Archive for the ‘1968’ Category

A Song Roundup: This Guy’s in Love With You/This Girl, Too

Posted: June 9, 2018 in 1960s, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1970s, 1980s, 1982, 2000s, 2010s, 2014, 2016, Aretha Franklin, Burt Bacharach, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Dusty Springfield, Hal David, Herb Alpert, Petula Clark, Rumer, Sammy Davis Jr., She & Him, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Song Roundup, The Reels, The Supremes, The Temptations
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As I mentioned in Friday’s countdown, “This Guy’s in Love With You” may well have been lost to time if not for Herb Alpert reaching out to Burt Bacharach and asking if he had any old tunes lying around that had never been recorded. Bacharach offered him “This Guy.” Alpert liked the melody, that there was a break where he could insert a trumpet solo, and that it didn’t require vocal gymnastics on his part. He was a horn player, after all, not a singer.

That clip comes from Alpert’s TV special The Beat of the Brass, which aired on CBS on April 22, 1968. The 45 was released the same month, and flew up the charts, eventually spending four weeks at No. 1 and becoming the year’s seventh most popular single.

The song’s soothing, sweet melody can’t be denied; it lingers with you long after the song is over. Lyrically speaking, it’s the declaration of a head-over-heels guy (or gal) laying it on the line to his dream gal (or guy). It works equally well no matter the gender of the singer, or who they’re singing to. Love is love, after all.

Anyway, it quickly became one of those songs every vocalist of note wanted to sing, and I thought it might be fun to spotlight some of those other versions here. Dusty Springfield, for example, recorded it for her Dusty…Definitely LP, released on November 22, 1968 – not that folks in the U.S. heard it (except via import). Dusty was on different record labels in the U.S. and the U.K., and Atlantic – her American home – decided not to release the album. It wouldn’t become available in the States until 1972, when it was included on the A Tribute to Burt Bacharach compilation LP. (It’s since been included on a handful of best-of/rarities collections, including Dusty in London.)

Here’s the audio of her singing it on the All Kinds of Music TV special, which was broadcast in the UK on Christmas Day 1968:

That same November, the Temptations and the Supremes released their own version on Diana Ross & the Supremes Join the Temptations LP.

Before both of them, however, Petula Clark included her rendition of it on her 1968 Petula LP, which was released in the U.S. in September 1968.

Dionne Warwick, a frequent collaborator with Burt Bacharach and Hal David, also recorded it for her Promises, Promises album, which was also released in November 1968. It would become one of her greatest hits when it was released as a single the following year; it rose to No. 7 in the charts.

Also in 1969, Ella Fitzgerald covered it on her Sunshine of Your Love album. Here she is on TV performing it…

Sammy Davis Jr. also laid down a jazzy rendition of it on The Goin’s Great the same year. Here he is in Germany:

In early 1970, Aretha Franklin released her This Girl’s in Love With You album, though the song wasn’t issued as a single.

That same year, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles covered it on their whatlovehas… concept album.

Hundreds of others have covered it in the years since (and thousands more in karaoke bars). In 1982, the Reels – an Aussie pop-rock band – scored a No. 7 hit with it Down Under:

In 2009, jazz-pop singer Jane Moneheit included her dreamy take on the song on her The Lovers, the Dreamers and Me album:

Here’s She & Him (Zooey “One Day You’ll Be Cool” Deschanel & M. Ward) from their 2014 album Classics:

Finally, British singer-songwriter Rumer released her rendition of it on This Girl’s in Love: A Bacharach & David Songbook in late 2016. (That’s Burt Bacharach himself at the song’s start.) It and Dusty’s are my favorite versions, though every rendition has something going for it.

Today’s Top 5: June 8th, 1968 (aka 50 Years Ago Today…)

Posted: June 8, 2018 in 1960s, 1968, Archie Bell & the Drells, Herb Alpert, Hugo Montenegro, Merrillee Rush, Simon & Garfunkel, The Rolling Stones, Tommy James & the Shondells, Top 5
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Yesterday, WXPN featured a day-long “Throwback Thursday” devoted to 1968. Although I didn’t listen all day, what I heard was an interesting mix of the expected and unexpected, with Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle” followed by the raw rock of Big Brother & the Holding Company, the soft psychedelic lather of Jefferson Airplane, and a five-track tour of some of Simon & Garfunkel’s classic tunes, as well as songs by the Temptations, Laura Nyro, Van Morrison and the Delfonics.

Today, their “Throwback Thursday” inspires my “Flashback Friday,” which looks back 50 years to Saturday June 8, 1968. The biggest story in the news: Robert F. Kennedy’s funeral.

But that wasn’t the only news of the day: James Earl Ray, the prime suspect in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. two months earlier, was arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport.

