Your chance to vote on the songs you would have given 6 or more out of 10 to from 1967’s chart-toppers.
Loading ...And use the comments box to talk about the year in general, if you like!
Tom in FT / Popular • Pop/popular year poll • 373 views • Share/Save
All the UK number ones since 1952, reviewed in order and rated by whim. As featured on Radio 2, The Times, Metro, Paul Cornell's LiveJournal, etc etc.
If you enjoy Popular please link to it or tell your friends about it. The more people we have commenting and sharing their views on these songs, the better.
Index of reviews and scores so far
Popular FAQ
Popular Facebook Page
Popular Lucky Dip (a random post)
Not a vintage year for number ones then. I’d be interested in seeing a number twos list.
Move – Night Of Fear
Cat Stevens – Matthew And Son
Vince Hill – Edelweiss
Beatles – Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever
Harry Secombe – This Is My Song
Mamas & The Papas – Dedicated To The One I Love
Kinks – Waterloo Sunset
Engelbert Humperdinck – There Goes My Everything
Vikki Carr – It Must Be Him
Monkees – Alternate Title
Tom Jones – I’ll Never Fall In Love Again
Keith West – Excerpt From A Teenage Opera
Move – Flowers In The Rain
Traffic – Hole In My Shoe
Dave Clark Five – Everybody Knows
Tom Jones – I’m Coming Home
Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour EP
This year got my lowest average post-50s marks, I think
A great year, but then it’s my birth year so of course I like a lot of the #1s (and #2s)!
One of the greatest of years and a year slightly belied by its number ones. I went for “I’m A Believer” because (a) it was number one the day my wife was born and (b) the words are true true TRUE! :-)
Meanwhile, the American list of ’67 chart toppers is as follows:
Monkees – I’m A Believer
Buckinghams – Kind Of A Drag
Rolling Stones – Ruby Tuesday
Supremes – Love Is Here And Now You’re Gone
Beatles – Penny Lane
Turtles – Happy Together
Frank n’ Nancy – Somethin’ Stupid
Supremes – The Happening
Young Rascals – Groovin’
Aretha Franklin – Respect
Association – Windy
Doors – Light My Fire
Beatles – All You Need Is Love
Bobbie Gentry – Ode To Billie Joe
Box Tops – The Letter
Lulu – To Sir, With Love
Strawberry Alarm Clock – Incense And Peppermints
Monkees – Daydream Believer
Beatles – Hello Goodbye
The Buckinghams? Who they?
“Kind Of A Drag” really is a stinker; the Buckinghams were four Chicago accountants pretending to be a garage band and they played at Dubya’s last inauguration do so that gives you a fair idea of their rottenness.
Once again, the Americans had better number ones than we did; and our number twos were better than our number ones.
I often find it odd that this year, which is often held out to be THE year as far as popular music is concerned, should have such a high proportion of turkeys at no1 (&2).
IIRC Englebert had the three biggest selling singles of the year; add that to Vince Hill, Harry Secombe, and Petula Clark, and it makes you wonder…..
Maybe 1967 is fondly remembered because it was seen as the beginning of something, rather like the second half of 1976 would later be.
The year’s Top 10 best selling singles also included Anita Harris’ “Just Loving You” (apparently the biggest selling #6 hit ever) and Frankie Vaughan’s “There Must Be A Way” which despite peaking at #7 was on the chart forever. The number of times either gets played on contemporary radio probably tells its own story.
Puppet on a String is easy to dislike, but still merits a vote, unlike All You Need Is Wuv, which is not actually that good.
Re 6/7: One of those mediocre, mysterious no1s that seems inexplicable, especially as the Buckinghams followed it with the dynamite sunshine pop of Don’t You Care and the barking Susan. Unwitting forerunners of ‘brass rock’ (Chicago, Blood Sweat And Tears).
Linking musical rottenness and political alliances is a bugbear of mine, DJP. Wot, no Beach Boys? Even The Turtles – who’d have made a list of UK no.3s in ’67 – played Trisha Nixon’s birthday party at the White House.
But I’ll grant you Anita Dobson.
Only one single achieved the minor accolade of getting no further than number 40 on the same chart that year, but it’s better than a lot of the number ones;
20 Sep Train To Skaville – The Ethiopians – 1 week
If you take the whole Top 50 into account, you get one week at number 50 for “Hang On To A Dream” by Tim Hardin – his only UK hit single as a performer.
Memorably covered by Orlando – their only hit, too!
Another tremendous number 50 smash is ‘If You Can Want’ by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.