1969 was 50 years ago...

Some Favourite Albums of 69

From Elvis In Memphis
Abbey Road - Beatles
Let It Bleed - Stones
Led Zep II
Willie and the Poor Boys - CCR
Dusty In Memphis
Arthur - Kinks
Stand - Sly and the Family Stone
Hot Rats - Frank Zappa
With a Little Help From My Friends - Joe Cocker
Threshold Of A Dream - Moody Blues
The Turning Point - John Mayall
Odessa - Bee Gees

Some Favourite songs, not on those albums.

Suspicious Minds - Elvis
In The Ghetto - Elvis
Honky Tonk Women - Stones
A Boy Named Sue - Johnny Cash
Suite Judy Blue Eyes - CSN
Yester-me ... - Stevie Wonder
The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down - The Band
Oh Well - Fleetwood Mac

Really good year for music.

 

1969 we all went into some degree of hiding/laying low. my pop's friend and business partner terry melcher had seemingly just escaped the manson murders at his benedict canyon house. the one he shared with mark lindsay of paul revere he had just vacated to live with candice bergen, and the swimming pool where i learned how to swim.

most everyone knows the 'story" by now, but back then? then entire town ( of la music biz cognoscenti ) went into lockdown. guards and guns and dogs. that was a scary time.

 

Time's a flyin', man. Used to be that 1969 wasn't so far back and that objects in the rear-view mirror were closer than they actually appeared.

 

I didn't know that Lindsay was part of that circle.

Reminds me, on the mundane side of things, Lindsay & the Raiders put out a very underrated album that year, Alias Pink Puzz.

 

This was my summer in 1969. Top 40 entered my life in 1970.

 

The bulk of my record collection in 1969 was made up of a few Tommy James singles, a few Buddah bubblegum singles and a few Monkees albums.

 

i couldn't say he was "part" of the circle per se? he was terry's roommate and everyone knew everyone back then.

but everyone didn't know that freak family. that's a long story, mostly told, six ways from sunday.

add: loved a lot of their early melcher helmed stuff, but the raiders "lost" me at "cherokee people"

 

nothin wrong with that at all! provided you were 11 ha.

nothing like "guilty pleasures" tj & the shondells kicked a** ha

 

Seven! (I was ahead of my time)

 

I'm 58, so my memories of the Summer of Love are mostly second hand. My older brother was hanging out at Freedom Palace and the Cowtown Ballroom, selling copies of the Westport Trucker while my policeman father organized the "Pigs vs. Freaks" softball game down at Volker Park.

That, and inheriting my brother's Zap Comix.

 

50 years ago.....
I was 1.

 

Don't remind me!!

 

Yes... and every time I hear Honky Tonk Women by the Stones, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of Neil Armstrong stepping on to the Lunar surface (the Apollo 11 mission and the release of the song being pretty much concurrent). I was only six years old at the time, but 50 years later, the two are still closely associated in my mind.

 

The Top 20 this week on the Billboard Hot 100

(Week of 4/12/69)

1. Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In - The 5th Dimension (Last week: 2, Weeks on Chart: 6)
2. You've Made Me So Very Happy - Blood, Sweat And Tears (Last week: 4, Weeks on Chart: 7)
3. Dizzy - Tommy Roe (Last week, 1, Weeks on Chart: 11)
4. Galveston - Glen Campbell (Last week: 5, Weeks on Chart: 7)
5. Time Of The Season - The Zombies (Last week: 3, Weeks on Chart: 10)
6. Only The Strong Survive - Jerry Butler (Last week: 7, Weeks on Chart: 7)
7. It's Your Thing - The Isley Brothers (Last week: 14, Weeks on Chart: 5)
8. Hair - The Cowsills (Last week: 18, Weeks on Chart: 5)
9. Run Away Child, Running Wild - The Temptations (Last week: 6, Weeks on Chart: 9)
10. Twenty-Five Miles - Edwin Starr (Last week: 13, Weeks on Chart: 9)
11. Rock Me - Steppenwolf (Last week: 11, Weeks on Chart: 7)
12. Proud Mary - Creedence Clearwater Revival (Last week: 10, Weeks on Chart: 12)
13. Traces - Classics IV Featuring Dennis Yost (Last week: 8, Weeks on Chart: 10)
14. Hot Smoke and Sasafrass - The Bubble Poppy (Last week: 15, Weeks on Chart: 9)
15. Indian Giver - 1910 Fruitgum Co. (Last week: 12, Weeks on Chart: 12)
16. Don't Give In To Him - Gary Puckett And The Union Gap (Last week: 30, Weeks on Chart: 5)
17. This Girl's In Love With You - Dionne Warwick (Last week: 17, Weeks on Chart: 11)
18. Sweet Cherry Wine - Tommy James And The Shondells (Last week: 34, Weeks on Chart: 4)
19. Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon - Paul Revere And The Raiders Featuring Mark Lindsey (Last week: 19, Weeks on Chart: 9)
20. The Letter - The Arbors (Last week: 20, Weeks on Chart: 8)

