Sounds Of 1967
Is it really half a century ago? We take a nostalgic musical trip back to the carefree Summer of Love…
It’s 50 years since the so-called Summer of Love, when there was a sense of optimism and young people dreamed of a world where peace would conquer war, where protesting would bring about real change and where art and music would banish greed and selfishness.
Thousands travelled to join a community of likeminded people in San Francisco (turn over to see what was going on there) but here in the UK, we felt the waves of flower power rippling through our lives.
Those of us listening to Radio Luxembourg on our transistors on a Sunday evening to hear the charts would be treated to Procul Harum singing WhiterShade ofPale, The Move’s rendition of FlowersInTheRain and Traffic focusing on a HoleIn MyShoe.
But the charts weren’t all about hippy influences. You only need to look at the bestselling songs of the year to realise there was a huge appetite for ballads in the UK.
It was certainly Engelbert Humperdinck’s year – he had three of 1967’s top 10 best selling songs. He had been singing and playing saxophone in nightclubs for around 10 years under the name of Gerry Dorsey when he met his former room-mate, who was now Tom Jones’ manager. He suggested a name change, borrowing the memorable name of a 19th century German composer, and arranged a deal with Decca Records.
The rest, as they say, is history. ReleaseMe stayed at number one for six weeks and kept The Beatles off the top spot, ThereGoesMy Everything followed soon after and TheLastWaltz kept Engelbert at number one for another five weeks.
More ballad successes were chalked up by Tom Jones ( I’llNeverFallInLove Again and GreenGreen GrassofHome, which had been the Christmas number one but stayed at the top throughout January), Vince Hill’s Edelweiss and Long John Baldry with LetThe HeartachesBegin).
On a cheerier note, we all tuned in to the Eurovision Song Contest in Vienna to watch Sandie Shaw sing PuppetOnAString for
Britain. She padded onstage in bare feet and a sparkly short dress and we all gasped when she sang the first note and nothing happened. Fortunately, someone pressed the right button and Sandie’s voice soared over the airwaves.
Europe loved it and Sandie romped home with more than twice the votes of anyone else. It was Britain’s first win and heralded a golden age of Eurovision entries – Cliff Richard, Lulu, The New Seekers and Olivia Newton-John were waiting in the wings.
TopOfThePops was the must-see programme of the week, and we swooned over Davy Jones and Paul McCartney (while our older, wilder sisters swooned over Mick Jagger and Roger Daltrey). But that left plenty of time to critique the female stars’ outfits – Lulu’s minidresses looked achievable and had an endearingly homemade look to them, while Diana Ross’s sparkling evening dresses were dismissed as irrelevant and old-fashioned. We’d scan the crowd to see who had the best hairstyle or the nicest clothes, and if there were any boys who could dance – not a skill any of the boys we knew had mastered!
Every year throws up a few quirky, unlikely hits. In 1967 Whistling Jack Smith had us all trying to whistle properly so we could join in with IWasKaiserBill’s Batman, Topol had a hit with IfIWereARichMan and Alan Price regaled us with Simon Smith and his Amazing Dancing Bear.
1967 also saw the release of Jeff Beck’s HiHoSilver Lining which would be played at every disco for at least the next 15 years, and the emergence of a new
Australian group called the Bee Gees, who everyone thought were American because they were singing about Massachusetts.
Looking back, 1967 was the year the world changed, when young people began to believe they could make a real difference and that it was up to us to create a better world. But at the time, we just wanted to listen to some great music.
“Lulu’s mini-dresses had an endearing homemade look”