I’m sure others have pointed this out, Steve, but you should be commended for the depth of your vinyl album collection, how it spans so many genres, and the marvelous condition they remain. My sister “borrowed” most of my record collection when I went off to college in 1975, and the few ones I still have are pretty beat up. Congratulations on having the dedication it takes to build and maintain such a collection — and for keeping it organized so well that you can retrieve them as props for your outstanding videos.
……Meanwhile here in UK it seems that music had entered a new phase as Beat Groups had been replaced by psychadelic Bands or Heavier and more serious artists. It was also a time when our access to music was now very different as the marine offences act had been enforced since 14 august 1967 which brought to an abrupt end to the pirates that had ruled both waves ie, Air and Sea and we now had access to our own official Top 40 music radio station which had began 30 september 1967 BBC Radio One and this was designed to replace the various pop music pirates that had surrounded our castline since 1964, but because of the rules over " needletime " looking back this was a bit of a con as the musical content was very limited and although the output was dressed up to sound like Radio London , ie, the use of the same company that made their " Jingles " , Radio One was no replacement with musical content being punctuated by long news broadcasts and talks about "young peoples lives today " or quizes and any music output had to stop at 6pm to allow for speech based output , not Radio Ones fault as they had to follow the rules, rules that the pirates had ignored and were free to pump out hit after hit and were free to do so as they were outside of UK juristiction, hence the " Act of Parliament " that had killed them.
Famously Radio Caroline ignored the Marine Offences Act and simply carried on, but the new rules meant that in 1968 , even they couldnt survive because they were unable to sell abvertising space as UK businesses were not allowed to use the service and it was in 1968 that their ship " Mi Amigo " was impounded ….. Only to return later….. There was now a clear division between the top 40 Singles Chart and the more serious Rock Album Chart which i will come onto in the next episode .
1968 brings back a lot of great memories for me personally, I was 16 and here in the UK the BBs were still popular and were enjoying some favourable chart success as I'm sure you you'll mention in the next few episodes. I do remember going to see most of the movie's mentioned in this video and I have to say that "In cold blood", was a very disturbing film back then. It stuck in my mind for a long time afterwards. It was filmed in black & white for some reason and even though it's been repeated on TV on a number of occasions I just can't watch it. "Bend me shape me" was a big hit here for a group called Amen Corner and IMO is a much better versions than the American Breed version. Nice video Steve, I'm really looking forward to the rest of 1968.
Hi Steve I am going to find your next few videos in the same way as I enjoyed this one. You see 1968 was my last year spent in England as I emigrated to Australia at the end of the year so I have some fond memories of this year. Basically it was the end of my youth. I remember most of the music you have already mentioned and must admit I own copies of a few of them – on cd of course. I left all my vinyl's back in England with my parents and sometimes looking back I regret it. I await your next video with interest and yes excitement.
You do such an awesome job on your videos Steve! I've been looking forward to hearing you discuss the year 1968 which is one of my very favorite years in music. And oddly enough my favorite two albums from that year are the pleasantly mellow Friends album and the obnoxiously heavy Vincebus Eruptum album! Looking forward to your next video! And I love that Apple Records shirt!
Great episode, Steve. A lot of Great music from that time. I could be wrong, but wasn't the song "Snoopy For President", by the Royal Guardsmen, written for that presidential election that was coming up. I thought I heard they even mentioned Kennedy's name in the song but changed the lyric after he was assassinated. On a side note, I just happened to get the new 4k releases of "Fist Full Of Dollars", "For A Few Dollars More" and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly". As always, Thanks for all the cool information.
Great coverage at the start of 1968. I was still in the service and depended on Armed Forces Radio with Chris Noel as a disc jockey. When you reach the end of 1968 I will mention a few things when I was discharged. How the songs of that time still remind me till this day when I hear them.
Of course, along with Bonnie and Clyde inspiring 1920s-1930s fashion, there wee quite a few songs in the late 1960s that emulated that era, such as Winchester Cathedral-New Vaudeville Band, Honey Pie-Beatles, D.W. Washburn and Magnolia Simms-The Monkees, I Love Onions-Susan Christie and others.
