1969 - Something is Coming Together Quiz

Answer: Come Together

I was hoping to find a "Beatles Lyrics Interpretive Centre" website so I could learn what the heck Lennon was rambling about throughout this song - no luck! However, I did find out that Lennon originally wrote a song called "Come Together, Join The Party" on behalf of Timothy Leary when Leary was campaigning for the position "Governor of California" in 1969. This hit spun-off from that campaign song. Leary endorsed the usage of LSD and... well, maybe that's some explanation for the lyrics!

This song was a #1 Billboard hit but failed to chart at all in the U.K. The BBC would not play the song because the lyrics contained "Coca Cola", a trademarked name... they considered that advertising!

Let's see what's on the other side.

Answer: Something

On its own, this George Harrison composition charted at #3 in the U.S. and #4 in the U.K. but it also appears on The Beatles album of #1 hits "1". What gives?

There was a brief period when Billboard stopped assigning separate rankings for discs that were considered "Double-A Side" releases. Hence, "Something" is deemed to be a co-#1 hit with "Come Together". Billboard changed their rating policy the very week "Come Together" hit #1 - November 29, 1969. I believe this occurred only one other time when "American Woman" and "No Sugar Tonight" by The Guess Who shared #1 honors in 1970.

It should be noted that this was the first time that a Harrison composition was released as an "A" side on a Beatles' 45.

It has been covered at least 150 times by other artists. "Yesterday" leads The Beatles' records in that category - it's been covered a phenomenal 2500+ times!

Answer: Someday We'll Be Together

This was the last #1 song of the decade, reaching that position on December 27, 1969.

It was also the last song that would chart by Diana Ross and The Supremes but essentially, the group broke up much earlier. In fact, the other Supremes weren't even at the session when this recording was made. Diana Ross was backed up by session singers. It was credited as it was so that contractual obligations would be met between the group and Motown Records. After this one, Ross was free to solo it!

Answer: This Magic Moment

The song was written by the legendary team of Doc Pomus, the lyricist, and Mort Shuman, composer. They would, over the course of their seven year collaboration (1958-1965), compose over 500 songs. Here's a short list of their bigger hits with the performing artist:

"Can't Get Used To Losing You" - Andy Williams
"Devil In Disguise" - Presley
"His Latest Flame" - Presley
"Hound Dog Man" - Fabian
"Little Sister" - Presley
"Save The Last Dance For Me" - Drifters
"Surrender" - Presley
"Suspicion" - Terry Stafford & Presley
"Teenager in Love" - Dion
"Tiger" - Fabian
"Turn Me Loose" - Fabian
"Viva Las Vegas" - Presley

Quite the roster! They broke up in 1965 when Pomus, who was a victim of polio as a child, accidently fell down suffering an injury that would confine him to a wheel chair for the remainder of his life. They both passed away in 1991.

Answer: Sugar, Sugar

A #1 hit for four weeks, "Sugar, Sugar" would signal the decline for bubblegum music. It was "recorded" by The Archies, animated cartoon characters, and a band comprised of studio musicians was assembled by Don Kirschner to represent the recording act.

The "voices" of the Archies were lead singer Ron Dante and back-up singers Andy Kim, Ellie Greenwich and Toni Wine. Kim was a successful solo artist himself at this same time and was also the co-writer of this song with Dante. Greenwich would go on to a long career as a songwriter/record producer and Wine continued as a session back-up vocalist for many years.

Dante actually had another top ten song on the charts during the same period as "Sugar, Sugar" and most people were unaware of that. He was the lead singer of a another studio group created by Kirschner - The Cuff Links - and they had a #9 hit with "Tracy"

Answer: Sweet Caroline

For most of the decade, Neil was developing a reputation as a song writer but by the end of 1969 he would have nine of his own recordings attain top forty Billboard status. Clearly, he was slowly forging his own name as an entertainer as well. This was his biggest hit of the decade and his first million seller.

He would really come into his own during the 1970s with a long series of charting hits including three #1's. The new millennium still finds Diamond recording albums and performing live to his legion of loyal fans.

Answer: And When I Die

Laura Nyro wrote this piece and it was Blood, Sweat and Tears' third consecutive #2 hit in 1969. It would also be their last top ten hit although the albums they later recorded invariably sold well.

The group's lead singer, David Clayton Thomas, is an interesting story. He was born in Surrey, England as David Henry Thomsett of mixed English/Canadian heritage. He moved to Canada in 1947 at the age of six and growing up, his future looked bleak. He was, in the terminology of the day, a juvenile delinquent, frequently sentenced to terms in reform schools for petty theft, vagrancy and the like. It was only when he came into possession of a guitar left behind by another inmate of Millbrook Reformatory that he found a focus for his life. With complete devotion to musical studying and practice, he became a star within a dozen years.

