“Puff, the Magic Dragon” (or “Puff”) is a song written by Leonard Lipton and Peter Yarrow, and made popular by Yarrow’s group Peter, Paul and Mary in a 1963 recording. The lyrics for “Puff, the Magic Dragon” are based on a 1959 poem by Leonard Lipton, then a 19-year-old Cornell University student. Lipton was inspired by an Ogden Nash poem titled “Custard the Dragon”, about a “realio, trulio little pet dragon”.

The lyrics tell a story of the ageless dragon Puff and his playmate, Jackie Paper, a little boy who grows up and loses interest in the imaginary adventures of childhood and leaves Puff to be with himself. (The line “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys” is generally thought to imply only that “little Jackie Paper” grew up.) The story of the song takes place “by the sea” in the fictional land of “Honalee”.

Lipton was friends with Peter Yarrow’s housemate when they were all students at Cornell. He used Yarrow’s typewriter to get the poem out of his head. He then forgot about it until years later, when a friend called and told him Yarrow was looking for him, to give him credit for the lyrics. On making contact Yarrow gave Lipton half the songwriting credit, and he still gets royalties from the song.

In an effort to be gender-neutral, Yarrow now sings the line “A dragon lives forever, but not so little boys” as “A dragon lives forever, but not so girls and boys.” The original poem also had a verse that did not make it into the song. In it, Puff found another child and played with him after returning. Neither Yarrow nor Lipton remembers the verse in any detail, and the paper that was left in Yarrow’s typewriter in 1958 has since been lost.

In 1961, Peter Yarrow joined Paul Stookey and Mary Travers to form Peter, Paul and Mary. The group incorporated the song into their live performances before recording it in 1962.

After the song’s initial success, speculation arose — as early as a 1964 article in Newsweek — that the song contained veiled references to smoking marijuana. The word “paper” in the name of Puff’s human friend (Jackie Paper) was said to be a reference to rolling papers, and the word “dragon” was interpreted as “draggin’,” i.e. inhaling smoke; similarly, the name “Puff” was alleged to be a reference to taking a “puff” on a joint. The supposition was claimed to be common knowledge in a letter by a member of the public to The New York Times in 1984.

The authors of the song have repeatedly rejected this interpretation and have strongly and consistently denied that they intended any references to drug use. Leonard Lipton has stated “Puff the Magic Dragon is not about drugs.” Peter Yarrow has frequently explained that the song is about the hardships of growing older and has no relationship to drug-taking. He has also said of the song that it “never had any meaning other than the obvious one” and is about the “loss of innocence in children”, and dismissed the suggestion of association with drugs as “sloppy research”.

In 1976, Yarrow’s bandmate Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul and Mary also upheld the song’s innocence. He recorded a version of the song at the Sydney Opera House in March 1976, in which he set up a fictitious trial scene. The Prosecutor accused the song of being about marijuana, but Puff and Jackie protested. The judge finally left the case to the jury (the Opera House audience) and said if they will sing along with the song, it would be acquitted. The audience joined in with Stookey, and at the end of their sing-along, the judge declared: “case dismissed.”

Ed. Note: Again, but this time for personal reasons, I feel compelled to inform you that, though Mary has passed away, both Peter and Paul (Noel) regularly still perform, often at very reasonable prices. They both have a number of tour dates (together and solo) in 2018 and some scheduled tour dates in 2019.

Hits: 96

“Joy to the World” was written by Hoyt Axton, and made famous by the band Three Dog Night. The song is also popularly known by its opening lyric, “Jeremiah was a bullfrog”. The song, which has been described by members of Three Dog Night as a “kid’s song” and a “silly song”, topped the main singles charts in North America, was certified gold by the RIAA.

Some of the words are nonsensical. Axton wanted to persuade his record producers to record a new melody he had written and the producers asked him to sing any words to the tune. A member of Three Dog Night said that the original lyrics to the song were “Jeremiah was a prophet” but “no one liked that”.

When Hoyt Axton performed the song to the group, two of the three main vocalists – Danny Hutton and Cory Wells – rejected the song, but Chuck Negron felt that the band needed a “silly song” to help bring the band back together as a working unit. Negron also felt that the song “wasn’t even close to our best record, but it might have been one of our most honest.”

