April 15th

Host Milton Berle welcomes baseball greats Willie Mays, Jimmy Piersall and Maury Wills to The Hollywood Palace … now THAT would have been pretty cool to see!  After a brief interview, the quartet performs "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend". 

 

The Who's second album, "Happy Jack", is released in America. 

Additional Viet Nam War protests are held in San Francisco and New York City.  

After a 19-game winning streak, England is defeated by Scotland 3-2 in the British Football Championship, held at Wembley Stadium.  It is England's first loss since winning The World Cup. 

After 49 minutes of deliberation, a Chicago jury finds Richard Speck guilty of the murder of eight college student nurses and recommends the death penalty.  In 1971, The US Supreme Court upheld his conviction but reversed his death sentence due to the fact that more than 250 potential jurors were unconstitutionally excluded from his jury due to their personal or religious beliefs against capital punishment.  A year later, Speck was re-sentenced to 400-1200 years in prison.  He would die there on December 5th, 1991 … one day before his 50th birthday. 

Chicago Tribune Reporter Bob Greene became the only journalist to interview Richard Speck while he was incarcerated.  During the interview, Speck first denied any involvement in the crime, then said he had an accomplice and later admitted to the murders.  An article about one of the biggest highlights of Greene's career can be found here:  http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1991-12-08/features/9104200595_1_murderer-confession-heroin

Forgotten Hits 50th Anniversary coverage of this event can be found here:  http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2016/07/50-years-ago-today.html  

In 1996, five years after Speck's death, a TV journalist made public a very controversial prison video, which showed Speck taking drugs and engaging in sex with another inmate during the 1980s, while he was incarcerated at Statesville Correctional Institute.   Speck appears to have breasts in the video, apparently as a result of hormone treatment received while in prison, and he is wearing women's underwear. In the video, Speck also casually admits to the killing of the nurses, describing the strangulations in some detail, and bragging about the strength required to kill someone in this manner.  The release of the video caused a major scandal within the Illinois Department of Corrections, and was widely cited as justification for the reintroduction of death penalty.

April 14th

You'll find very few memorable top debuts this week … Percy Sledge hits the chart at #69 with "Out of Left Field" and Otis Redding premiers at #74 with "I Love You More Than Words Can Say" … but newcomer Engelbert Humperdinck will soon make a mark for himself here in The States as "Release Me" (a UK chart-topper for six weeks earlier this year) finally premiers on the US Chart at #76.  (The Guinness World Records British Hit Singles and Albums book refers to Engelbert this way … "Internationally popular cabaret entertainer and easy-on-the-ear vocalist".  I think most of his fans would tend to agree.)

Actually Hump made a pretty impressive mark on The British Chart … his first seven releases all made The Top Five … and two of those ("Release Me" and "The Last Waltz") went to #1.  "There Goes My Everything" and "A Man Without Love" both peaked at #2 … and "Am I That Easy To Forget" and "The Way It Used To Be" both peaked at #3 … not too shabby for a brand new artist breaking into the pop scene! 



Herman's Hermits' two sided hit "There's A Kind Of Hush" / "No Milk Today", issued just two months ago, is certified gold. 

The very first Bee Gees single ("New York Mining Disaster, 1941") is released in The United States.  Their record label (Atco) issues it with the following promotional tag line:   "The most significant talent since The Beatles".  (There just may be some truth to that statement … although little of us knew it or recognized it at the time.  In fact, several radio stations wondered aloud when this record first came out if might actually BE The Beatles in disguise!  Something tells me that's exactly what The Brothers Gibb were going for!) 



Depending on which source you believe, somewhere between 10,000 and 40,000 demonstrators march in protest of The Viet Nam War in San Francisco.  (We'll split the difference and call it "around 25,000".)

April 13th

The Monkees have taken over the top spot on the WLS Chart this week (even though the title was consistently spelled wrong throughout its chart run!) while The Turtles hang on for another week on the WCFL Sound 10 Survey.

 

Meanwhile, police in Poland resort to using tear gas as a means to control the crowd that has turned out to see The Rolling Stones perform.