Answer: Everybody's Talkin'

The song was written in 1967 by Fred Neil, a mainstay of the Greenwich Village scene throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s with Stephen Stills, John Sebastian, David Crosby, Denny Doherty and others of their ilk. He recorded the song in 1967 and Nilsson covered it in 1968 but neither release made much of an impression. When Nilsson's version received acclaim in the movie, the disc was re-released and became a hit.

Neil died of cancer in 2001 after a long career as a songwriter and folksinger and although genuine fame always eluded him, his friends suggest that's just the way he wanted it. Nilsson continued as a performer and songwriter until his death in 1994 of a heart attack.

Answer: Three Dog Night

From 1969 to 1974, Three Dog Night were likely the top recording act in the business with 21 consecutive top forty hits, 11 top tens and 3 number ones.

The three headliners who each took turns as lead vocalist were Danny Hutton, Cory Wells and Chuck Negron. By 1975, their hectic schedule led to burnout and the group suddenly disbanded - their departure from the business was as abrupt as their meteoric rise was in 1969. The paths they took afterward were quite varied: Hutton eventually returned to his home in Ireland and established a successful booking agency; Wells traveled the U.S.A. with his family and fished then became "field editor" for Outdoor Life magazine; Negron got hooked on heroin and spiralled downward into a life on the streets, a homeless junkie.

The group reunited in 1981 but Negron was fired in 1985 when his addictions made him a liability. They still continue to tour as of 2004. Negron has cleaned up his act and is performing again with original drummer Floyd Sneed and other side musicians.

Incidently, Sneed was the son of a Canadian Pacific Railroad redcap and grew up in Calgary, not five blocks from my boyhood home. He was five or six years older than me and I never met him.

Answer: Easy To Be Hard

Another Three Dog Night song, it was taken from the rock musical "Hair". Curious lines in retrospect considering what happened to Negron within the band a decade later!

Answer: Hair

"Hair" was the first rock musical to achieve significant success on Broadway. It debuted on April 29, 1968 and closed on July 1, 1972 after 1,742 performances.

It was a creation of a couple of out of work actors, James Rado and Gerome Ragni, who wanted to focus on the various social and personal issues facing the youth of the day and they modeled their work on the hippie scene of New York City's East Village. They wrote the lyrics and Galt MacDermot contributed the score.

Five songs from the musical achieved top forty Billboard status by a variety of artists. The Billboard hit version of the song "Hair" was recorded by The Cowsills.

Answer: Leaving On A Jet Plane

A relative newcomer to the scene, John Denver, wrote the song. It would only be a couple of years before he would be a major star in his own right.

Meanwhile, Peter, Paul and Mary would leave on top - this would be their last single release and they would disband right after its recording to pursue individual projects. They have reunited for special occasions over the years and in 2004, released a boxed set called "Peter, Paul and Mary: Carry It On", as well as their first new studio album in over a decade, "In These Times".

Answer: Polk Salad Annie

Tony Joe White from Oak Grove, Louisiana, would only have one top ten hit and this was it, peaking at #8. Better known as the writer of Brook Benton's classic hit "Rainy Night In Georgia" and Tina Turner's "Steamy Windows", his songs have been recorded by many acts ranging from Elvis to Tim McGraw and John Mayell.

He still records and tours himself but strangely, he seems to be more popular in Europe than at home.

Answer: The Ballad Of John And Yoko

A couple of "lasts" associated with this song.

It was the last song recorded by The Beatles intended specifically to be released as a single. It was also the last time in their career that Lennon and McCartney would work together at the same time, in the same room, on a song - thereafter, they would work independently. Incredibly, it was written, recorded and mixed in one nine hour session.

Because of the reference to Christ, the song was banned by the BBC but despite that, it hit #1 in Britain and also in Australia. The lyrics, by Lennon, described the difficulties he and Ono were having with various governmental bureaucracies around the globe.

Answer: Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In

A #1 hit for six weeks and rated as the seventh biggest hit of the decade by Billboard, it was yet another hit spawned by "Hair". It also was the biggest ever for The 5th Dimension out of the 30 charting hits the group would record.

I'm not exactly clear on what the "Age of Aquarius" is and why it's significant. One astrologist claims it began on Feb. 4, 1962; other's insist that Jan. 23, 1997 or March 20, 2000 was the date. Yet another believes the "Age of Pisces", which began in 60 B.C. will end around 2100 and then the "Age of Aquarius" will begin.

Whatever, the sixties were done! I was 12 at its start and 22 at its conclusion and in retrospect, the music of the era reflected my life. Both of us matured. There was a time for silly love songs and a time for fun and a time for serious reflection on what was happening around us and where we were going. It was that which made the decade special! I'm biased and don't deny it. But I wouldn't have wanted to grow up musically in any other era - the sixties were perfect!