Unlike most Three Dog Night songs recorded at that point, instead of having just the three main vocalists singing harmony, the song was recorded with all seven members of the band singing. Drummer Floyd Sneed sings the deep lyric “I wanna tell you” towards the end of the song.

Ed. Note: I got to see Three Dog Night as a VIP back in 2011 or 2012. They were still rocking and putting on an energetic show, after all those years. If you’re curious, they’re still touring and still making music. Use your favorite search engine, as they’re on tour right now and are playing small venues with very reasonable ticket prices.

Hits: 63

Rolling Stone magazine ranked Jefferson Airplane’s version No. 274 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

Written by The Great Society guitarist Darby Slick after realizing his girlfriend had left him, and first performed by that band, which included his then-sister-in-law Grace Slick on vocals, the song made little impact outside of the club circuit in the Bay Area.

The song was released in 1966 as a single with the B-side another Darby Slick composition titled “Free Advice” on the North Beach subsidiary of Autumn Records, and received minimal circulation outside of San Francisco.

San Francisco in the mid-’60s was the epicenter of free love, but Darby Slick saw a downside to this ethos, as it could lead to jealousy and disconnect. This song champions loyalty and monogamy, as the singer implores us to find that one true love that will nurture us and get us through the tough times.

When Grace Slick departed to join Jefferson Airplane, she took this song with her, bringing it to the Surrealistic Pillow sessions, along with her own composition “White Rabbit”. Subsequently, the Airplane’s more ferocious rock and roll version became the band’s first and biggest success; the single by Jefferson Airplane scored at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Jefferson Airplane’s first hit song, “Somebody To Love” was also one of the first big hits to come out of the US West Coast counterculture scene. Over the next few years, musicians flocked to the San Francisco Bay Area to be part of this scene. The original version of this song that Grace Slick sang with The Great Society is more subdued.

With Jefferson Airplane she sounds far more accusatory and menacing when she belts out lines like “Your mind is so full of red” and “Your friends, baby, they treat you like a guest.”

“Somebody to Love” was also a track on their influential album released in February 1967, Surrealistic Pillow. The lyrics are in the second person, with each two-line verse setting a scene of alienation and despair, and the chorus repeating the title of the song, with slight variations such as: “… / Don’t you need somebody to love? / Wouldn’t you love somebody to love? / …” Like the album on which it appeared, this song was instrumental in publicizing the existence of the Haight-Ashbury counterculture to the rest of the United States.

Hits: 431

This song is of the “I’ve been there” variety.

The story is of a man who meets the woman he believes is the love of his life in the lobby of the Commodore Hotel (which exists, it is in Linden TN about 140 miles east of Memphis) and immediately makes a lifelong commitment to her, promising her the storied house on the edge of town with the white picket fence, but in the end she leaves him crying in his beer.

The narrator is telling his story to a bartender, about how much he loved her and how badly he misses her. Then, one at a time, other guys in the bar start adding to his story, until he realizes they’d all been scammed by the same girl.

In the end, they’re all singing in harmony about the “Dixie Chicken” and having a wistful but hearty laugh about all being part of this well-populated men’s club.

Hits: 68

The Mississippi Sheiks consisted mainly of members of the Chatmon family, from Bolton, Mississippi, who were well known in the Mississippi Delta. The father of the family, Henderson Chatmon, had been a “musicianer” (someone with good technical ability on his or her instrument, adept at sight-reading written music) during slavery times, and his children carried on the musical spirit. Their most famous member (although not a permanent member) was Armenter Chatmon, better known as Bo Carter, who managed a successful solo career as well as playing with the Sheiks, which may have contributed to their success. Their last recording session as the Mississippi Sheiks was in 1936. Carter made a few more sessions on his own, but by 1938 he too was dropped. When the band dissolved, the Chatmon brothers gave up music and returned to farming.

Their 1930 blues single “Sitting on Top of the World” was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008. In 2018, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or artistically significant”

The title line of “Sitting on Top of the World” is similar to a well-known popular song of the 1920s, “I’m Sitting on Top of the World”, written by Ray Henderson, Sam Lewis and Joe Young (popularised by Al Jolson in 1926).

