It is followed by some great Summer of Love classics like the two-sided hit "Pleasant Valley Sunday" / "Words" by The Monkees, "All You Need Is Love" by The Beatles, "Light My Fire" by The Doors and "White Rabbit" by The Jefferson Airplane.
A couple of records make HUGE leaps on the countdown this week ... "Heroes And Villains" by The Beach Boys jumps from #25 to #8 and "Fakin' It" by Simon and Garfunkel is up 20 points from #36 to #16. Neil Diamond also jumps 20 points (from #39 to #19) with his latest, "I Thank The Lord For The Night Time".
The top debut of the week belongs to Bobbie Gentry with her monster hit "Ode To Billie Joe" ... and the music of The Four Seasons is well represented on this chart with "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" (the Frankie Valli solo hit) at #14, "C'mon Marianne" (the group's latest) at #24 and an excellent cover by The Tremeloes ("Silence Is Golden") at #18.
Here's a vintage chart from 1959 featuring some of the biggest names in early rock and roll ... Paul Anka, Freddy "Boom Boom" Cannon, Frankie Avalon, Bobby Darin, Lloyd Price, Connie Francis, Dion and the Belmonts, Ricky Nelson, Duane Eddy, Fats Domino, The Drifters and Elvis Presely are all here ... as are "novelty" acts like The Chipmunks, The Coasters, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes and Fabian.
You'll find an early Jan and Dean track at #4 ... and The Flamingo's classic "I Only Have Eyes For You" at #13. Even Frank Sinatra holds down a spot on this chart ... he's at #12 with "High Hopes"! (Ol' Blue Eyes appears on our 1967 chart above, too, with "The World We Knew".)
Here's another chart from 1965 showing Paul Revere and the Raiders at #1 with their 1963 Hit "Louie Louie". (I still don't get that one!)
Right behind them are Dino, Desi and Billy with their first chart hit "I'm A Fool", a considerably better showing than it did on the Billboard Chart. There's also a long-lost Kinks track at #18 ... and TV Star Patty Duke closes out the chart at #30 this week with her hit "Don't Just Stand There."
And check out the photo of The Byrds at the bottom of the survey. You'll find their latest hit at #10 on this week's chart.
Speaking of novelty hits, look at Ray Stevens ... he sits at #12 with his remake of The Coasters' hit "Along Came Jones". (The Coasters chart with their own version of this hit on the 1959 chart shown above from ten years earlier.)
And while The Beatles (actually just John and Paul on this one) sit at #4 with "The Ballad Of John And Yoko", John and Yoko (along with their Plastic Ono Band) have the top Power Pix this week with their first single "Give Peace A Chance".
Since novelty hits seem to be the Soup de Jour today in our Saturday Surveys feature, take a look at this WFUN Chart from 1966. Napoleon XIV is at #4 this week, jumping from #31 the week before with "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haa!"
This Boss Survey also features some artists you don't typically see in The Top 40 ... like The 13th Floor Elevators, Captain Beefheart and The Alan Price Set. Look closely and you'll see some pretty unfamiliar titles listed by some of the most popular artists of the day like The Turtles, Bobby Vee and Peter and Gordon.
And how about The Cowsills charting a full year earlier than their national break-through with "Most Of All"!
But I especially like Chicago's own Ides Of March enjoying at Top Ten Hit outside of our city's confines with "You Wouldn't Listen". (This one SHOULD have been a Top Ten Hit nationally, too!)
Speaking of The Ides Of March, they're back on this 1970 Chart, too, with "Superman", the follow up to their biggest hit "Vehicle."
Actually there are quite a few surprises ranked right alongside some of the usual suspects of the day ...
You expect to see "Close To You", "Make It With You", "In The Summertime", "Band Of Gold", "War", "O-ooh Child" and "Tighter, Tighter" in The Top Ten ... these records ranked this way virtually everywhere ...
But you'll also find "A Little Bit Of Soap" by Paul Davis, "The Witch' by The Rattles, "Marrying Maiden" by It's A Beautiful Day and "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe" by Cool Heat ranking pretty high on this list, too.
Another personal favorite (and long-forgotten hit) belongs to The Fifth Dimension ... they're at #14 this week with "Save The Country".
