It's amazing how the #1's in 1968 careened from easy listening instrumentals to songs like this. ecclectic year to be sure.
Ok, we're officially at this song, so I'll answer. On the first point, there's no reason you can't be concise and poetic! I think "Hello, I love you" is very poetic, it just happens to be short. Hell, "Eleanor Rigby" is just barely over two minutes. You can say plenty when you and your band are focused - this record sounds like a band that's focused. I do realize that maintaining focus was probably not Jim Morrison's strong suit. [next bolded point] It is a lot of the Doors' identity, and I don't have a problem with a lot of it - I can't really listen to "The End," but I understand it, why they wanted to do it, and what it brings to that first record. I guess it's not that I hated those sorts of Doors' songs so much, it's that I wanted more "Hello I love you," "Break on Through" type songs from them. I agree they probably were not at all into making the kinds of radio hits that a record company would want - they had some freedom in that regard cause they sold a lot of albums, whether there were hits or not. It's really not a doors-specific preference for me - I'm going to always prefer a tight, succinct version of a song. With some bands, that just doesn't work (a band like Yes or the Allman Brothers, others) , but we have examples from the Doors that work exceptionally well - like this one. I just wish we had more. It didn't always work - you mentioned "Touch me," which is a shorter, hit-format type song that I think just doesn't work at all, but not cause it's trimmed of its excess, but because it's just a poor song.
I love the bridge of this song and the guitar slide into it. Just brilliant work. I pretty much love all of their hits, though - great, deliciously off-kilter pop work.
Would easily make my Top 40 for the entire decade, it's a stunningly beautiful song and a phenomenal performance.
I like "Love Is Blue", but "Classical Gas" bests it, and is one of the top instrumentals of the decade. Beautiful acoustic guitar work and a really innovative arrangement.
It was a very weird year. While it has plenty of great #1s, I think it has more duds than '66 or '67, and quite a few more-deserving #2 and #3 hits. In addition to "Classical Gas", "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" was a spectacular bit of work and truly iconic. "Those Were The Days" meanwhile was a striking bit of chart nostalgia, and a continuation of McCartney's growing obsession with pre-rock pop.
I'm flabbergasted. I thought I knew most big hits from this period forward, but had never heard this dud while growing up. Radio was more regional in America years ago, so maybe this wasn't a big hit in Arizona or maybe the local oldies radio in Phoenix never picked it up. Whatever the cause, I'm thankful, because it's a steaming terd of a tune and I'm stunned it made it onto the Top 40, let alone to the top of the charts. Nostalgia for crummy tearjerker songs from the late '50s / early '60s? Payola? Would love to know how this thing did so well. It's dull, formless, trite and annoying. Did people call in to request it so they could laugh at it, a la Florence Foster Jenkins?
Another iconic cut from Simon and Garfunkel, it's always been one of my favorites, and culturally always seemed to me to be one of the more important hits of the decade. A delightfully off-kilter song from a devilishly off-kilter film set in a disturbingly off-kilter time. The song itself gets incredible mileage juxtaposing it's light 'n lovely melody and playing against much darker lyrical themes derived from The Graduate. And it checks "I Am The Walrus", showing that even in contemporary times, the great ones already knew which side of that Beatles single really mattered.
I've always been surprised this was the #1 and not Dionne Warwick's version - although Herb's is pleasant enough (if a bit dull). I guess it appealed to the moms. I think the best version is Dusty's. This Girl's In Love With You / Dusty Springfield
Personally I really like "Hello, I Love You," but I'm surprised it made # 1. It's kind of "grind-y" if you get my meaning. Just doesn't sound like something the Nation would Unite behind, haha.
It's not just the technology, it's also that groove. There is no way that the hit version of "Pata Pata" could have been recorded in the fifties. Maybe a raw prototype, but not the hit we now know.
Quite the opposite, to me. I always thought "Hello, I Love You" sounded downright bubblegummy. I could see a bunch of eighth graders dancing to this during the same set as "Simon Says" and "Yummy Yummy Yummy."
And, if you look at the songs in the top to of that year, at least, you'll get much more variety. Among some of my favorites of this time of year is: Young Girl - Gary Puckett & The Union Gap And, this all-time favorite of mine: I Love You - People
My go-to copy for that People single has always been this, from Scranton: To me, these typefaces on the label, together with the orange and yellow swirl, scream Capitol . . . But yeah, there was more diversity in those days, not just with "regional" radio, but also more record companies to choose from . . . and never was this more true than 1968 . . .
The Doors spoke to me in those days. Hello I Love You was what I wished I could say. Jump in your game seemed weak to me, and I didn't wanna be a damned dog, but overall the song expressed my lust quite well.
I was just listening to People - I Love You a few days ago, and recalled how much I liked it. Don't think it is anywhere in my collection these days, unless on a cdr or tape buried in a warehouse.
Hello I Love You is alright but nothing special. Personally I think the Doors' best song was Touch Me, a year later.
JJF definitely hit me harder at the time, I still distinctly remember hearing it for the first time on the radio in S'toon, DJ announces 'new Stones single' they strum then '1-2' and that riff kicks in - oh yeah, the're back! Like it was yesterday...
At the time I thought they were both embarrassingly awkward, trying too hard and creepy, still do. Nothing much musically, at least not enuff to make up for the lyrics/singing.
Didn't know The Doors had another #1 hit... Also this song's #1 reign fell on the 10th anniversary (August 4, 1958) of the Hot 100. So we're a decade into this thread. No recap please lol. Further the Hot 100 celebrated 59 years a week ago.
Hello I Love you falls somewhere in the middle of the pack of Doors songs for me. Much prefer Wishful Sinful, Love Her Madly and Riders On The Storm as far as later Doors songs go. Touch Me was pretty good, too.