Let me start by saying I have nothing against ’60s music.
It was the soundtrack of my life from ages 10-20 and there were so many wonderful performers — individuals and groups — that had their heyday in that decade.
Yeah, there was terrific music.
But we really ought to understand that not everything was Simon and Garfunkel, the Beatles or the Temptations.
There was a lot of crap too.
Four of the top five songs of 1969 were great ones. No. 5 was “Everyday People” by Sly and the Family Stone, No. 4 was “Honky Tonk Women” by the Rolling Stones, No. 3 was “I Can’t Get Next to You” by the Temptations and No. 2 was “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” by the Fifth Dimension.
Pretty good, huh?
And the No. 1 song of the year, the biggest hit of the year, was “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies.
In case you think that was a fluke, No. 6 was the execrable “Dizzy” by Tommy Roe.
Those two weren’t even close to being the worst songs of the decade.
The No. 1 song of 1966 was worse.
Most people would say 1968 was a pretty great year, with the Beatles’ Hey Jude” the year’s top song and a somewhat innocuous instrumental called “Love is Blue” right behind it.
But the third-most popular song of the year was a song that practically defined the term “sappy” — Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey.”
“See the tree, how big it’s grown …”
We haven’t even touched on bubble-gum music or teenage death songs, and for every Beatles or Rolling Stones that came over in the British Invasion, there was a Freddie & the Dreamers and Dave Clark Five on the other end of the spectrum.
Let’s not forget Tiny Tim.
And there’s an even worse one than Mr. Tim. At least I think he’s a Mister. Maybe we ought to check with Ron DeSantis.
But just as the lovely Petula Clark had a No. 1 hit with “Downtown” in 1965, there was a cover version that came along a little later.
Meet Mrs. Miller.
There were so many other truly awful songs, even some liked at the time but all these years later we find ourselves shaking our heads and wondering what we could possibly have been thinking.
Remember “Ahab the Ay-rab,” “Down in the Boondocks” or “Birds and the Bees?”
Remember Sonny and Cher’s “You Better Sit Down Kids,” where Cher tells the kids in the song that their parents are divorcing, but she will still be their dad?
Anyhow, not everything was great in the ’60s. but if you suffered through the videos of the Sarge, Mister Tim and Mrs. Miller, let’s cleanse the palate with a song from the middle of the decade that was truly great.
Take it away, Bob Dylan.