The Top Hits of 1967 Trivia Quiz

Answer: I'm A Believer

"I'm A Believer" first became a Number One hit in Canada in the middle of December 1966 and maintained that position for five weeks. It started its seven-week run at Number One in the U.S. during the last week of December. It was Number One in the U.K. for four weeks starting in mid-January and topped the Australian chart for just one week - February 4, 1967. In doing so, The Monkees were the first group other than the Beatles to have a simultaneous Number One hit in the U.K., U.S. and Australia.

Over the duration of their career, no Monkees hit was ever written by any of the individual members. Neil Diamond was among the raft of songwriters working out of New York's Brill Building at the time and he was just embarking on his recording career at that time. Don Kirschner, who was the producer of the group's TV show, heard Diamond's "Cherry Cherry" and thought a similar upbeat, driving piece would be an excellent fit for The Monkees and asked Diamond if he could craft a similar song for them. "I'm A Believer" was that composition. He would also write "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" for the group a little later. Other composers to write Monkees hits were John Stewart, Boyce & Hart and Goffin & King.

Answer: To Sir With Love

Lulu, born Marie Lawrie, charted her first hit in the U.K. as a 16 year old in 1964 and was enough of a celebrity to be the opening act for the Beach Boys when they were touring England in 1967. Movie director James Clavell saw her perform at one of the concerts and afterward told her he wanted to cast her in a movie he was about to film, "To Sir With Love". During filming, Clavell was unhappy with the songs being presented to him for the title song for the movie. Lulu recommended an old friend for the task, Mark London, and he collaborated with Don Black to compose this number. The song was released in conjunction with the movie and it took a few weeks to enter the charts but when it did, it shot straight to the top... in North America. Curiously, the song was buried as a "B" side of another Lulu release in the U.K. and never entered the charts there. It was the first occasion where a U.K. produced single made Number One in the States without charting at home.

Lulu would have four more charting singles in the U.S., the last one in 1981, but all of them were just middling top 40 chart entries. Her popularity was much more sustained in the U.K. where she continued to have success with her recordings and her nightclub act as well as doing some TV work. In 2005, she was the host of a popular BBC2 radio program and was composing her own songs for a CD to be released that year.

Answer: The Letter

Talk about successful debuts... this was the first song ever recorded by The Box Tops, a group formed in Memphis and featuring the vocals of 16 year old Alex Chilton. Unfortunately, the promise the band demonstrated with this recording largely went unfulfilled. Their follow-up release, "Neon Rainbow", stalled at Number 24, and although they rebounded nicely with the Number Two "Cry Like A Baby" in 1968, their final four chart entries thereafter could do no better than peak at Number 18. Along the way, three of the original members left the group to advance their education and by the time their record contract expired in early 1970, Chilton decided to pursue other projects and the band quietly folded.

Two other cover versions of "The Letter" made chart appearances. The Arbors recorded a slower, more mellow rendition that peaked at Number 20 in 1969, then Joe Cocker produced a rocker as part of his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" tour that made it to Number Seven in 1970. Combining the three, "The Letter" garnered enough airplay to rank number 79 on BMI's 1999 list of most played songs of the 20th Century.

One last piece of trivia. The recording time for The Box Tops version was 1:58 making it the second shortest song ever to be Number One... only "Stay" by Maurice Williams and The Zodiacs was shorter at 1:36. As of 2005, it remains as the last song to top the charts that was under two minutes long.

Answer: Light My Fire

"Light My Fire" by The Doors was primarily written by guitarist Robby Krieger with organist Ray Manzarek composing the musical introduction and solo in the middle and vocalist Jim Morrison providing some input into the lyrics, mostly for the second verse. It was later reported that Morrison grew to hate the song, probably because he had such a minor role in its composition. Rounding out the quartet was drummer John Densmore.

Subsequent to this hit, The Doors would have 16 more charting singles but only two would come close to matching it for popularity, the Number One "Hello, I Love You" in 1968 and the Number Three "Touch Me" in 1969. The fact was The Doors were a group committed to musical experimentation and much of their material projected a dark and sinister image that wasn't attractive to chart oriented radio. They kept producing albums that charted well, a tribute to their devoted and cultish fan base, but a series of incidents evolving from Morrison's drug abuse and subsequent erratic behavior suggested the group would not endure for very long. In fact, Morrison left The Doors in late 1970 and was dead a few months later. The remaining members tried to perpetuate the group as a trio but the absence of Morrison was too big a gap for them to bridge and they disbanded in 1973.

