The Music of 1967: A weekly look at America's top singles in the year of 'The Summer of Love'

The year 1967 has been considered to be one of the greatest years ever for pop music. The often-used descriptor for 1967 is that it was the year of ‘The Summer Of Love’. It was the year of the Monterey Pop Music Festival, LSD, Haight-Ashbury, Flower Power, psychedelia, hippies, Timothy Leary, ‘All You Need Is Love’ and the counterculture. While it may have been billed as the year of ‘The Summer Of Love’, Billboard’s top year-end singles of 1967 don’t show the list filled with psychedelic love anthems, especially among the the Top 10 singles of the year. The top single of the year was ‘To Sir With Love’. After that, the rest of the Top 10 year-end singles has ‘The Letter’, ‘Ode To Billie Joe’, ‘Windy’, ‘I’m A Believer’, ‘Light My Fire’, ‘Somethin’ Stupid’, ‘Happy Together’, ‘Groovin’’ and ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’. It’s unlikely that tripping hippies were crooning ‘Somethin’ Stupid’ or many of the other Top 10 singles of the year.In 1967, 8 acts had their first #1 records. These were Lulu, The Buckinghams, The Strawberry Alarm Clock, Bobbie Gentry, The Turtles, The Doors, Aretha Franklin and The Box Tops. The Beatles had the most #1 hits with three while the act spending the most weeks at #1 were The Monkees. 1967 saw many formerly huge acts with their last big hits, notably The Dave Clark Five, Herman’s Hermits, Peter and Gordon, Lesley Gore, Sam The Sham and The Pharaohs, The Seekers, and The Lovin’ Spoonful. On the other hand, many successful acts place their initial entry on the Hot 100, including The Bee Gees, Jimi Hendrix, The Union Gap Featuring Gary Puckett, The Doors, The 5th Dimension, Buffalo Springfield, and The Classics IV.In 1967, there were psychedelic and flower power hits like ‘White Rabbit’, ‘Incense And Peppermints’, ‘All You Need Is Love’, ‘I Can See For Miles’, ‘San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair)’, and ‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’ as well as bubblegum hits like ‘Beg, Borrow And Steal’, ‘Little Bit O’ Soul’ and ‘Green Tambourine’. There were many novelty records like ‘Snoopy Vs