As much as this song is an example of the great “Girl Groups” tracks released in the 1960’s, the history of this particular song has as much to do about the people involved. Who actually sang the song and how Phil Spector was involved makes this rather involved. Let’s see if we can sort this out.

Musicians on this track include Barney Kessel and Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Larry Knechtel and Leon Russell on piano, and Steve Douglas on saxophone. Douglas was also the contractor for the session, meaning he assembled the musicians. According to Douglas, his sax solo on this song was one of his favorites, but Phil Spector was going to put vocals over it. Douglas convinced him to leave it alone, and it became one of the most famous saxophone solos of the era.

Let’s start with Phil Spector who, at 21 years old, was quickly becoming a major influence in the way records were being produced. This record was one of his initial starts in what was to become famously known as the “Wall Of Sound” technique. Multi-track recording, and stereo, was a way to record different instruments and vocals separately and combine them later into a final track, and was on its beginnings to become the norm for producers. Spector, and incidentally Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, didn’t care much for this technique. They both prefered the sound of mono recording to have the full sound come from both speakers to embellish it. Spector recorded this song at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, packing all the musicians into a room that measured just 19 x 24 feet. Spector was meticulous about microphone placement, especially when it came to the drums. He recorded the song in mono, which meant that every instrument was coming out of both speakers at full force, eschewing the nuance of stereo for the power of a single track.

Spector wasn’t big on editing or post-production, so he spent a lot of his studio time having the musicians run through the track before he would roll tape. Typically, he would have the guitarists play for a while while he worked out the song, then bring in pianos, bass, and drums. Vocals were recorded in an echo chamber located behind the control room at Gold Star.

Add in the personality of Phil Spector to the mix and his “dictatorship” of how he used and controlled the groups he recorded, the story of his life (he was convicted of the 2003 murder of actress Lana Clarkson and is currently in prison) makes it remarkable he was able to accomplish as much as he did. He would frequently use a group name, change who the members were, and release records that made it hard to know who sang which one. That leads us to the next part of this records history.

This song was written by Jeff Barry, Ellie Greenwich and Phil Spector. Barry and Greenwich (later married and divorced) had written several other hits, including (but not only) “Do Wah Diddy Diddy”, “Then He Kissed Me”, “Be My Baby”, “Chapel of Love”, and “River Deep -- Mountain High” (also written with Phil Spector); “Leader of the Pack” (written with Shadow Morton); and “Sugar, Sugar”. They also recorded songs as a duo known as The Raindrops, as well as a version of this song.

The song was composed over two days in Spector’s office in New York. The refrain of “Da Doo Ron Ron” came from nonsense syllables they stuck in as filler for lyrics later, but it was exactly what Phil Spector was looking for, since he didn’t want a cerebral lyric getting in the way of his massive production and the tidy boy-meets-girl story line. The rhymes of the opening lines, “I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still … Somebody told me that his name was Bill” was inspired by Bill Walsh, a friend of Spector who happened to visit Spector while the three were writing the song. Sonny Bono, who was also a record producer at the time and was hanging out at the sessions, recalls Spector asking if the song was “dumb enough,” meaning is was accessible to the teenagers who were the target audience. Spector knew he had a hit with this one, telling Bono on playback, “That’s solid gold coming out of that speaker.”

The Crystals were one of the legendary girl groups in music history despite their short career, 1961-1964, and the different line-ups that recorded under the group name. The original Crystals were signed to Phil Spector’s Phillies label during 1961. Barbara Alston, Mary Thomas, Delores Kenniebrew, Patsy Wright, and Mema Girard formed the group in Brooklyn where they came to the attention of Spector. They quickly produced two top 20 hits, “There’s No Other (Like My Baby)” and “Uptown.” The Crystals regrouped in 1963 without Mary Thomas and added Dolores “La La” Brooks as lead singer. Meanwhile in California, The Blossoms with Darlene Love also came to the attention of Phil Spector. When it became inconvenient to bring The Crystals to California for a recording session, he used The Blossoms to fill in. The result was the number one hit “He’s A Rebel” and “He’s Sure The Boy I’m Gonna Marry” with the lead vocal by Darlene Love. Upon closer examination, however, it turns out that (as mentioned) “He’s a Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” weren’t sung by the real Crystals at all, while two other songs (i.e., “Tonight I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry” and “Look in My Eyes”) are generally credited not to the Crystals but to Darlene Love in the case of the first song and the Chantels (a pioneering girl group that had no connection whatsoever with Phil Spector), in the second. Neither song is listed in any Crystals’ discography found, but it’s likely they recorded their own, little known, versions of both. And that likely lets you know just how difficult untangling the true facts can be.

As for “Da Doo Ron Ron”, who actually sang the lead vocals is contested and even the subject of a lawsuit. Darlene Love, who was featured in the 2013 documentary “20 Feet From Stardom”, has said that she was the lead singer on this song, which was recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles. Love sang lead on The Crystals’ previous hits “He’s A Rebel” and “He’s Sure the Boy I Love” because Phil Spector called in her group The Blossoms to record those songs when The Crystals couldn’t make it to Los Angeles. The songs were still credited to The Crystals, and Love claims that she expected her own single release to follow.

Love has given various accounts of her side of the story, telling Katie Couric that she sang lead on “Da Doo Ron Ron,” but backing off that claim in later interviews, saying that her lead vocals were wiped out and replaced by Crystals lead singer Dolores “La La” Brooks in retaliation by Spector when she asked him for an artist’s contract. When the movie “20 Feet From Stardom” -- which featured Love -- was released in 2013, The New York Times ran a story about the film that claimed Love sang lead on the song. Two weeks later, they ran a correction, stating: “While she did sing, it was as backup, not as the lead.”

Whether she appeared on the song at all is in dispute. The person who can best answer that question is Phil Spector, but since he was in jail when “20 Feet From Stardom” was released, journalists couldn’t use him to fact check Love’s claims. La La Brooks, however, has her own account, which includes a phone call Spector made to his wife, Rachelle, who married him while his trial was going on. Brooks’ friend, Roger L. Chemel, provided an account with a photo of Brooks, Rachelle Spector, and Art Cohen (Brooks’ manager), taken where this conversation took place. Here’s the account:

On August 27, 2012, La La Brooks and Art Cohen, La La’s manager, met with Rachelle Spector after an attendance at the David Letterman Show in New York City. As the three of them joined to have dinner together at a local restaurant, Phil Spector called his wife Rachelle from the prison where he is incarcerated. La La recalls telling Rachelle to say “hi” to Phil. After the conclusion of this telephone call, La La Brooks explained the situation with Darlene Love claiming to have sung the original track of “Da Doo Ron Ron.”

Rachelle Spector tells La La Brooks and Art Cohen that she was flying back to California on August 28, 2012; and that she would explain the situation to Phil Spector. Rachelle Spector flies back to California for her allowed once a month visit on that date, and Rachelle explains to Phil what Darlene Love is saying. Phil Spector tells his wife that Darlene Love did not record a track of DDRR; that Darlene Love never sang background; and that Darlene Love was never a Crystal. Phil told Rachelle that he thought Darlene Love’s voice was too mature and gospely for DDRR and never considered Darlene at all for the song. Rachelle called La La Brooks that day and told her what she found out from Phil Spector.

