“Here’s To You” #76 5/25/1968

One from Hamilton Camp, who was known far more for his work as a character actor. He had numerous roles on sitcoms such as “M*A*S*H” (the slightly insane Boots Miller), “WKRP In Cincinnati” (Del, the manic salesman) and “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” (Mary’s height-impaired date). He was also a voice actor, providing the voice of Greedy Smurf plus several characters on the Ducktales cartoon series.

“Love In Every Room” #60 5/25/1968

Here’s the followup to Paul Mauriat’s worldwide #1 smash “Love Is Blue.” He later became a phenomenon in Japan, becoming the first solo artist to sell out the famed Budokan arena twice in one day. (The Beatles were the first group to do so.) Mauriat was quite prolific with well over 1,000 titles in his catalog of recordings.

The White Album

On this date the Beatles began work on what came to be known as the White Album, released in November 1968. The sessions continued through mid-October, including the non-album single “Hey Jude”/“Revolution.” After the lavish “Sgt. Pepper” cover and blowback from the “Magical Mystery Tour” debacle, they decided this LP would have a stark white cover with just the band’s name on the front. It became a double album partly to finish out their contract sooner. The songs were mainly written while they were in India studying Transcendental Meditation. The actual sessions were, in a word, contentious. The ego war between John and Paul reached a low point, exacerbated even more over the next few albums. George was ticked he wasn’t being taken seriously as a songwriter by Lennon and McCartney. Yoko’s constant presence in the studio and John’s drug issues didn’t help. Things deteriorated to where Ringo quit the band for almost two weeks and had to be coaxed into coming back. (Paul played drums on “Back In The USSR.”) It wasn’t so much a group effort, as only about half the tracks had all four members playing, yet the songs were mostly brilliant - with a few clunkers. Once again the Beatles didn’t just break the rules, they wrote new ones for everyone else to follow. The White Album remains a watershed moment in rock music history.

“Wear It On Our Face” #44 5/25/1968

The Dells had a huge R&B hit in 1956 with the original version of “Oh What A Night” but their career soon had a major disruption after a near-fatal car accident. They became a backing group on records like “Hello Stranger” by Barbara Lewis before finding greater success on their own. “There Is,” the group’s previous single to this one, made the Top 20 and their followup to this made the Top 10.

“Paying The Cost To Be The Boss” #39 5/25/1968

B.B. King had been quite successful on the R&B charts since 1951, but this was only his second Top 40 pop record. He came out of Indianola, Miss. to play the juke joint circuit throughout the Mississippi Delta. One night at a club in Twist, Arkansas the place caught fire, caused by two men fighting over a woman named Lucille. B.B. ran back into the burning building to rescue his guitar, which he named after the woman as a reminder to never endanger himself that way again.

“I Wanna Live” #36 (#1 Country) 5/25/1968

This week’s #1 on the country charts was the first of five for Glen Campbell on that side of the street. It also snuck into the pop Top 40. Written by John D. Loudermilk, who also wrote “Tobacco Road,” “Talk Back Trembling Lips,” “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye” and most notably “Indian Reservation.”

“My Girl/Hey Girl” #35 5/25/1968

The last Top 40 record for Bobby Vee was a medley of the ‘65 Temptations classic and a Freddie Scott hit from ‘63 written by Goffin and King. Bobby Velline got his start when his band filled in for Buddy Holly in Moorhead, Minn. after that tragic 1959 plane crash. One door closes and another opens. Bobby once had a keyboard player, Elston Gunnn (with three n’s), who went on to bigger things as Bob Dylan.