A friend posted a WLS radio top 40 survey from February 1967 the other day. “I don’t remember some of these,” he admitted, so I smugly glanced down the list remembering sweet tunes from way back then and thinking, “I remember this, I remember that.”
“Pushin’ Too Hard” by the Seeds was No. 1 that week, followed by “I’m a Believer” by the Monkees and “Georgy Girl” by the Seekers. Tommy James and the Shondells had leaped up to No. 5 with their new song “I Think We’re Alone Now,” which I adored (still do).
I laughed at myself when I got to No. 10, “Nothin’ Yet” by Blues Magoos, and pulled up short because I didn’t remember a song by that name, then remembered that the title of their biggest hit was “(We Ain’t Got) Nothin’ Yet.” WLS just left off the parenthetical part of the title.
My smug self rattled off all the tunes in my mind until I hit No. 19. I never heard of “Now Winter’s Day” by Tommy Roe, he of “Sheila,” “Sweet Pea” and “Dizzy” fame. Thankfully we live in an age when almost every recording ever recorded has been uploaded to the internet somewhere, so within seconds I began to listen to a lovely little song about being “snuggled warm in each other’s arms, Listening to silent sound as the snow packs the ground.”
It was 1967, and so the producer felt obligated to add some “psychedelic” sounds to intrude on the quiet beauty of the song, but otherwise I am utterly charmed and thrilled to share this gentle tune. Definitely worth waiting 58 years to hear.
