September songs, part four

This entry covers the top ten songs of September 1967, based on a cumulative ranking of each song that hit the top ten that month (10 points for a #1 ranking, 9 points for #2, etc.). 

SEPTEMBER 1967

1. ODE TO BILLIE JOE – Bobbi Gentry
2. REFLECTIONS – Supremes
3. COME BACK WHEN YOU GROW UP – Bobby Vee
4. THE LETTER – Box Tops
5. BABY I LOVE YOU – Aretha Franklin
6. APPLES, PEACHES, PUMPKIN PIE – Jay & the Techniques
7. ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE – Beatles
8. YOU’RE MY EVERYTHING – Temptations
9. NEVER MY LOVE – Association
10. LIGHT MY FIRE – Doors 

The soundtrack to the Summer of Love was relatively brief, starting with Sgt. Pepper in June, moving on to the singles chart with “San Francisco” and “White Rabbit” in July and ending with “All You Need Is Love” hitting the #1 spot in mid-August. While a number of groups spent the summer plotting their own Pepper statement, the records that filled the gap were mostly anything but journeys to the center of the mind. 

“Ode to Billie Joe” still feels unique, Americana before there was a name for it. Summer in Mississippi, nowhere to hide from the heat and humidity, and nowhere to hide secrets either. Its rise was impressive, entering the charts on August 5 at #71, jumping to #21 the following week, then #7 before taking the #1 spot for four weeks. 

Motown was in a slump this summer, with only Stevie Wonder’s raw (and very un-Motown like) “I Was Made to Love Her” hitting the top ten. “Reflections” helped redeem the quarter for Motown, after its producers tagged on that electronic whooping noise to accompany the high school sophomore metaphors (“Through the mirror of my mind” and “As I peer through the window of lost time”). “Reflections” rose up Billboard’s ranks in a rush, #61, #20, #8, then the #2 spot for three weeks behind “Billie Joe.” 

Trading horns for strings and Aretha for Diana, “Baby I Love You” was Southern soul, the antithesis of Motown. Recorded during the same session as “Chain of Fools,” the funky guitar on “Baby” may be the work of Joe South, who would have a couple of hits later with “Walk A Mile In My Shoes” and “Games People Play.” 

There wasn’t anything necessarily psychedelic about “Light My Fire,” save the circular keyboard riff and the extended instrumental break on the album, edited down to just a few notes for the single. If you haven’t listened to it in a while, the single still packs a punch, although its overall effect has been weakened from decades of overplay on rock radio and that the phrase “light my fire” has been reduced to tacky lounge lizard innuendo.