I loved 1967! I graduated from High School, I started my four year residence at Marquette University, and the music was especially wonderful that year!
AM Gold: 1967 offers a cross-section of the music from that year. I still hear local Oldies radio stations and Sirius/XM Radio’s “Soul Town” playing “I Second That Emotion” by Smokey Robinson & The Miracles. Still sounds great! 1967 was a big year for The Bee Gees, too. “To Love Somebody” and “Massachusetts” established them as a group on the rise.
There are a few One-Hit Wonders here: Keith’s” 98.6″ and Harpers Bizarre’s “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)”.
One of the biggest hits of 1967 was Bobbie Gentry’s “Old to Billie Joe.” Do you remember these songs? Any favorites here? GRADE: B+
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | The 5th Dimension*– | Up-Up And Away Written-By – Jim Webb | 2:39 |
| 2 | The Turtles– | Happy Together Written-By – Alan Gordon, Garry Bonner | 2:55 |
| 3 | The Monkees– | Daydream Believer Written-By – John Stewart | 2:56 |
| 4 | The Mamas And The Papas*– | Dedicated To The One I Love Written-By – Lowman Pauling, Ralph Bass | 3:00 |
| 5 | The Young Rascals– | How Can I Be Sure Written-By – Edward Brigati Jr.*, Felix Cavaliere | 2:54 |
| 6 | Spanky And Our Gang*– | Sunday Will Never Be The Same Written-By – Eugene Pistilli, Terry Cashman | 2:58 |
| 7 | Smokey Robinson & The Miracles*– | I Second That Emotion Written-By – Alfred Cleveland*, William Robinson | 2:46 |
| 8 | Keith (2)– | 98.6 Lyrics By – Tony Powers Music By – George Fischoff, Tony PowersL | 3:03 |
| 9 | Dionne Warwick– | I Say A Little Prayer Lyrics By – Hal David Music By – Burt Bacharach | 3:03 |
| 10 | The Bee Gees*– | To Love Somebody Written-By – Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb And Maurice Gibb | 2:58 |
| 11 | Aaron Neville– | Tell It Like It Is Written-By – George Davis (2), Lee Diamond | 2:43 |
| 12 | The Association (2)– | Windy Written-By – Ruthann Friedman | 2:52 |
| 13 | Petula Clark– | Don’t Sleep In The Subway Written-By – Jackie Trent, Tony Hatch | 2:58 |
| 14 | Bobby Vee And The Strangers (17)– | Come Back When You Grow Up Written-By – Martha Sharp | 2:43 |
| 15 | Stone Poneys*– | Different Drum Written-By – Michael Nesmith | 2:37 |
| 16 | Harpers Bizarre– | The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy) Written-By – Paul Simon | 2:36 |
| 17 | The Cowsills– | The Rain, The Park And Other Things Written-By – Artie Kornfeld, Steve Duboff | 2:58 |
| 18 | The Supremes– | Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone Written-By – Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier And Edward Holland Jr.* | 2:46 |
| 19 | The Bee Gees*– | (The Lights Went Out In) Massachusetts Written-By – Robin Gibb, Barry Gibb And Maurice Gibb | 2:22 |
| 20 | Tom Jones– | Green, Green Grass Of Home Written-By – Curly Putman | 3:05 |
| 21 | The Casinos– | Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye Written-By – John D. Loudermilk | 3:03 |
| 22 | Bobbie Gentry– | Ode To Billie Joe Written-By – Bobbie Gentry | 4:12 |
I Remember them all, many fondly. Tops for me is DIFFERENT DRUM. The nadir is a tossup: MASSACHUSETTS turned me off the Bee Gees for years, making me wonder if the sound came from a vocal group or a sick cow; and, as for my other not-favorite, let’s just say that if Billie Joe McAllister did not jump off that bridge himself I would gladly have helped him.
Jerry, there was a lot of speculation about what Billie Joe was up to up on that bridge.
Grade A nostalgia. “Tell It Like It Is” is tops for me.
Fred, “Tell It Like It Is” got very heavy air play on the local rock & roll station back in 1967.
Of course I remember them all. As a matter of fact, I’ve been sending Deb copies of the weekly surveys of my favorite radio station and I am up to 1966 and 1969, so right in there. Over the years we’ve seen a number of these acts in concert – The Supremes (in the 60s), Aaron Neville, Linda Ronstadt, The Casinos (at an oldies/doo wop concert), The Turtles, The Miracles – also Smokey Robinson solo, The Cowsills (on the Happy Together tour), Dionne Warwick, The Association. I guess it was more than I remembered.
Favorites? Happy Together of course – it was “our” song when Jackie and I first started going out, I Second That Emotion, Different Drum, How Can I Be Sure, 98.6.
