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Fantastic Oldies Game!

I always thought that the Fab Four's Sergeant Pepper was a slightly over rated album.
 
One of the most surprising #1 hits of the 1960s, recorded in 1966 just as anti-war sentiment was beginning to spread, was "The Ballad Of The Green Berets" by SSgt Barry Sadler (U.S. Army Special Forces), an actual staff sergeant in the Green Berets who served in Vietnam until injuring his leg in a booby trap.
 
Note; Green Berets was the #1 JUKE BOX HIT for a few YEARS! SSgt Barry Sadler was on my radio show a number of times. He also recorded a song called "The A Team."

This brings to mind Senator Everett McKinley Dirksens 1967 hit, Gallant Men. LOVE it! Happy Memorial Day.
 
Bill Minkin impersonated two of the most recognizable senators of the era, Robert Kennedy and Everett McKinley Dirksen, on a pair of 1967 comedy singles: "Wild Thing" by Senator Bobby (the B side was "Wild Thing" by Senator Everett McKinley) and "Mellow Yellow" by Senator Bobby & Senator McKinley; on the first, Senator Bobby introduced his brother Teddy playing the ocarina -- hilarious!
 
Soon after his death, RCA released "I got a Thing About You Baby."

My rca promotional copy is blue vinyl (with the yellow label) in stereo. It was delivered to me by a record promoter friend, dressed in an Elvis costume.
 
In "Mellow Yellow," Donovan told us he was mad about saffron and predicted that electrical (pronounced ee-leck-TRICKLE) banana would be a sudden craze and the very next phase; Paul McCartney added whispering vocals to the record.
 
Yellow Balloon told us the story of "Yellow Balloon" whise flip side was this song backwards. Later, Don Grady of My 3 Sons fame was a group member.

Lawrence Welk had a 45 with "Theme from My Three Sons."
 
It will come as a surprise to some, but Lawrence Welk And His Orchestra actually had a #1 hit during the rock era, "Calcutta" in 1960; the instrumental featured Frank Scott on (of all things!) the harpsichord.
 
Other chart songs by Lawrence Welk included Yellow Bird, Breakwater and Zero-Zero. They all featured the harpsichord.
 
Larry and Sheryl used to dance on the Lawrence Welk Show, they were both original Mouseketeers.
 
Mouseteer Bobby Burgess also danced with several different partners on Welk. I can't wait to tell my 80 year old mom that watching this with her for years has finally had purpose.

Yellow Bird was also a chart song for Arthur Lyman, who also had a great recording of Love for Sale."
 
In 1956, Sylvia Syms, Rosemary Clooney, and Dinah Shore all charted with "I Could Have Danced All Night," which Julie Andrews had sung in the hit Broadway musical "My Fair Lady"; in 1963, Ben E. King recorded it, too.
 
Then there was the Detroit native, Guy Mitchell's hit, My Truly, Truly Fair from the early 50's. Guy's last chart song was "Heartaches by the Number."
 
Speaking of numbers, Philadelphia's Len Barry hit #2 with the rhythmic song, 1-2-3.
 
In the second verse of "1-2-3," Len Barry spells out the letters "A-B-C"; when the record was played on WMCA radio, New York, in the mid-60s, the station inserted a chorus of boos following "A-B-C" because WMCA's main Top 40 rival was WABC radio!
 
Barry Gibb was one of the Bee Gees.My favorite Bee Gee songs are Nights on Broadway, Fanny (be tender with my heart) and To Love Someody.
 
The Bee Gees' first hit song was "New York Mining Disaster 1941 Have You Seen My Wife, Mr. Jones" in 1967; their first #1 single was "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" in 1971.
 
One of the great girl group songs was "One Fine Day" by The Chiffons, written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King, a follow-up to the group's biggest hit "He's So Fine"; both singles were produced by Bright Tunes Productions, better known to us as The Tokens.
 
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