In an interview with La La Brooks by Songfacts, she talked about recording this song:

When I went to the studio to do ‘Da Doo Ron Ron,’ Phil had taught me the song. When I walked in the studio, all the musicians were there, and after they finished putting down the track, I sat there for hours. Me and Cher went out to get something to eat. We come back, they’re still putting down the track. All of the sudden, when the track is finished, Phil says, ‘La La, go in the booth and put down the song now.’ I went in there, put down the song. I had trouble with (singing) ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ I had trouble with that because he liked my ending, because it was my ending in my head, and he said, ‘I want that again.’ I had to double it, and it was hard for me to double it, because I couldn’t get together with the ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,’ and then (in lower voice), ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ It was confusing. He said, ‘La La, try it again.’ And that’s how we recorded it.

La La Brooks also recalled the recording of the song to Mojo magazine November 2011:

I sang Da Doo Ron Ron over and over. Phil was sort of a perfectionist with that one. And I remember being pooped in the studio (laughs). I wanted to run out that door so fast but he kept going over and over. Thirty, 40 takes. I would say, “When are you gonna get it, you know?”

To best sum this all up, Michael H. Little put it well:

In closing, I will reiterate; trying to untangle the incestuous threads that tied the recording histories of the girl groups of the early sixties together is an exercise in frustration, if not outright futility. Producers used band names and considered band members interchangeable, so that I’m still not convinced, for example, that the Crystals ever recorded a version of Darlene Love’s “Today I Met the Boy I’m Gonna Marry.” Lala Brooks recorded a version; could this be the one credited to the Crystals? I don’t know. What I do know is that in a world where “He’s a Rebel” is still credited as a Crystals’ song, anything is possible. Me, I think the Crystals deserve a hallowed place in the rock pantheon for “Then He Kissed Me” alone. It makes me swoon, and not many songs can do that. As for the rest, I’ll let the serious rock historians ferret out the truth. I simply don’t have the patience.

In 2004, the Crystals’ song was ranked number 114 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”. It was, however, removed from the same list in the 2010 update, being the highest-ranked of the 27 songs that were removed. It was listed at number 528 by Q Magazine in their list of “The 1001 Best Songs Ever”, published in 2003. Berlin Media listed the song at number 43 on their list of “The 100 Best Singles of All Time” list published in 1998. It was also recognized by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the “500 Songs That Shaped Rock”. Billboard named the song #55 on their list of “100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time”. The song has been recorded by many, including but not limited to, Mike Love of the Beach Boys (as well as The Beach Boys themselves), Bette Midler, The Searchers, and bootlegged studio recordings by Bob Dylan, and The Rolling Stones.

Hits: 52

Running just 1:38 this is the shortest song ever to hit #1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100. But “Stay” is exactly as long as it needs to be. It’s fast and grimy and irresistible, firing off hooks in all directions and then ending as soon as it started. Despite it’s brevity, it still tells a story and while Williams sang the first part of this song, the soaring falsetto that overtakes him was group member Shane Gaston. That section is a huge part of the song’s success and lends itself well to falsetto singers.

This was written by Williams in 1953 when he was 15 years old at his home in Lancaster, South Carolina. He had a beautiful 15-year-old girl over, but it was 10 O’clock at night, and he tried to convince her to stay. He lost the argument, but as he was to relate years later, “Like a flood, the words just came to me.” Her parents were very strict about her curfew, so Williams could only watch as her brother picked her up and drove off.

In 1960, the song was put on a demo by Williams and his band, the Zodiacs. Maurice Williams’ first experience with music was in the church, where his mother and sister both performed. By the time he was six, Williams was performing regularly there. With his childhood friend Earl Gainey, Williams formed the gospel group the Junior Harmonizers. As rock and roll and doo-wop became their primary interest, the Junior Harmonizers changed their name to the Royal Charms. Williams finished high school and while on the road with the band, their station wagon broke down in Bluefield, West Virginia. The band came across a British-built Ford car known as the Zodiac and changed their name. Shortly thereafter, Henry Gaston replaced Earl Gainey.

In the spring of 1959, Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs performed at the University of South Carolina in Columbia, South Carolina. Around that time, the group split and reformed. The members were Williams, Gaston, Wiley Bennett, and Charles Thomas. Later, Little Willie Morrow and Albert Hill were added. One month later, in the early summer of 1959, the band recorded in a Quonset Hut on Shakespeare Road in Columbia. The recording engineer, Homer Fesperman, recorded several tracks that the band had hoped would fetch them a hit. One of the last tracks that they recorded that day was “Stay”.

The group barely dented the Billboard Hot 100 after “Stay”. Their only other entries were “Come Along” (#83) and “Here In My Heart” (#86), both in 1961. The only other hit for Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs was the Williams-written song “Little Darlin'” which was a #11 hit on the R&B chart in 1957, but did not break into the Billboard Hot 100‘s Top 40. However, when it was covered by the Canadian group the Diamonds, it moved up to #2. That recording also capitalized on a falsetto hook and a bass-spoken verse, an oft used feature of Doo-Wop at the time.

There have been numerous covers, including versions by The Four Seasons, Jackson Browne (a much longer version), and The Hollies. “Stay” was also featured in 1978 movie “Dirty Dancing”, which also increased the song’s popularity.

The Four Seasons version was first released on their June 1963 album “The 4 Seasons Sing Ain’t That a Shame and 11 Others”; it was later released as a single in December 1963. Vee Jay originally released it as the B-side of “Peanuts” in December, but when disc jockeys started to “turn the single over” to play “Stay” on the air, the record company superseded the single with a new one with “Stay” as the A-side and “Goodnight My Love” as the new B-side. It peaked at number 16 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in April.

In August 1963, the song was released by the Hollies on their debut album “Stay With The Hollies”, and then took it to number eight in the UK Singles Chart. Their version is slightly longer, adding a guitar solo, and wastes no time getting started.

A version of the song with revised lyrics is the last track on Jackson Browne’s 1977 album “Running on Empty”. The song, which follows on the heels of Browne’s “The Load-Out” begs the audience to stay for an encore and includes an extensive playout. It includes backing contributions from David Lindley and Rosemary Butler. Browne, Butler and Lindley each contribute a similar verse in turn in ascending vocal ranges. It was released as a single and reached number 20 in the U.S. as well as number 12 in the UK.

Maurice Williams continued recording, touring, and releasing music through the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He is still active in the music industry, residing in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010. He also made several performances for the PBS “Doo Wop 50” show series in 2001.

Hits: 86

With its Eastern-sounding, feedback-laden guitar solo and anti-war/pro-environmental lyrics, several music writers have identified it as the first popular psychedelic rock song. It is built on musical elements contributed by several group members in three different recording studios in the US and was the first Yardbirds’ composition to become a record chart hit.

