Featured song: The Monkees – I’m a Believer
This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. One article for each year.
I am only going to select one featured song for each article, which makes it hard. I am going to try and select a different artist for each year.
For many people, and I include myself, you tend to still like the tunes you heard during childhood, which your parents often played. So rather than just pick the top 10 hits of each year, I shall let you know what they were, but also the tunes of that year not necessarily in the top 10 or so, what were in my view classics. I also add a couple of events in history for that year, it helps bring back memories, and hopefully happy ones.
Not everyone will like my choices of course, and you may remember some from each particular year that you feel should have been included, so do please post a link to the song.
So on we go with memories from 1967: (Thank you Wiki)
This year was about the labour government nationalising things, trying to get us in the ECC, but feel-good factors like new TV programmes, winning the Eurovision Song Contest, and the creation of Radio 1 for us music lovers won me over.
What was I doing in this year? – I was 11, I started secondary school, I hated it, but then I had always hated school. For the first time I had homework to do, for me this took much time and effort and robbed me of being a happy kid. The only fun things for me was the music of Radio Luxembourg and later Radio 1.
TV programmes included:
Trumpton is the second programme on BBC1 to be shot in colour, Debut of The Forsyte Saga (strangely enough the first TV programme the SCBBC sold to Russia). The United Kingdom wins the 12th Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna, Austria. The winning song is “Puppet on a String” performed by Sandie Shaw. 12 June – The 1967 franchise round sees a number of changes being made to the ITV regional map. News at Ten premieres on ITV. The Prisoner has its UK premiere on ATV and Grampian Television. Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons debuts on ITV. Do Not Adjust Your Set premieres on ITV. The Golden Shot (1967–1975, “Bernie The Bolt” and Anne Ashton) and Callan (1967–1972), which I liked.
Events:
Prime Minister – Harold Wilson (Labour)
1 January – England’s 1966 World Cup winning manager Alf Ramsey received a knighthood and Captain Bobby Moore received an OBE in the New Year Honours.
4 January – Racing driver and motorboat racer Donald Campbell was killed in a crash on Coniston Water in the Lake District while attempting to break his own speed record.
15 January – The United Kingdom entered the first round of negotiations for European Economic Community membership in Rome; on 16 January Italy announced support for the UK’s EEC membership.
26 January – Parliament decided to nationalise 90% of the British steel industry.
7 February – The British National Front was founded by A. K. Chesterton (by an amalgamation of the British National Party and League of Empire Loyalists).
4 March – The first North Sea gas was pumped ashore at Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire.
29–30 March – RAF and Fleet Air Arm planes bombed the grounded Torrey Canyon and sank it.
8 April 1967 – Puppet on a String performed by Sandie Shaw won the Eurovision Song Contest for the UK, becoming the first English language song to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
2 May – Harold Wilson announced that the United Kingdom had decided to apply for EEC membership.
11 May – The United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland officially applied for European Economic Community membership.
25 May – Shadow Cabinet Conservative MP Enoch Powell described Britain as the “sick man of Europe” in his latest verbal attack on the Labour government.
1 June – The Beatles released Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, one of rock music’s most acclaimed and influential albums.
29 June – Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones was jailed for a year for possession of illegal drugs. His bandmate, Mick Jagger was sentenced to three months for the same offence.
1 July – The first scheduled colour television broadcasts from six transmitters covering the main population centres in England began on BBC2 for certain programmes, the first being live coverage from the Wimbledon Championships. A full colour service (other than news programmes) began on BBC2 on 2 December.
28 July – The British steel industry was nationalised.
3 August – The inquiry into the Aberfan disaster blamed the National Coal Board for the collapse of a colliery spoil tip which claimed the lives of 164 people in South Wales in October last year.
14 August – The Marine, &c., Broadcasting (Offences) Act 1967 declared participation in offshore pirate radio in the United Kingdom illegal. Wonderful Radio London broadcast from MV Galaxy off the Essex coast for the last time.
30 September – BBC Radio completely restructured its national programming: the Light Programme was split between new national pop station Radio 1 (modelled on the successful pirate station Radio London) and Radio 2; the cultural Third Programme was rebranded as Radio 3; and the primarily-talk Home Service became Radio 4.
25 October – The Abortion Act, passed in Parliament, legalising abortion on a number of grounds (with effect from 1968).
7 November – Boxer Henry Cooper became the first to win three Lonsdale Belts outright.
19 November – The pound was devalued from 1 GBP = 2.80 USD to 1 GBP = 2.40 USD. Prime Minister Harold Wilson defended this decision, assuring voters that it would tackle the “root cause” of the nation’s economic problems.