Among the movies one could expect to see in the theaters this weekend: Planet of the Apes; Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows; Yours, Mine and Ours; The Odd Couple; Prudence and the Pill; The Detective; and Wild in the Streets. Due for release in just four days: Rosemary’s Baby. As I’ve mentioned before, however, in those days “wide” releases weren’t the way of the movie world. Films opened in select markets at select theaters, with new markets and theaters added each week and month.  

In the land of TV, the 1967-68 season was over. The Andy Griffith Show concluded its eight-year run atop the Neilsen charts at No. 1, and The Lucy Show ended its six years on the air at No. 2. Gomer Pyle, USMC was the third-ranked show; and three shows tied at No. 4: Gunsmoke, Family Affair and Bonanza. (I actually remember seeing an episode of Family Affair when my family visited Beirut in the early 1970s, but that’s grist for another post.) Variety shows were also in vogue: The Red Skelton Show, Dean Martin Show, and Jackie Gleason Show were No.s 7, 8 and 9; and NBC’s Saturday Night at the Movies, which featured both made-for-TV and theatrical films, rounded out the top 10.

In my world: I was 2 years old, soon to be 3, and our family lived in a row home in northeast Philly. Not that I remember much beyond our pet cat, Missy, and the backyard – none of our immediate neighbors had installed fences, so it was a huge expanse to little me. And most of those neighbors also had young children. Everyone knew everyone, and everyone had fun.

And, with that, here’s today’s Top 5: June 8th, 1968 (via Weekly Top 40).

1) Simon & Garfunkel – “Mrs. Robinson.” Enjoying its second (of three) weeks atop the pop charts is this memorable song featured in The Graduate, one of the era’s defining films. 

2) Archie Bell & the Drells – “Tighten Up.” Clocking in at No. 2 is this funk classic, which was perched atop the charts just a few weeks earlier. An interesting sidenote to this song: Bell was drafted shortly before recording it, and by the time it reached No. 1 he was in Germany, where he was assigned to the 53rd Transportation Unit – and in the hospital due to an accident. (He talks about it in an insightful interview with the Rebeat blog.)

3) Herb Alpert – “This Guy’s in Love With You.” Here’s an interesting piece of trivia about this classic song: It may never have been recorded if not for Albert asking Burt Bacharach (who wrote it with lyricist Hal David) if he had any old songs lying around. It’s since been sung hundreds of times by a who’s who of singers far more gifted than Alpert, often with “girl” substituted for “girl,” including Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Rumer.

4) Hugo Montenegro, His Orchestra and Chorus – “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.” The title song of the movie of the same name hit its peak the week before, when it claimed the second slot. Here, it drops two spots to No. 4.

5) Tommy James & the Shondells – “Mony Mony.” So James had the music, but not the lyrics. While in New York, he and one of the song’s co-writers, Ritchie Cordell (who’d go onto produce Joan Jett and the Ramones, among others), were about to throw in the towel when, from the terrace of his Manhattan apartment, he saw the Mutual of New York building, which was illuminated with its initials. And, thus, a smash hit was born… 

And a few bonuses…

6) Merrillee Rush and the Turnabouts – “Angel of the Morning.” Jumping from No. 30 to 14 is this single, which was produced by Chip Moman and Tommy Cogbill at Moman’s American Studio in Memphis; and though Rush’s band received billing on the 45, the actual musicians were Moman’s usual crew. The song itself was written by Chip Taylor, and was first offered to Connie Francis – but she turned it down due to its “risqué” theme. (It’s about the morning after a one-night stand.) It was recorded by Evie Sands and a few other artists, but Merrillee’s was the first to chart. It garnered her a Grammy nomination for best Contemporary Pop Female Vocalist. 

7) The Rolling Stones – “Jumpin’ Jack Flash.” After their ill-advised dalliance with psychedelia on Their Satanic Majesties Request, the Stones get back to the basics with this classic single, which would top out at No. 3 in July. It debuts on the charts this week at No. 62.

And, last, here’s a clip of Paul Simon discussing “Mrs. Robinson” and The Graduate with Dick Cavett in early 1970:

Today’s Top 5: September 17, 1968

Posted: September 17, 2017 in 1910 Fruitgum Company, 1960s, 1968, Beatles, Jeannie C. Riley, Jose Feliciano, Marvin Gaye, Steppenwolf, Tammi Terrell, The Rascals, Top 5
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In some ways, life is akin to a flag unfurled on a windy day – though you pretty much know what to expect, you’re still surprised by the never-ending eruptions of ripples from the fabric. First one appears, then another, and then two more, each of a different size and in a different spot before they’re replaced, one by one or sometimes en masse, by a new series of ripples. The changes occur not just second to second, but millisecond to millisecond. No two ripples, it seems, ever appear twice.