Jeff, once again I marvel at all the concerts you’ve attended! I wish I had made more of an effort to see some of these great groups and artists!
I know “Ode to Billy Joe” is one of those polarizing songs, but I’ve never had a problem with it. I think she did a good job with the feel and sound of the time and place.
Jeff, despite the polarization, “Ode to Billie Joe” hit Number One on the BILLBOARD charts. Also, there’s this from Wikipedia:
“Ode to Billie Joe” was nominated for eight Grammy Awards; Gentry and arranger Jimmie Haskell won three between them. Gentry’s writing was adapted for the 1976 film Ode to Billy Joe. The song appeared on Rolling Stone’s lists, 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and Greatest Country Songs, while Pitchfork featured it on their 200 Best Songs of the 1960s list. In 2023, the song was selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry.”
I still want to throw that s.o.b. Billie Joe off the bridge myself.
Jerry, you and Jeff might have to bridge your differences.
Love all of them. Especially DIFFERENT DRUM, DEDICATED TO THE ONE I LOVE, and HAPPY TOGETHER.
Patti, I loved “Different Drum” before I learned Linda Ronstadt was the lead singer of THE STONE PONEYS.
Yes—I know them all, of course! I like most of them; my favorites being “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” (as one wag put it, “Great advice. What’s next? Don’t wash your face with Clorox?”), “The Rain, the Park, and Other Things”, “How Can I Be Sure”, and “I Second That Emotion”. There’s nothing here I actively dislike. Let’s put it this way: I wouldn’t change the station if any of these songs came on.
Deb, but apparently Trump thinks you can inject yourself with Clorox to kill Covid. I remember when the local radio station played all of these songs! And I didn’t change the station!
I remember most of these songs but was not a big fan (except Billie Joe!).
I’ve always preferred Blues and real Rock!
Tjhe British Invasion.
Anyway I didn’ have too much time, in 1067 I finished my diploma thesis (master thesis) in mathematics but then went GAFIA into politics as a humanist leftist. I helped manage a political club where we arranged for left professors etc to have discussions at the university.
In those days we still had a “clerical fascist” regime in Germany, women meant nothing, no abortion, being gay brought you to prison, cinemas would not show movies produced in Eastern Germany and so on.
My favourite story:
With two male friends I spent a´late evening discussing everything with a friend, a young woman in her room – nothing sexual involved, just talking, listening to music and having a few beers
Two days later she .got thrown out of her room – the law was still that it was forbidden to have a person of the other sex with you at night – unless you were married!
Luckily there was a free room in another joined apartment for her and she asked me for help moving her stuff . I owned a little FIAT at that time.
When all was done in the evening she told me she felt so alone – would her stay with her that night?
Wolf, thanks for sharing those memories!
Well, something decent came out of that night, clearly. Glad she wasn’t Too messed over.
Well, George, some of those you highlighted were among the only ones that Would make me change the station…I see we now know which Bee Gees song can inspire even more negative reaction in Jerry than most of their catalog does in me. (“I Started A Joke” remains the prime contender for my least favorite recorded song I’ve been exposed to too many times. However, down the street at the Catholic Church at this moment, a remarkably inept cover band is giving some sort of concert which might actually vie with the Bee Gees in tooth-grindingness.)
But this is mostly a pleasant collection…”Ode to Billie Joe” isn’t quite as amusingly allusive all these years later (I would’ve first heard it with any comprehension of the lyrics around ’69/’70), but it’s still OK by me, and even the Tom Jones isn’t any sweatier than most of his hits. I’m more familiar with the Monkees’ version of “How Can I Be Sure”–which even in my youth seemed maybe a bit whiny lyrically, if decent musically. I’d probably re-edit this CD on a home-burnt CDR to dump the Gibbs and keep nearly if not all the rest.
Ha! No wonder my memory is of “How Can I Be Sure?” is of a whiny song…I was conflating the Monkees with David Cassidy. I see at least one other Monkees fan noted she had once done so as well, online. The church band has launched into an awful version of REM’s “Losing My Religion”…the jokes are too easy…David Cassidt couldn’t’ve done it worse, nor the Bee Gees…
Todd, the Monkees and David Cassidy are two different flavors!
Some of the songs they handed to Jones to sing were almost as sappy as the typical David Cassidy song. You must admit they came from the same industry nexus.
Todd, the Gibbs rose to increased prominence in the Disco Era, but all the Barry Gibb succumbed.
They were still awful. Just never again quite as awful as their inescapable POS hit “I Started a Joke.” I’m not beginning to kid…I revile that song and will hold them responsible for the foreseeable future.