Do #1 Hits Provide a Good Guide to the Quality of Current Music? Did They Ever?

I've been doing a series of posts (on a closed FB site) on the #1 hit singles from 1965 to 1969.  (Because my 45th college reunion is coming up, that's why.)  My memory is that the music of those four years was extraordinary, and somehow that was not coming through when I looked at the #1s.  Especially those from September 1967 to August 1968 (The final column is weeks at #1).

Dates	Performer/Title
August 20 – September 16 1967	Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe	4
September 17 – October 14 1967	Box Tops - The Letter	4
October 15 – November 18 1967	Lulu - To Sir with Love	5
November 19 – 25 1967	Strawberry Alarm Clock - Incense and Peppermints	1
November 26 – December 23 1967	Monkees - Daydream Believer	4
December 24 1967 – January 13 1968	Beatles - Hello, Goodbye	3
January 14 – 27 1968	John Fred and His Playboy Band - Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)	2
January 28 – February 3 1968	Lemon Pipers - Green Tambourine	1
February 4 – March 9 1968	Paul Mauriat - Love Is Blue	5
March 10 – April 6 1968	Otis Redding - Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay	4
April 7 – May 11 1968	Bobby Goldsboro - Honey	5
May 12 – 25 1968	Archie Bell and The Drells - Tighten Up	2
May 26 – June 15 1968	Simon and Garfunkel - Mrs. Robinson	3
June 16 – July 13 1968	Herb Alpert - This Guy's In Love With You	4
July 14 – 27 1968	Hugh Masekela - Grazing In The Grass	2
July 28 – August 10 1968	Doors - Hello, I Love You	2
August 11 – September 14 1968	Rascals - People Got To Be Free	5

Now, there are some very good songs here.  But there's also a lot of fluff and dreck ("To Sir, With Love;" "Incense and Peppermint;" "Judy In Disguise';" "Green Tambourine;" "Love Is Blue;" "Honey;" "Tighten Up;" "This Guy's In Love With You;" accounting for 25 of the 53 weeks).  And much of what I remember from 1967-68 is not to be found.

There are some reasons for this.  For example, The Beatles chose not to release any singles from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.  For example, the only album Bob Dylan released in this period was John Wesley Harding, and the only single from the album was "Drifter's Escape."  ("All along the Watchtower" was released in November 1968, and Jimi Hendrix had a monster hit with it separately.)  The Kinks album of the time was Something Else, which peaked on the album charts in the US at #135; "Waterloo Sunset" is probably the best-known song from the album, and although it reached #2 on the British pop charts, if never made the top 100 in the US.  The Who Sell Out was released in December 1967, with only 1 single released--"I Can See For Miles"--which peaked at #10 in the US.

But the number of outstanding songs...well,, looking back, I am amazed.  Here's a list of songs that hit the top 40, and never made it to #1, that I personally think are terrific (note that this is not a complete list of songs from the top 40):

Light My Fire (twice, two different performers)
I was Made To Love Her
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Funky Broadway
All You Need Is Love
Brown-Eyed Girl
There Is a Mountain
Higher and Higher
Soul Man
Natural Woman
People Are Strange
I Can See For Miles
I Heard It Through the Grapevine
I Second That Emotion
Chain of Fools
Different Drum
I Wish It Would Rain
I Just Dropped In To See What Condition My Condition Is In
Walk Away Renee
I Thank You
Dance To the Music
The Mighty Quinn
Scarborough Fair/Canticle
Lady Madonna
A Beautiful Morning
Summertime Blues
Like To Get To Know You
Ain’t Nothin’ Like the Real Thing
Think
Cry Like a Baby
Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Stoned Soul Picnic
Hurdy-Gurdy Man
Classical Gas
Sunshine of Your Love
Born To Be Wild
You Keep Me Hangin’ On
Journey To the Center Of Your Mind
Dream a Little Dream Of Me
People Got To Be Free

I did not list the performers (but will note that there are three song by Aretha Franklin on the list).  There were 17 #1 songs from September 1967 to August 1968.  My list has 40 songs on it.  Take the 17 worst songs from my list and compare those to the #1 hits.  Which would you rather listen to?  For me, it's an easy choice.

"We will survive"

One thing about the Grateful Dead--they did not do a lot of things that were even likely to wind up as "hit" songs; in fact, as far as I know, they had only one top 10 hit, and it's this one.

It must be getting early
Clocks are running late
Paint by numbers morning sky
Looks so phony

Dawn is breaking everywhere
Light a candle, curse the glare
Draw the curtains, I don't care
'Cause it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

 Yep, "Touch of Grey," from the album In the Dark.  I don't know that it's a great song, but it sounds so good, and like a few of my other favorite songs, the music is very upbeat, almost cheery, while the lyrics are not.

