Peter, Paul & Mary did their usual impeccable job of harmony & production on the tune, but like The Youngbloods’ “Get Together” it’s a 1967 song that just happened to break big on the singles charts in 1969.
Another reason to consider 1967 the peak year of the 60s.
I went with “Suspicious Minds” because, well, I guess you could say that I was caught in its trap.
“Get Back” was thisclose to taking the top spot, and “Everyday People” rounds out my top three from this year.
No doubt: Something.
Argent Towers explains half of that, yes?
So far I think it’s safe to say “In The Year 2525” is the worst #1 yet. I wanted to vote for every other song.
Wow, you’ve forgotten “Honey” already?
No, it’s a classic piece of science fiction in musical format.
And you’ve clearly forgotten “Ringo”.
Everyday People. It’s absolutely the definitive Sly song and brilliant.
Interesting that the second and third songs on this list were later turned into hits again by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts.
The parts that go like “There is a blue one who can’t accept the green one…” are sung in the exact same singsong that the kids in my area used to go “can’t catch a nanny goat” at each other when we were seven or eight years old.
On those rare occasions when I hear that song nowadays, I’m still hearing “can’t catch a nanny goat and can’t catch a nanny goat and…” in that part of the song.
Something. George finally hits the big league on Abbey Road.
Something was probably George’s greatest song. I voted for the Age of Aquarius because vocally speaking its an amazing display. The best song on the list imo though is I heard it thru the Grapevine… Fogerty… Gladys Knight… both did great covers… but Marvin owns it. He volleys between telling her off… to preachin… to begging her to come back. Vulnerable… yet strong.
Well, “Something” may well be my favorite Beatles song period, so this was an easy year for me. But, overall, this is a pretty good year. Except for the Zagar & Evans song, I don’t think there’s a single one I actively dislike on this list. I would actually go so far as to say that I actually like every other song on the list, and this would make for a fine afternoon of listening. (In fact, I’m pretty sure I had the Billboard “Best of 1969” cassette.)
Something is such a great song . . . but I had to go with Sly on this. There’s just Something Everyday People that I can’t shake.
I heard this song as a kid, probably on a TV show or may on my parents’ record player. I spent many pre-internet years humming it to myself, not knowing who it was by or why I knew it. It’s quite infectious, and catchy, and has a great lyrical hook.
Pedantic point here…it’s dicey referring to a recording by any Motown artist of another Motown artist’s song as a “cover.” The usual practice was to farm out songs by Motown staff writers to several different artists. Then a determination would be made by Berry Gordy and other higher-ups as to which version would be selected as a single. The other versions might be relegated to album cuts, if released at all.
The normal sense of “cover” is “Here’s a cool song by another artist…let’s do our own version.” This could be said of CCR’s version, but artists at Motown didn’t really have the freedom to do that. They recorded what they were told to record.
In the case of “I Heard It Through the Grapevine,” the tendency is to think of Marvin Gaye’s version as a “cover” of the one by Gladys Knight and the Pips, which had already been a successful single. But the song was first cut by The Miracles, then by Marvin Gaye, and then by Gladys and Company. So Marvin’s version was already a year and a half old when released as a single.
It was a rare case of Berry Gordy’s golden ears failing him, in that he didn’t initially hear the potential of the version that went on to become one of Motown’s most iconic recordings.