Grade Three: she was only nineteen and just out of teachers' college. She introduced classic music and travel. Her name was Miss Burns. That year, Petula Clark started a massive run of smash hits and she and Miss Burns kind of merged.
Later, there were others. Lulu smashed with To Sir With Love in 1967 but her apogee - if singers can have one of those - was the minor hit Oh Me Oh My, a soul-infused love song that never rose into the year's top 100 in '69. 1967 also saw Brit Sandie Shaw impossibly catchy with Puppet on a String - once heard never forgotten. Meanwhile, Morgana King's soul-fired coloratura went in a totally different gospel/soul direction and the Fifth Dimension were on fire.
I was at a parish fete one warm October day in 1967. They used to play a radio station over the loudspeaker in between prize draws on the spinning wheel. A southern accent came out of the speaker and the story was some kind of personal disaster and the guitar in front had a weird echo behind like the soundtrack to a murder mystery. Bobbie Gentry had one or two more hits after Ode to Billy Joe but you would never forget that song you heard on a warm Australian spring day when you were ten years old.
In 1968, a Sergio Mendes version of Scarborough Fair blew Simon and Garfunkel's sclerotic folk version out of the park; the singer was Lani someone as far as I can remember. Merrilee Rush topped in 1968 with the yearning Angel of the Morning and then Aretha Franklin rode a bus and said a little prayer. It never got any better.
Maybe it did. In 1969, Dusty Springfield released Windmills of Your Mind and then backed right up with Son of a Preacher Man the same year.
Later, there were others. Lulu smashed with To Sir With Love in 1967 but her apogee - if singers can have one of those - was the minor hit Oh Me Oh My, a soul-infused love song that never rose into the year's top 100 in '69. 1967 also saw Brit Sandie Shaw impossibly catchy with Puppet on a String - once heard never forgotten. Meanwhile, Morgana King's soul-fired coloratura went in a totally different gospel/soul direction and the Fifth Dimension were on fire.
I was at a parish fete one warm October day in 1967. They used to play a radio station over the loudspeaker in between prize draws on the spinning wheel. A southern accent came out of the speaker and the story was some kind of personal disaster and the guitar in front had a weird echo behind like the soundtrack to a murder mystery. Bobbie Gentry had one or two more hits after Ode to Billy Joe but you would never forget that song you heard on a warm Australian spring day when you were ten years old.
In 1968, a Sergio Mendes version of Scarborough Fair blew Simon and Garfunkel's sclerotic folk version out of the park; the singer was Lani someone as far as I can remember. Merrilee Rush topped in 1968 with the yearning Angel of the Morning and then Aretha Franklin rode a bus and said a little prayer. It never got any better.
Maybe it did. In 1969, Dusty Springfield released Windmills of Your Mind and then backed right up with Son of a Preacher Man the same year.
Ode to Billy Joe and Son of a Preacher Man are freaking awesome.
ReplyDeleteI was at my orthodontist's yesterday and the music channel was all soft pop late 1970s hits. I told the technician that the title of the music channel should be High School Nostalgia.