This will be fun. 1968 was a year of change for me, personally. I was only 5, but my family moved from the Pacific Northwest city of my birth to a small town in eastern Oklahoma. As a result, my older siblings were in a state of perpetual culture shock disorientation… I am interested to see what life was like outside my own little bubble at that time!
Very nice rundown of what was happening in the beginning of 1968! Something which you didn't mention, which I think happened in February/March 1968, was the Beatles traveling to India to go on a retreat with the Maharishi, which Donovan, Prudence Farrow and Mike Love were also involved in. An informal recording which John, Paul and George made while there is a song they made up (which they never officially recorded) called "Spiritual Regeneration", where they sound like the Beach Boys in their harmonizing. A recording was made of this, which is posted on YouTube. Part of this recording features an impromptu version of them singing "Happy Birthday " to Mike Love. Deejay Wolfman Jack narrates the recording, so I'm wondering if this at least released to some radio stations in America.
Thanks for the video, I have a lot of great memories from 1968 (I was 11 years old). I was surprised that 2 singles that I thought were Motown weren't – one was on the Soul label and the other was on the Gordy label. Who knew? I'm also a little surprised that you didn't mention that Kenny Rogers was the lead singer of the First Edition. I saw all the Elvis movies in the theatre when they came out in 1968. At that time, I didn't know that he had all those great 1950s hits, I just thought his movies were funny. Also in 1968, a Bobby Kennedy campaign office was a couple of blocks away from me in SoCal. We used to ride our bikes there regularly and get stickers and put them all over our school binders and bikes and other things. Needless, to say, we were all shocked when he was killed in town, right before Summer vacation.
The rhythm and pace of your presentation, the production values, the research, the inside jokes — you've set a high bar on BBB. Watching the pop culture reviews is a roller coaster of emotions for me. And your episodes are so fun and entertaining. I really appreciate how you maintain and project a positive outlook. Not sure how you do it all. Are you injecting that blue Compound V stuff the supes are taking in "The Boys?"
In comparing the top 40 charts of 1968 to a dismal year like 1963, one of the most apparent differences is the explosion of great soul music. Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Marvin Gaye, Sam & Dave, The Temptations, Gladys Pip & The Knights (as my dad used to call them), Dionne Warwick, Otis Redding, The Impressions, Sly & The Family Stone … what an amazing collection of talent. 1968 (the year I was born) is often associated with psychedelia but soul music was really flowering into something special and unique, the best that America had to offer.
The Birds The Bees & The Monkees, Fly Like An Eagle, When Doves Cry, Jonathon Livingston Seagull, Byrds (the 1973 reunion LP is underrated and pretty great, especially if you're a Gene Clark fan), Tandoori Chicken, Bye Bye Birdie, Penguin, Hawks & Doves, When The Eagle Flies, Pelican West, Dixie Chicken, and ummm … uhhh …
You've spoiled us, Steve with the deep-dives into a given year! I kind of wish you'd done '67 first, as it was a vastly better year from my perspective. But let's get this one over: 1968 for me, is a problematic year for a lot of reasons; few musical. Ford cheapened the Mustang, my St. Louis Cards lost a Series they shouldn't have, lots of political violence & discord, and the first year of high school was more stress / less fun than it should have been.
In music, we saw the beginnings of the decline of Top 40 AM radio — because there were just too many styles and genres competing for only 40 spots. (Beatles/Stones, Andy Williams, Motown/soul, show tunes, Herb Alpert — and bubblegum's beginnings: 1910 Fruitgum Co. etc.)
The subsequent rise of "AOR" FM solved this by about 1971, leaving AM a wasteland of true bubblegum/juvenile-themed groups and weaker pop soloists (Jackson 5, Osmonds, Dawn, Lobo, Helen Reddy, Freda Payne, Melanie, Gilbert O'Sullivan, etc.) "Darlin" was a rare bright spot. I was still a major BB fan, but preferred listening to the great stuff from 62-66 IF I was listening to them during '68.
