# Top 40 Hits For The Week Ending Jul 20, 1968 - USA



## Guest (Jul 14, 2018)

1. - "Grazing In The Grass" - Hugh Masekela 





2. - "Lady Willpower" - Gary Puckett





3. - "Jumpin' Jack Flash" - The Rolling Stones





4. - "This Guy's In Love With You" - Herb Alpert





5. - " The Horse" - Cliff Nobles and Company





6. - "Stoned Soul Picnic" - 5th Dimension





7. - "Hurdy Gurdy Man" - Donovan





8. - "Classical Gas" - Mason Williams





9. - "Hello, I Love You" - The Doors





10. - "Indian Lake" - The Cowsills





11. - "Reach Out Of The Darkness" - Friend and Lover





12. - "Here Comes The Judge" - Shorty Long





13. - "Angel Of The Morning" - Merrilee Rush and The Turnabouts





14. - "Turn Around, Look At Me" - Vogues





15. - "Look of Love" - Sergio Mendes





16. - "She's A Heartbreaker" - Gene Pitney





17. - "MacArthur Park" - Richard Harris





18. - "Yummy Yummy Yummy" - Ohio Express





19. - "I Love You" - People





20. - "Sky Pilot (Part One)" - The Animals





21. - "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" - Status Quo





22. - "Sunshine Of Your Love" - Cream





23. - "Here Comes The Judge" - Pigmeat Markham





24. - "Mony Mony" - Tommy James and The Shondells





25. - "Never Give You Up" - Jerry Butler





26. - "Autumn Of My Life" - Bobby Goldsboro





27. - "Think" - Aretha Franklin





28. - "I'm A Midnight Mover" - Wilson Pickett





29. - "Mrs. Robinson" - Simon and Garfunkel 





30. - "Some Things You Never Get Used To" - The Supremes





31. - "D. W. Washburn" - The Monkees





32. - "Folsom Prison Blues" - Johnny Cash





33. - "Lover's Holiday" - Peggy Scott and Jo Jo Benson





34. - "Don't Take It So Hard" - Paul Revere and the Raiders





35. - "(You Keep Me) Hangin' On" - Joe Simon





36. - "Stay In My Corner" - Dells





37. - "Face It Girl, It's Over" - Nancy Wilson





38. - "How'd We Ever Get This Way" - Andy Kim





39. - "Born To Be Wild" - Steppenwolf





40. - "Eleanor Rigby" - Ray Charles


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

An amazing list! Thanks for posting it, and reminding us of why so many remember the 1960s with such vividness.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Hmmm... about half I've never heard, I think, only a handful songs that I really like. Best for me: Mrs. Robinson and especially Born to be wild.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Of course, charts were quite different between the USA and (in my case) the Netherlands. For instance, the US #1 of this week did not reach the Dutch top40 at all.


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2018)

Art Rock said:


> Hmmm... about half I've never heard, I think, only a handful songs that I really like. Best for me: Mrs. Robinson and especially Born to be wild.


If you're able to (based on your location) click on the links every once in a while and listen to the selections - I think you'll find a virtual treasure trove of some of the greatest tunes ever recorded - there's something of value in each of them and they are all worth at least a listen.

Catchy tunes- many of which you can actually dance to! - with a remarkably diverse array of artists - something that is sorely lacking nowadays...

Those days are of course long gone and we really are the worst for it...

Regards,

- Syd

For my next Top 40 thread we'll go back 55 years to August 1, 1963 - soon after this date everyone's life changes and nothing is ever quite the same again...

_"Your old road is
Rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'."
_


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## Madiel (Apr 25, 2018)

Sydney Nova Scotia said:


> Catchy tunes- many of which you can actually dance to! - with a remarkably diverse array of artists - something that is sorely lacking nowadays...
> 
> Those days are of course long gone and we really are the worst for it...
> 
> ...


and this was a USA top 40, the regret for the diversity that what we have lost would be even stronger in countries the likes of Italy and France.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

#14 Vogues from the Pittsburgh, pa area. back in the early 2,000 years they still did appearances. like at the club i worked at. and i know them all.. and interesting no 4 tops-temps. and low on the mo-town. yes Aretha


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## Guest (Jul 14, 2018)

ldiat said:


> ...and interesting no 4 tops-temps. and low on the mo-town. yes Aretha


Remember though that this was just one week in July of 1968. As we progress month by month you'll see how things change.


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## ldiat (Jan 27, 2016)

Sydney Nova Scotia said:


> Remember though that this was just one week in July of 1968. As we progress month by month you'll see how things change.


yea makes sense 1 week. tops and temps had some earlier ones.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

In 1968 I was in college. 7 of the top ten just aren't very good - didn't like them back then, like them even less now.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I was two years old at that time, and living on another continent. Still, I know many of these tunes, some of them are pretty good. Sunshine of your love, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Classical Gas and some I can do without Yummy Yummy Yummy and MacArthur Park.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2018)

ldiat said:


> #14 Vogues from the Pittsburgh, pa area. back in the early 2,000 years they still did appearances. like at the club i worked at. and i know them all.. and interesting no 4 tops-temps. and low on the mo-town. yes Aretha


Tamla was Motown's subsidiary label and at -

49. The Marvelettes - "Here I Am Baby"

57. The Miracles - "Yester Love"

73. Stevie Wonder - "You Met Your Match"

And on the Motown label itself -

96. Four Tops - "Yesterday's Dreams"

I went through the Billboard charts from July through December and you can see a steady stream of releases from both labels.

