US #1s of 1968

NOW MAKE IT MELLOW!

I guess "Tighten Up" would be the first funk song to hit #1, wouldn't it?

Wow. Gonna go with John Fred. But in lots of other years, Archie Bell, Paul Mauriat, Otis, Diana, Marvin, Jeanie C. Riley, the Doors, or maybe one or two of the others could easily have taken my vote.

Pretty sure the winner will be either Otis or Marvin, but I like Lemon Pipers even better. ;)

Perfect list.

Went with "Grazing in the Grass"

I've never heard of half of these songs.

NOW MAKE IT MELLOW!

― ^likes brown, yellow, puerto rican, and haitian girls (The Reverend), Thursday, January 8, 2009 9:29 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark

Missy Mist - Make It Mellow
http://www.discogs.com/Missy-Mist-Make-It-Mellow/release/1006813

"Tighten Up" ahead of "Dock of the Bay" and "Hey Jude". Great list!

I usually vote for "Grapevine", but Otis pulled me in.

"Green Tambourine" is indeed awesome though. My third pick.

Mrs Robinson is tempting ... but gotta go with Marvin.

I love almost everything on this one, had to choose between Paul Mauriat and the guys who don't only sing, but they dance as good as they want. Went "Blue."

"Tighten Up" is always the winner for me whenever it's a contestant.

tighten up vs. judy in disguise, with otis and marvin relegated to ex officio status and the doors, jeanie riley and "mrs. robinson" in a round-robin on the undercard.

judy in disguise wins on points.

great year. need to sleep on it.

but every great year has a bobby goldsboro...

I love "Love Child" and the whole ghetto-chic trend of this period (Elvis, Donny Hathaway, etc.).

...just slightly more than the Elizabethan Era-chic of the fabulous "Love Is Blue."

"Harper Valley" - the country charts were much better that year, IMO.

That's a great list, except for "Honey." Voted, of course, "Grapevine," but Otis and John Fred . . . damn.

Although Alpert's vocal on "This Guy" is otherwise a real winner. But I'm one of those people who gives points to Burt Bacharach for his singing, too. It's funny, I heard somewhere that the Brass album was halfway to flopping until dude sang it on a TV special they did, then straight to the moon, Alice.

And it wasn't in a documentary! Come on, if there can be a movie about the Flaming Lips, that guy deserves it. He knew Sam Cooke! And his success was indie as fuck!

impossible to choose... "Love Child", just for the hell of it. (also: did Dave Marsh put this list together?)

Gotta go with "Green Tambourine" ... funny, the local oldies radio station was doing a biggest hits of 1968 retrospective last Saturday morning and I heard all of these. Had forgotten how terrible "Judy In The Sky" is.

"Love Child," of course.

Grapevine without hesitation.

Dock Of The Bay, people.

every great year has a bobby goldsboro...

...whose "Honey" is still at least ten times as good as the Beatles' worst single ever.

out of these i'm probably happiest when "grazin" or "tighten up" comes on the radio...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

The thing is if I vote against "grapevine" it's only because I burned out on it. but I remember first getting floored by it back in high school, just freaking out: this is the greatest singer ever, greatest arrangement ever, etc etc. I felt that way about a number of Supremes songs at various points that year but not "Love Child." "green tambourine" is amazing too but at the end of the day "grapevine" is stronger than its big chillification/california raisination.

time to drag out the grapevine acappella I think

Lots of great records here, but Marvin is the man and "Grapevine" may be his greatest single performance. So . . .

which one of these is best to do karaoke to?

i have only ever done jeannie c. riley this way

"hello, i love you" could be pretty wild

Robert Smith pulled it off.

"Tighten Up", by a whisker over "Love Child".

Dock of the Bay came on an oldies station this weekend and stole my vote from the Grazing/Grapevine knockdown. Something incredible about pairing the beauty of the music and mastery of Otis's voice (every line has its own choice, surprising but perfect inflection) with the hopelessness of the lyric.

See the tree. how big it's grown

I voted Mrs Robinson.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

wow! lots of closeted s&g fans here, apparently.

Was listening to "People Got to Be Free" (0 votes) the other day and noticed that you can take it either as a leftist anthem or a rightist one. Wondered how people took it when it came out at the height of the Vietnam War debate. Too bad the Rascals got nothing here; their string of singles 1967 to 69 is pretty astonishing to my ears.

Wow. I don't hear what y'all do in "Green Tambourine." The rest, though.

Good morning!.

Aw bump Tighten up a notch wontcha.