r/60sMusic

Well that wasn’t much better than 1968 at all. 1969 honestly just feels like 1968 with slightly higher lows and lower highs. In fact, this year really just failed to provoke any strong feelings from me at all. There were maybe two songs I really liked, and there weren’t even any songs I cared enough about to dislike. This is honestly the least confident I have ever been about my bottom 3, because I honestly could have made an argument for any of the bottom like 7 songs being my least favorite. There was no Judy In Disguise for me to laugh at, and there weren’t any big name bands that had a song this year that I particularly wasn’t feeling. All the songs were just kind of there. I do want to include a shoutout for Elvis and The Supremes, who both had their last #1 in 1969. Elvis never quite made the impact on me that I felt he should have, but I think I put one of his songs in my Top 3 for like 1959 or something. His #1 this year, Suspicious Minds, similarly didn’t really make any kind of impression on me. The Supremes, on the other hand, have been consistently releasing pretty good music for most of the 60s, but were never able to crack the Top 5. I had hoped their song this year might, but it landed at number 6. But hey I heard this Diana Ross lady is apparently pretty talented, so maybe she’ll pop up later or something.

Bottom 3 - 1969

3. Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension
   I have no idea how to feel about this song. It’s a medley of two showtunes. While that’s not the type of music I usually find myself listening to, I’m not necessarily against showtunes. The first half, Aquarius, definitely feels like a song from a musical, which makes it kind of hard to get past. The problem is that Let The Sunshine In is REALLY good. It ended up coming down to this song and Crimson & Clover by Tommy James and The Shondells, which I liked more as a whole, so that’s how this song ended up here.

4. Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet - Henry Mancini
   Yeah, this is kind of a cop-out. This is incredibly far from the type of music you would ever find me listening to, but I can admit it’s not bad. I don’t really have anything against instrumental tracks. I’ve had multiple instrumental songs rank in my Top 3 in years past, but they have to be really good songs to compete. I actually originally had this as my least favorite song, but there was one that I liked less upon re-listening.

5. Dizzy - Tommy Roe
   Dizzy is mediocre. So mediocre it managed to become my least favorite song of the year without me even properly disliking it. There’s no other reason I put this song this low. I have nothing to say about it. It’s not as good as any of the other songs. That is literally the only reason. It doesn’t necessarily do anything wrong, it just doesn’t do anything particularly right. I know it seems weird for me to have this as my least favorite song without having any strong feelings about it, but that’s kind of indicative of 1969 as a whole. I barely had strong feelings about any of the music from this year. It was all just kind of…there.

Top 3 - 1969

3. Leaving on a Jet Plane - Peter, Paul and Mary
   I think me putting this song this high is like 50% because it’s good and 50% because I LOVE the John Denver cover. The John Denver cover is considerably better than this one, but this song is still pretty good. Good enough to be in the top 3, I guess. I really don’t think I’ve cared this little about the songs that went #1 this year since like the early 60s right before The Beatles showed up.

4. Something - The Beatles
   Wow, big shocker, The Beatles Glazer glazes The Beatles. This song is really good, leagues better than the other two Beatles #1s from this year. Come Together isn’t bad, but it's the worst of the mainstream Beatles hits, and I just got nothing from Get Back. It’s one of those songs where I feel like I should like it more, but I don’t. Something, though, is a pretty damn near perfect Beatles song. Still, there was one song from this year that I truly loved. Enough to beat out The Beatles.

5. Everyday People - Sly and The Family Stone
   If listening through 1968 and 1969 was me being buried alive, Everyday People was the first glimpse of light as Sly Stone digs me out of my grave. The repeating bassline and piano chords building into the belted chorus with the horns feels like having my soul cleaned. In a period of time where everything started sounding boring again, Everyday People gives me hope that maybe everything’s gonna get better.

Very early, very short, very live. Welcome to the future.

All good things must come to an end. For the refreshingly great period of music that started in 1964, this year seems to mark the end. 1968 has the least songs yet (ignoring 1958, which didn’t start counting songs until like august) and the music is also just boring. So boring, in fact, that I’ll be returning to my older format of talking about my Top 3 rather than my Top 5, since I don’t really have much to say about song 4 or 5. They were just the least mediocre. The most symbolic part of this year was Harper Valley PTA by Jeannie C Riley. This song ended up at number 5 on my list for this year, which is shocking because it’s a song that puts more emphasis on storytelling than music, which have historically been used to fill up the bottom half of my lists. Honestly, in any of the list 5 years, Harper Valley PTA couldn’t have possibly made my Top 5, but 1968 was so incredibly boring and the story was engaging enough to not end up like a Ringo or Big Bad John. Somehow, despite this year being incredibly boring, The Supremes were still barely snubbed of a top 5 spot.

Bottom 3 - 1968

3. Hello, I Love You - The Doors
   Despite being disappointed by Light My Fire in 1967, I was willing to give The Doors another chance. After sitting through the boring slog that was the first half of the year, I saw The Doors and got a little excited. “Oh, The Doors!” I thought “That’s a band people like. The Doors are here to save me and help me fill out the top 3.” Nope. The thing is, I know The Doors are supposed to be really good, but I genuinely just don’t get it. Is this like a reverse Maroon 5 where they’re going to get good and right now they’re just ass? Please, somebody tell me so I stop feeling crazy.

4. Honey - Bobby Goldsboro
   This song is just boring. It’s very repetitive. It’s not catchy. I really wish I had more to say about it, but I don’t. There’s not even anything about this song I can really shit on, it just does absolutely nothing to captivate my attention. I guess like it kind of feels like it ends mid-thought? I don’t know, I just didn’t like this one.

5. Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) - John Fred and His Playboy Band
   This song puzzled me. On the first listen, I couldn’t tell what percent of this song was supposed to be a joke. I figured maybe this was a Alley Oop situation where it’s a reference to something I’m not aware of, so for the time being I just kind of chucked it into the list and continued. By the end of the year, I realized that Judy In Disguise had been rotting at the bottom of the list the whole time, and I think that’s honestly deserved. This song is kind of catchy, but unlike a fun catchy song where you happily invite it in, and then maybe after a few days it overstays its welcome, Judy In Disguise forces its way in with that stupid ‘with glasses’ line. Anyways, I dug into the song more before writing this, and found that it’s supposed to be some kind of parody of Lucy In The Sky by The Beatles, which makes it kind of funny that this song went number one and that song didn’t. Honestly, I don’t care about the background. This song is just kind of lousy.

Top 3 - 1968

3. Mrs Robinson - Simon & Garfunkel
   Simon & Garfunkel back again with yet another fairly simple duet. Their voices just work so well together on every second of this song. Mrs Robinson is a good song.

4. (Sittin’ On) The Dock of The Bay - Otis Redding
   This song is really good. I really liked this song in middle school, and ended up with every word permanently hammered my brain, although it’s very welcome. The way this song can push and pull its energy in such an incredible way is truly what puts it above the rest.

5. Hey Jude - The Beatles
   I feel like every time a Beatles song lands high on the list I say this, but this song feels like THE Beatles song. Hey Jude is relentlessly catchy and the type of song that would be hard to find somebody who didn’t know it word for hard. This song may also be one of the reasons this year was shorter, because it spent around 2 whole months at number one, blocking plenty of songs that might have made the list.

This dude turned down Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple.

Judith Durham (3 July 1943 – 5 August 2022) What a voice!

Compared to the last few years, 1967 is a bit shorter, but still has a lot of really great songs. 1967 probably has the least amount of songs that I feel indifferent about so far. There were only 18 #1 hits in 1967, and of those 18 I found like 13 of them to be either pretty good or really good, leaving like 3 I felt pretty indifferent about and 2 that I really didn’t like. I think 1967 is overall better than 1966, but doesn’t quite reach the highs of 65.

Bottom 3 - 1967

3. Light My Fire - The Doors
   This song feels like it's so close to being so much better, but there’s just something about it that doesn’t work. Also this song is 7 minutes long, and like 4 of these minutes are dedicated to a keyboard solo. Maybe that’s what might draw other people to this song, but the song as a whole just did not really do anything for me. It is weird to hear a song that sounds more The Rolling Stones than the actual Rolling Stones song that went #1 in this year.

4. Ruby Tuesday - The Rolling Stones 
   I was not a big fan of this song. In my opinion, it honestly sounds kind of amateur, which is crazy since this is the same band that made Satisfaction and Paint It Black, which were two of my favorite songs from the last few years. This song honestly just sounds like they’re trying too hard to be The Beatles, and it’s NOT working.

5. To Sir With Love - LuLu
   Yes, the biggest song of 1967 is also my least favorite. Unlike Light My Fire with its 4-minute instrumental interlude and Ruby Tuesday with its unsatisfying Beatles impression, this song doesn’t have one thing that makes it the worst song of the year. It just kind of sucks. It’s the least catchy song from the last 4 years. The lyrics sound like a song in another language being translated into English. They don’t really flow with the melody or anything, she just kinda says them whenever. I have no clue how this became the biggest song of the year, because there were SO many good songs from this year.

Top 5 - 1967

5. Penny Lane - The Beatles
   Penny Lane is iconic. The vivid description of the neighborhood along with the groovy melody and the horns on the chorus make this song truly great, and it’s not even my favorite Beatles song from this year.

6. Daydream Believer - The Monkees
   At first I wondered why I liked the vocals on this song so much more than I’m A Believer, but then I realized it’s because they’re sung by different people. Micky Dolenz was the voice behind I’m A Believer, while Davy Jones sang this one. His voice is also kind of weird, but it works in all the ways I’m A Believer didn’t. Also, the intro is like a cherry on top. This song almost landed higher, but there’s one song that does everything this does, but better.

7. All You Need Is Love - The Beatles
   All You Need Is Love isn’t just a Beatles song. It is The Beatles. It has horns, strings, vocal layering and harmonizing, and a big crazy finale with a billion things going on. My brain also drew parallels with this song and Daydream Believer for some reason. I think they have kind of similar vibes, but All You Need Is Love does everything Daydream Believer does, just better.

8. Happy Together - The Turtles
   Everything about this song is incredible. It has maybe my favorite guitar riff ever. The hushed verse into the chorus that sounds like everyone on Earth getting together in a big grassy field to celebrate like world peace or something. This song also completes the trinity of “The (Animal Name)” bands. Together with The Beatles and Monkees, MAYBE they can take down The Rolling Stones? If that’ll prevent another Ruby Tuesday I’d be fine with that. Regardless, this song is incredible and I didn’t think anything would take the number one spot from it, but then came a song I just couldn’t ignore.

9. Respect - Aretha Franklin
   Nothing else could have been number one. Regardless of how much I love Happy Together and All You Need Is Love, Respect DEMANDS the number one spot. And it deserves it. This is probably one of the best songs I’ve heard so far. There’s a reason Respect has still held its legendary status, all the way into the present day. It really is just that good.

Sir Paul McCartney was born on this day in 1942.

Fontella Bass (July 3, 1940 – December 26, 2012) The bass on this was played by Louis Satterfield who later joined Earth, Wind & Fire. Maurice White plays the drums on this too.