And I thought that "The Vogues" were just great! - One of the true classics of a.m. radio -

"You're the One" -






"Five o'clock World" -






"Magic Town" -

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=vogues+magic+town

And of course we must not forget the quite well choreographed version of "Five o'clock World" used on the American tv program "The Drew Carey Show" -


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2018)

senza sordino said:


> I was two years old at that time, and living on another continent. Still, I know many of these tunes, some of them are pretty good. Sunshine of your love, Hurdy Gurdy Man, Classical Gas and some I can do without Yummy Yummy Yummy and MacArthur Park.


Check out these chart rankings by country for "_*Yummy Yummy Yummy*_" -

*Chart performance
*
*Chart (1968) Peak position*

UK Singles Chart - # 5

Austrian Singles Chart - # 5

Canadian RPM Top Singles - # 1 (That can't possibly be right...)

Dutch Top 40 - #27

Irish Singles Chart - # 5

Swiss Singles Chart - # 8

US Billboard Pop Singles - # 4

And these chart rankings by country for "_*MacArthur Park*_" -

*Weekly charts
*
*Chart (1968) Peak position*

Australia - # 1

Canada Top Singles (RPM) - # 1 (That can't possibly be right...)

Ireland (IRMA) - # 9

UK - # 4

US Billboard Hot 100 - # 2

US Billboard Easy Listening # 10

While not necessarily to my particular taste I do believe that there is something of value in every tune on this list and it must be remembered that these two tunes each sold millions of copies and thus they are of significance to a substantial number of people. Perhaps each of the tunes draws people back to a time when their lives were not then what they are now.

And someone has been cashing some very sweet royalty checks for the past 50 years and I would not have minded that "someone" being "me".


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Several of the selections in the 1968 Top Forty listing remind me of the strange contrasts concurrent in that wrenching decade of the 1960s. Amid the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, the urban riots and burning neighborhoods, the political convulsions, the student and minority unrest, the drive for civil rights, and the growing abyss of Vietnam, there was a powerful popular musical countercurrent emphasizing optimism, love, cheerfulness--wide-eyed, sometime wistful. Soaring melodies, often smooth harmonies, hinting at a better world somewhere out there, or even here if one looked hard for it. Escapism? Denial? Odd that the relatively peaceful and prosperous 1990s brought us the gloom and angst of Grunge and much other Alternative fare--a curious reversal of times and musics.

Much of that cheerful, positive, feel-good music of the 60s has been labeled Sunshine Pop, a name I like and that fits the genre well. Here's an incomplete list of groups that I feel fall into that category, at least in part: The Vogues, The 5th Dimension, Spanky & Our Gang, The Association, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, The Rascals, Love, Laura Nyro. And innumerable other acts and one-hit wonders. I'm sure some will moan that the last-mentioned three go beyond the Sunshine Pop label, and they do indeed. But all certainly were part of the urge to feel good, feel well, during that fraught decade. Some would perhaps accurately mark The Beach Boys, The (early) Beatles, and The Four Seasons as the initiators of the trend: _Wouldn't It Be Nice?_


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2018)

Strange Magic said:


> Several of the selections in the 1968 Top Forty listing remind me of the strange contrasts concurrent in that wrenching decade of the 1960s. Amid the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, the urban riots and burning neighborhoods, the political convulsions, the student and minority unrest, the drive for civil rights, and the growing abyss of Vietnam, there was a powerful popular musical countercurrent emphasizing optimism, love, cheerfulness--wide-eyed, sometime wistful. Soaring melodies, often smooth harmonies, hinting at a better world somewhere out there, or even here if one looked hard for it. Escapism? Denial? Odd that the relatively peaceful and prosperous 1990s brought us the gloom and angst of Grunge and much other Alternative fare--a curious reversal of times and musics.
> 
> Much of that cheerful, positive, feel-good music of the 60s has been labeled Sunshine Pop, a name I like and that fits the genre well. Here's an incomplete list of groups that I feel fall into that category, at least in part: The Vogues, The 5th Dimension, Spanky & Our Gang, The Association, The Lovin' Spoonful, The Mamas and the Papas, The Rascals, Love, Laura Nyro. And innumerable other acts and one-hit wonders. I'm sure some will moan that the last-mentioned three go beyond the Sunshine Pop label, and they do indeed. But all certainly were part of the urge to feel good, feel well, during that fraught decade. Some would perhaps accurately mark The Beach Boys, The (early) Beatles, and The Four Seasons as the initiators of the trend: _Wouldn't It Be Nice?_


Once of the best posts that I've ever read - please accept my compliments on a job well done!

I listened to everything that was released during those days and enjoyed everything that I heard without giving a moment's thought to whether or not something was "hip". I genuinely do believe that there is something significant... something profound that can be discerned within each of these releases. I was never one to rain on anyone's parade and if "Yummy Yummy Yummy" or "MacArthur Park" or "Here Comes the Judge" resonated within someone and made them happy - hey, more power to 'em…


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