The song features Jeff Beck’s musical use of feedback, which he learned to control by finding the guitar’s resonant points and bending the strings. Music writers have called his work groundbreaking and cited its influence on Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. Several live Yardbirds recordings with Beck and later with Jimmy Page have been released. In 1968, Beck reworked it for the lead track on his debut album “Truth”, with Rod Stewart on vocals. According to Beck, vocalist Rod Stewart suggested that they record the song and Beck added, “let’s slow it down and make it dirty and evil” The new arrangement, along with other album tracks, has been described as a precursor of heavy metal.

By the end of 1965, the Yardbirds had released three albums and several singles. However, except for a few B-sides, their material was adapted from older blues and rhythm and blues songs or composed by songwriters not associated with the group. According to drummer Jim McCarty, the Yardbirds were experimenting with their sound, but had yet been unable to translate it into a hit song:

We were really coming from not trying to create a sort of a 3-minute piece of music, it was just something that seemed natural to us. We started with the rhythm, we used a bass riff that came from a jazz record, got a groove going with that and then added a few other bits from elsewhere, other ideas that we’d had. And I think it was a great success for us, it was a good hit record that wasn’t really selling out. And it was original.

Beck confirmed McCarty’s account and added, “Somebody’d say, ‘Let’s do something modern and exciting; we know we can get a good blues sound, so let’s spread it out a little bit.’ It was all spur of the moment, man”. Over two days at Chess Records, a backing track was completed and the Yardbirds continued their American concert tour. Shortly after arriving in Hollywood, the group resumed recording at Columbia studios on 7 January and at RCA studios on 10 January 1966. Singer Keith Relf contributed lyrics and a melody for the song.

Although Beck had been impressed with the Chess studio’s history and sound, he had been unable to complete a guitar solo to his satisfaction.

I kept changing guitar sounds all the way through. So we did two or three takes of my guitars and blended them all together. But the solo on “Shapes of Things” was pretty honest up until that feedback note that comes in over it”, he recalled. During the recording, “there was mass hysteria in the studio when I did that solo. They weren’t expecting it and it was just some weird mist coming from the East out of an amp. Giorgio was freaking out and dancing about like some tribal witch doctor.

Beck played the solo on one string , using a 1954 Fender Esquire guitar he had purchased before the tour. Relf also benefitted from multi-tracking—two vocal tracks were recorded, allowing him to harmonise the vocal line.

Yardbirds’ biographer Gregg Russo describes the song “a quantum leap in their development …[it] proved at once progressive and commercial—the perfect marriage of socially conscious lyrics and a driving rhythm”. Unterberger also saw the group moving into the area of social commentary that had begun with an earlier song, “You’re a Better Man Than I”. Beck biographer Martin Power describes the lyrics as pro-environmental or anti-war, while McCarty feels that it reflected the opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. The actual lyrics are subject to interpretation:

Now the trees are almost green
But will they still be seen
When time and tide have been
Fall into your passing hands
Please don’t destroy these lands
Don’t make them desert sands

“Shapes of Things” is credited to bassist Paul Samwell-Smith, Relf, and McCarty. Samwell-Smith, who is also listed as the song’s musical director, believed that Beck should have also received a composer’s credit for his contributions to the song’s development.

According to music writer Keith Shadwick, their arrangement follows a “simple and economical form that allowed its message to unfold naturally, inviting the sound enhancement at which Beck and bassist Paul Samwell-Smith were quickly becoming expert”. McCarty recalled that Samwell-Smith got an idea for a bass line from a song by jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck (identified as “Pick Up Sticks” from the 1959 “Time Out” album) to which he added a marching-style drum beat.

As they started to develop the rhythm, chords were added – “G and F, and then resolving it in D, each verse.” For the middle section guitar solo, the beat shifts into double-time and the instrumentation heightens the tension. This rhythmic device, originally used in jazz improvisation, was the Yardbirds’ signature arrangement. Dubbed a “rave-up”, it was a feature of several of their songs.

A key feature of the song is Beck’s innovative guitar playing. Shadwick comments it “suited Beck’s taste for shaping and sculpting guitar sounds through the control and manipulation of sustain and, on occasion, feedback”. Beck recalled he began incorporating feedback into his guitar solos after he realised that he could control it, adding “I started finding the resonant points on the neck where it came in best. I loved it because it was a most peculiar sound that contrasted wildly with a plucked string, this round trombone-like noise coming from nowhere. In addition to feedback, Beck’s uses a musical scale and bent notes variously described as Eastern, Indian, or raga sounding. Critics and biographers have called the solo “monumental[ly] fuzz-drenched”, “explosively warped”, and “climaxed with a solitary, gigantic burst of feedback”. For many, the song represents the Yardbirds’ creative peak, including Beck. He commented, “‘Shapes of Things’ was the pinnacle of the Yardbirds” and added “if I did nothing else, that was the best single”.

When Jimmy Page supplanted Beck in the Yardbirds, they continued playing this song in their live sets.

“Shapes of Things” is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. Q magazine placed the song at number 61 in its March 2005 list of the “100 Greatest Guitar Tracks Ever!”. Several artists have recorded renditions of the song, including David Bowie, Jeff Healey, Nazareth, Rush, and the Scorpions, with Led Zeppelin occasionally including a portion of the song in medleys during early concert performances.

Hits: 42

Prior to recording for Vee-Jay Records, John Lee Hooker was primarily a solo performer or accompanied by a second guitarist, such as early collaborators Eddie Burns or Eddie Kirkland. However, with Vee-Jay, he usually recorded with a small backing band, as heard on the singles “Dimples”, “I Love You Honey”, and “No Shoes”. Detroit pianist Joe Hunter, who had previously worked with Hooker, was again enlisted for the recording session. Hunter brought with him “the cream of the Motown label’s session men, later known as the Funk Brothers”: bassist James Jamerson, drummer Benny Benjamin, plus guitarist Larry Veeder, tenor saxophonist Hank Cosby, and baritone saxophonist Andrew “Mike” Terry. They have been described as “just the right band” for “Boom Boom”. Hooker had a unique sense of timing, which demanded “big-eared sidemen”.

Even playing solo, John Lee shows why this song has become a Blues-Rock standard.

Hooker told Bruce Pollock how the song originated:

I used to play at this place called the Apex Bar in Detroit. There was a young lady there named Luilla. She was a bartender there. I would come in there at night and I’d never be on time. Every night the band would beat me there. Sometimes they’d be on the bandstand playing by the time I got there. I’d always be late and whenever I’d come in she’d point at me and say, ‘Boom Boom, you’re late again.’ And she kept saying that. It dawned on me that that was a good name for a song. Then one night she said, ‘Boom boom, I’m gonna shoot you down.’ She gave me a song but she didn’t know it.

I took that thing and I hummed it all the way home from the bar. At night I went to bed and I was still thinking of it. I got up the next day and put one and one together, two and two together, trying to piece it out -- taking things out, putting things in. I finally got it down right, got it together, got it down in my head. Then I went and sang it, and everybody went, Wow! Then I didn’t do it no more, not in the bar. I figured somebody would grab it before I got it copyrighted. So I sent it to Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, and I got it copyrighted. After I got it copyrighted I could do it in the bar. So then if anybody got the idea to do it I had them by the neck, because I had it copyrighted. About two months later I recorded it. I was on Vee-Jay then. And the record shot straight to the top. Then, after I did it, the Animals turned around and did it. That barmaid felt pretty good. She went around telling everybody I got John Lee to write that song. I gave her some bread for it, too, so she was pretty happy.

