he said it changed his life.

"When I'm Sixty-Four"

One of the first songs Paul McCartney ever wrote (when he was 15) became the first song the Beatles did for "Sgt. Pepper." "Strawberry Fields Forever" was recorded earlier but was left off "Pepper." They would play this at their early live gigs whenever the amps blew up or the power went out. John later derided the tune as "granny s**t" meaning it was vaudevillian in nature, but that style was in Paul's DNA as his dad was a trumpeter. The only suitable video I could find was a :30 snippet. Thanks, lawyers.

"The World We Knew (Over And Over)" #30 9/2/1967

Surprisingly, this was the last #1 on the easy listening (or adult contemporary) charts for Francis Albert Sinatra, considering songs like "My Way" and "New York, New York" were still to come. This was kind of an experimental record for the Chairman Of The Board, what with the fuzz guitar intro and all that. The late 60's lent itself to those kind of things.

"(I Wanna) Testify" #20 9/2/1967

The whole Parliament/Funkadelic thang in the 70's started out innocently enough in the 50's as a Jersey doo-wop group called the Parliaments, named after the cigarette brand. This Top 5 R&B tune was their one hit. George Clinton was the only member who appeared on the record, as the others couldn't afford to travel to Detroit for the session. The label went broke and George couldn't keep the band name, so they added a horn section and became Funkadelic, which evolved into Parliament and P-Funk, and that outfit released some of the best funk and dance music of the 70's. But how did they get from this to "Flash Light"???

"Words" #11 9/2/1967

Written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, this was a rather dark breakup song from the Monkees and was the B-side of "Pleasant Valley Sunday." Notice how the lead vocals trade off between Micky and Peter. Apparently this caused another fight between the band and the suits at their label. The suits wanted more bubblegum tunes; the group wanted to record more mature songs. The label eventually won out, because once the band stopped doing teenybopper stuff, their popularity waned.

"Stranger On The Shore" #1 5/26/1962

From May of 1962, the #1 song of the year was by the first Brit to reach the peak of the modern Billboard Hot 100, almost two years before the Beatles. The instrumental was by traditional jazz clarinetist Mr. Acker Bilk, noted for his stage attire of a bowler hat, goatee and striped waistcoat. It was originally called "Jenny" after his daughter, but he was asked to change the title to match that of a popular BBC-TV young people's soap opera. That way, the song would be used on the show.