However the two songs are distinct, both musically and lyrically. Similarities have also been noted that “Sitting on Top of the World” was derived from an earlier song by Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell, “You Got To Reap What You Sow” (1929). Tampa Red used the same melody in his version from the same year.

In May 1930, Charlie Patton recorded a version of the song (with altered lyrics) called “Some Summer Day” During the next few years renditions of “Sitting on Top of the World” were recorded by a number of artists: the Two Poor Boys, Doc Watson, Big Bill Broonzy, Sam Collins, Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, and Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. After Milton Brown recorded it for Bluebird Records the song became a staple in the repertoire of western swing bands.

Cream covered it in 1968.

Hits: 46

Nazz (also known as The Nazz) was formed in Philadelphia in 1967 by guitarist Todd Rundgren and bassist Carson Van Osten. Rundgren wrote virtually all of the group’s original material. Drummer Thom Mooney and vocalist/keyboardist Robert “Stewkey” Antoni joined before their first concert, opening for the Doors in 1967.  Admittedly based a on a riff inspired by The Who’s  “Can’t Explain” (1964), proceedings get underway with Stewkey’s organ and first generation Rhodes followed quickly by Todd’s acid fuzz guitar, amply supported by Carson VanOsten’s rolling bass and Thom Mooney’s drums and bongos.

Nazz took its name from the Yardbirds’ song “The Nazz Are Blue.”

In Phoenix, Arizona, another band called Nazz was formed at about the same time that Nazz was formed in Philadelphia. This group released only one single before moving to Los Angeles and renaming themselves Alice Cooper.

Hits: 51

“Good Golly, Miss Molly” was  recorded in 1956 by Little Richard and released in January 1958. The song, a jump blues, was written by John Marascalco and producer Robert “Bumps” Blackwell.  Although it was first recorded by Little Richard, Blackwell produced another version by The Valiants, who imitated the fast first version recorded by Little Richard, not released at this time. Although the Valiants’ version was released first in 1957, Little Richard had the hit, reaching #4.

The song by Little Richard is ranked #94 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Like all his early hits, it quickly became a rock ‘n’ roll standard and has subsequently been covered by hundreds of artists.

Little Richard first heard the phrase “Good golly, Miss Molly” from a Southern DJ named Jimmy Pennick. He modified the lyrics into the more suggestive. “Good golly, Miss Molly/You sure like to ball.”

Little Richard himself later claimed that he took the music from Ike Turner’s piano intro to Jackie Brenston’s influential 1951 rock and roll song “Rocket 88”, and used it for “Good Golly, Miss Molly”.

“I always liked that record,” Richard recalled, “and I used to use the riff in my act, so when we were looking for a lead-in to ‘Good Golly, Miss Molly’, I did that and it fit.”

Little Richard’s publisher sued Creedence Clearwater Revival over their song “Travelin’ Band,” which they claimed lifted from “Molly.”  Instead of the result of the gift of a diamond ring being “When she hugs me, her kissin’ make me ting-a-ling-a-ling,” John Fogerty sang, “Would you pardon me a kissin’ and a ting-a-ling-a-ling?” A settlement was reached with Creedence giving up some of their royalties.

Hits: 52

“Mr. Tambourine Man” was written, composed, and performed by Bob Dylan, who released his original version of it on his 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home.

The Byrds’ version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” was listed as the number 79 song on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and Dylan’s version was ranked number 106. In a 2005 reader’s poll reported in Mojo, Dylan’s version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” was listed as the number 4 all-time greatest Bob Dylan song, and a similar poll of artists ranked the song number 14. In 2002, Uncut listed it as the number 15 all-time Dylan song.

The song has a bright, expansive melody and has become famous in particular for its surrealistic imagery, influenced by artists as diverse as French poet Arthur Rimbaud and Italian filmmaker Federico Fellini.

The lyrics call on the title character to play a song and the narrator will follow. Interpretations of the lyrics have included a paean to drugs such as LSD, a call to the singer’s muse, a reflection of the audience’s demands on the singer, and religious interpretations.

Dylan’s song has four verses, of which The Byrds only used the second for their recording. Dylan’s and The Byrds’ versions have appeared on various lists ranking the greatest songs of all time, including an appearance by both on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 best songs ever. Both versions also received Grammy Hall of Fame Awards.

