Listomania! - 1968

I'm starting to think that maybe a top 20 would have been better after having to eliminate classic song after classic song. 1968 was another banner year for music and the choices are difficult, so I've tried to balance the list between songs I loved back then, and still do, with songs I didn't know back then that I've come to adore. Personally, it was the year that I started down the road to doing things too early in my life, aided by the fact that I skipped Grade 3 and went into Grade 4. Not only Grade 4, but a split 4-5 class! From then on, I was 2 or 3 years younger than most of my classmates. They stopped doing that in schools, which is a very smart thing, because, although I was academically ready for the jump, I was not emotionally ready at all. Enough of that, let's get to the music!

Top 10 of 1968

10. Crimson And Clover - Tommy James & The Shondells

This was a new and exciting sound back then. My Nan and I went to the K-mart and she bought me this 45. Then, we went home and I did what I usually did in those days. I made her come into my room and listen to my new record. Not only listen, but hold my stuffed Snoopy and pretend it was playing the guitar. She did all this with her usual good humour of course. Tommy James obviously loved the tremolo switch as the guitar and vocals are all shimmery and delightful. He apparently plugged his vocal mike into his guitar amp and turned the tremolo up high to record the end part. He had earlier, more "teeny-bopper" kind of hits, but this one hooked me in."My mind's such a sweet thing, I wanna do everything." A very real tie to childhood!

9. Picture Book - The Kinks

The lyrical genius of Mr. Ray Davies again! From the Village Green Preservation Society record, which was the first concept album the Kinks ever did, and a greatly under-appreciated one at that. This has the typical whimsical English Kinks sound, but the lyrics are full of wry observances on the practice of putting photo albums together. " Picture book, when you were just a baby, those days when you were happy, a long time ago." Are you into pho-tos, nudge nudge, wink wink, know wot I mean?

8. White Room - Cream

Clapton and his wah-wah pedal certainly play a huge part in this song, but I am always drawn to the voice of Jack Bruce and the pounding, triplet-infused drumming of Ginger Baker. His tom-tom and bass drum work here is among the greatest drumming ever in my opinion. The lyrics are pretty non-sensical and meaningless I think, but they fit the mood of this tune so well. This song always sounded kind of foreboding to me, like something dangerous is hanging out just around the bend. " I'll wait in this place, where the sun never shines, wait in this place where the shadows run from themselves." Yikes!

7. Revolution - The Beatles

This song, in my family, marked a line in the sand for the Beatles. My Dad, and even my Mom, thought it a bunch of long-haired hippie noise, while I thought it was the most fantastic thing I'd ever heard. It was on the B-side of the Hey Jude single, so that got more time on the record player when the family was around, but when I was alone, it was all about Revolution. I couldn't get enough of that blazing guitar in the opening, and the scream and off we go! This was so very heavy and the guitars buzzed and the drums smacked and the lyrics were amazing! Around this time, Vietnam was raging and I used to watch Walter Cronkite and I was very into world events. I know, I was a strange kid. But this song really hit home with me, especially the lines " But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao, you ain't going to make it with anyone anyhow." Please try and forget that it was a bloody Nike ad, OK!

6. Itchycoo Park - The Small Faces

This is just so catchy and English and childlike! I mean, "be nice and have fun in the sun." It is Steve Marriott's and Ronnie Lane's attempt at psychedelia, and it succeeds despite the bouncy happiness of the melody. They use that swirly phasing technique here too, which was used a ton in the 60s. This is another instance where you will find yourself singing along before you realize what you're doing. One of my favourite summer tunes to this day- in fact, I'm playing it right now! " You can miss some school, why go to learn the words of fools" The original Young Soul Rebels!

5. Stray Cat Blues - The Rolling Stones

I first heard this in 1973 when my friend Jim Sidwell and I used to listen to his older brother's Stones albums. Lyrically, it makes me a little queasy now when I hear it as Jagger is growling and menacing his way through a tune about a 15 year old groupie, but it is the guitar sound that I truly love. Keef at his finest, all steely chords and stinging lead runs and one of the dirtiest grooves ever. The sound of drugged out rockers crawling through the sewer on their bellies describes it best. This is from the Beggar's Banquet album and started off my favourite period of the Stones up until Goat's Head Soup in 1973. " It's no hanging matter, it's no capital crime." Oh, but I'm afraid it is, Mick old boy.

4. Chest Fever - The Band

Garth Hudson and that great organ riff makes this one. Just listen to this and you will have that riff as an earworm all day long. This is from their debut album Music From Big Pink, right after they escaped Dylan's clutches. This is a brilliant tune, with even a kind of New Orleans funeral march middle eight thrown in for good measure. Rick Danko lays down a fabulous bubbly bass line all through as well, and this is maybe the best drumming Levon Helm ever did. Martina calls this deck music and gets all sentimental for the summer if she hears it in the cold of February. " And as my mind unweaves, I feel the freeze down in my knees, but just before she leaves, she receives." I have no idea why it's called Chest Fever though.

3. Wichita Lineman - Glen Campbell

The guy who wrote this was Jimmy Webb, who had a string of hits in this time period, including another great song he wrote for Campbell called Galveston. What a gorgeous song this is! Glen Campbell became a huge star for a few years and even had his own variety show on TV for a few years. Beautiful orchestration, lyrics full of longing and love, and a fantastic solo apparently played on something called a baritone guitar, which I assume is a hybrid of a bass and six string electric. This was a fixture on the car radio back then, and my Dad liked it too! "And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time." Beat that sucka!

2. Time Of The Season - The Zombies

This is from their misspelled masterpiece Odessey & Oracle, another album that may be my favourite of all time, especially if you ask me on a Tuesday. It is all breathy and psychedelic, with a huge Chris White bass line and Rod Argent Hammond solo and great vocals by the hugely underrated Colin Blunstone. I don't know a single person who dislikes this tune, and if I did, I would have to find out who dropped them on their head as a baby. It was #1 here in Canada and barely scraped the charts in their native England. "What's your name? Who's your daddy?" Well, my friends call me Kyle, but you can call me Pete.

1. I Say A Little Prayer - Aretha Franklin

I am not a religous person at all. In fact, I would call myself an atheist. But, this song may just be proof that God does exist. Recorded first by Burt Bacharach fave Dionne Warwick, it was a nice version of a good song. When Aretha got hold of it, it may well be the best vocal ever done by anybody on any song ever! Backed by the mighty Muscle Shoals band and with backing vocals by the Cissy Houston-led Sweet Inspirations ( yes, she is Whitney Houston's momma), the chorus of this tune transports me to another planet every time. When Ms. Franklin kicks it on the final chorus, I get goose bumps all over and family members know not to bug me when this is playing. " My darlin' believe me, for me there is no onnnnnnnnnnne but you." Heavens to mergatroid even!