This has all gone horribly wrong. I didn’t truly appreciate how hard it would be to choose just one song per year.
This decade has so many extras in it that I’m going to have to split it into two posts. Ten is already a lot of tracks for you to check out, but seventeen (so far) is just excessive. Even for me, the mistress of the too-long post.
First up, we’re going to have to back track. I missed something which would have pushed Hang on Sloopy out of the top slot in 1965 – The Carnival is Over by Australian band The Seekers. I just love Judith Durham’s voice, don’t you? I can’t not sing along to this.
If you want to check out my other picks from 1957 (the year of my conception) to 1966, you can see them here.
Ok, now we can move on:
1967 – I was a 9 year old bookworm, and hadn’t been exposed to much music, apart from hymns. But I do remember singing “Ten Guitars” with the other kids down on the school field at break time, and I always thought it was a NZ song. I never knew this was an Engelbert Humperdinck song until this week.
I found this report on how it came to be a Kiwi classic:
Eddie O'Strange ... September 1967, Rotorua. I was chief programme officer at station 1YZ. That day the weekly box of new records arrived from Head Office, Wellington. As usual we took a quick listen to all the singles.
An HMV rep had asked us to look out for Engelbert Humperdinck's Please Release Me… My first impression was that the guy was a great singer but the old song's popped-up arrangement was a tad too histrionic. I flipped the single to Ten Guitars and before it was over I said "That's a song that could be turned into a hit in this country." The reaction was underwhelming and cynical. I had a mission!
I played in a band 5 nights a week at the Redwood Lounge at the DB Hotel. That same week I scrawled out chord charts and started singing Ten Guitars. Within a couple of weeks we were getting constant requests for the song.
It wasn't long before I was typing out the words and handing out carbon copies at the pub to patrons who wanted to learn the song. By the end of the year we heard that some people on the East Coast and up in Northland were singing it.
So although this hasn’t really stood the test of time, because it’s my first musical memory I have to include it. I chose a version by Maori entertainer Pio that was performed a few years ago.
1968 – Another Kiwi classic, this time by New Zealander John Rowles. Although his most well known songs were “Cheryl Moana Marie” and “Hush Not a Word to Mary” I think my favourite is “If I Only Had Time”
Meanwhile, half a world away (Does anyone else hear that in Michael Stipe’s voice? Sorry, you need to wait a while for my REM pick.): 1967 = the Summer of Love; 1968 = the Broadway musical Hair; 1969 = Woodstock. Although I was too young at the time, I’m a Babyboomer and I still think of these events as a symbol of my generation. They are a siren call to my inner hippie. Earlier this year, I had an unexpected 24 hours in San Francisco, a place I never thought I’d get to see. As I stood on the corner of Haight and Ashbury, I nearly cried.
So two 1968 tracks to commemorate that era. First, Janis Joplin: “Piece of My heart”
And from Hair: “Aquarius” / “Let the Sunshine in”
1969 – Ooh, this is a tricky year. If I hadn’t already used Elvis for 1957, for 1969 I would have gone with Suspicious Minds, my all-time favourite of his. My next thought was to honour Cilla Black, who passed away earlier this year. Although it’s not one of her best known songs, my favourite is If I Thought You’d Ever Change your Mind.
1969 cont – But there is somebody else who has to go in here. I love Neil Diamond. There, I’ve admitted it. I love lots of his songs, and later on in my teens I played the 1972 live double album Hot August Night till it just about wore out. My favourite at that time was Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show. But my favourite of his now is Holly Holy from the same year, so that’s what we’re having.
1970 – Another year I just couldn’t decide, so you get two again. First up, Edison Lighthouse – Love Grows (Where my Rosemary Goes).
1970 cont – Now, for a change of pace, Simon & Garfunkel – Although I love a lot of their songs to bits (eg The Boxer, Bridge over Troubled Water), this one is my absolute favourite – The Only Living Boy in New York
1971 – Cat Stevens released his album “Teaser and the Firecat”. Although my favourite album was Tea for the Tillerman, that came out in 1970, and we’ve already had two picks from 1970. And besides, I just wouldn’t be able to pick a favourite, I’d have to nominate the whole album. From Teaser, I’d have to go with Morning Has Broken.
This series of posts was inspired by a post by @giantbear some weeks back. I’ve been working on it off and on since then. Look for the rest of this decade in 3 or 4 days, and the next decade next Friday.
Thanks for reading, and hopefully listening and enjoying at least some of them.
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Some of my previous posts about music:
Benefits of joining a community choir ~ 60 years of my favourite music Part 1 – 1957 to 1966
