On August 3, 1967, my eighth birthday, I got a transistor radio. As I remember it, my dad said, “Here, I’ll turn it to a station you’ll like” and tuned it to 1300 KOL—in retrospect I’m not sure why he chose them over KJR, the giant of Seattle radio. (But I don’t have the KOL survey for that week.) Also as I remember it, I didn’t touch that dial for about two years, until I became obsessed with Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue,” started searching the dial because KOL wasn’t playing it often enough for me, and ended up on KAYO, beginning my country phase. Anyway, here's KJR's Fab 50 for the week of August 4:
1.Come Back When You Grow Up—Bobby Vee
Bobby Vee descended into teen idol irrelevance in 1964 and this was his big comeback. Things changed so quickly in the 60s that ’64 and ’67 were about a decade apart (and ’63 and ’67 were about two decades apart). Is the music, or pop culture in general, of 2008 noticeably different from that of 2005? Doesn’t seem like it to me, but then I’m a bit out of the loop.
2.Ode to Billie Joe—Bobbie Gentry
I remember counting the number of times I heard this song (on KOL) in one day, and it seems like it was ten.
3.All You Need is Love/Baby You’re a Rich Man—The Beatles
I’m very glad, to the point of smugness I suppose, to have been born when I was and to have gotten into music/TV/etc at an early age. I particularly enjoy the fact that I can remember hearing new music by the Beatles on the radio.
4.Pleasant Valley Sunday—The Monkees
Another one of my birthday presents that year was the Monkees' Headquarters album, which is still one of my all-time favorites. It didn't contain any singles, though, and this song appeared on their next album.
5.Light My Fire—The Doors
This, #2 and #40 are the songs I associate most with listening to the radio during this period.
6.Carrie-Anne—The Hollies
The most trebly kinds of music I can think of are bluegrass and the Hollies.
7.Silence is Golden—The Tremeloes
The Four Seasons released this as a b-side in 1964, and that’s the more familiar version for me, thanks to it appearing on the LP The Four Seasons Story, which I bought in high school.
8.Brown-Eyed Girl—Van Morrison
If I keep trying to think of something to write about every song I'll never finish this.
9.Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie—Jay & the Techniques
10.Little Bit o’ Soul—The Music Explosion
11.I Was Made to Love Her—Stevie Wonder
12.Happy and Me—Don & the Goodtimes
I think of this as “The Little Dog Death Song,” due to its opening lyrics, “Remember when your little dog died/And upon my shoulder you cried.” Nationally, this record peaked at #98 (in Billboard magazine), but at #11 at KJR. The group was from Portland, Oregon.
13.Fakin’ It—Simon & Garfunkel
14.Try, Try, Try—Jim Valley
This one didn’t make the Billboard Hot 100 at all, coming up just short at #106 on the Bubbling Under the Hot 100 chart. Jim “Harpo” Valley was a Seattle boy, a member of local group the Viceroys, then joining Don & the Goodtimes and then, briefly, Paul Revere & the Raiders. This was around the time he left the Raiders.
15.A Girl Like You—The Young Rascals
16.Lovely Rita—The Beatles (LP)
Usually Top 40 stations only played songs released as singles, but sometimes exceptions were made, especially for Beatles or Monkees songs.
17.White Rabbit—Jefferson Airplane
My mom hates this song.
18.I Thank the Lord For the Night Time—Neil Diamond
19.Let the Good Times Roll—Bunny Sigler
20.Soul Finger—Bar-Kays
I’m not sure which finger is the soul finger. The song is an instrumental, other than a bunch of kids yelling “soul finger!,” so it doesn’t really help.
21.Lovin’ Sound—Ian & Sylvia
#101 in Billboard, #17 at KJR (facts like that fascinate me). They were Canadian.
22.The World We Knew (Over and Over)—Frank Sinatra
23.To Love Somebody—Bee Gees
24.Omaha—Moby Grape
The word “Omaha” does not actually appear in the song, which a lot of people probably thought was called “Listen My Friends.”