The song is one of Hooker’s most identifiable and enduring and “among the tunes that every band on the early 1960s UK R&B circuit simply had to play”. Just three years after Hooker released “Boom Boom,” it got swept up in the British Invasion when London rockers the Animals took it on. Their version reached an audience that might never have heard Mississippi-born bluesmen like Hooker, and it helped cement the song’s place as a blues-rock classic.

“Boom Boom” was the first studio recording by Eric Clapton, who recorded it as a demo with the Yardbirds in 1963, and which was released as a single in the Netherlands and Germany in 1966.

When “Boom Boom” was released by Hooker as a single in May 1962, the song became a hit. It entered the Billboard R&B chart on June 16, 1962, where it spent eight weeks and reached number 16. The song also entered the Billboard Hot 100, where it reached number 60, making it one of only two Hooker singles to enter the pop chart. It was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”. It was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2009 in the “Classics of Blues Recording” category. A Detroit Free Press poll in 2016 ranked the song at number 37 in “Detroit’s 100 Greatest Songs”.

Hits: 16

This song, and the band itself, has a rather convoluted history that Mark S. Weitz, who was the original keyboard player of the Strawberry Alarm Clock, helped sort out. Prior to the release of “Incense and Peppermints” the Strawberry Alarm Clock had already issued four singles on All-American Records under the name Thee Sixpence. None of those charted, even though they did a version of “Hey Joe”. “Hey Joe” was copyrighted in 1962 by folk singer Billy Roberts and has been recorded by many artists including the Standells, the Surfaris, the Byrds, and of course Jimi Hendrix.

Weitz says:

It went from Thee Sixpence right into the Strawberry Alarm Clock. I was instrumental in coming up with the name. I borrowed the Strawberry from Strawberry Fields Forever and then right down to the noisy Baby Ben electric alarm clock (in my bedroom/guest house where we used to rehearse) that we hooked up with name Strawberry to come up with the new name. We were asked by [producer] Frank Slay to come up with a new name because when we did a name check to clear it for label printing, Thee Sixpence was already used somewhere by another band at the time and there would be too much confusion.

The writing credits of “Incense and Peppermints” are listed as John Carter and Tim Gilbert, who were not part of the band, and based on an instrumental idea by band members Mark Weitz and Ed King, the group’s guitarist. (In 1970, an unknown band called Lynyrd Skynyrd opened some shows for The Strawberry Alarm Clock, and King got to know them. In 1973 King joined Skynyrd on guitar, ultimately writing the riff for “Sweet Home Alabama”).

Weitz gave this account of how the song was written:

I came up with the idea and actual music to the then untitled song that ultimately evolved into the #1 national hit, ‘Incense and Peppermints.’ I wrote the intro (the oriental sounding riff), the verses, and the ending (the major sevenths) while Ed King, at my request for some help on completing the song, co-wrote the bridge (the F # part) and of course the lead guitar parts. At the time when the music was recorded at Art Laboe’s ‘Original Sounds’ studio in Hollywood, there was only a temporary title to the song, and lyrics had not yet been written. Our producer Frank Slay decided to send the fully mixed music track (recorded on 8 tracks of mono!) to John Carter; a member of the band The Rainy Daze, who Slay also produced at the time. John Carter was solely responsible for conjuring up the lyrics and the controversial melody line extracted out of the finished musical track. Frank Slay ultimately credited that melody line solely to the writing team of John Carter and Tim Gilbert. To this day, they have received 100% of the royalties.

The lead vocalist on this track was also not a member of the group. It was Greg Munford, a 16-year-old singer with a group called The Shapes, who sang lead. Bassist/rhythm guitarist George Bunnell explained:

That’s a whole other ridiculous story. One of those things where nobody thinks that at the moment, what you’re doing is going to be successful. The song wasn’t fitting anybody. Greg Munford happened to just be sitting there in the session, and Greg also had the same manager and producer. He was doing his own project simultaneously. They asked him to try it, and it was right in his wheelhouse. So he did it and it was exactly how you hear it. He was not in the band, and then the song started to have success. Then they asked Greg Munford if he wanted to be in the band and he didn’t. He had his own thing.

King, Weitz, guitarist Lee Freeman, bassist Gary Levetro, drummer Randy Seol were relegated to playing the instruments and singing harmonies and backup vocals. Steve Bartek, a non-member at the time, played flute on the song. Levetro left the group shortly after recording the song with Bunnell taking over on bass.

When the band did the song live, drummer Randy Seol sang the lead vocal — or lip-synched to Munford’s vocal on television appearances (as in the opening video of this article). According to George Bunnell, they were trying to sound British when they sang this, but their fake English accents ended up sounding trippy, which ended up working very well.

A good example of the genre that came to be known as “Psychedelic” music, which was very popular at the time. Many of these songs had a drug influence, and that may have been the case here. Says Weitz:

When the music was written by myself in early ’67 at my home in Van Nuys California, with my request for some help on the bridge of the song from Ed King, it was mid day, and no drugs were involved whatsoever. I came up with this musical idea and chord progressions that evolved that afternoon in a short time to what basically was recorded with some minimal editing to cut down the almost 5 minute original down to 3 minutes and change. As for the lyrics, that was the brainchild of John Carter. And there are many stories to how he came about those lyrics, but I can’t substantiate any of it.

Originally released as the B-side with “The Birdman of Alkatrash” released as the A-side by All-American Records, before long disc jockeys had discovered the B-side and began playing it on the radio instead. MCA Records also heard it and decided to pick up the distribution, re-releasing the single in May 1967 on its Uni subsidiary. It took a while, but “Incense and Peppermints” finally entered the singles chart at the end of September. By the week ending Nov. 18, it had reached #1, and became 1967’s #23 biggest hit overall.

Although they are known largely as a one-hit wonder today, Strawberry Alarm Clock stuck around long enough to place three further singles on the chart. Their “Incense and Peppermints” album itself rose to #11 largely on the strength of the hit single. They constantly underwent lineup changes during its brief reign — Steve Bartek and George Bunnell, a guitarist and bassist, joined the group after the “Incense” sessions and the latter became one of the group’s main songwriters. The group managed to release three further albums into 1969, none of which cracked the chart.

As of 2017 Strawberry Alarm Clock, with most of the 1967 members, were still performing.

Hits: 145

The origins of the melody appear to be strongly claimed by the Russians, and Russian gypsies consider it their song. The name of this song seems to be “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu” and translated means “By a long road (or way)” or “Along a long road (or way)” or “On a long way”. It was written by two Russian composers -- B. Fomin (music) and K. Podrevsky (lyrics) at the end of the 19th century or in the beginning of 20th century. As a little boy, Boris Fomin already showed his musical talent. In 1918 his family moved to Moscow where Boris Fomin lived till his early death in 1948.