The future has yet to be written. That’s what we tell ourselves. Fate and destiny are things of fantasy novels, movies and TV, not real life. “Into every generation a slayer is born…,” indeed.

Except that flag rippling in the breeze is not as unpredictable as it appears. Over the course of a day, no, the same two ripples may not appear. But over the course of a week, month or year? A decade? If x equals wind strength and y equals wind direction, and z is the location of the first ripple, then the where and when of every ripple that follows can be calculated. Patterns can be discerned and actions predicted.

It’s not rocket science, just math.

And though my metaphor may not be spot on, this cannot be disputed: the outrages of the present are not as new as we sometimes think. They’re ripples on a flag fluttering in the wind, yes, but at times they overlay on the ripples of yore.

1968, by any and all calculations, was a bad year. The Summer of Love in 1967 gave way to a Winter of Discontent, and was followed by a spring, summer and fall filled with racial strife and political animus. On March 31st, President Lyndon Johnson announced he would not seek, nor would he accept, the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. On April 4th, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. On June 5th, Bobby Kennedy was killed. And more than a thousand American men died every month that year in the Vietnam War.

The tumult was on full display at that year’s Democratic National Convention in late August. The whole world watched while the Party nominated the establishment’s pick – Vice President Hubert Humphrey – and the Chicago police bashed anti-war protestors.

That fall, Humphrey – a good man, though flawed candidate – squared off against Republican Richard Nixon, who was tied not to any particular philosophy, save one: winning. He claimed to have a “secret” plan to end the war; promised a new emphasis on “law and order”; and, fearful of an October surprise, engaged in treasonous trickery by dispatching an emissary to convince the South Vietnamese to walk away from the Paris Peace Talks. He promised that, if he won, they’d get a better deal. (That “better deal,” it should be noted, failed to materialize after Nixon’s inauguration in January 1969.) Meanwhile, the current commander in chief – who was aware of the chicanery due to the emissary popping up on intelligence intercepts, considered going public with the information, but feared his lack of “absolute” proof would cause more harm than good.

Some will say that the proof still isn’t there, of course, despite H.R. Haldeman’s contemporaneous notes, Tom Charles Huston’s oral history and other well-sourced accounts. (The speculation that it eventually led to the Watergate break-in, however, remains just that.)

Nixon’s first year in office, of course, was accented by protests, paranoia and breaks with orthodoxy; he cared less about details and more about his image, and with getting even with those he believed had wronged him.

Sound familiar?

Anyway, enough of my deep-dive into the parallels between the politics of yesteryear and today, and onward to today’s Top 5: September 17, 1968 (courtesy of the charts over at Weekly Top 40, though the chart in question is actually for the week of Sept. 14th.)

1) The Rascals – “People Got to Be Free.” Clocking in at No. 1 for the fifth week in a row, this upbeat call for peace and lovin’ didn’t sit well with Atlantic’s Jerry Wexler, at least initially. According to The Billboard Book of Number One Hits, he feared its topical message would harm the group’s career. Felix Cavaliere fought him on it and, obviously, won. (And the four million copies the single sold, I’m sure, soothed Wexler’s fears.)

2) Jeannie C. Riley – “Harper Valley P.T.A.” Written by Tom T. Hall, this unlikely hit about narrow-minded hypocrites is the week’s No. 2 song; and it would reach the top spot the following week. It sold more than six million copies and set history, becoming the first song by a female artist to top both the pop and country charts; and earned Riley Grammy and CMA awards.

3) Jose Feliciano – “Light My Fire.” Who would have imagined that a flamenco-easy listening rendition of the Doors song could be a hit? Feliciano and producer Rick Jarrard, that’s who! Although his breakthrough hit in the U.S., by this point Feliciano had established himself in Latin America and Great Britain, where he guested on Dusty Springfield’s TV variety series, and had already earned a reputation as a great guitarist. Or so I’ve read. This week marks its third – and last – week in the No. 3 slot.

4) Steppenwolf – “Born to Be Wild.” Yes, there was a time when this song didn’t sound like a well-worn cliche (and I say that as someone who bought Steppenwolf’s Greatest Hits as a kid and saw Easy Rider – on cable, granted – more times than I can count.) It falls from No. 2 to 4 this week.

5) 1910 Fruitgum Company – “1, 2, 3, Red Light.” This bubblegum concoction, which I’d never heard before just now, clocks in at No. 5, its highest position on the charts.

And two bonuses…

6) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell – “You’re All I Need to Get By.” The classic love song from Marvin and Tammi rises a spot, from 8 to 7.

7) The Beatles – “Hey Jude.” Making its chart debut at No. 10 is this pop classic from the Fab Four.