1967 Song of the Week #23-44 | The New Retro League

Last updated 5/4/2020

Peaked at #2

Song 23

This is the first of the group’s three Top 10 records, two of which peaked at #2.
The rain sound at the beginning of the record is actually a recording of sizzling bacon. Real rain sounds weren’t loud enough to be heard.

#23 – “The Rain, The Park And Other Things” by The Cowsills

Song 24

A movie song, though the lyrics used in the film were different from the recording.
Music by Tom Springfield, brother of Dusty, and lyrics by actor Jim Dale.

#24 – “Georgy Girl” by The Seekers

Song 25

This is the stereo mix, with the ending faded out to match the mono single.

#25 – “Never My Love” by The Association

Song 26

#26 – “I Was Made To Love Her” by Stevie Wonder

Song 27

The first of three Supremes records.
This is the first time that the “Diana Ross and the Supremes” name was used.

#27 – “Reflections” by Diana Ross and the Supremes

Song 28

One of the great records of the Sixties.
Transferred from the original stereo LP at 24/96. This version sounds better to me than any of the existing CD versions, which came from old and worn master tapes.

#28 – “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” by Frankie Valli

Song 29

His first Top 10 solo hit. He would not have another one until 1991.
This is a mono recording.

#29 – “Tell It Like It Is” by Aaron Neville

Song 30

Produced and co-written by Otis Redding, who never reached the pop Top 20 himself during his lifetime.
This is a mono recording.

#30 – “Sweet Soul Music” by Arthur Conley

Song 31

The second Monkees hit to be written by Neil Diamond.
Amazon download of the 2007 stereo remix. The original stereo mix was different from the mono single mix.

#31 – “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” by The Monkees

Peaked at #3

Song 32

The single version of this is hard to find, and the various available stereo versions are all longer than the single.
This is a stereo version that has been edited down to the length of the original single.

#32 – “Come Back When You Grow Up” by Bobby Vee

Song 33

This appears to be the only Gershwin song to reach the Top 10 in the rock era.

#33 – “I Got Rhythm” by The Happenings

Song 34

Her only Top 30 hit.
I saw Vikki Carr at the Hollywood Bowl in 1968. She was not the headliner, because the other guests of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra that night were major jazz artists: Duke Ellington (with his sax player Johnny Hodges) and the Oscar Peterson Trio.

#34 – “It Must Be Him” by Vikki Carr

Song 35

First of three Monkees records in the Top 35.
There’s a connection here with the West Essex-Boonton-Morristown High School story that I told a couple of years ago. Songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King got the title from a street named Pleasant Valley Way, in West Orange, New Jersey, where they were living at the time. Yet another of the high schools in the Jersey Hills athletic conference, West Orange Mountain, was on Pleasant Valley Way.
This is the mono single version, which differs from the stereo mix.

#35 – “Pleasant Valley Sunday” by The Monkees

Song 36

This was his last Top 5 hit.

#36 – “Baby I Need Your Lovin'” by Johnny Rivers

Song 37

This was The Turtles’ best year, with their only two Top 5 hits.

#37 – “She’d Rather Be With Me” by The Turtles

Song 38

Here’s a shortened version of a great story from Wikipedia:
“”This is My Song” was intended for the film “A Countess from Hong Kong,” which Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed. Chaplin saw his film as a throwback to the shipboard romances that were popular in the 1930s, and wrote “This Is My Song” with the intent of evoking that era. To reinforce the evocation, Chaplin was determined to have Al Jolson sing the song — so determined that he only accepted the information that Jolson had died on October 23, 1950, when shown a photograph of Jolson’s tombstone. Ultimately, the song would be featured in the film only as an instrumental.
After being disillusioned with regard to Jolson, Chaplin considered having “This Is My Song” recorded by Petula Clark, who had a home in Switzerland near his residence. … Clark felt the song had special potential for success in France. However, … Clark did not even wish to record the song in English, because she disliked the deliberately old-fashioned lyrics, which Chaplin refused to modify; however, after the translated versions of the song had been recorded [at Western Studios in Los Angeles], some time remained on the session, and producer Sonny Burke coaxed Clark to use this to record Chaplin’s lyrics.
Clark had assumed her recording of “This Is My Song,” with the original quaint Chaplin English lyrics would only be used as an album track; on learning of Pye Records’ plan to release the track as a single, she attempted to block its release. Instead, she found herself atop the UK Singles Chart for the first time in six years when “This Is My Song” reached no. 1 on the chart dated February 16, 1967, a position it retained the next week.”
Stereo mix of the edited single version, which eliminates the introduction.

#38 – “This Is My Song” by Petula Clark

Peaked at #4

Song 39

Written in 1949 and often recorded in the 1950s, mostly by Country artists.
The top-selling single of 1967 in the UK.
His real name is Arnold George Dorsey.

#39 – “Release Me (And Let Me Love Again)” by Engelbert Humperdinck