Answer: Windy

"Windy" would prove to be the last major chart success the Association would record. Two other releases would chart in the top 40 in 1968 but musical tastes were changing and the group's forté, harmonic pop standards, were becoming passé. They were not alone... The Mamas and The Papas, Spanky and Our Gang, The Grassroots and The Rascals would all fall victim to this phenomenon and even though The Beach Boys would survive it, they would never again achieve the popularity of their halcyon days of the mid-1960s.

The Association started splintering in the early 1970s and by the middle of the decade, only one of the original members, Ted Bluecher, remained. Even he was exhausted in his attempts to keep the group together and simply leased out the Association name to any group that wanted it. Naturally, this led to a plethora of "Association" groups touring the nostalgia circuit and it goes without saying that the reputation of the group was being seriously jeopardized. After much legal wrangling, three of the original members, Bluecher included, were able to regain control of the name and started touring again in the mid-1980s and continue to as of 2005.

Answer: Ode To Billie Joe

Surely the surprise hit of 1967 was this song by Bobbie Gentry. Everyone was curious as to the events that occurred on the Tallahatchie Bridge that fateful summer. Gentry wrote the song in reflection of the life she led growing up in poverty in rural Mississippi near the places noted in the lyric. She claims that it was not drawn on any actual event or personal experience... just a stand alone piece of fiction with mysterious overtones.

Gentry's career didn't exactly soar following this hit. She had eight more charting releases, three of them duets with Glen Campbell, but none got higher than Number 27 on the Hot 100. Oddly, this hit wasn't an overwhelming success abroad but in 1969, she recorded a Bert Bacharach number, "I'll Never Fall In Love Again", that failed to chart in America but topped the charts in both the U.K. and Australia. It led to her briefly hosting a BBC TV variety series. Throughout the 1970s, Gentry produced and starred in a Vegas Revue but by the end of the decade she slowly withdrew from the entertainment industry altogether.

Answer: Daydream Believer

Eliminate "Last Train To Clarksville" - it charted in 1966. Eliminate "Valleri" - it was The Monkees last big hit but it only peaked at Number Three and in 1968, not 1967. Eliminate "Pleasant Valley Sunday" - it was a 1967 song but again, only a Number Three hit that summer. Within a year, Peter Tork would resign from the group and the whole Monkees phenomenon would be over a few short months later.

The Monkees have reunited, in whole or in part (usually the holdout was Michael Nesmith), on several occasions since formally disbanding. The last Monkees tour was in 2002 featuring just Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz and in 2001, Peter Tork toured with them as well. The last time all four performed as a unit was during the 1997 United Kingdom "Justus" Tour.

This is what individual members are doing as of December 2005. Tork is touring with his Shoe Suede Blues Band. Micky Dolenz performed in the Elton John/Tim Rice musical "Aida" for much of 2003-4 and has been either performing solo concerts or concerts with his sister, Coco. Davy Jones has also been touring with his own band, doing some TV work and breeding racehorses in his spare time. Michael Nesmith, the most gifted musician of the four, has recorded several CDs over the years with a new one scheduled for release in 2006. He has also written a couple of novels and his autobiography, while still maintaining a live concert schedule both as a solo act and with his band.

Answer: Happy Together

The Turtles recorded this hit, another of the folk rock groups that sprung up during the mid-1960s. They initially formed in 1963 as The Crossfires but changed their name to The Tyrtles in 1965 when it was clear what musical direction they would pursue. Since The Byrds were the pre-eminent folk rock band at the time, why not, but they changed the name back to the more conventional spelling by the time they recorded their first single that year, Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe" and took it to Number Eight on the charts.

A couple of barren years followed until they uncovered this song among a batch of demos they were reviewing. It became their biggest success by far and was listed by BMI as the 44th most played song of the century. Five more top 15 songs saw the group through to the end of the decade but by 1970, ongoing frustrations with their record label led the group leaders, Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, to dissolve the group's operations and join Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. They stayed with Zappa for most of the decade and also recorded as a duet billed as Phlorescent Leech and Eddie. Due to contractual obligations signed when The Turtles were conceived, Kaylan and Volman were unable to secure the group name again until 1984. They did and formed a new line-up becoming The Turtles Featuring Flo & Eddie. That group continues to tour into the new millennium.

Answer: Somethin' Stupid

Recorded by Frank and Nancy Sinatra, it was dubbed "the incest song" - not because they engaged in that sort of activity, of course, but it was somewhat unseemly that a father-daughter combo would sing such a blatantly romantic song. It would be the last time either of them would grace the top of the Billboard charts. Nancy kept recording singles for chart release with only minor success but Frank was, at this time, more interested in album production than single releases... effectively, this was his swan song.

