Poll: 1969 - Vote For Your Favorite US/UK Number 1's

Limited to five choices

My top five:
INPO

Blackberry Way
Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In
Where Do You Go To(My Lovely)
Something In The Air
Come Together


Number 1's not listed in the poll -

Love Theme From Romeo & Juliet - Henry Mancini
The Ballad Of John & Yoko - Beatles
Ob-La-Di Ob La Da - Marmalade
Je T'aime Moi Non Plus - Jane Birkin/Serge Gainsbourg

 

My 5

1-come together
2-crimson and clover
3-sugar, sugar
4- blackberry way (great song but surprised it went #1 as it hardly sounds poppy to me).
5- get back

 

Everyday People
Get Back
Honky Tonk Women
Come Together
I Can't Get Next To You

 

Voted for:

Suspicious Minds
Get Back
Honky Tonk Women
Everyday People
Come Together

and if I wasn't limited to 5 choices, I would have definitely voted for "IHeard It Through The Grapevine", "Something in the Air" and "Someday We'll Be Together".

 

The King
The Fabs
DD & The Aces
Sly & The Family

 

If I could have cast all 5 votes for Dizzy, I would have.

 

I wish I could have done that for "Can't Get Next to You."

Since I couldn't, my other choices were Aquarius., Get Back, Honky Tonk and the Israelites.

Joe Jeffrey's "My Pledge of Love" was one of my favorites that year. I guess it was never a number 1.

 

What happened to "Little Green Bag" by George Baker Selection or "Mendocino" by Sir Douglas Quintet?

 

Would have voted for if listed

 

I know this is a generational type of thing ( you call me names if it helps )
But you look at this list and many more that I care not to list and it really seems like the music was much more memorable and ultimately better then as opposed to todays music.
If we project forward 45 years from now --- would a list of todays top songs be as timeless as the hits of 69??
I wont' be around then ( unless I live to 100 ) but my kids will and I just don't see them looking back at the hits of 2014 as the greatest period of music.
Maybe they will and I could be wrong about another thing in life ( it wont be the first and certainly not the last time I am wrong - )

 

I'd bet they will (collect from my descendants if I'm wrong).

 

It's almost unbelievable how many first-class tunes were in the charts back then. I'd be glad if it was a fraction nowadays.

 

INPO I voted for:
"Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In"
"Get Back"
"Suspicious Minds"
"(If Paradise Is) Half As Nice"
"Something In The Air"

Kinda hard to leave off CCR and the Stones, but there are other songs of theirs that I like much better.

 

Crimson & Clover
Honky Tonk Women
Sugar Sugar
Leaving On A Jet Plane
I Heard It Through The Grapevine

 

I picked

Sly
5th D
Elvis
Archies

 

"I Can't Get Next To You" is my favorite thing on the list too.

 

ahhhh 1969- it was never better!!! What a great year it was for music!!!

 

Came in fast & caffeniated & just voted for one!! Crap!! BTW it was "Come Together"- The Beatles
If anyone wants to toss in the other 4 I would have voted for, please feel free...
"Get Back"- The Beatles
"Everyday People"- Sly & The Family Stone
"Honky Tonk Women"- The Rolling Stones
"Bad Moon Rising"- Creedence Clearwater Revival

**If "The Ballad Of John & Yoko"- The Beatles had been a choice I would have definitely voted for that one!!!

Very Honorable Mention- The Move, Fleetwood Mac, The Supremes, Thunderclap Newman, Desmond Dekker & The Aces, Marvin Gaye, Elvis Presley and Peter, Paul & Mary.

 

My top five;
Bad Moon Rising
Everyday People
Suspicious Minds
Crimson and Clover
Something in the Air

 

Wow, 1969-71 really were the singles years for me....... just impossible to work with only 5 choices.

I ended up up debating between Honky Tonk Women and Suspicious Minds for my 5th choice, how is that even possible in a rational world??

 

Insta-picks:

Blackberry Way
Where Do You Go To My Lovely
Albatross

Two best of the rest got votes:

Wedding Bell Blues
Something in the Air

Just missed:

Bad Moon Rising (flip it over for Lodi and something above misses out instead)

Also well above average:

Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye
Suspicious Minds
Lily the Pink
Aquarius / Let the Sun Shine In

Everything else is average-to-pretty-decent except the dregs:

Israelites (hated it in '68, put me off reggae for decades, can almost tolerate it now and I like reggae more than this)
Sugar Sugar (because I'm sick and tired of it)
Come Together
Dizzy

 

Of the list of 45's on top, I have (all U.S. pressings) "Crimson And Clover," "Everyday People," "Dizzy," "Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In," "Get Back," "In The Year 2525," "Honky Tonk Women," "Sugar, Sugar," "Suspicious Minds," "Come Together," "Leaving On A Jet Plane," "Someday We'll Be Together," "Albatross," "I Heard It Through The Grapevine," "Israelites," and "Bad Moon Rising." Of those left off the list, in my collection (again, U.S. pressed) are "Love Theme From Romeo And Juliet," "The Ballad Of John And Yoko," and "Je T'Aime . . . Moi Non Plus" (issued in the U.S. on Fontana).

As for "Israelites," UNI in the U.S. futzed around with the sound a tad - added a bit of reverb and knocked down the low end (bass) when compared with the original, bassy, dry-sounding UK Pyramid 45 which I also have. The U.S. single was mastered at Annex Studios in Hollywood which cut 45 lacquers for UNI until the end of '70.

 

This poll was one of the hardest for me to decide, seeing as how I like all the US #1's (and also the Henry Mancini song that wasn't included), but I decided to go with the first 5 listed. Never heard some of the UK #1's, including Bobbie Gentry's "I'll Never Fall In Love Again". Had to go to YouTube to check it out, since I wasn't sure if it was a remake of the Tom Jones or Dionne Warwick song of the same title. Both their songs were on the charts within months of each other in 1969-70. (Both #1 Adult Contemporary hits as well).

 

I voted for "Something In The Air". It wasn't a very big hit in the US, but I think it perfectly captures the spirit of the 60's.

I might have voted for "Ballad Of John & Yoko if it had been listed. It rocks and John and Paul are having such a great time performing it.

Glad to see "Lily The Pink" has no votes. It is a comedy record that isn't actually very funny. Never heard it until I checked it out on YouTube a year or so ago.

 

What a year. Learned how to play the guitar in 1969.

Plink. Plink. Plink with an acoustic guitar taught by a guy from Hawaii. Would have been more into it if I had an electric one with some CCR to copy.