Dylan began writing and composing “Mr. Tambourine Man” in February 1964, after attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans during a cross-country road trip with several friends, and completed it sometime between the middle of March and late April of that year after he had returned to New York.

Nigel Williamson has suggested in The Rough Guide to Bob Dylan that the influence of Mardi Gras can be heard in the swirling and fanciful imagery of the song’s lyrics. Journalist Al Aronowitz has claimed that Dylan completed the song at his home, but folk singer Judy Collins, who later recorded the song, has stated that Dylan completed the song at her home.

While there has been speculation that the song is about drugs such as LSD or marijuana, particularly with lines such as “take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship” and “the smoke rings of my mind”, Dylan has always denied the song is about drugs. Though he was using marijuana at the time the song was written, Dylan was not introduced to LSD until a few months later.

Other commentators have interpreted the song as a call to the singer’s spirit or muse, or the singer’s search for transcendence. In particular, biographer John Hinchey has suggested in his book Like a Complete Unknown that the singer is praying to his muse for inspiration; Hinchey notes that ironically the song itself is evidence the muse has already provided the sought-after inspiration.

Mr. Tambourine Man has also been interpreted as a symbol for Jesus Christ and for the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The song may also reference gospel music, with Mr. Tambourine Man being the bringer of religious salvation.

Dylan has cited the influence of Federico Fellini’s movie La Strada on the song, while other commentators have found echoes of the poetry of Arthur Rimbaud. Author Howard Sounes has identified the lyrics “in the jingle jangle morning I’ll come following you” as having been taken from a Lord Buckley recording.

Bruce Langhorne, who performs guitar on the track, has been cited by Dylan as the inspiration for the tambourine man image in the song. Langhorne used to play a giant, four-inch-deep “tambourine” (actually a Turkish frame drum), and had brought the instrument to a previous Dylan recording session.

Here is his first live performance of the song, in 1964, at the Newport Folk Festival, from before his studio recording of the song:

Hits: 52

Wayne Carson wrote “The Letter”, built on an opening line suggested by his father: “Give me a ticket for an aeroplane”. Carson included the song on a demo tape he gave to Chips Moman, owner of American Sound Studio in Memphis, Tennessee. When studio associate Dan Penn was looking for an opportunity to produce more songs, Moman suggested a local group, the DeVilles, who had a new lead singer, sixteen year-old Alex Chilton. Penn gave the group Carson’s demo tape for some songs to work up. With little or no rehearsal, the group arrived at American Sound to record “The Letter”.

Chilton recalled:

“We set up and started running the tune down … [Dan] adjusted a few things on the organ sound, told the drummer not to do anything at all except the basic rhythm that was called for. No rolls, no nothin’. The bass player was playing pretty hot stuff, so he didn’t mess with what the bass player was doing.”

Penn added:

“The guitar player had the lick right—we copied Wayne’s demo. Then I asked the keyboard player to play an ‘I’m a Believer’ type of thing”. Chilton sang the vocal live while the group was performing; Penn noted: “I coached him [Chilton] a little … told him to say ‘aer-o-plane,’ told him to get a little gruff, and I didn’t have to say anything else to him, he was hookin ’em, a natural singer.”

He later explained,

“[Chilton] picked it up exactly as I had in mind, maybe even better. I hadn’t even paid any attention to how good he sang because I was busy trying to put the band together … I had a bunch of greenhorns who’d never cut a record, including me”.

About thirty takes were required for the basic track. Then Penn had Mike Leach prepare a string and horn arrangement for the song to give it a fuller sound.

Leach recalled:

“My very first string arrangement was ‘The Letter’, and the only reason I did that was because I knew how to write music notation … Nobody else in the group did or I’m sure someone else would have gotten the call.”

Penn also overdubbed the sound of an airplane taking off to the track from a special effects record that had been checked out from the local library. He explained:

“That was a big part of the record … When I finished it up, I played it for Chips [Moman], and he said, “That’s a pretty good little rock & roll record, but you’ve got to take that airplane off it.” I said, “If the record’s going out, it’s going out with the airplane on it”. He said, “Okay, it’s your record.”

The DeVilles were renamed the Box Tops and “The Letter” lasts only 1 minute, 58 seconds.

Hits: 68