11 January 1968 Is Monkees-snark even a thing any more? Anyway, not that I particularly care but just if any elderly male white rock fans are reading, apparently the piano on this single is indeed played by Peter and the guitar by Mike, meaning more Monkees played instruments on 'Daydream Believer' than Byrds did on … Continue reading The Monkees – ‘Daydream Believer’ →

28 October 1967 Aha, says you: another Irish folk ballad about drinking! However, 'Whiskey On A Sunday' was really a contemporary English song called 'The Ballad Of Seth Davy', the reference to the Dublin district of Beggar's Bush was originally Bevington Bush in Liverpool, plus the Seth Davy (or Davey or Davie, depending on sources) … Continue reading Danny Doyle – ‘Whiskey On A Sunday’ →

21 September 1967 Engelbert Humperdinck was in the arts and culture section of my Sunday paper last weekend; apparently he's doing a record with a fellow Eurovision competitor he met while finishing second-last for the UK in 2012. And yes, you may have forgotten he repped le Royaume-Uni at Eurovision in the 21st century. How … Continue reading Engelbert Humperdinck – ‘The Last Waltz’ →

14 September 1967 Be sure to wear some product in your hair, I sing to myself every morning as I go about my grooming routine. (No need for me here to go into my mnemonics for moisturising or other daily ablutions.) And they said the '60s counter-culture wouldn't change the world. That this slice of … Continue reading Scott McKenzie – ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’ →

3 August 1967 As with 'Yellow Submarine', once again we meet a Beatles song which has long outgrown being a mere pop record and instead become a communal pop-cultural touchstone. In other words, I'm pretty sure you know 'All You Need Is Love', your family member who's not into music knows 'All You Need Is … Continue reading The Beatles – ‘All You Need Is Love’ →

22 June 1967 Ghostly organ riffing on Bach; impenetrable lyrics referencing Chaucer: would you call 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' pretentious? Well, John Lennon was drawing on Edward Lear and the Tibetan Book Of The Dead; The Byrds had a smash hit with Pete Seeger's folk setting of a chapter from the Bible; Mick Jagger … Continue reading Procol Harum – ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ →

15 June 1967 When we saw and heard The Capitol Showband at number one three years earlier, with 'Down Came The Rain' and 'Born To Be With You', Butch Moore was their crooning singer and—as with all Irish showbands of the time—outdated '50s pop was their game. Now here they are in 1967 with a … Continue reading Johnny Kelly & The Capitol Showband – ‘Black Velvet Band’ →

8 June 1967 I didn't know that 'Silence Is Golden' was originally by The Four Seasons. Their 1964 ur-text doesn't have the same pep or swagger as their classic Jersey Boys sound, though - it's closer to a pre-Beatles country-pop ballad. Think of Frankie Valli on a horse. This Tremeloes cover sticks to the original … Continue reading The Tremeloes – ‘Silence Is Golden’ →

18 May 1967 Are we sure this isn't actually the Boston Strangler? I ask because we leave the light-fingered narrator "serving up full twenty years in the penitentiary" - a bit draconian for your common-or-garden spot of breaking and entering, unless he had been burglarising Trevelyan's corn. On the upside, that dolorous train trip from … Continue reading Johnny McEvoy – ‘The Boston Burglar’ →