“She’s A Rainbow” #25 1/27/1968

The current Rolling Stones single was notable for contributions by two music figures from outside the group. Future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones arranged the strings, while session man extraordinaire Nicky Hopkins played the absolutely gorgeous piano part. Not your usual Stones 45. A very trippy song, as it came from the LP “Their Satanic Majesties Request,” the band’s response to “Sgt. Pepper.”

“Itchycoo Park” #16 1/27/1968

This song was all about just ditching the day and goofing off. Written by Small Faces members Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, it became a UK Top 5 even though at first the BBC banned the record due to perceived drug references. So the group concocted a totally fake story about how Itchycoo Park was a dump the band members played in as kids, and fooled the BBC. There’s an interesting audio effect on the record called flanging, which created that swooshing sound.

“Different Drum” #13 1/27/1968

The first hit for Linda Ronstadt, composed by the Monkees’ Mike Nesmith. He’d written the song prior to their TV show and wanted the group to record it, but the Monkees had little control over what appeared on their records and series. Nesmith wasn’t hurting for cash (his mom invented Liquid Paper correction fluid) and he gave the tune to Linda. She later hired a few guys named Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who went on to far bigger and better things with the Eagles.

“Susan” #11 1/27/1968

The last hit record for the Buckinghams, with a very odd psychedelic passage inserted by producer James William Guercio without the knowledge or consent of the band. So they quickly parted ways, and the Bucks only had one more national chart record which missed the Top 50. Guercio found a horn-driven Windy City band named The Big Thing, who turned into Chicago Transit Authority, until the real CTA threatened legal action. Since you can’t copyright a place name, that’s how they became known as Chicago.

“Bend Me, Shape Me” #5 1/27/1968

Several other acts recorded this first (notably the Outsiders), but the Chicago-based American Breed had their biggest hit by far with this version.  Co-written by Scott English, who had a UK hit in 1971 with a tune called “Brandy” that barely charted in the States, though I remember hearing it on WKBW in Buffalo. Barry Manilow redid the song in ‘74 as “Mandy” to avoid confusion with a similarly titled Looking Glass single, and that became his first #1.

“It’s My Party” #1 6/1/1963

It only took four weeks from release for this to become Lesley Gore’s only #1 in June 1963. She and her producer/mentor Quincy Jones sifted through a few hundred demos and this was the only one they agreed upon. Q was attending a Carnegie Hall event when he ran into Phil Spector, who mentioned the Crystals had recorded this great song and he wanted to put it out as a single. Jones didn’t tell Phil he’d recorded the same tune earlier that day with Lesley, so Quincy had it rush-released.

“Everybody Knows” (1968) #43 1/20/1968

It gets confusing when different songs have the same title. It gets REALLY confusing when the same act records different songs with the same title! The last US chart entry for the Dave Clark Five featured Lenny Davidson on lead vocals instead of the usual Mike Smith, who sang the first “Everybody Knows” from late 1964. The DC5 was second only to the Beatles in that initial British Invasion on our shores.