1. To Sir With Love, Lulu
2. Happy Together, The Turtles
3. Windy, The Association
4. Ode To Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry
5. I'm A Believer, The Monkees
6. Light My Fire, The Doors
7. Somethin' Stupid, Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra (video version below is a cover performed by Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams)
8. The Letter, Box Tops
9. Groovin', Young Rascals
10. Kind Of A Drag, Buckinghams
11. Little Bit O' Soul, Music Explosion
12. I Think We're Alone Now, Tommy James and The Shondells (see image at right)
13. Respect, Aretha Franklin
14. I Was Made To Love Her, Stevie Wonder
15. Come Back When You Grow Up, Bobby Vee and The Strangers
16. Sweet Soul Music, Arthur Conley
17. Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Frankie Valli
18. Never My Love, The Association 
19. Soul Man, Sam and Dave
20. Expressway To Your Heart, Soul Survivors
21. Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie, Jay and The Techniques
22. Come On Down To My Boat, Every Mothers' Son
23. Incense And Peppermints, Strawberry Alarm Clock
24. Ruby Tuesday, The Rolling Stones
25. It Must Be Him, Vicki Carr
26. For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield
27. Gimme Little Sign, Brenton Wood
28. Love Is Here And Now You're Gone, Supremes
29. The Happening, Supremes
30. All You Need Is Love, Beatles
31. Release Me (And Let Me Love Again), Engelbert Humperdinck
32. Your Precious Love, Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
33. Somebody To Love, Jefferson Airplane
34. Get On Up, Esquires
35. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison
36. Jimmy Mack, Martha and The Vandellas
37. I Got Rhythm, Happenings
38. A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Procol Harum
39. Don't You Care, Buckinghams
40. Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye, Casinos
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
Brian & Lyndsae Benton: Top 40 Songs from 1967
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
20 comments:
I knew a lot more of these than I thought. I loved the videos. Where did Nicole Kidman and Robbie Williams come up with that video? I particularly liked Ode to Billy Joe.
I haven't watched all the videos yet, but the turtles video of Happy Together is very funny. what is up with the dude in the shorts and hat? very funny.
Mom, I want to know exactly how many of these you know. You and anyone else who posts here.
The lead singer looks like director Kevin Smith--in this video. In another video I came across in which they sing the same song, he has a moustache and looks like Dan Dierdorf. The keyboardist, who has no keyboard, strums a single drumstick in that video. One of the other guitarists looks like Cha-Ka from Land of the Lost.
Of the 40 songs on this list, I know 24. To get a sense of whether this is a lot or not, I’d like to look at similar lists for 1977, 1987, 1997 and 2007, say, and get a rough measure of my changing knowledge of American pop music (where’d you get the list, BnL?). I wonder if I know more of the hits of ’67 than Mom and Dad do. I suspect I won’t know many of the top hits of 2007. Could it be that Emilio will one day know more of these than I do?
Of the 24 songs on this list that I know, I would characterize 10 as Junk (although a couple have a certain cornball appeal):
1. To Sir With Love, Lulu (rank: #1). Wikipedia gives Lulu credit for employing melisma techniques.
2. Windy, The Association (3). Number one the week I was born. Alas.
3. Somethin' Stupid, Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra (7). I learned of Somethin’ Stupid after I read a hilarious lyric Terry Eagleton wrote for it in which he name checks all the great Marxist literary critics.
4. Groovin', Young Rascals (9)
5. I Think We're Alone Now, Tommy James and The Shondells (see image at right) (12) I only know this one because Tiffany covered it in the early 80s and I only know that she did because I saw a VH1 story on her.
6. Can't Take My Eyes Off You, Frankie Valli (17)
7. Never My Love, The Association (18)
8. Ruby Tuesday, The Rolling Stones (24) The most over-rated band in history.
9. Release Me (And Let Me Love Again), Engelbert Humperdinck (31). Candidate for the worst name in history. And it turns out he chose it for himself. On purpose. Even though someone else already had it
10. I Got Rhythm, Happenings (37)
Who thought it would be a good idea for the Sinatra father/daughter team to sing the love song, Somethin' Stupid? Answer: Someone stuipd.
It was a much better idea for Nicole and Robbie to remake it in full cornball mode. Having seen the video, I can only hope that it is not based on anything Nancy and Frank committed to film.
Nicole is such a talented actress and singer; I’m proud to have her as a year peer.
Robbie, on the other hand, must be the most famous singer in the world that I have never heard of. Apparently, many Americans can say the same thing.
Of the remaining 14 songs I know and like, I’d describe 4 as level two tunes—not special, but not bad:
1. Kind Of A Drag, Buckinghams (10)
2. Soul Man, Sam and Dave (19). I know this one from The Blues Brothers, who make it fun.
3. Gimme Little Sign, Brenton Wood (27).
4. All You Need Is Love, Beatles (30). A classic, I’ll admit, for the sentiment it expresses, but not one of my favorite Beatle tunes.
The Top Ten Tunes of 1967, Part I:
There are some heavyweights here that would match up well with the hits of most years, I think. I’m not going to rank them one to ten, but I will group them into two families of Finalists and Semi-Finalists, listed in order of their position in the original Top 40.
THE SEMIFINALISTS
1. Light My Fire, The Doors (6). Another one I learned to play on the guitar at some point.
2. Respect, Aretha Franklin (13). “Take out T-C-P”? What’s left? “Rese”?
3. Incense And Peppermints, Strawberry Alarm Clock (23). Loved discovering the identity of this familiar tune when doing research for this list. What an oddity. The next lines of the song are “meaningless nouns.” Indeed.
4. Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison (35). I met Van Morrison’s music in Madrid in 1989-1990. The original title of this song, I recently learned, was “Brown-Skinned Girl.”
5. A Whiter Shade Of Pale, Procol Harum (38) I know this one from The Big Chill soundtrack, which was introduced to me during the summer of 1986.
Top Five Songs of 1967:
THE FINALISTS. I own all of these.
1. Happy Together, The Turtles (2). I know this one from a Nylons recording Dad brought into the family. Great harmonies.
2. Ode To Billie Joe, Bobbie Gentry (4). One of the great all-time narrative lyrics. Gentry’s Alabama idiom sounds a lot like Hillsboro, Texas to me: “That nice young preacher Brother Taylor stopped by today, said he’d be pleased to have dinner on Sunday . . ..” I like that she pronounces it “Sun-dee.” I’m closer to this one because I learned to play it on the guitar and memorized the words. Amy Stewart recorded this one for me in 1988-1989. I could do without the odd string arrangement. I was surprised to Ms. Gentry with B-52 headgear in the video. Also surprised to read that she grew up in California, got a degree from UCLA and later worked as a showgirl in Vegas. A creepy Hitchcock reading of the video: Psycho Bobbie lives in an Alabama Bates Motel with what remains of her Ma, Pa and Brother.
3. I'm A Believer, The Monkees (5). I associate this one with a skit I helped the God Damned Independents of Tom Brown Dorm plan for Spirit Week at TCU, freshman or sophomore year. I believe the adapted lyric was: “And then I saw Jim’s face . . .” Head coach Jim Wacker, that is. I never ended up seeing the skit itself, which is probably just as well. I got the impression that the execution didn’t rise to the concept (which had a Star Trek theme).
4. For What It's Worth, Buffalo Springfield (26). Formerly known to me as “Stop, Children, What’s That Sound,” an oft used element in later cinematic representations of the 60s.
5. Somebody To Love, Jefferson Airplane (33). Ground Zero for the Summer of Love. I recorded my Jefferson Airplane collection on cassette during my senior year at TCU.
I don’t know: The Letter; Little Bit O’ Soul; I Was Made to Lover Her; Come Back When You Grow Up; Sweet Soul Music; Expressway to Your Heart; Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie; Come On Down to My Boat; It Must Be Him; Love if Here and Now You’re Gone; The Happening; Your Precious Love; Get on Up; Jimmy Mack; Don’t You Care; Then You Can Tell me Goodbye.
There’s a lot of MoTown in there, I see. Guess I’m not a big Mo-Town guy. I prefer the Hippy Rock stuff.
okay here's my list of songs i knew from this list:
happy together (i also remember dad bringing this song home. i think he got the nylons from mark opgrand)
windy (i LOVE this song--i don't think it's cornball)
Ode to Billie Joe (This would be another song you gave to me as I didn't know it before you, but i don't really like it that much)
i'm a believer (i really like the smashmouth version of this song that is on the soundtrack to shrek. hillary had this on her list of possible campaign songs, which i didn't think was a good choice but is better than what she picked)
light my fire (don't like the doors)
Groovin (don't like this song)
the letter(don't like this song either. reminds me of weird al--did he do a spoof of this?)
i think we're alone now (i remember the tiffany song. i loved it at that time)
RESPECT (i've always been confused by the T-C-P lyric)
Can't Take my Eyes off of you (unremarkable)
Incense, Peppermints (what an odd song)
Ruby Tuesday (I disagree with your suggestion that the stones are overrated. and i like this song)
for what it's worth (i really like this song too)
All you need is love (not my favorite beatles song)
somebody to love (i like this song. i think i must've also gotten it from you, but i can't say for sure)
Brown-Eyed Girl (i do a mean karaoke of this one)
I got rhythm
whiter shade of pale
So that's 18 out of 40 that i know. i hope bnl tell us where they got the list because i'm totally down with checking on 77 and 87 or 71 and 81 and 91 or whatever.
bring it on
Thanks for the breakdown, Lise.
And to answer the question you left on my cell phone, here are the lyrics to "Incense and Peppermint" in all their odd glory:
Good sense, innocence, cripplin' and kind.
Dead kings, many things I can't define.
Oh Cajun spice, sweats and blushers your mind.
Incense and peppermints, the color of thyme.
Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose.
The Rolling Stones are overrated.
Incense and peppermints, meaningless nouns.
Turn on, tune in, turn your eyes around.
Look at yourself, look at yourself,
Yeah, yeah.
Look at yourself, look at yourself,
Yeah, yeah,
Yeah, yeah.
Tune-a by the cockeyed world in two.
Throw your pride to one side, It's the least you can do.
Beatniks and politics, nothing is new.
A yardstick for lunatics, one point of view.
Who cares what games we choose?
Little to win, but nothing to lose . ..
Sha-la-la, sha-la-la....
Unfortunately, I am on my way out and don't have time to post more, but I intend to. However, here is the link
http://www.musicoutfitters.com/topsongs/1967.htm
You can change 1967 to, say, 1977 and it will get that year, and I expect that wil work for others as well.
weird al DID do a spoof of the letter. I hate weird al.
I also hate Weird Al, but do not know either the original Letter or his spoof of it.
It was something about the Wheel of Fortune . . . Vanna give me a letter.
So, Lise, did you carefully read the lyrics I posted for "Incense, Peppermints"?
So, Lise, what do you really think about the Rolling Stones?
Post a Comment