Favorite Songs of 1967

1967 marks the last of a run of four years in which I was consumed by listening to popular music on the radio. By the year’s end, I had dropped off considerably with listening to my radio for music, and instead had picked up the hobby of DX-ing (trying to receive distant stations). The Beatles and Rolling Stones were challenged for pop music ascendancy, at least in America, by the fabricated television-comedy group the Monkees, whose music surprisingly has largely withstood the test of time! And I was a big Monkees fan, watching the show, collecting Monkees cards, and listening to Monkees songs. My favorites in ‘67 of theirs were Look Out (Here Comes Tomorrow) and Pleasant Valley Sunday. Speaking of the Stones, they continued to become more original with their songs, producing two that I especially liked: the Rubber-Soul-like Ruby Tuesday and the utterly cynical Mother’s Little Helper (with the classic line “What a drag it is getting old”). John Fred and his Playboy Band parodied the Beatles with Judy in Disguise (With Glasses). The artist Keith sang very softly in 98.6, while the Music Machine thundered out with the forceful Talk Talk. Sonny and Cher continued their output of hits with my favorite of theirs, the topical The Beat Goes On. The feminist movement had not yet taken hold, with two popular “women-in-their-assigned-role” hits”: Dreams of the Everyday Housewife by Glen Campbell and It Must Be Him by Vicki Carr. But at least Petula Clark had the upper hand in Don’t Sleep In the Subway. Jose Feliciano came out with my favorite pop Christmas hit ever: Feliz Navidad. Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit’s beautiful building crescendo and Grace Slick’s bellowing voice has made it one of the greatest short tunes ever; I don’t care whether it was pro-drug or anti-drug. Another quality-packed short song was the bubble gum tune The Letter by the Box Tops. The Mojo Men exhorted the listener to Sit Down I Think I Love You, while the Buckinghams drowned the listener with organ playing in Kind of a Drag (and pulled it off). In a pathetic-but-fun-to-listen-to-proto-rap song, the Hombres tried to sound “hip” with Let It Out (Let It All Hang Out). The song Come On Down to My Boat, by Every Mother’s Son, got a lift in sales and listening by being featured on one of the Man From U.N.C.L.E. television episodes. The Five Americans sang Western Union with beautiful harmony. The frantic You Better Run, by the Rascals (later covered by Pat Benatar), was my favorite of theirs. The Association’s romantic Never My Love was my favorite slow tune of the year. The Florida band the Nightcrawlers had a big local hit (around Miami) with Little Black Egg. It was my #3 favorite song of 1967 as I lived through it. And to find my top two favorite songs, I need only to go back to the beginning of this article and bring back out the Beatles, who produced two great albums that year (Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour) and two especially pleasant and enduring songs: Hello Goodbye (my #2) and All You Need Is Love (my #1 for 1967).