25.Reflections—Diana Ross & the Supremes
This was the record where they changed from “The Supremes” to “Diana Ross & the Supremes.”
26.San Francisco—Scott McKenzie
You know, the flowers in your hair and the gentle people there.
27.Baby I Love You—Aretha Franklin
28.Can’t Take My Eyes Off You—Frankie Valli
Frankie had kind of a double career going on at this time—while the Four Seasons were trying to keep up with what was going on in rock music, he was also going in the opposite direction with more easy-listening-leaning solo records. Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere & the Raiders did something similar a couple years later.
29.Mercy, Mercy, Mercy—The Buckinghams
I love the Buckinghams.
30.Windy—The Association
31.You’re a Very Lovely Woman—The Merry-Go-Round
#94 Billboard, #17 KJR. I don’t think things like that happen anymore; that is, it seems like the hits in one city are the same as in another, unless one city has a sports team that makes a rap record or something.
32.San Franciscan Nights—Eric Burdon & the Animals
This is the one where the cop’s face is filled with hate, but it’s an American dream that includes Indians too.
33.Society’s Child—Janis Ian
When Janis Ian was 24 years old, she had her second big hit record, “At Seventeen,” which was about having been an unpopular, ugly loser as a teen. But when she was seventeen she had already had her first big hit record, this one. I always thought that was kind of weird.
34.Anything Goes—Harper’s Bizarre
#43 Billboard, #9 KJR.
35.There is a Mountain—Donovan
First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there is. The lock upon my garden gate’s a snail, that’s what it is. Caterpillar sheds his skin to find the butterfly within. Oh Juanita, I call your name. The snow will be a blinding sight to see as it lies on yonder hillside.
36.Cold Sweat—James Brown
On the other hand, this was #7 Billboard, #35 KJR.
37.You Know What I Mean—The Turtles
38.Don’t Sleep in the Subway—Petula Clark
39.I Dig Rock & Roll Music—Peter, Paul & Mary
It never occurred to me at the time, but this is obviously an anti-rock & roll song. Just listen closely! They even come right out and tell us they’re being sarcastic—“But if I really say it/The radio won’t play it/Unless I lay it between the lines.” But radio either didn’t get it or didn’t care, and neither did the fans. But listen!
40.The Letter—The Box Tops
How many other songs have contained the word "aeroplane"?
41.It’s the Little Things—Sonny & Cher
42.Run, Run, Run—The Third Rail
Vocal by Joey Levine, who also sang the Ohio Express hits (“Yummy Yummy Yummy,” “Chewy Chewy,” etc.), “Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” by Reunion, and two early 80s commercial jingles I remember well:
Wanna have some fun, here’s an aisle of candy bars
So many flavors good to eat
Wanna have some fun, here’s a fountain of Slurpees
Flowing icy cold and sweet
Wanna have some fun, something something
Something something something
Wanna have some fun, wanna have some fun
At Seven-Eleven fun is waiting for you!
And
Orange you smart
For drinking orange juice
Pure refreshment every taste [or something like that]
Hey orange you smart
For drinking to your body’s content
A taste that only nature could invent
Hey! Orange you smart!
43.You Were on My Mind—Crispian St. Peters
44.Things I Should Have Said—The Grass Roots
45.Cry Softly Lonely One—Roy Orbison
It may seem kind of funny to see Roy Orbison on the charts in the summer of ’67, but he had been hanging on with a string of (generally pretty cool) minor hits ever since his last big one, “Oh, Pretty Woman” in 1964. This one hit #52 in Billboard and #42 at KJR, and was his last appearance in the Hot 100 until his 80s comeback.
46.Heroes and Villains—The Beach Boys
I’ve been in this town so long that back in the city I’ve been taken for lost and gone and unknown for a long long time.
47.Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead—The Fifth Estate
48.More Love—Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
49.In the Chapel in the Moonlight—Dean Martin
50.Out & About—Tommy Boyce & Bobby Hart
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