Soundtrack from the Summer of Love

What propelled the Summer of Love and what has lived on most prominently are the songs of 1967. On the record player and at underground FM radio stations, albums were starting to overtake singles. But for the masses, it was an AM world of top 40 radio. Th

JANUARY

“FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH” BY BUFFALO SPRINGFIELD “There’s something happening here/ What it is ain’t exactly clear/ There’s a man with a gun over there/ tellin’ me I got to beware.” “RUBY TUESDAY” BY THE ROLLING STONES “Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday/ Who could hang a name on you?/ When you change with every new day/ Still I’m gonna miss you.” “THE BEAT GOES ON” BY SONNY & CHER “Charleston was once the rage, uh huh/ History has turned the page, uh huh/ The miniskirt’s the current thing, uh huh/ Teenybopper is our newborn king, uh huh/ And the beat goes on, the beat goes on.” “I’M A MAN” BY THE SPENCER DAVIS GROUP “Well, I’m a man, yes I am, and I can’t help but love you so.”

FEBRUARY

“PENNY LANE” BY THE BEATLES “Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes/ A four of fish and finger pies/ In summer/ Meanwhile back/ Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout/ The pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray/ And though she feels as if she’s in a play/ She is anyway.” “HAPPY TOGETHER” BY THE TURTLES “Imagine me and you, I do/ I think about you day and night, it’s only right/ To think about the girl you love and hold her tight/ So happy together.”

MARCH

“PURPLE HAZE” BY THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE “Purple haze, all in my brain/ Lately things they don’t seem the same/ Actin’ funny, but I don’t know why/ Excuse me while I kiss the sky.”

APRIL

“SOMEBODY TO LOVE” BY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE “When the truth is found to be lies/ And all the joy within you dies/ Don’t you want somebody to love, don’t you/ Need somebody to love, wouldn’t you/ Love somebody to love, you better/ Find somebody to love.” “GROOVIN’ ” BY THE YOUNG RASCALS “Groovin’, on a Sunday afternoon/ Really couldn’t get away too soon/ I can’t imagine anything that’s better/ The world is ours whenever we’re together.”

MAY

“SAN FRANCISCO (BE SURE TO WEAR FLOWERS IN YOUR HAIR)” BY SCOTT MCKENZIE “For those who come to San Francisco/ Summertime will be a love-in there/ In the streets of San Francisco/ Gentle people with flowers in their hair.” “LIGHT MY FIRE” BY THE DOORS “You know that it would be untrue/ You know that I would be a liar/ If I was to say to you/ Girl, we couldn’t get much higher/ Come on baby, light my fire.”

JUNE

“LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS” BY THE BEATLES “Picture yourself in a boat on a river/ With tangerine trees and marmalade skies/ Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly/ A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.” “A WHITER SHADE OF PALE” BY PROCUL HARUM “We skipped the light fandango/ Turned cartwheels ’cross the floor/ I was feeling kinda seasick/ But the crowd called out for more.” “WHITE RABBIT” BY JEFFERSON AIRPLANE “When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead/ And the white knight is talking backwards/ And the red queen’s off with her head/ Remember what the dormouse said/ Feed your head, feed your head.”

JULY

“ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE” BY THE BEATLES “There’s nothing you can know that isn’t known/ Nothing you can see that isn’t shown/ There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where/ You’re meant to be/ It’s easy/ All you need is love.” “GET TOGETHER” BY THE YOUNGBLOODS “C’mon people now/ Smile on your brother/ Everybody get together/ Try to love one another/ Right now.”

AUGUST

“THE LETTER” BY THE BOX TOPS “Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane/ Ain’t got time to take a fast train/ Lonely days are gone, I’m a-goin’ home/ My baby just-a wrote me a letter.” “SAN FRANCISCO NIGHTS” BY ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS “Cop’s face is filled with hate/ Heavens above/ He’s on a street called love/ When will they even learn/ Old cop, young cop feel all right/ On a warm San Franciscan night.”

SEPTEMBER

“DIFFERENT DRUM” BY THE STONE PONEYS “You and I travel to the beat of a diff’rent drum/ Oh, can’t you tell by the way I run/ Ev’ry time you make eyes at me.”

OCTOBER

“ALICE’S RESTAURANT MASSACRE” BY ARLO GUTHRIE “Walk right in. It’s around the back. Just a half a mile from the railroad track. You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant.” “LOVE IS ALL AROUND” BY THE TROGGS “I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes/ Love is all around me and so the feeling grows/ It’s written on the wind, it’s everywhere I go/ So if you really love me, come on and let it show.”

NOVEMBER

“NIGHTS IN WHITE SATIN” BY THE MOODY BLUES “Gazing at people, some hand in hand/ Just what I’m going through they can’t understand/ Some try to tell me, thoughts they cannot defend/ Just what you want to be, you will be in the end.”

DECEMBER

“TIME HAS COME TODAY” BY THE CHAMBERS BROTHERS “Time has come today/ Young hearts can go their way/ Can’t put it off another day/ I don’t care what others say/ They say we don’t listen anyway/ Time has come today.”