Labor Day Weekend Time Warp 1967

Two Sundays ago, Bob Stroud did his final "Summer of Love" installment and played the songs "on our radios back forty years ago, Labor Day 1967." These sure brought back a lot of memories. I was deep into pop music back then after getting interested at the end of 1963 with all the Beatles hullabaloo.

I was buying singles and albums whenever I thought I could get away with it as Dad REALLY thought them to be a waste of money. As I recall, an album cost $2.99 to $3.99 and singles were 99 cents. Plus, you could get used 45s from special bins for 39 cents. These had been previously played on jukeboxes.

These were the songs playing on our radios and turntables ALL THOSE YEARS AGO. I will have Stroud's comments first, and then mine in parenthesis. Don't you just love it when a song brings back a memory?

I Dig Rock n' Roll Music- Peter, Paul and Mary- a giant smash, co-written by Dave Dixon, a dj who spent some time in the 60s at my hometown of Kalamazoo, Michigan's Top 40 station WKMI. (This was my favorite Peter, Paul and Mary song.)

There is a Mountain- Donovan- brand new (Kind of a fun song.)

Brown Eyed Girl- Van Morrison's first solo effort from the Them frontman. (How do you get better party music than this. Always gets the people out on the dance floor.)

Gettin' Together- Tommy James & the Shondells-- new single- borrowed riff from Spencer Davis Group's "Give Me Some Lovin'" and turned it into their own.

Funky Broadway- Wilson Pickett- his latest (My second favorite soul singer. My first is Otis Redding.)

Things I Should Have Said- Grass Roots-- off their new album released in August. They'd already had a hit called "Let's Live for Today." This proved to be their second hit. (The Grass Roots are one of the most underrated groups from the 60s. They really had some great stuff. This is one of my favorites by them.)

Pleasant Valley Sunday- Monkees-- (Did somebody say somebody took a shot at suburbia?)

Groovin'- Booker T & the MGs. --a remake of the Young Rascal's song. (MGs stood for Memphis Group which consisted of Steve Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn who went on to fame in the Blues Brothers. Hey, get that pipe out of your mouth, Donald!)

Find Somebody- Young Rascals-- embracing the psychedelic sounds of the season. From their new album, "Groovin'" It also contained the selections "How Can I Be Sure" and "A Girl Like You." (I was not familiar with this one.)

Carrie Anne- Hollies-- a hit all summer long (Great Graham Nash song.)

I Make a Fool of Myself- Frankie Valli-- unahamedly ripping himself off with a carbon copy of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"

Dandelion- Rolling Stones-- just released

Ticket to Ride- Vanilla Fudge-- Brand new band with a cover of the Beatles tune. From intro to song-In August 1967, a band out of Long Island, NY, released their self-titled debut album. Everything they did was over the top as they threw caution to the wind. When you set your needle down on side 1, track 1, this is what the debut album of Vanilla Fudge sounded like. (This was some mighty strange stuff.)

And this was all just from hour one of the three hour show.

To Be Continued. --RoadDog