Other duets have recorded the song with mixed results. Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell also gave it a try in 1967 but it never charted. 2001 saw a version released by Robbie Williams and Nicole Kidman that met the same fate in North America but I believe it was a big hit elsewhere in the world. I was vacationing in Australia and New Zealand at the time and I know it got a lot, and I mean A LOT, of airplay down under.

Answer: Gladys Knight and The Pips

Gladys Knight and The Pips had just signed with the Motown label and producer Norman Whitfield was looking for something with hit potential for them to record. He had composed a song with Barrett Strong, "I Heard It Through The Grapevine", and it had already been recorded twice by other Motown acts - Smokey Robinson and The Miracles and The Isley Brothers. He didn't particularly favor either version and neither of them was ever released as a single but he thought that maybe Knight and The Pips could render a useful rendition. Bingo! It would go on to be the group's biggest record for the Motown conglomerate. The record scored 1093 points based on its Billboard chart performance. BMI indicated that this song was the 28th most played in the 20th Century although Gaye's version no doubt made the biggest contribution to that placement... although we must not overlook the significant contribution The California Raisins surely must have also made.

Knight and her Pips stayed with Motown for seven years before switching to Buddah records in 1973. It was with that label that they had their biggest successes especially with "Midnight Train To Georgia". Up until the early 1980s, the group focused on the Detroit R&B sound but it was around that time that Knight began exploring Adult Contemporary music. While all the members of "The Pips" decided to retire from the business, Knight has continued to record and perform in this new style well into the new millennium.

Answer: Incense And Peppermints

A recap of your other choices: "Psychotic Reaction" was a Number Five hit by Count Five in 1966; "Get Me To The World On Time" charted at Number 27 for The Electric Prunes in 1967; "(We Ain't Got) Nothin' Yet" was The Blues Magoos' only hit, also peaking at Number Five in 1967.

At the time, Strawberry Alarm Clock was at the cusp of two musical movements - psychedelic or bubblegum and they easily could have gone either way having experimented with both genres. They chose psychedelic music because they believed that it offered the greatest potential for personal and musical expressiveness but ultimately, it really didn't matter much. Both genres were short-lived and virtually every band that specialized in psychedelic or bubblegum music was history by the end of the decade, The Strawberry Alarm Clock included.

Answer: Can't Take My Eyes Off You

Frankie Valli, lead singer of The Four Seasons, had begun work on solo projects as early as 1965 but this was his breakthrough hit. The Four Seasons were still creating some hit songs at the time with Valli at the helm but they weren't the monster hits the group was accustomed to. Rather, they were charting around the Number 10 level. By the next year, Valli would suspend his solo aspirations and commit his energies entirely to the group, to no avail. They were about to experience a seven-year drought - not a single top 40 hit for seven years. It wouldn't be until 1975 when both the group and Valli, as a solo performer once more, would experience a resurgence with several big hits.

Incidentally, this was another one of those BMI most played songs of the century... it was fifth on the list.

Answer: Groovin'

From 1966 to the end of the decade, The Rascals issued a nice run of 13 singles that charted in the top 40, six of them in the top 10.

Early in 1964, a young keyboardist/vocalist named Felix Cavaliere was recruited by Joey Dee to join his backing band, The Starlighters. Guitarist Gene Cornish and vocalist Eddie Brigati were already members of The Starlighters and the three of them seemed to make a good fit, so much so that they decided to form their own band shortly thereafter. They invited drummer Dino Danelli into the fold and The Young Rascals were born. Beyond their tight harmonies and competent musicianship, what put the group into the upper echelon of recording acts was the song writing abilities of Cavaliere who frequently collaborated with Brigati to forge some of the best pop songs of the era. Ultimately, 16 of their 18 chart entries would be homespun creations.

Answer: soul

Following "Little Bit O' Soul", The Music Explosion released eight more singles through to the end of 1969 and their reward was the Number 63 charting "Sunshine Games" later in 1967. The band was from Mansfield, Ohio and came to the attention of producers Jerry Kazenetz and Jeffrey Katz who assembled them in the studio for this hit. If those names ring a bell, they were the prime promoters of bubblegum music, now just a year away.

When the group disbanded in 1969, lead singer Jamie Lyons pursued a brief, and apparently unsuccessful, solo career and drummer Bob Avery joined the short lived "Crazy Elephant", one of the Kazenetz-Katz stable of bubblegum groups.

