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Plethora of Pop’s Rate-A-Record
1968: The Honey Valley PTA
Crossover Country Rate-A-Record
Everyone or maybe “Nobody But Me” remembers that the #1 song in the Billboard Hot 100 for 1968 was “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. While the lads did do some country songs, this one was something else, something new: a 7+ minute single that even AM had to play in heavy rotation, and you know how AM radio felt about songs lasting over 2:45.
What a year, 1968: sorrow, tragedy, “tin soldiers and Nixon coming.”
Musically speaking, though, the songs compiling that Hot 100 are still pretty mind-bending even if you’ve never heard of The Human Beinz. I don’t suppose you remember “Bottle of Wine” by The Fireballs, but my friend Robert owned the single and sang it every chance he got, though he and I were only 12. Robert also loved “Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)” by John Fred and His Playboy Band. I still have that 45 in my basement box.
Robert may or may not have been the firestick for these hits. You can judge all you want, but nothing says we can’t discriminate one good song from another like being 12 and in the 6th grade and not understanding that when a girl makes haste to ride her bike right behind yours as you both pass under an oak tree full of mistletoe, she isn’t trying to race.