I’m sure others have pointed this out, Steve, but you should be commended for the depth of your vinyl album collection, how it spans so many genres, and the marvelous condition they remain. My sister “borrowed” most of my record collection when I went off to college in 1975, and the few ones I still have are pretty beat up. Congratulations on having the dedication it takes to build and maintain such a collection — and for keeping it organized so well that you can retrieve them as props for your outstanding videos.
……Meanwhile here in UK it seems that music had entered a new phase as Beat Groups had been replaced by psychadelic Bands or Heavier and more serious artists. It was also a time when our access to music was now very different as the marine offences act had been enforced since 14 august 1967 which brought to an abrupt end to the pirates that had ruled both waves ie, Air and Sea and we now had access to our own official Top 40 music radio station which had began 30 september 1967 BBC Radio One and this was designed to replace the various pop music pirates that had surrounded our castline since 1964, but because of the rules over " needletime " looking back this was a bit of a con as the musical content was very limited and although the output was dressed up to sound like Radio London , ie, the use of the same company that made their " Jingles " , Radio One was no replacement with musical content being punctuated by long news broadcasts and talks about "young peoples lives today " or quizes and any music output had to stop at 6pm to allow for speech based output , not Radio Ones fault as they had to follow the rules, rules that the pirates had ignored and were free to pump out hit after hit and were free to do so as they were outside of UK juristiction, hence the " Act of Parliament " that had killed them.
Famously Radio Caroline ignored the Marine Offences Act and simply carried on, but the new rules meant that in 1968 , even they couldnt survive because they were unable to sell abvertising space as UK businesses were not allowed to use the service and it was in 1968 that their ship " Mi Amigo " was impounded …..
Only to return later…..
There was now a clear division between the top 40 Singles Chart and the more serious Rock Album Chart which i will come onto in the next episode .
1968 brings back a lot of great memories for me personally, I was 16 and here in the UK the BBs were still popular and were enjoying some favourable chart success as I'm sure you you'll mention in the next few episodes. I do remember going to see most of the movie's mentioned in this video and I have to say that "In cold blood", was a very disturbing film back then. It stuck in my mind for a long time afterwards. It was filmed in black & white for some reason and even though it's been repeated on TV on a number of occasions I just can't watch it. "Bend me shape me" was a big hit here for a group called Amen Corner and IMO is a much better versions than the American Breed version. Nice video Steve, I'm really looking forward to the rest of 1968.
Hi Steve I am going to find your next few videos in the same way as I enjoyed this one. You see 1968 was my last year spent in England as I emigrated to Australia at the end of the year so I have some fond memories of this year. Basically it was the end of my youth. I remember most of the music you have already mentioned and must admit I own copies of a few of them – on cd of course. I left all my vinyl's back in England with my parents and sometimes looking back I regret it. I await your next video with interest and yes excitement.
You do such an awesome job on your videos Steve! I've been looking forward to hearing you discuss the year 1968 which is one of my very favorite years in music. And oddly enough my favorite two albums from that year are the pleasantly mellow Friends album and the obnoxiously heavy Vincebus Eruptum album! Looking forward to your next video! And I love that Apple Records shirt!
Great episode, Steve. A lot of Great music from that time. I could be wrong, but wasn't the song "Snoopy For President", by the Royal Guardsmen, written for that presidential election that was coming up. I thought I heard they even mentioned Kennedy's name in the song but changed the lyric after he was assassinated. On a side note, I just happened to get the new 4k releases of "Fist Full Of Dollars", "For A Few Dollars More" and The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly". As always, Thanks for all the cool information.
Great coverage at the start of 1968. I was still in the service and depended on Armed Forces Radio with Chris Noel as a disc jockey. When you reach the end of 1968 I will mention a few things when I was discharged. How the songs of that time still remind me till this day when I hear them.
Of course, along with Bonnie and Clyde inspiring 1920s-1930s fashion, there wee quite a few songs in the late 1960s that emulated that era, such as Winchester Cathedral-New Vaudeville Band, Honey Pie-Beatles, D.W. Washburn and Magnolia Simms-The Monkees, I Love Onions-Susan Christie and others.