In 1919 during Russia Civil War Boris Fomin volunteered to the front and besides being a soldier he was also giving concerts on the front lines. When he came back to Moscow, he tried himself in different genres but the genre of romance appealed the most to his talent. He wrote many famous romances and “Dorogoi Dlinnoyu” (“By the Long Road”) is one of them. According to some sources, the first version of the song lyrics was written by Boris Fomin himself for his love and future wife Mania Nebolsina and was very personal. Konstantin Podrevsky modified the lyrics giving the song a wider scale and meaning. The year of 1924 is considered to be the official date when the song was born, but it was released unofficially several years earlier.

The earliest known version was recorded in 1926, in the original Russian lyrics, by Tamara Tsereteli.

The Russian lyrics were completely different than the English lyrics  that were written for the melody later.

(We) rode on a three-horses carriage (troika) with sleigh bells,
And in the distance lights flickered.
If only I could follow you now
I would dispel the grief in my soul!

Refrain: By the long road, in the moony night,
And with that song that flies far away, ringing,
And with that ancient, seven-stringed (meaning guitar),
That used to torment me by nights.

But it turned out our song was futile,
In vain we burned night after night.
If we have finished with the old,
Then those nights have also left us!

Out into our native land by new paths,
We have to go now!
…(WE) rode on a troika with sleigh bells,
But long since passed by!

In the early 1960s Gene Raskin, with his wife Francesca, played folk music around Greenwich Village in New York, including the White Horse Tavern. Raskin, who had grown up hearing the song, wrote, with his wife, new English lyrics to the old Russian music in 1962 and then copyrighted both music and lyrics in his own name. The Raskins were international performers and had played London’s Folk music venue Blue Angel every year, always closing their show with the song. The song was eventually recorded in over twenty languages and by many different artists, including Gene and Francesca.

The Limeliters subsequently released a recording of the song on their 1962 LP “Folk Matinee”.

Paul McCartney frequented the Blue Angel club, and being quite taken with the song, he attempted to get several singers or groups (including the early Moody Blues) to record it. Failing at that, after the formation of the Beatles’ own Apple Records label, McCartney immediately recorded Mary Hopkin performing the song.

Hopkin’s recording was produced by Paul McCartney. The Russian origin of the melody was accentuated by an instrumentation that was unusual for a top-ten pop record, including balalaika, clarinet, hammered dulcimer, tenor banjo and children’s chorus, giving a klezmer (a musical tradition of the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe) feel to the song. Mary Hopkin played acoustic guitar on the recording, and Paul McCartney also played acoustic guitar and possibly percussion. The hammered dulcimer, or cimbalom, was played by Gilbert Webster. It is unknown who played the banjo though McCartney is known to be a banjoist.

In 1968, British model Twiggy telephoned McCartney about a singer who performed on the UK TV program “Opportunity Knocks” (the US had a similar TV show in the ’90s -- “Star Search”). Three-time winner Mary Hopkin was a 17-year-old from Wales who had people talking about her performances. McCartney returned to London and auditioned Hopkin. He was impressed by her voice and recommended that she record “an American folk song” that he heard a few years earlier, “Those Were the Days.” Versions of the song were also recorded in Spanish, French, Italian and German by Hopkin and McCartney. John Lennon’s first wife, Cynthia, also recorded a version.

Mary Hopkins recording of “Those Were the Days” was catalogue number APPLE 2. It was the second single to be released on the Apple label, the first — “Hey Jude” by the Beatles — had retained the sequential catalogue numbers used by Parlophone (in the UK) and Capitol (in the US). “Those Were the Days” became a number one hit on the UK Singles Chart. The song also reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, behind The Beatles’ hit “Hey Jude”. In France the song was at no. 1 in the very first edition of the foreign singles sales chart launched by the Centre d’Information et de Documentation du Disque in October 1968.

Hits: 10

This often covered classic evolved from a number of artists and songwriters. It is notable as the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The single achieved this position in late 1961; it hit number one on the R&B chart as well. “Please Mr. Postman” became a number-one hit again in early 1975 when the Carpenters’ cover of the song reached the top position of the Billboard Hot 100.

The song began it’s life the fall of 1960 when the group that would become the Marvelettes formed at Inkster High School in Inkster, Michigan by fifteen-year-old glee club member Gladys Horton. Horton enlisted older glee club members Katherine Anderson, Georgeanna Tillman, Juanita Cowart, and Georgia Dobbins (already a high school graduate) to join her. The members struggled to come up with a name for their new act until one of the members jokingly took a stab at their own singing abilities, saying “we can’t sing yet.” Horton altered the saying to “The Casinyets”.

In 1961, the quintet, now called the Marvels, entered a talent show contest on the behest of their teacher and ended up finishing in fourth place. Though only the first three winners were offered a trip to audition for the fledgling Motown label, two of the girls’ schoolteachers advised that they be allowed to audition too. Upon auditioning for Motown executives including Brian Holland and Robert Bateman, they had a second audition with bigger staff including Smokey Robinson and the label president and founder, Berry Gordy, who while impressed with their vocal styles advised them to come back with their own composition. Returning to Inkster, Georgia Dobbins contacted a local musician named William Garrett, who had an unfinished blues composition titled “Please Mr. Postman”; Garrett allowed Dobbins to use it as long as he received songwriting credit if the song became a hit. Despite having no previous songwriting experience, Dobbins took the song home, kept only the title as inspiration, and reshaped it overnight to reflect the teenage sound of doo-wop.

I was waiting for the postman to bring me a letter from this guy who was in the Navy. That’s how I came up with the lyrics. Then I made up the tune. I just hummed it over and over and changed it to the way it should be. I improvised.

Songwriting credits for “Please Mr. Postman” seem to have changed over the years. The original Tamla 45 single for the Marvelettes’ version credits “Dobbins/Garrett/Brianbert” as the songwriters, and credits “Brianbert” (Brian Holland and Robert Bateman) as producer. The original “With the Beatles” album cover credited it to just Brian Holland. The 1976 Beatles discography book “All Together Now” credits the songwriting to Holland, Bateman, and Berry Gordy (who frequently required credit even when he had nothing to do with a songs creation). The 1992 Motown boxed set “Hitsville USA: The Motown Singles Collection” credits Dobbins, Garrett, Holland, Bateman, and Gorman as the composers. The Songwriters Hall of Fame credits “Please Mr. Postman” to just Holland, Bateman, and Gorman. EMI Music Publishing, the current music publisher of the song, list all five writers in their catalog.

Prior to returning to Motown, Georgia Dobbins left the group due to her growing family and her father, who advised her not to continue her career in show business. Dobbins’ departure left Gladys Horton in full charge of the group. To replace her, Horton asked another Inkster graduate, Wanda Young, to replace Dobbins. When the group returned and performed their composition, Berry Gordy agreed to work with the group but under the advice that they change their name. Gordy renamed them The Marvelettes and signed the act to Motown’s Tamla division in July 1961. The following month, the group recorded “Please Mr. Postman”, which was polished by Brian Holland, Robert Bateman and Freddie Gorman, another songwriting partner of Holland (before Holland became part of the Holland–Dozier–Holland team), who moonlighted as a mailman, as well as the song “So Long Baby”, sung by Wanda. Tamla issued “Please Mr. Postman” on August 21, 1961. The song then climbed to the top of the singles chart, reaching #1 that December. making them the first Motown act to have a #1 hit on the Hot 100.