 

The Billboard Hot 100 coming into the 1969 - January:

Top 100 Songs | Billboard Hot 100 Chart

Top 10:

1
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Marvin Gaye

2
For Once In My Life
Stevie Wonder

3
I'm Gonna Make You Love Me
Diana Ross And The Supremes & The Temptations

4
Soulful Strut
Young-Holt Unlimited

5
Wichita Lineman
Glen Campbell

6
Cloud Nine
The Temptations

7
Love Child
Diana Ross & The Supremes

8
Stormy
Classics IV Featuring Dennis Yost

9
Who's Making Love
Johnnie Taylor

10
Hooked On A Feeling
B.J. Thomas

 

Speak for yourself, I'm too old....

 

I was born in 69 so it's my 50th anniversary too! In honor of that I'm going to press myself on vinyl for a box set including all my greatest hits with both a rarities disc and a special remix disc. Look for it in the cutout bins near you!

 

Beatles Schmeatles. Jim Henson's Muppets debut was where it was at for this l'il ankle biter in '69!

 

1960 to 1969.
Wow!!! Lots of goodies ~ground breaking music.

2010 - 2019
Ground breaking decade ?

 

What high school did your brother play football for? St. Louis High? I think they went to Lanai to pick pineapples that summer.

The summer of 1969 was the summer between my junior and senior years at St. Louis High School in Honolulu. Its crazy that it was 50 years ago. I got my first real job that summer - working in a warehouse loading and unloading trucks and container vans. I was a scrawny little kid but by the end of summer, I was a lot stronger scrawny kid. After work on Fridays I would hang out with all the truck drivers and warehouse workers and drink Primo Beer. I would have my one or two beers and go home, the men would go out to Korean bars and continue drinking.

I remember the moon landing was during the day in Hawaii. The moon was visible in the sky despite it being daytime, as it often is in Hawaii. I remember looking at the image on the TV and then running out in the courtyard to gaze up at the moon and then back into the house to see it on the TV and then back out to look at the moon and just being blown away over the fact that I was actually looking up at those men.

Musically, Abbey Road was the BIGGEST thing for me and my friends. We would listen to it constantly. The big thing for us kids was Records Hawaii - THE store for record buying for our taste in music. As I recall, it was located right on Kapiolani Blvd not that far from the Ala Moana Center. Like you, because I was making money, I could now afford to buy records without asking my parents for money. I remember buying Johnny Cash Live in San Quentin because they were playing it in the store and I thought it was pretty cool even though I had previously never really liked country music.

 

Moon landing? Only had black and white tv.
Seen it in color a few years later.
Capricorn One.

 

Summer ‘69 yep a good one.
Also, 1968.
1966: was a memorable one.

 

Aloha brah! Yup, one and the same. I went to Kamehameha. My brother would have, too but he didn't pass the test. Heh heh. Yeah, Records Hawaii, near Ala Moana right? It moved so many times over the years. I didn't shop there much at the time 'cause I couldn't afford albums so singles were pretty much it for me. There was a Singer Sewing Machine store in the mall and they sold the Top 20 or so hits for 59 cents apiece so that was my first stop with Woolworths, Sears and Holiday Mart next in line. Small kid times.

 

Let me give you some names, then.... George Lindsey, Fred and Mark Hall, Al Torres, Gary Campbell, Doug Won, Harold Stringert, Larry Keeno, Steve Dung, Donovan Caldeira, Tony Raiola, Kaipo Spencer...I'll think of more. SLHS class of 70 and class of 71.

Where did you grow up? I grew up in Kalihi Valley, but my junior year we moved out to Hawaii kai. Talk about a major cultural change!

Speaking of Kam School, my grandparents house was on Alewa Heights, and their back yard bordered on the Kam School property. I believe you could see the dorms from their back yard. Also from my house in Kalihi Valley (just up the valley from the KV Housing projects) I would look up and see Kam School way up on the ridge above us.

BTW, sorry to everyone for taking this way off topic.

 

Yup again. He's one of those you mentioned. I grew up in lower Makiki.