I see you got your list out
Say your piece and get out
Yes I got the gist of it
But it's alright

Sorry that you feel that way
The only thing there is to say
Every silver lining's got a
Touch of grey

Part of it sounds like someone getting older, looking at the world and wondering what has gone wrong, where his hopes and dreams anve gone to:

I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright

Cows are giving kerosene
The kid can't read at seventeen
The words he knows are all obscene
But it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

But old or not, disappointed or not, we will get by, we will survive..

The shoe is on the hand it fits
There's really nothing much to it
Whistle through your teeth and split
'Cause it's alright

Oh well a touch of grey
Kind of suits you anyway
That was all I had to say
And it's alright

I will get by
I will get by
I will get by
I will survive

We will get by
We will get by
We will get by
We will survive

Open to persuasion

I started thinking the other day about songs that have grabbed me immediately, either because of something about the music, or something about the lyrics.  And I thought of Joan Armatrading's "Love and Affection" (which you can see and hear here, find the lyrics here, and buy the album here).  It begins:

I am not in love
But I'm open to persuasion...

What a beautiful opening and a beautiful sentiment.  I don't think, really, there's any need to say anything more.

 

 

 

 

 

After posting about Jackson Browne's "Running on Empty"

I thought immediately of Tim Hardin's great song, "Reason to Believe," because of the echo in "Running on Empty" of the lyrics. This is not a song about a happy or even hopeful relationship:

 

If I listened long enough to you
I'd find a way to believe that it's all true
Knowing that you lied straight faced while I cried
Still I look to find a reason to believe

But I think we've all been there at one time of another.  I think I first heard in on the radio in late 1965 or early 1966, and I bought the album (Tim Hardin 1) in the summer of 1966.  One of the (unsurprising) reasons that the song has remained in my memory is that someone had more-or-less done that to me.  I learned something from it, maybe not the right lesson, and one I eventually un-learned.  I told myself I'd never care that much about anyone ever again (easy to say when you're 18), but (of course, and I am awfully glad) I did, and more than once.

Someone like you makes it hard to live
Without somebody else
Someone like you makes it easy to give
Never thinking of myself

For Neil Young on his birthday

Neil Young turns 68 today, so it seems appropriate to remember him, and one song in particular, "After the Gold Rush":
 

I was lyin' in a burned out basement
With the full moon in my eye
I was hopin' for a replacement
When the sun burst through the sky
There was a band playin' in my head
And I felt like getting high
Thinkin' about what a friend had said, I was hopin' it was a lie
Thinkin' about what a friend had said, I was hopin' it was a lie.

Happy Birthday, Neil.

Time for another song

This one is, in many ways, very personal, beginning with some of the lyrics:
 

In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up 101...
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on...

In sixty-nine I was twenty-one and I called the road my own...
I don't know when that road turned into the road I'm on  

 Well, in 1965, I was 17...and in 1969, I was 21, in Indiana, not California, but I also didn't know.

Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels,
I don't know how to tell you all just how crazy it is this feels.
I look around for the friends that I used to turn to to pull me through
Looking into their eyes I see they're running too

And there have been times like that as well, when all I could see in my friends' eyes is that they were as lost as I.

Gotta do what you can just to keep your love alive ;
Trying not to confuse it with what you do to survive

Trying to keep my life--the people I care about, loved--separate from the day-to-day has often been a struggle (as, I think, it is for all of us). 

Everyone I know, everywhere I go,
People need some reason to believe...
I don't know about anyone but me

And belief is something that I have trouble with (I once wrote a haiku about belief:
Here's what I believe:
Belief is a luxury
I cannot afford.)
But it would be nice, once in a while, to be able to believe.

"Running on Empty," from the album of the same name, by Jackson Browne.

This one's performed by Judy Collins

It's hard for me to get my mind around the fact that this album by Judy Collins, Who Knows Where the Time Goes,  was released in 1968.  This is another incredible set of music, beginning with "Hello, Hooray," with two Leonard Cohen songs ("The Story of Isaac" and "Bird on a Wire"), and much more.  But it's the title track (performed live at the link), written by Sandy Denny, a haunting ballad mostly about loss ("...Sad, deserted shore, your fickle friends are leaving...") that stays with me.  Collins sings it beautifully (this is right up there with my favorite things she's done, although her performance of "Send in the Clowns" always gives me chills).  (Lyrics here.)  And it's not entirely about loss, it's about strength, and love, and hope as well...