The backing artists on the record were the Motown session musicians, the famous Funk Brothers, including a 22 year-old Marvin Gaye on drums.

The song’s second milestone – after its climb to the top of the Billboard charts – was when John, Paul, George and Ringo chose it for their second U.K. album, “With The Beatles”. The group had already put the song into their live set, performing it regularly at the Cavern Club; then it became one of three Motown covers recorded for that 1963 album, delivered to an even wider audience worldwide than the original. Sung by John Lennon, they played it at many of their early concerts. The song was one of three Motown cuts, along with “You’ve Really Got A Hold On Me” and “Money (That’s What I Want)” that The Beatles released on the Beatles’ second album. Motown head Berry Gordy agreed to a lower rate for use of the songs, as he was thrilled to have The Beatles recording tracks from his roster.

The third accomplishment for the song occurred when a hit cover of “Please Mr. Postman” was recorded by the Carpenters, whose version took the song again to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in early 1975. The Carpenters’ version resembles an old 1950s rock & roll song. The single was released in late 1974, reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Easy Listening charts in January 1975, and was the duo’s 10th and final million-selling single.

Due to their success, the Marvelettes had to leave school in order to perform and despite the promise of tutors to help with their schooling, they were never granted any. Due to their young ages and Gladys Horton being an orphaned ward of the courts, they eventually were taken in by Esther Gordy Edwards, who bused them to Motortown Revue shows. After several successful Top 40 recordings the group was shortened to a quartet when Juanita Cowart opted to leave the band citing a mental breakdown -- caused by stress from performing on the road and a mistake she made in describing the group’s background during an appearance on American Bandstand.

By 1964, the majority of American vocal groups, especially all female bands such as the Shirelles and the Ronettes, started struggling with finding a hit after the arrival of British pop and rock acts. In the meantime, other Motown girl groups such as Martha and the Vandellas and the Supremes were starting to get promoted by Motown staff with the Vandellas becoming the top girl group of 1963. By the end of 1964, Georgeanna Tillman, a longtime sufferer of sickle cell anemia was diagnosed with lupus. By early 1965, struggling to keep up with their stringent recording sessions and touring schedules and her illnesses, a doctor of Tillman’s advised her to leave performing for good. The rest of the Marvelettes carried on as a trio from then on.

Late in 1970 the group disbanded with Katherine Anderson settling briefly as a staff writer for Motown. After Motown moved to Los Angeles in 1972, Anderson and Rogers left the business altogether returning to Michigan with Anderson settling in her hometown of Inkster while Rogers moved to Southfield, Michigan. Meanwhile, Gladys Horton had moved to Los Angeles where she raised her three sons. Over the years since, there has been a few groups touring under the name the Marvelettes, but they contained no original members.

In 1995, they were honored with the Pioneer Award at the Rhythm & Blues Foundation. In 2004, the group was inducted to the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. In 2005, the group was awarded with two gold plaques for their biggest hits, “Please Mr. Postman” and “Don’t Mess with Bill” after the RIAA had certified the singles as million-sellers. In 2007, the Marvelettes were voted into the Michigan Rock and Roll Legends Hall of Fame. The Marvelettes were nominated for 2013 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They became eligible for induction in 1987. Although they did not garner enough votes for induction, they made the ballot a second time for induction in the year 2015.

Hits: 18

“Good Vibrations” was composed by Brian Wilson with words by Mike Love. Characterized by its complex soundscapes, its episodic structure, and its subversions of pop music formula, it was the most costly single ever recorded at the time of its release. “Good Vibrations” later became widely acclaimed as one of the greatest masterpieces of rock music. Most of the song was developed as it was recorded. Its title derived from Wilson’s fascination with cosmic vibrations, after his mother once told him as a child that dogs sometimes bark at people in response to their “bad vibrations”. He used the concept to suggest extrasensory perception, while Love’s lyrics were inspired by the Flower Power movement that was then burgeoning in Southern California.

The making of “Good Vibrations” was unprecedented for any kind of recording, with a total production cost estimated between $50,000 and $75,000 (equivalent to $370,000 and $550,000 in 2016). Building upon the multi-layered approach he had formulated with the “Pet Sounds” album, Wilson recorded the song in different sections at four Hollywood studios from February to September 1966, resulting in a cut-up mosaic of several musical episodes marked by disjunctive key and modal shifts. Band publicist Derek Taylor dubbed the unusual work a “pocket symphony”. It contained previously untried mixes of instruments, including jaw harp and Electro-Theremin, and it was the first pop hit to have a cello playing juddering rhythms.

Virtually every pop music critic recognizes “Good Vibrations” as one of the most important compositions and recordings of the entire rock era, and it is regularly hailed as one of the finest pop productions of all time. For the song, Wilson is credited with further developing the use of the recording studio as an instrument, as Phil Spector had pioneered. Both were advocates of recording in mono instead of stereo. The single revolutionized rock music from live concert performances to studio productions which could only exist on record, heralding a wave of pop experimentation and the onset of psychedelic and progressive rock. Although it does not technically feature a theremin, it is frequently cited for having one, which led to the instrument’s revival and to an increased interest in analog synthesizers.

The Beach Boys leader, Brian Wilson, was responsible for the musical composition and virtually all of the arrangement for “Good Vibrations”. His cousin and bandmate Mike Love contributed the song’s lyrics and its bass vocalization in the chorus. During the recording sessions for the 1966 album “Pet Sounds”, Wilson began changing his writing process. Rather than going to the studio with a completed song, he would record a track containing a series of chord changes he liked, take an acetate disc home, and then compose the song’s melody and write its lyrics. For “Good Vibrations”, Wilson said

I had a lot of unfinished ideas, fragments of music I called ‘feels.’ Each feel represented a mood or an emotion I’d felt, and I planned to fit them together like a mosaic.

Most of the song’s structure and arrangement was written as it was  recorded. Engineer Chuck Britz is quoted saying that Wilson considered the song to be “his whole life performance in one track”. Wilson stated:

I was an energetic 23-year-old. … I said: ‘This is going to be better than [the Phil Spector production] “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'”.

Brian said that the song was inspired by his mother:

[She] used to tell me about vibrations. I didn’t really understand too much of what it meant when I was just a boy. It scared me, the word ‘vibrations.’ She told me about dogs that would bark at people and then not bark at others, that a dog would pick up vibrations from these people that you can’t see, but you can feel.

Brian first enlisted Pet Sounds lyricist Tony Asher for help in putting words to the idea. When Brian presented the song on piano, Asher thought that it had an interesting premise with the potential for hit status, but could not fathom the end result due to Brian’s primitive piano playing style. Asher remembers:

Brian was playing what amounts to the hook of the song: ‘Good, good, good, good vibrations.’ He started telling me the story about his mother. … He said he’d always thought that it would be fun to write a song about vibes and picking them up from other people. … So as we started to work, he played this little rhythmic pattern—a riff on the piano, the thing that goes under the chorus.