This will be fun. 1968 was a year of change for me, personally. I was only 5, but my family moved from the Pacific Northwest city of my birth to a small town in eastern Oklahoma. As a result, my older siblings were in a state of perpetual culture shock disorientation… I am interested to see what life was like outside my own little bubble at that time!
Very nice rundown of what was happening in the beginning of 1968! Something which you didn't mention, which I think happened in February/March 1968, was the Beatles traveling to India to go on a retreat with the Maharishi, which Donovan, Prudence Farrow and Mike Love were also involved in. An informal recording which John, Paul and George made while there is a song they made up (which they never officially recorded) called "Spiritual Regeneration", where they sound like the Beach Boys in their harmonizing. A recording was made of this, which is posted on YouTube. Part of this recording features an impromptu version of them singing "Happy Birthday " to Mike Love. Deejay Wolfman Jack narrates the recording, so I'm wondering if this at least released to some radio stations in America.
Thanks for the video, I have a lot of great memories from 1968 (I was 11 years old). I was surprised that 2 singles that I thought were Motown weren't – one was on the Soul label and the other was on the Gordy label. Who knew? I'm also a little surprised that you didn't mention that Kenny Rogers was the lead singer of the First Edition. I saw all the Elvis movies in the theatre when they came out in 1968. At that time, I didn't know that he had all those great 1950s hits, I just thought his movies were funny. Also in 1968, a Bobby Kennedy campaign office was a couple of blocks away from me in SoCal. We used to ride our bikes there regularly and get stickers and put them all over our school binders and bikes and other things. Needless, to say, we were all shocked when he was killed in town, right before Summer vacation.
The rhythm and pace of your presentation, the production values, the research, the inside jokes — you've set a high bar on BBB. Watching the pop culture reviews is a roller coaster of emotions for me. And your episodes are so fun and entertaining. I really appreciate how you maintain and project a positive outlook. Not sure how you do it all. Are you injecting that blue Compound V stuff the supes are taking in "The Boys?"
Said it before and I'll say it again… This channel should be MUCH bigger.
In comparing the top 40 charts of 1968 to a dismal year like 1963, one of the most apparent differences is the explosion of great soul music. Diana Ross & The Supremes, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Aretha Franklin, Joe Tex, Marvin Gaye, Sam & Dave, The Temptations, Gladys Pip & The Knights (as my dad used to call them), Dionne Warwick, Otis Redding, The Impressions, Sly & The Family Stone … what an amazing collection of talent. 1968 (the year I was born) is often associated with psychedelia but soul music was really flowering into something special and unique, the best that America had to offer.
The Birds The Bees & The Monkees, Fly Like An Eagle, When Doves Cry, Jonathon Livingston Seagull, Byrds (the 1973 reunion LP is underrated and pretty great, especially if you're a Gene Clark fan), Tandoori Chicken, Bye Bye Birdie, Penguin, Hawks & Doves, When The Eagle Flies, Pelican West, Dixie Chicken, and ummm … uhhh …
You've spoiled us, Steve with the deep-dives into a given year! I kind of wish you'd done '67 first, as it was a vastly better year from my perspective. But let's get this one over: 1968 for me, is a problematic year for a lot of reasons; few musical. Ford cheapened the Mustang, my St. Louis Cards lost a Series they shouldn't have, lots of political violence & discord, and the first year of high school was more stress / less fun than it should have been.
In music, we saw the beginnings of the decline of Top 40 AM radio — because there were just too many styles and genres competing for only 40 spots. (Beatles/Stones, Andy Williams, Motown/soul, show tunes, Herb Alpert — and bubblegum's beginnings: 1910 Fruitgum Co. etc.)
The subsequent rise of "AOR" FM solved this by about 1971, leaving AM a wasteland of true bubblegum/juvenile-themed groups and weaker pop soloists (Jackson 5, Osmonds, Dawn, Lobo, Helen Reddy, Freda Payne, Melanie, Gilbert O'Sullivan, etc.) "Darlin" was a rare bright spot. I was still a major BB fan, but preferred listening to the great stuff from 62-66 IF I was listening to them during '68.