Arthur Wesley Dow: Dandelion (early 20th century)
Good evening, Kibitzers!
So, last time, you may recall, I was headed for New Jersey to go to the dentist, not a practical arrangement, but then, “Not a practical arrangement” is my middle name. I came away with not only a trustworthy opinion about my options for this particular tooth, but also the contact information for my dentist’s best friend, who runs her dental practice with her husband about two miles from my current house. (This is not a rational reason why I love my NJ dentist, but it is one of many reasons just the same. She always has a workable solution!)
❧ We had a discussion in here a while ago, prompted by a BadWolffe thread about the most-played songs of the 20th century. We learned that Never My Love was the second-most played song (on radio and TV) of that century, which was only somewhat less surprising when considering that this did not refer to just the record by The Association, but to all versions of a song that was covered many times.
That was all kind of secondary, though -- the main thing that struck me, when I played the YouTube, was that it turned out to be one of those records so redolent of its time that hearing it immediately places me back there. Specifically, it placed me in the 8th grade in October 1967, in the art room of the high school where they'd stuffed us because Baby Boom. The art teacher was one of those hippie teachers who'd embrace whatever the kids were into, and she had a radio in the room that she played while we worked on whatever we were doing.
The song's effect on me was so vivid (seriously, why did I wear that white blouse to paint in??), I was moved to retrieve some other songs from Billboard's same timeframe, that also feed into this deep nostalgia. We'd have been listening to all this music on WABC-AM in New York, the city's giant of Top 40 back then. For chart placement at the time, I'm referring to the meticulously-researched Top40Weekly.com, and the songs I've picked comport with my memory of what we were hearing then in the art room, on the school bus, and anywhere else a radio was playing.
Chart numbers are the song's position in the week ending October 7, 1967, according to Top40Weekly, except at the end — I couldn’t resist adding a few songs that only made the chart in the following couple of weeks, but that feel to me like part of the same block of memory.
#1) The Letter: The Box Tops [1:53]
#2) Never My Love: The Association [3:08]
#6) (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher: Jackie Wilson [3:12]
#9) How Can I Be Sure: The Young Rascals [2:25]
#11) To Sir with Love: Lulu [3:02]
#12) I Dig Rock and Roll Music: Peter, Paul and Mary [2:18]
#17) Expressway to Your Heart: The Soul Survivors [3:38]
#20) Soul Man: Sam and Dave [4:56]
#22) You Know What I Mean: The Turtles [1:52]
#27) You’re My Everything: The Temptations [2:57]
#32) People Are Strange: The Doors [2:37]
#38) (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman: Aretha Franklin [2:44]
Week ending 10/14/1967:
#34) Incense and Peppermints: Strawberry Alarm Clock [2:59]
Week ending 10/23/1967 (for each week, besides the top 40, they include songs new to the charts that week — that’s why these two are numbered like this):
#74) I Heard It Through the Grapevine: Gladys Knight and the Pips [2:42]
Week ending 11/4/1967:
#85) I Second That Emotion: Smokey Robinson and the Miracles [2:49]
Instead of a parody song today, here is Jeff Jackson’s latest: a message for the US Senate, in his capacity as Attorney General of North Carolina. [2:38]
JOINING A PROTEST ON JUNE 14? ACLU helps you know your rights.