Brian wanted to call the song “Good Vibes”, but Asher advised that it was “lightweight use of the language”, suggesting that “Good Vibrations” would sound less “trendy”. The two proceeded to write a lyric for the verses, later to be discarded, in what was then the most basic section of the song.

Wilson thought of the theremin as “a woman’s voice or a violin bow on a carpenter’s saw”. From the start, Wilson envisioned a theremin for the track. AllMusic reviewer John Bush pointed out: “Radio listeners could easily pick up the link between the title and the obviously electronic riffs sounding in the background of the chorus, but Wilson’s use of the theremin added another delicious parallel—between the single’s theme and its use of an instrument the player never even touched.” “Good Vibrations” does not technically feature a theremin, but rather an Electro-Theremin, which is physically controlled by a knob on the side of the instrument. It was dubbed a “theremin” simply for convenience. Britz speculates: “He just walked in and said, ‘I have this new sound for you.’ I think he must have heard the sound somewhere and loved it, and built a song around it.” Brian has credited his brother and bandmate Carl for suggesting the cello as an instrument to use. He also stated that its triplet beat on the chorus was his own idea.

Mike Love submitted the final lyrics for “Good Vibrations”, claiming to have written them on the drive to the studio. Love reacted upon hearing the unfinished backing track:

[It] was already so avant-garde, especially with the theremin, I wondered how our fans were going to relate to it. How’s this going to go over in the Midwest or Birmingham? It was such a departure from ‘Surfin’ U.S.A.’ or “Help Me, Rhonda”.

Feeling that the song could be “the Beach Boys’ psychedelic anthem or flower power offering”, he based the lyrics on the burgeoning psychedelic music and Flower Power movements occurring in San Francisco and some parts of the Los Angeles area. He described the lyrics as “just a flowery poem. Kind of almost like ‘If you’re going to San Francisco be sure to wear flowers in your hair.'”

Capitol Records executives were worried that the lyrics contained psychedelic overtones, and Brian was accused of having based the song’s production on his LSD experiences. Brian clarified that the song was written under the influence of marijuana, not LSD. He explained:

I made ‘Good Vibrations’ on drugs; I used drugs to make that. … I learned how to function behind drugs, and it improved my brain … it made me more rooted in my sanity.

In Steven Gaines’s 1986 biography, Wilson is quoted on the lyrics: “We talked about good vibrations with the song and the idea, and we decided on one hand that you could say … those are sensual things. And then you’d say, ‘I’m picking up good vibrations,’ which is a contrast against the sensual, the extrasensory perception that we have. That’s what we’re really talking about.”

“Good Vibrations” was voted number one in the Mojo’s “Top 100  Records of All Time” and number six on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time”, and it was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the recording the song.

Hits: 19

The Cascades were born in 1960 aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR-8; a ship home-ported in San Diego and when overseas, in Sasebo, Japan. This group, then known to many of the servicemen and the local inhabitants as The Silver Strands were playing at local venues all around town. Their friend, John Gummoe, also aboard the Jason was their biggest fan and soon began acting as their manager. John had the band playing 5 nights a week before long and had also been working up some duets with Dave Wilson which the group eventually had David and John do on stage as part of their performance. This was the beginning of a group which would soon go on to be The Cascades (inspired by a box of dishwashing detergent) and they would eventually have this third largest selling record in the world in 1963.

After a short time, they changed their name to The Thundernotes. A few members left the group, Gummoe joined as lead singer, and the others were Eddie Snyder (guitar), David Szabo (keyboards), Dave Stevens (bass) and Dave Wilson (drums). While their first recordings were mostly instrumentals, they were influenced by the Beach Boys, and became more interested in vocal harmony.

“Rhythm of the Rain” was written by John Gummoe, who told the story in October 2008:

I wrote “Rhythm of the Rain” over a period of time, but the lyrics began while I was serving in the U.S. Navy aboard the U.S.S. Jason AR8. I was standing a mid watch on the bridge while we were underway to Japan. We were sailing up in the north pacific and it was raining heavily and the seas were tossing. The title came to me first and I liked the ‘ring’ of it, the way it flowed, and that night I wrote down most of the lyrics. It was like the rain was talking. It was producer Barry De Vorzon who came up with the idea of opening the song with that famous burst of thunder.

This was recorded at Gold Star Studios in Los Angeles, with engineer Stan Ross who was the technical know-how behind the famous Phil Spector “wall of sound”. Some of the elite west coast studio musicians played on this song, including the legendary session drummer Hal Blaine and guitarist Glen Campbell. The song arrangement features distinctive use of a celesta, which looks similar to an upright piano, albeit with smaller keys and a much smaller cabinet. The keys connect to hammers that strike a graduated set of metal (usually steel) plates or bars suspended over wooden resonators, and produces a sound that is similar to that of the glockenspiel, but with a much softer and more subtle timbre.

The Cascades continued to record, produced an album and several additional singles, but did not match the charm or success of their big hit. The group was active, played local San Diego clubs like The Cinnamon Cinder, and at other times, toured widely. In 1967, The Cascades appeared onscreen in the Crown International Pictures teen comedy adventure film, Catalina Caper, which included their version of a song written by Ray Davies of the Kinks, “There’s A New World Opening For Me.”

Gummoe left the group in 1967 to pursue a solo career and later formed the band Kentucky Express. The Cascades stayed together until about 1975 and Dave Wilson and Eddy Snyder were still a part of the group when it disbanded. Eddy continues to tour the west as Eddy Preston doing a “one man band” show in many popular resorts. David Wilson, the original drummer lives in the north-west U.S. with his wife, Terri. John Gummoe lives in southern California and continues to compose and record in his own home studio.

Hundreds of artists have covered this song, including Lawrence Welk, Bobby Darin, Dan Fogelberg, Jan & Dean, Gary Lewis & the Playboys, Neil Sedaka and Jerry Jeff Walker. A huge worldwide hit, BMI named “Rhythm of the Rain” the 9th most performed song of the 20th century. In March, 1963, the song was a top 5 hit in the United Kingdom and, in May that same year, was a number 1 single in Ireland. In Canada, the song was on the CHUM Chart for a total of 12 weeks and reached number 1 in March 1963. Billboard ranked the record as the number 4 song of 1963.

Hits: 16

The first thing to notice about this song is the question mark in the title. Written and performed by Traffic guitarist and sitarist Dave Mason, he explained:

Basically it’s an unrequited love song. It’s ‘feeling alright’ with a question mark; the song’s really about not feeling too good about myself – I wasn’t feeling alright! That was what it was about.

In fact, this wasn’t even one of Traffic’s highest charting hits. It took Joe Cocker covering it to get a higher placing on the charts. It was released as a single by Traffic, and it reached #123 on the US charts but failed to chart in the UK. Joe Cocker’s version reached #69 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and in a 1972 re-release, it reached even higher to #33.

When Traffic was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, they performed this song with a few friends. Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill of ZZ Top, Keith Richards, Kid Rock, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, the Temptations, and Jeff Lynne.

