This studio produced bubblegum song was a very minor hit in 1967 spending 9 weeks in the Top 100 and peaking at 53. For me it was a much bigger hit, and I’m sure this 45 sounds a lot better than my copy does now ;-). The lead singer is Joey Levine, probably the most successful lead singer you never heard of – well, maybe that honor should go to Tony Burrows or Ron Dante but that’s a story for another day -Levine sang lead for “Yummy, Yummy” (Ohio Express), “Quick Joey Small” (Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus) and “Life is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)” by Reunion.
He also rivaled Barry Manilow and Randy Newman as a commercial jingle writer – “Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut” (Almond Joy) “Just For the Taste of It (Diet Pepsi), “The Softer Side of Sears”, “You Asked For It, You Got It” (Toyota) and “This Bud’s For You”

The song was written by Joey and his writing partner Art Resnick. Together they wrote a ton of bubblegum and psychedelic songs you have heard. “Run Run Run” was one of their earliest charting singles. The Third Rail was Joey, Art and his wife,Kris. Art Resnick had a pedigree as a writer prior to this – he wrote “Under The Boardwalk” for the Drifters and “Good Lovin'” for the Young Rascals

The lyrics, especially the stock market piece, is outdated but I still enjoy listening.

It would be 1968 when I first kept a weekly survey of my own and “tabulated” a top 101 list at the end of each year from 1968 to 1972. If I had done one in 1967, this one would have been in the top 5, maybe even second only to The Young Rascals’ “A Girl Like You”. I’ve posted this a few times over the past 8 years so it’s no stranger to those who read and maybe listen to these posts. the week of August 5th, 1967, “Heroes And Villians” made it’s initial appearance on the Hot 100 and changed my opinion of Brian Wilson’s talent forever. Not really sure why thus song resonates with me so much, I’ve definitely played both parts in my life (hero and villain), at times I’ve “been in this town too long”, been healthy most of my life, wealthy and wise, probably not so much ?.

Below is a live version done by Brian Wilson in the early 2000s, a great example of Brian’s ability to put together a live show and capture the awesomeness of his talent and this song.

As a recent oldie by the time I heard it in the summer of 1967, I loved it, it was unique and very catchy, but I never really appreciated it’s place in music history until I started reviewing the charts. “Winchester Cathedral” debuted on the charts on October 29th, 1966, spent 10 weeks in the top 10, 3 of those at #1, interrupted by The Beach Boys “Good Vibrations, which spent 3 weeks at #2, and Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow” which also spent 3 weeks at #2. That’s pretty heavy competition to have to be up against. The New Vaudeville Band only reached the charts 1 more time, the follow-up, “Peek-A-Boo” charted 3 months later, reaching #72. The group was actually studio musicians put together to do “Winchester Cathedral” and it’s success spawned a cobbled together group for touring. Not the last time that would happen in the rock era.

By the middle of 1967 when I started listening to rock and roll, there were two recent “oldies” that I loved to play at a high decibel level, the first I mentioned the other day, “96 Tears” and here is the second one, the Blues Magoos “We Ain’t Got Nothing Yet”. Out of the Bronx, they only had this one song reach the top 40, peaking at #5 in early February, 1967, their other 3 singles languished in the lower reaches of the Hot 100. As usual, I learned something new in researching this song, Emil “Peppy Castro” Theilhelm, the lead singer here, later became the lead singer of Balance (think “Breaking Away” in 1981).

Early 1967, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs had already had a pair of hit records “Wooly Bully” and “Lil Red Riding Hood”, songs that were considered novelty songs. ” How Do You Catch A Girl” was their entry in the charts in January of 1967, peaking at #22. Samudio (why does that make me think of Phil Collins ?) Domingo was born in Dallas, Texas, one of his early band mates was Trini Lopez. Sam formed the Pharoahs, named after Yul Bryner’s character in “The Ten Commandments” in 1961, After the Pharoahs run, Sam went solo and his 1970 LP “Sam, Hard And Heavy” won the 1972 Grammy for Best Album Notes, hey, there’s a Grammy for everything, I guess.

The summer of 1967 I found rock and roll music after being brought up on my Dad’s country music. This light, carefree melody was #1 at the time and it still brings back the lazy summer days when I was 14. “Capture that rainbow”!

I’m a little fuzzy on the details but to the best of my knowledge, this is the first 45 I ever purchased. The summer of 67 was a magical time for me musically and this was one of the songs that made it that way.

The above paragraphs were Facebook posts in 2009 and 2011

“Windy” was a landmark song for me, it was #1 when I switched from my Dad’s country music to rock and roll the summer of 1967. as I look back, many of those first songs I heard regularly on the radio became my favorite songs by many of the artists, there will be several examples as I continue to post. “Windy” would become my favorite Association song for about a year before “Time For Livin’” was released. Their greatest hit was “Cherish”, I remember finding WRKO in Boston and their’s was the first All-Time Top 300 I wrote down, I believe it was 1969 that “Cherish” was voted #1. One of these days I’ll have to add a few radio stations and the lists I collected in the late 60’s and early 70’s.