Our survey brings us now to 1967. In contrast to the previous year, we only have to go to #41 to fill out this year’s poll, and we’ve definitely got some interesting choices here.
…
“Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You”
“I Think We’re Alone Now”
“I Was Made To Love Her”
“Expressway To Your Heart”
“Come On Down To My Boat”
“Your Precious Love”
“Somebody To Love”
“Don’t You Care”
“Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye”
I find it impossible to pick one, for a change. This was the year I went to Vietnam, and many of the songs resonate with me. I guess if I had to pick one, it would be For What It’s Worth, for its social commentary on the war.
Christ, I totally missed Buffalo Springfield on this list. Sorry, folks.
I never thought For What It’s Worth was about the war, specifically. I always just heard it as commentary on how contentious things were during that time period.
As someone who was not around, looking at this list I see plenty of songs I like and recognize. Good year and much better than the previous polls. Some songs such as Buffalo Springfield and Van Morrison are classics.
I voted for “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie”, but also like ones by Frankie Valli, Stevie Wonder, Brenton Wood, Buffalo Springfield, Supremes(that intro).
I think Procol Harum and Buffalo Springfield will win this, especially the latter.
1967 . . . The Summer of Love . . . I remember it well, especially considering the crappy year to follow. I’m gonna buck the trend here, and go with a song many of you don’t remember at all . . . The Association’s “Never My Love.”
The Esquires - “Get On Up” Heard it over the weekend and Wife remarked that it lacked intellectual content. I countered that it sucked all of the intellectual content out of the universe, which is why I love it.
An awful lot of songs on this list that really belonged in ‘the rest.’
Until I got to “Somebody to Love” I was wondering if I was going to find anything to vote for.
My problem with “For What It’s Worth” is that I heard the up-tempo version of it on Four-Way Street first (it finishes up the “49 Bye-Byes” track), and next to that, the original sounded way too over-serious.
Compared to “Somebody to Love,” “Brown-Eyed Girl” is just a nice song. And maybe I’ve just heard “Whiter Shade of Pale” too many times, and still no idea of what it means.
Where is the Cowsills’ big hit, “The Rain, the Park, and Other Things”? I wasn’t going to vote for it (my tastes have improved that much since age 13, thank goodness), but I expected to *see *it. It was #1 for two weeks on the DC area’s biggest top-40 station, WPGC.
I picked “Don’t You Care,” finishing just ahead of “Reflections,” “For What It’s Worth,” “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” and “I Was Made to Love Her.” That’s a lot of contenders for best song in the world-famous Ponch8 Music Rating System!
In dead-ass last place, “Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie” gets the dishonor over “Come On Down to My Boat,” mostly by virtue (or vice?) of its ridiculous title.
Another reason I love “Never My Love” is its effective use of harmonic rhythm. The verse/chorus has one chord change per measure. Then the bridge starts out by speeding up to two per measure (echoing the rushed panic of “how can you say love will end…”), then abruptly slooows down to one change every TWO measures, to echo how long a “whole life” is (“depeeeeends…on you…”).
I went with Procol Harum on this one, for what it’s worth (ha ha ha). The lyrics are clever and work well even if it’s near-impossible to figure out what the song’s even about, the organ hook is classic, and it’s the only chance I’ll have to vote for them since their only other hit in the US, “Conquistador”, didn’t make the year-end chart.