April 12th

Earning bullets along their way up the chart this week are "I Found A Love" by Wilson Pickett (up 15 places from #56 to #41), "My Back Pages" by The Byrds (also up 15 places, from #58 to #43), "Friday On My Mind" by The Easybeats (up twelve from #57 to #45), "I Got Rhythm" by The Happenings (which climbs 14 places from #71 to #57), "When I Was Young" by Eric Burdon and the Animals (up to #58 from #75), "Casino Royale" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, up 22 places from #85 to #63, "Here Comes My Baby" by The Tremeloes, up thirty spots from #95 to #65 and "Somebody To Love" by The Jefferson Airplane and "Yellow Balloon" by The Yellow Balloon, which move up 17 places and 18 places respectively, from #81 to #64 and #84 to #66. 





Hall of Fame Football Legend Jim Brown makes his acting debut this evening on the hit television series "I Spy" starring Bill Cosby and Robert Culp.

The Chicago White Sox open their 1967 season in Boston today, losing to The Red Sox by a final score of 5-4.    

Their Opening Day Line-Up consisted of:

Walt Williams - LF

Don Buford - 3B

Tommie Agee - CF

Pete Ward - 1B

Ken Berry - RF

Jerry McNertney - C

Ron Hansen - SS

Jerry Adair - 2B

John Buzhardt - P

Other Notable Names on the Roster this year: Joel Horlen - P; Tommy John - P; Bob Locker - P; Don McMahon - P; Gary Peters - P; and a pair of knuckleball pitchers, Hoyt Wilhelm - P; Wilbur Wood - P; JC Martin - C; Sandy Alomar - 2B; Tommy McGraw - 1B; Al Weiss - SS; Rocky Colavito - OF; Smokey Burgess - PH; Moose Skowron - 1B and Eddie Stankey - MGR

April 11th

On a flight back to London (after visiting girlfriend Jane Asher for her birthday a few days earlier) Paul McCartney refers back to his notes about a Beatles television special, borrows a notepad from a stewardess and starts to write down the lyrics to the song "Magical Mystery Tour".  He also begins sketching out a few ideas based around the concept. (An actual plot would have been nice!)



The Chicago Cubs win their season opener at home by a score of 4-2 over the Philadelphia Phillies.  

The Opening Day Line-Up:
Don Kessinger - SS
Glenn Beckert - 2B
Billy Williams - LF
Ron Santo - 3B
Ernie Banks - 1B
Lee Thomas - RF
Dick Bertell - C
Adolfo Phillips - CF
Ferguson Jenkins - P

Other Notable Names on the Roster This Season include Bill Hands - P; Ken Holtzman - P; Don Larsen - P; Joe Niekro - P; Randy Hundley - C; Paul Popovich - IF and Al Spangler - OF.  The 1967 Chicago Cubs were managed by Leo Durocher.

April 10th

It's Nancy and Frank Sinatra who take over the #1 spot on this week's Super Chart as their father / daughter duet "Somethin' Stupid" slides into the #1 spot from the #3 position last week.  (It is the first father / daughter duet to ever hit #1 on the pop charts.)  The Turtles fall to #2 with "Happy Together" after two weeks on top.  

The Monkees move into third place as their latest, "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" moves up three places from #6 to #3.  Minimum movement elsewhere in this week's Top Ten … "This Is My Song" by Petula Clark (#4), "Bernadette" by The Four Tops (#6) and "Western Union" by The Five Americans are all up a spot or two … while "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James and the Shondells and "Dedicated To The One I Love" by The Mamas and the Papas are beginning to slip down the chart.  

Top Ten newcomers include "Jimmy Mack" by Martha and the Vandellas (#9, up from #12) and "I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You)" by Aretha Franklin (#10, up from #13.) 

Elsewhere within The Top 40, Arthur Conley continues his climb up the chart as "Sweet Soul Music" moves from #21 to #13.  "At The Zoo" by Simon and Garfunkel (#17, up from #28), "With This Ring" by The Platters (#18, up from #25) and "Dry Your Eyes" by Brenda and the Tabulations (#19, up from #23) all earned bullets this week … but the BIGGEST mover has got to be "The Happening" by The Supremes, which leaps an incredible 34 places from #54 to #20.  

"I'm A Man" by The Spencer Davis Group is up from #36 to #21, "Don't You Care" by The Buckinghams is up from #31 to #25, "Love Eyes" by Nancy Sinatra takes a 14 point leap from #41 to #27, "Sunday For Tea" by Peter And Gordon jumps up to #29 from #43, "Close Your Eyes" by Peaches And Herb is up from #49 to #36 and "You Got What It Takes" by The Dave Clark Five, enters The Top 40 for the very first time at #40, thanks to a leap from #53, rounding out this week's biggest movers.  

