"The Letter" by The Box Tops moves into the #1 spot on this week's chart as "Ode To Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry drops to #2, "Come Back When You Grow Up" by Bobby Vee climbs a notch to #3, as does "Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie" by Jay and the Techniques (to #4) and "Reflections" drops from #2 to #5.
"Never My Love" by The Association makes The Top Ten in its fourth week on the chart, coming in at #6. Also earning a bullet in The Top Ten this week is "Higher And Higher" by Jackie Wilson, which climbs from #16 to #9.
Other songs in The Top 40 on an upward swing include "You Know What I Mean" by The Turtles (#17 to #13), "I Dig Rock And Roll Music" by Peter, Paul and Mary (#22 to #14), "Twelve Thirty" by The Mamas and the Papas (#19 to #16), "Getting' Together" by Tommy James and the Shondells (#23 to #19), "Gimme Little Sign" by Brenton Wood (#26 to #20),"I Make A Fool Of Myself" by Frankie Valli (#27 to #21), "Dandelion" by The Rolling Stones (#41 to #23), "Little Ole Man" by Bill Cosby (#40 to #24), "Love Bug, Leave My Heart Alone" by Martha and the Vandellas (#32 to #27), "How Can I Be Sure", up 22 points from #52 to #30 for The Young Rascals, "The Cat In The Window" by Petula Clark (#37 to #32), "Ballad Of You And Me And Pooneil" by Jefferson Airplane (#44 to #33), "To Sir With Love", up 24 spots for Lulu from #58 to #34, "Expressway To Your Heart" by The Soul Survivors (#55 to #35), "Get On Up" by The Esquires (#47 to #37), "Put Your Mind At Ease" by Every Mother's Son (#45 to #38), "Hey Baby, They're Playing Our Song" by The Buckinghams (#66 to #39) and "A Banda" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass (#53 to #40).
The Beatles have the #1 Album in the country again … "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is clearly the album of the summer … the summer, of course, being The Summer Of Love. Today they film the striptease scene for "Magical Mystery Tour" where, accompanied by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band performing "Death Cab For Cutie", Jan Carson strips topless. (A "censored" sign would be edited into the film to cover her breasts for the television broadcast, as The Beatles knew the entire scene would be cut by the BBC otherwise.)
The Beach Boys' new album, "Smiley Smile", is released. After all the hype surrounding the originally conceived "SMiLE" LP, it was quite a disappointment, referred to by their own Carl Wilson as "a bunt instead of a home run". Originally conceived by Brian Wilson as the album to end all albums, his inner demons prevented him from ever finishing the LP … so the remaining other members of the band threw together a hodge-podge of tracks to meet their deadline commitment to Capitol Records. (It was regarded as the worst album The Beach Boys ever made at the time … and still ranks pretty high in that respect on their all-time list.)
Devastated that his dream of creating the greatest musical achievement ever made wouldn't see the light of day, Brian retreated to his room where he spent the bulk of the next seven years. For decades he insisted that the majority of the tapes for "SMiLE" had been destroyed but bootlegs circulated for years. Finally, in 2004, Brian began performing the intended album in its entirety with his new band live in concert. The following year, a live CD was released of this concert … and then, in 2011, a mammoth deluxe box set edition was released, featuring the album sequenced as originally intended, followed by a massive amount of session tapes showing the building of much of this material. (I love The Beach Boys … but this truly is for die-hard fans only!)
The track "Vegetables" on "Smiley Smile" features Paul McCartney (some say he produced the track), but save for the hit singles "Heroes and Villains" (a complete reworking of the track that Brian envisioned) and "Good Vibrations" (released as a hit single nearly a full year earlier and now tacked on to this LP to help sales), there isn't much on this LP that can be considered memorable.
The daytime soap opera "Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing" debuts on CBS Television. The storyline features a relationship between an interracial couple, a first for a daytime soap. CBS Censors find it too controversial and ask it to be stopped, causing show creator Irna Phillips to quit. Despite this auspicious debut, the series ends up running until 1973.