27 November – President Charles de Gaulle of France again vetoed British entry into the European Economic Community.
11 December – The Concorde supersonic aircraft was unveiled in Toulouse, France.
12 December – Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, 25, won a High Court appeal against a nine-month prison sentence for possessing and using cannabis. He was instead fined £1,000 and put on probation for three years.
22 December – BBC Radio 4 panel game Just a Minute, chaired by Nicholas Parsons, was first transmitted. It would still be running under the same Chairman fifty years later.
The Top 10 Singles with a You Tube hyperlink on the title:
| Top Hits of 1967 | ||
| 1 | Engelbert Humperdinck | Release Me |
| 2 | Engelbert Humperdinck | There Goes My Everything |
| 3 | Engelbert Humperdinck | Last Waltz |
| 4 | Anita Harris | Just Loving You |
| 5 | Scott McKenzie | San Francisco (Flowers In Your Hair) |
| 6 | Sandie Shaw | Puppet On A String |
| 7 | Procol Harum | A Whiter Shade Of Pale |
| 8 | The Monkees | I’m A Believer |
| 9 | Tom Jones | I’ll Never Fall In Love Again |
| 10 | Frankie Vaughan | There Must Be A Way |
Very good year for Engelbert, liked them all, but not really my cup of tea, not even to this day. There is a very good argument for making Scott McKenzie the top song with San Francisco, it was the summer anthem and a timeless classic, but sadly he did not do too much after this one song. Procul Harum almost made my top song as well, but again, they did not do too much after Whiter shade of pale, just a couple of minor hits.
The tune: The Monkees TV programme was a must watch each Saturday early evening for me. OK, for some maybe a bit cheesy, but I really loved their TV show and their tunes, and a deserved a place in my favourites list. “I’m a Believer” is a song composed by Neil Diamond and recorded by the Monkees in 1966 with the lead vocals by Micky Dolenz. The single, produced by Jeff Barry, hit the number-one spot on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart for the week ending December 31, 1966 and remained there for seven weeks, becoming the last No. 1 hit of 1966 and the biggest-selling record for all of 1967. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 5 song for 1967. Because of 1,051,280 advance orders, it went gold within two days of release. It is one of the fewer than forty all-time singles to have sold more than 10 million physical copies worldwide.
The song was No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks in January and February 1967 and reached the top spot in numerous countries, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Ireland.
More writings on this song here: I’m a Believer
In my view the best songs of the year, after the featured track and most of the above top ten are:
Bee Gees – Massachusetts – One of my all-time favourite bands, they are bound to feature several times.
The Monkees – A Little Bit Me A Little Bit You
Pink Floyd – See Emily Play – How good is this, and what a top great group they turned out to be. Awesome.
The Beatles – Strawberry Fields Forever
The Beatles – Penny Lane
The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye
The Tremeloes – Silence is Golden
Mamas & Papas – Dedicated To The One I Love – Love their songs.
The Seekers – Georgy Girl – another favourite group of mine.
The Hollies – Carrie Anne
The Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
Small Faces – Itchycoo Park
Rolling Stones LIVE – Let’s Spend The Night Together
The Supremes – The Happening
Jeff Beck – Hi Ho Silver Lining – sing along now, “And it’s …..”
The Move – Flowers in the rain – Prime Minister Harold Wilson won a libel action against them after they depicted him in the nude, in promotional material for this song, miserable sod.
The Tremoloes – Even The Bad Times Are Good
Traffic – Hole In My Shoe – it was letting in water.
Long John Baldry – Let The Heartaches Begin
Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick & Titch – Zabadak
Herman’s Hermits – There’s a kind of hush – cannot help myself, I am a bit soppy and sing along to this. Their greatest hIts album is great fun when driving and singing along with kids in the car.
Tom Jones – Green Green Grass Of Home
Procol Harum – Homburg – included but not that great, it was their follow up to Whiter Shade of Pale.
The Beatles – All you need is love – I find it a bit dreary.
Jimi Hendrix – Hey Joe – I really do not like any of his stuff, but I am sure many do, so felt it only fair to include this one.
Fun song: Royal Guardsmen – Snoopy Vs. The Red Baron
Bonus fun song: Whistling Jack Smith – I Was Kaiser Bill’s Batman
27 songs for 1967 in my favourite lists, what golden years and what a golden decade.
Hat tips to:
http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/ These give the top 100 selling charts for each year
http://www.everyhit.com/chart1.html These give the top 10 songs for each year
https://www.youtube.com/ You know them.
Next Time 1968.
© Phil the test manager 2019
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