The Monkees' second album, "More Of The Monkees", holds on to the #1 spot on the album chart for the tenth straight week.  

Peter Tork makes a solo appearance this evening at The Troubadour's "Hoot Night", performing a fifteen minute set.  

The 13-day AFTRA / television strike ends just in time to broadcast the 39th Annual Academy Awards, hosted by Bob Hope.  "A Man For All Seasons" wins the Best Picture Oscar, Elizabeth Taylor wins Best Actress for "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf" and Paul Scofield wins the Best Actor award for "A Man For All Seasons".  

Paul McCartney attends a Beach Boys recording session in Hollywood.  (He would appear on the track … and some say he produced the track … "Vegetables", which was later released as part of their "Smiley Smile" album.)  

Marvin Gaye records his version of "I Heard It Through The Grapevine" in Studio A of Motown / Hitsville USA in Detroit.  Berry Gordy doesn't feel it is good enough to release as a single so he has Gladys Knight and the Pips record a new, more uptempo version two months later.  In September, the Gladys Knight version is released as a single and it goes on to top The Cash Box Chart.   

Gaye continued to fight with Gordy for his own release, believing in his heart that he had recorded a VERY important piece of music.  Gordy finally relented and released Gaye's version as a single a year later in November of 1968.  In the end, Marvin Gaye was proven right as his version of "I Heard It To The Grapevine" went to #1 in all three major trades and stayed at #1 for 7 straight weeks in Billboard, ultimately becoming The Biggest Motown Hit of the '60's.  (My guess is that even today Berry Gordy will very happily admit to being wrong on this one … the record has literally never been off the radio in nearly 50 years!  Can you even imagine this one being locked up in the vault for all this time?!?!)

April 9th

The Doors and The Jefferson Airplane shared the bill at The Cheetah Club located on the  Santa Monica Pier in Venice, California, to an audience of approximately 3000 people, the largest audience of The Doors' career to this point.

The Blues Magoos appear on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour  

Ed Ames appears on The Ed Sullivan Show  

The first Boeing 737 completes its maiden flight.  

Number One at the Box Office this week:  Double Trouble

April 8th

The Buffalo Springfield perform "Mr. Soul" (along with a 30-second excerpt from "For What It's Worth") on The Hollywood Palace. 



John Lennon takes his Rolls Royce to a car customizing shop in Surrey to have it painted in psychedelic colors.  He'll get it back about seven weeks later.  (Lennon first purchased the car on June 3, 1965 … and it sounds like it was Ringo who inspired him to have it painted after the two passed a fairground.)  Before the year's end, The Beatles would travel all over the British countryside in a psychedelically painted bus in their television special "Magical Mystery Tour".

 

April 7th

Hot shot debuts this week include a new track by Neil Diamond ("Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon") which premiers at #66, "I Got Rhythm" by The Happenings, debuting at #71 (talk about your old song revivals!), "When I Was Young" by Eric Burdon and the Animals (or NEW Animals if you read all of our other interesting 1967 tidbits), which premiers at #75, "Somebody To Love", the first chart hit by The Jefferson Airplane (#81) and "Here Comes My Baby" by The Tremeloes (the group that Decca Records signed instead of The Beatles back in 1962 … making their first US chart appearance with a song written by Cat Stevens.)  

Tom Donahue of KMPX-FM in San Francisco starts playing album tracks on the air … forever changing the future of The Top 40 Radio Format.  

Speaking of albums, The Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was mixed for stereo today.  None of The Beatles were present … as they considered the mono mix to be the one of "paramount importance", so were always around for these … but were "generally content" to leave the stereo mixes to George Martin and Geoff Emerick.  To this day there are many fans (myself included) who prefer the mono mix of "Sgt. Pepper" to the stereo one.  

While here in America, Paul McCartney is inspired to plan out a Beatles television special built around the idea of a mystery tour where all of the participants are carted around the city and countryside in a psychedelically painted bus.  He jots down a few notes for future reference.  

The Young Rascals appear on The Mike Douglas Show.  

The movie "Good Times" starring Sonny and Cher, opens in Chicago.  

And, speaking of movies … in Chicago … Roger Ebert's very first movie review appears today in The Chicago Sun Times.  

