September 23rd

The Strawberry Alarm Clock perform America's All-Time Favorite Psychedelic Song "Incense And Peppermints" on American Bandstand.  It will top the charts here in about six weeks.  

In 2008, Forgotten Hits Readers voted on the Best Psychedelic Song Ever and "Incense And Peppermints" won the competition hands down.  You can read all the results here:   http://forgottenhits.com/top_20_favorite_psychedelic_songs   

Lulu's new song, the title track from the new Sidney Poitier movie "To Sir, With Love" starts its climb up the US Charts.  Incredibly the record wasn't even released as a single in Great Britain, where the movie was filmed … and even here in The States, it was at first intended to be the B-Side of the record, with the record label (Epic Records) apparently figuring the Neil Diamond-written track "The Boat That I Row" to be the stronger A-Side.  America didn't care … they loved the record and they loved the film … and Lulu still enjoys British success to this day as an all-around performer.  ("The Boat That I Row" did receive a limited amount of airplay here in The States ... enough to "Bubble Under" in Billboard at #115.  I always like it ... and enough Forgotten Hits Readers did, too, placing it at #14 on our All-Time Favorite, Forgotten B-Sides list several years ago.)

The Monkees appear on the cover of TV Guide Magazine for the second time.

September 22nd

The Beatles appear on the cover of "Time Magazine" … as a drawing … under the tagline "The Beatles / Their New Incarnation".  It depicts The Fab Four in colorful outfits at a time that finds them in between their "Sgt. Pepper" and their "Magical Mystery Tour" projects. 

Top debuts on the chart this week include a new one by Nancy Sinatra, "Lightning's Girl", which premiers at #65 (I always liked the way she growls in this one!), "The Last Waltz" by the still very much alive Engelbert Humperdinck (#74), "Why Do Fools Fall In Love" by The Happenings, another remake hit that comes in at #83, and an instrumental version of Bobbie Gentry's recent #1 Hit, "Ode To Billie Joe" by The Kingpins. 

The Doors perform "People Are Strange" and "Light My Fire" on Murray The K's WPIX Television Show.  (As far as I know, they weren't asked to alter any of their lyrics ... this was, after all, the #1 Song in America at the time!!!)

Not here in Chicago, however ... "Light My Fire" had already fallen from #7 to #16.  (Thanks to The Cryan' Shames, it never DID make it to #1 here in Chicago.)

Check out the #23 Hit on this week's WLS Silver Dollar Survey ... it's Leonard Nimoy's "A Visit To A Sad Planet".  (Despite bombing in the ratings during its original incarnation, "Star Trek" still earned recording contracts to each of its signature star performers ... can anyone forget Williams Shatner's take on The Beatles' "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"?!?!?)

Star Trek is STILL a booming industry in the movie world today, some fifty years later.  Who would have EVER thought?!?!? 

Right down the street, "Light My Fire" doesn't even make The WCFL Sound 10 Survey ... it's already fallen off the chart!

September 21st

Records jumping ten points our more on the lower half of the chart include "Knock On Wood" by Otis and Carla (#56 to #44), "What Now My Love" by Mitch Ryder (#59 to #48), "You Keep Running Away" by The Four Tops (up 28 places from #77 to #49), "Your Precious Love" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell (up from #65 to #51), "It Must Be Him" by Vikki Carr (#63 to #52), "Let Love Come Between Us" by James and Bobby Purify (#71 to #57), "People Are Strange" by The Doors (#92 to #58, a leap of 34 places, most likely in some cases thanks to their appearance the week before on "The Ed Sullivan Show" … even if it WOULD be their last!!!) … "We Love You" by The Rolling Stones (#73 to #62), "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" by Tom Jones (#79 to #64), "Child Of Clay" by Jimmie Rodgers (#87 to #68), "The Look Of Love" by Dusty Springfield (#81 to #71), "Let It Out" by The Hombres (#82 to #72), "For What It's Worth" by The Staple Singers (#89 to #75) and "More Than The Eye Can See" by Al Martino (#94 to #76)





The Summer of Love officially draws to a close.  While I'm sure it was fun while it lasted, it will grow in stature as time goes by.  (Heck, fifty years from now some guy in Chicago will probably base an entire year-long series on this whole experience!!!)

September 20th

Rick and Kris Harmon Nelson welcome their twin sons Gunnar and Matthew into the world.  

In 1990, they would reach the #1 Spot on Billboard's Pop Singles Chart with "Love And Affection",  making this the first time in history that THREE generations of family members earned a #1 Record.   



Grandfather Ozzie had a #1 Hit in 1935 with "And Then Some" … 



Dad Ricky had two #1 Hits ("Poor Little Fool", the very first record to top Billboard's brand new Hot 100 Pop Singles Chart in 1958, and "Travelin' Man", which spent a couple of weeks at #1 in 1961.)

September 19th

Chicago's very own Spanky And Our Gang appear on The Hollywood Palace this evening to perform "Making Every Minute Count".

September 18th

"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.

September 17th

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of an historic night of rock and roll television.  That both of these events happened within the span of two hours is incredible.  Not since Elvis and The Beatles first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show has a single night of televised rock been so memorable or left such a long-lasting impact.
(Be sure to check out our 1967 Bonus Page today for more on The Doors' appearance)
http://forgottenhits1967bonus.blogspot.com/

The Doors appear on "The Ed Sullivan" show to perform their latest hit "People Are Strange" along with their recent #1 Hit "Light My Fire".  Much like he did with The Rolling Stones' performance of "Let's Spend The Night Together" earlier this year, (insisting that they change the title line to "Let's Spend SOME TIME Together"), Ed forbid lead singer Jim Morrison from singing "Girl, we couldn't get much higher" on his program … which Morrison agreed to do … and then sang it anyway, infuriating Sullivan who blasted him after the show, telling him that The Doors would NEVER appear on The Sullivan Show again … to which Morrison replied, "Who cares … we've already done it." 



An hour later The Who appear on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.  They performed "I Can See For Miles" and "My Generation".  This is the episode where they rigged Keith Moon's drums to explode during the  instrument-smashing finale … but apparently too many explosives were added to the mix, causing a FAR greater "boom" than original anticipated and planned for.  Guitarist Pete Townshend lost some of his hearing that night, which he has never regained. 



"Bonnie And Clyde" spends its fourth (non-consecutive) week on top of the box office charts.

The 1967 NFL Season begins today.  The Green Bay Packers will go on to defeat The Dallas Cowboys on December 31st to move into their second straight Super Bowl, this time against The Oakland Raiders, who they will defeat on January 14th, 1968, by a score of 33 -14.

A riot breaks out during a football game in Kayseri, Turkey, leaving 44 dead and over 600 injured.