It’s rather surprising, at least to me, that Traffic didn’t garner a wider audience considering the immense talent of each of the original members. It’s likely a result of them writing and performing the music the way they wanted to, instead of the commercial considerations of the record companies. Of course, they had to make a few concessions along the way, such as the title of this song. It was originally titled “Not Feelin’ Too Good Myself”, which is more accurate in terms of the song’s meaning, but less marketable.

Traffic was formed in Birmingham, England in April 1967 by Steve Winwood, Jim Capaldi, Chris Wood and Dave Mason. They began as a psychedelic rock group and diversified their sound through the use of instruments such as keyboards like the Mellotron and harpsichord, sitar, and various reed instruments, and by incorporating jazz and improvisational techniques in their music. They’ve been labelled as Jazz Rock and Progressive Rock, neither of which record companies believe they can make a large profit off of. Traffic still stands as an important and influential group in the evolution of rock.

Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Wood met when they jammed together at The Elbow Room, a club in Aston, Birmingham. After Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in April 1967, the quartet formed Traffic. Capaldi came up with the name of the group while the four of them were waiting to cross the street in Dorchester. Soon thereafter, they rented a cottage near the rural village of Aston Tirrold, Berkshire, England to write and rehearse new music.

Traffic signed to Island Records label (where Winwood’s elder brother Muff, also a member of the Spencer Davis Group, later became a record producer and executive), and their debut single “Paper Sun” became a UK hit in mid-1967 (#4 Canada).

Traffic’s singer, keyboardist, and guitarist Steve Winwood was the lead singer for the Spencer Davis Group at age 14. The Spencer Davis Group released four Top Ten singles and three Top Ten albums in the United Kingdom, as well as two Top Ten singles in the United States. Drummer/vocalist/lyricist Jim Capaldi and guitarist/sitarist Dave Mason had both been in the Hellions and Deep Feeling, while woodwinds player Chris Wood came out of Locomotive.

Early in Traffic’s formation, Winwood and Capaldi formed a songwriting partnership, with Winwood writing music to match Capaldi’s lyrics. This partnership was the source of most of Traffic’s material, including popular songs such as “Paper Sun” and “The Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys”, and outlived the band, producing several songs for Winwood and Capaldi’s solo albums.

Steve Winwood, primarily a vocalist and keyboardist, also plays the Hammond organ, bass guitar, drums, acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin, violin, and other strings. Over Traffic’s history, Winwood performed the majority of their lead vocals, keyboard instruments, and guitars. He also frequently played bass and percussion, up to and including the recording sessions for their fourth album. Winwood was a key member of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, Blind Faith, Go, and part of the one-off group Eric Clapton and the Powerhouse. He also had a successful solo career with hits including “While You See a Chance”, “Valerie”, “Back in the High Life Again” and two US Billboard Hot 100 number ones: “Higher Love” and “Roll with It”.

Jim Capaldi’s career spanned more than four decades. Capaldi has performed with Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Alvin Lee, Cat Stevens, and Mylon LeFevre, and wrote lyrics for other artists, such as “Love Will Keep Us Alive” and “This is Reggae Music”. As a solo artist he scored more than a half dozen chart hits in various countries, the most well-known being “That’s Love” as well as his cover of “Love Hurts”. At 16 he took an apprenticeship at a factory in Worcester, where he met Dave Mason. In 1963 he formed the Hellions, with Mason on guitar. The Spencer Davis Group were staying at the same hotel as the Hellions during a tour and it was there that Steve Winwood befriended Capaldi and Mason. Later, in Birmingham, Capaldi would occasionally join his friends Mason, Winwood, and Chris Wood for after-hours impromptu performances at The Elbow Room club on Aston High Street. Early in 1967 they formalised this arrangement by forming Traffic. After several albums of varying commercial success, Capaldi, as well as the other members, would go on to do solo ventures while still supporting and appearing on each others releases. He remained professionally active until his final illness prevented him from working on plans for a 2005 reunion tour of Traffic. He died of stomach cancer in Westminster, London, on 28 January 2005, aged 60.

Over the course of his career, Dave Mason has played and recorded with many notable pop and rock musicians, including Paul McCartney, George Harrison, the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Steve Winwood, Fleetwood Mac, Delaney & Bonnie, Leon Russell and Cass Elliot. One of Mason’s best known songs is the title song of this article “Feelin’ Alright”. As with the other members of Traffic, Mason’s tenure with Traffic was disjointed. He co-founded the group, but left following the recording of their debut album, Mr. Fantasy (1967), only to rejoin halfway through the sessions for their next album, Traffic (1968), after which he left again. In his brief spells with the group, Mason never quite fit in; Steve Winwood later recalled:

We all [Winwood, Jim Capaldi and Chris Wood] tended to write together, but Dave would come in with a complete song that he was going to sing and tell us all what he expected us to play. No discussion, like we were his backing group.

After Traffic, Mason pursued a moderately successful solo career. For a brief period in the 1990s, Mason joined Fleetwood Mac and released the album “Time” with them in 1995. In 1997 Mason was scheduled to be a member of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band but he was dropped from rehearsals before the tour started. As of 2005, Mason was performing about 100 shows a year with the Dave Mason Band across the U.S. and Canada. As of 2018, Mason was continuing to perform in the US.

Chris Wood had an interest in music and painting from early childhood. Self-taught on flute and saxophone, which he commenced playing at the age of 15, he began to play locally with other Birmingham musicians who would later find international fame in music. Aged 18, Wood joined the Steve Hadley Quartet, a jazz/blues group in 1962. His younger sister Stephanie designed clothes for the Spencer Davis Group, and it was through her that Wood was first introduced to fellow Birmingham native Steve Winwood. A well-known Birmingham club – the Elbow Room – was an after-hours haunt of local bands and musicians and it was here that Wood used to meet up with Winwood and Jim Capaldi. In Traffic, Wood primarily played flute and saxophone, occasionally contributing keyboards, bass and vocals. Wood also co-wrote several of Traffic’s songs, particularly during the earlier period of the band’s recording career. His most notable contribution is as the co-writer (with Winwood and Capaldi), of “Dear Mr. Fantasy”. Wood introduced the 17th century traditional song “John Barleycorn” to the band. It became the title song of their 1970 album, “John Barleycorn Must Die.” Wood played with Jimi Hendrix in 1968, appearing on “Electric Ladyland”. When Winwood temporarily formed supergroup Blind Faith in 1969, Wood, Mason and Capaldi joined Mick Weaver (known as Wynder K Frog) to become Mason, Capaldi, Wood and Frog. He then went on to tour the United States with Dr. John. Wood remained with Traffic from the time of its 1970 reformation until its 1974 breakup. Through much of his life, Wood suffered from addiction to drugs and alcohol, which were initially attributed to a fear of flying. In 1983, Wood died of pneumonia at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England.

Over the years, as noted, the members of Traffic came and went, while still supporting each other in their solo projects. They left a great repertoire of inspired, artful music which progressed many rock artists and their music. It would be a pleasant and worthwhile venture to seek out their various albums.

The four original members of Traffic were inducted for their contributions in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 15 March 2004. Winwood, Capaldi, Mason, and Stephanie Wood (standing in for her late brother Chris) all attended the ceremony.

Hits: 14