Answer: The Rain, The Park And Other Things

Talk about a meteoric rise to fame and an ignominious fade out - that's the Cowsills. During an 18 month period, they had three top 10 hits; this one in late 1967, the Number 10 "Indian Lake" in 1968 and the Number Two "Hair" in early 1969. A story was floating around in 1970 that one member of the group was earning a living sweeping out a parking garage in San Francisco. Urban legend or not, that's a pretty big, and fast, drop from fame and fortune.

As of 2005, Paul and John Cowsill tour and record with other backing musicians as "The Cowsills" based out of Oregon. Susan is performing as a solo act based out of New Orleans. She and her family safely evacuated the area before Hurricane Katrina. Bob performs occasionally at local pubs in the Glendale, California area where he works as an ER Tech at a local hospital. Barry was also a resident of New Orleans but did not evacuate safely. It appears that he survived the hurricane but not it's aftermath... his body was discovered in late December 2005 and he may have been the victim of a violent incident. Lead singer Billy passed away on February 19, 2006 after a long battle with emphysema and other illnesses, many of which were attributable to the trappings of stardom - drugs and booze.

Answer: Never My Love

The other options were pretty big hits in their own right but they came along during the 1970s or 1980s. This was an Association hit and their sincere and emotive approach together with their perfectly pitched harmonies resulted in an absolute gem. Two other cover versions also made the charts.

The 5th Dimension took it to Number 12 in 1971 while Blue Swede made it up to Number Seven with their "up-tempo" rendition three years later.

Answer: I Second That Emotion

Al Cleveland and Smokey Robinson were out Christmas shopping one day when Cleveland, responding to something that Robinson said, blurted "I second that emotion". The accidental addition of the letter 'e' to 'motion' struck a chord for both and they composed this song shortly thereafter.

From 1961 to 1972, when Robinson left the group for a solo career, the group churned out a steady stream of hits that finally numbered 27 chart entries. Most of them scored a little higher on the black or R&B charts but they had sufficient appeal to cross over onto the Hot 100 charts. Their biggest hit would come three years later in 1970 with the Number One "Tears Of A Clown". When Robinson departed, the hits stopped coming almost immediately although they were able to score one more big Number One - "Love Machine" in 1976. Both Robinson and an "official" Miracles group continue to make the occasional live performance as of 2005.

Answer: All You Need Is Love

This was just one of two Beatle recordings that would make the top 100 recap for 1967, the other title being "Penny Lane". A mitigating factor would certainly be that they only released three records that year! Two of them were the double-sided chart entries "Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever" and "All You Need Is Love/Baby You're A Rich Man". Their third release, "Hello Goodbye" didn't make its chart debut until December and would be given ranking consideration in 1968 when it made its impact most felt. Only one of their albums would chart as well but it was a biggie - "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". A very slow year for the "mop tops".

The national anthem referred to in the question was France's "La Marseillaise".

Answer: Somebody To Love

All these tunes came from the Jefferson Airplane landmark album "Surrealistic Pillow", a genuine masterpiece that rode the Album charts for most of the year and peaked at Number Four. Both this song and "White Rabbit" were top 10 hits on the single charts and the latter also worked its way into this year-end recap at number 98.

In many respects, this album and these songs signaled the high water mark for the group. Subsequent releases didn't do nearly as well (only two records charted in the mid-60s of the Hot 100) mostly because the band was going in directions that didn't suit AM radio play lists. Their albums, more suitable for FM radio formats, did substantially better - seven albums released between 1968 and 1972 charted in the mid-teens at least and "Crown Of Creation" in 1968 climbed to Number Six. By the early 1970s, the group was splintering and would reform as the Jefferson Starship in 1975 with another string of pop hits, then go through another metamorphosis in 1985 becoming simply "The Starship". The group formally ceased operations in 1991.

Answer: Up-Up And Away

Here's the list of Grammys this record won: Song of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Contemporary Single, Best Performance by a Vocal Group and Best Contemporary Group Performance.

Jimmy Webb was a neophyte songwriter in 1967 but he rose quickly into prominence by virtue of this composition and another, "By The Time I Get To Phoenix" sung by Glen Campbell, which earned two more Grammy Awards.

The Fifth Dimension was also just establishing itself. An earlier 1967 release, "Go Where You Wanna Go" was their first top 20 hit and this song elevated them to a new level... they were more than a "promising" act now and the best was yet to come. Their peak was achieved in 1969 with "Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In" but they carried on as major contributors to pop music until the mid-1970s when the talented Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis left the group to record together. As of 2005, two original members, Florence Larue and Lamonte McLemore, keep the name alive performing in Vegas and other venues along the oldies circuit.