And, speaking of Chicago, here are this week's charts from Chicago's two AM powerhouse super stations WLS and WCFL …

You'll find THREE of our Local Heroes in The Top 20 this week on WLS ... "Mr. Unreliable" by The Cryan' Shames sits in the #9 position, The Buckinghams are right behind them at #13 with their latest, "Don't You Care" and The New Colony Six move up to #19 with "You're Gonna Be Mine".

You'll also find Michael and the Messengers (actually a Wisconsin band) at #23 this week with their version of "In The Midnight Hour".

 

April 6th

Records to watch this week outside The Top 40 include "Love Eyes" by Nancy Sinatra, which leaps 28 places from #69 to #41, giving Nancy THREE records on this week's chart.  (Her duet with her Dad sits at #3 and "Summer Wine", her duet with her record producer Lee Hazlewood is holding down the #72 spot.) 

"Sunday For Tea" by Peter and Gordon climbs 19 spots from #62 to #43, "Close Your Eyes" by Peaches and Herb jumps from #73 to #49, a move of 24 places while "You Got What It Takes"  by The Dave Clark Five does even better than that, moving from #84 to #53, a jump of 31 spots! 



"I Found A Love" by Wilson Pickett is up 33 spots, moving from #89 to #56, "Friday On My Mind" by The Easybeats is up nineteen places (from #76 to #57), while "My Back Pages" by The Byrds climbs 27 places from #85 to #58, "Get Me To The World On Time" by The Electric Prunes is up to #59 from #81 (22 spots) and Andy Williams' vocal version of "Music To Watch Girls By" now sits at #60, up seventeen places from last week's showing of #77. 



The first master tape of The Beatles' new LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" was prepared today.  The Beatles insisted on two things:  the title track would crossfade into "With A Little Help From My Friends" to start the album and the "Sgt. Pepper Reprise" would crossfade into "A Day In The Life" to end the album.  They also wanted no gaps between the rest of the songs. 

Side One also had a completely different running order at this stage than what was released on the final LP:  "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", "With A Little Help From My Friends", "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" (which ultimately closed side one) was next, followed by "Fixing A Hole", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home". 

Check out this television listing from TV Guide for tonight's "ABC Stage 67" special: 

"Singer-actor Harry Belafonte produced this showcase of Negro humor, satire and self-parody.  Participants include host Sidney Poitier, Belafonte, Diahann Carroll, Dick Gregory, Godfrey Cambridge, George Kirby, Redd Foxx, Diana Sands, Richard Pryor, Moms Mabley and Pigmeat Markham."  

A stellar line-up if there ever was one … but were we REALLY still calling it "Negro Humor" in 1967?!?! 

Later that night ABC will air "ABC Stage 67:  On the FLIP Side", a musical starring Rick Nelson and Joannie Sommers.  A rare soundtrack album will be released from this special … probably one of Rick's weakest moments … but it's still notable due to the fact that the majority of the songs were written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach.
 

April 5th

With the "Sgt. Pepper" album now complete, Paul McCartney flies to America for a ten day stay.  First stop:  Denver, Colorado, for girlfriend Jane Asher's 21st birthday.  He gives her a diamond ring … which she later loses!  

Monkees fans marched in protest in London today when it was announced that Davy Jones was going to be inducted into The Army.  (Davy was later exempted from duty because he was his family's main provider.)  

A new Elvis Presley movie, "Double Trouble", opens in theaters, just two weeks after "Easy Come, Easy Go" premiered.  By week's end it will be this week's box office champ … but again ticket sales drop off immediately, reaching a $1.6 million gross overall.  

Al Martino records "Mary In The Morning"

April 4th

Johnny Carson quits The Tonight Show.  He returns three weeks later after NBC gives him a $30,000 a week raise.  (Man, how do you make THAT deal?!?!?)

Paul McCartney tells Beatles Press Secretary Derek Taylor about a hot new act he caught the other night ... the guitar player was nothing short of phenomenal ... and suggests that he might make a great addition to the line-up that Derek was putting together for a little summer music festival in California.

That act was Jimi Hendrix ... and that little festival was The Monterey Pop Festival, an event put together by Taylor, Producer Lou Adler, and John Phillips, leader of The Mamas and the Papas.    

