Favorite Songs of 1969

During 1969, I wasn’t very interested in popular music. What radio I did listen to was largely either to follow sports broadcasts or to engage in my then-hobby of DX-ing (trying to pick up distant radio stations). It was through the latter that I ended up listening to some of my favorite songs of the year. Still, compared to the years that followed, there weren’t that many to report on in ‘69. And many songs of that year that I later grew to like a lot weren’t among my favorites (as I lived through it).

There were several “hard” rock songs that were popular in 1969, my favorite of them being Hot Smoke and Sassafras by Bubble Puppy. Oldtimers Sammy Davis Jr. and Peggy Lee each had big hits with the inspiring I Gotta Be Me and the deflating Is That All There Is, respectively. The Youngbloods gave the year a hippie, feel-good flavor with Get Together. Gitarzan, by Ray Stevens, was hilarious no matter how often I heard it. The Cowsills had Hair, another side splitter. Mary Hopkin had Goodbye, a sweet (if I’m not mistaken) Paul McCartney composition. The fabricated band the Archies had the year’s big monster hit: the simultaneously bubble-gum and suggestive Sugar Sugar. In the midst of trouble with the law, the Doors had their biggest single: the uncharacteristic-sounding Touch Me, complete with a horn section. Thunderclap Newman’s falsetto Something in the Air portended a revolution of sorts that never materialized. My #3 song of 1969, the ballad The Boxer by Simon and Garfunkel, was only bested by their earlier tune America. The Beatles came to my attention with O-Bla-Di O-Bla-Da and my #2 song of the year: Get Back (with a style and tempo they should have stuck with). I also enjoyed the Sergio Mendes & Brazil 66 version of Blackbird. Tops of ‘69: the upbeat-but-mysterious Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In, the crowning achievement of the Fifth Dimension.