Based on Paul's advice and recommendation, Taylor goes on to book The Jimi Hendrix Experience for the festival, where he proceeds to bring the house down with his incredible stage act.  (Also present at the event ... as spectators ... were Monkees Micky Dolenz and Peter Tork, who were so impressed with Jimi's show that they went on to book Hendrix as their opening act for their upcoming tour.  It was a match mad in hell ... there was no chance that an audience packed with 12 and 13 year old girls screaming "We want Davy! We want Davy!" was EVER going to accept Hendrix's participation.  When all is said and done, the pairing lasts for a total of seven shows.)

Brenda Lee appears on The Mike Douglas Show.

April 3rd

"Happy Together" by The Turtles and "Dedicated To The One I Love" by The Mamas and the Papas hold on to the #1 and #2 spots respectively on this week's chart … but making a big move toward the top are "Somethin' Stupid" by Nancy and Frank Sinatra (#3, up from #8) and "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James and the Shondells (#4, up from #7).  Petula Clark holds at #5 with her latest, "This Is My Song."  

The Monkees climb seven places to #6 with "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" … could IT be the next new #1 Record?  "Bernadette" by The Four Tops continues its climb, moving from #11 to #7 while "Western Union" by The Five Americans cracks The Top Ten for the first time, moving from #14 to #10.  

Also on an uphill climb in The Top 40 we find "Jimmy Mack" by Martha and the Vandellas (up from #16 to #12), "The 59th Street Bridge Song" by Harper's Bizarre, jumping from #19 to #14, "Beggin'" by The Four Seasons, up seven places from #24 to #17, "Sweet Soul Music" by Arthur Conley, up to #21 from #27, "With This Ring" by The Platters, which climbs eight places from #33 to #25, "At The Zoo" by Simon and Garfunkel, leaping 21 positions from #49 to #28, "Don’t You Care" by The Buckinghams (climbing from #43 to #31), "Tell Me To My Face" by Keith (up to #32 from #41), "I'm A Man" by The Spencer Davis Group, up twenty spots from #56 to #36 and "On A Carousel" by The Hollies, which rises from #57 to #40, a move of seventeen places.  

"More Of The Monkees" is still the #1 Album in the nation.  

Tonight's Monkees television episode stars Julie Newmar as April Conquest, who all four boys immediately fall in love with.  It's considered one of their classic episodes.

 

Once again, no other Beatles are present this evening, leaving George Harrison alone in the studio tonight to complete his recording of "Within You, Without You".  George holds court with the Indian musicians especially assembled to complete this track.  And, once this recording was complete (sometime between 3:00 and 6:30 am the following morning), The Beatles had officially finished recording their "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" album.  (In all, over 700 hours were spent in the studio making the album … and that didn't include all of the mixing time done to date and still required to finalize the LP)  

It is revolutionary in virtually every way, not the least of which is printing the song lyrics on the back cover.  It would also provide numerous clues a few years later to the whole "Paul Is Dead" theory.  (Paul's back is turned to the camera as he is no longer with us ... George Harrison's finger is pointing to the lyric "Wednesday Morning at Five O'Clock" ... the time of Paul's fatal car crash ... and, of course, the funeral flower arrangement on the front cover depicting a left-handed guitar ... and the hand raised over Paul's head signifying the blessing for his passing ... unreal in theory but some pretty interesting "coincidences" to be sure!)  

In hindsight it almost seems inconceivable that just four years earlier The Beatles were singing "She Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah" and were now singing about "plasticine porters with looking glass ties", "tangerine trees and marmalade skies" and girls with "kaleidoscope eyes" … but they were.  Start to finish, the album took 129 days to complete … an absolutely unheard of amount of time back in the day when some artists released as many as three or four albums within a single year!   

Sessions began with "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" … but those songs were paired instead as a Double A-Side Single … the creative juices were flowing so quickly (fueled by what must have been an unlimited supply of drugs and drinks), that the idea of a "concept album" soon appeared.  What if The Beatles pretended to be somebody else … Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, for example.  Truthfully, the "concept" really only extended to the first two … and last two … tracks.  

When no singles were released from the LP, some radio stations charted the entire album as #1.  It became the official soundtrack to The Summer Of Love … and every generation since has embraced the genius of Pepper.  

 

Here in Chicago, Richard Speck's trial begins today for the murder of eight student nurses.  More on this gruesome night can be found here:
http://forgottenhits60s.blogspot.com/2016/07/50-years-ago-today.html