"1, 2, 3, Red Light" is a song written by Sal Trimachi and Bobbi Trimachi and was recorded by 1910 Fruitgum Company for their 1968 album, 1, 2, 3, Red Light. The song charted highest in Canada, going to #1 on the RPM 100 national singles chart in 1968. In the same year in the U.S., it went to #5 on The Billboard Hot 100 and was on the charts for 13 weeks.

The song went to #3 on the New Zealand charts; in Australia, it reached #7. It was named the #39 song of 1968 on the Cashbox charts. The song was certified as a gold disc in September 1968

The 1910 Fruitgum Company is an American bubblegum pop band of the 1960s. The group's Hot 100 hits were "Simon Says", "May I Take A Giant Step", "1, 2, 3, Red Light", "Goody Goody Gumdrops", "Indian Giver", "Special Delivery", and "The Train". Guitarist Frank Jeckell claimed to have adopted the name from a candy wrapper that he found in his attic.^[

Some Velvet Morning" is a psychedelic pop song written by Lee Hazlewood and originally recorded by Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in late 1967. It first appeared on Sinatra's album Movin' with Nancy, the soundtrack to her 1967 television special of the same name. The song has been covered many times since, almost always as a duet. Interesting versions include ones by Primal Scream, and Irish Electro band "Les Marionettes". Although "Some Velvet Morning" is one of the more famous duets Hazlewood and Sinatra recorded together, it is considered a departure from their usual fare, as it is decidedly less influenced by country & western music. The single peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1968.

As with many psychedelic songs, its overall meaning is somewhat obscure. The lyrics consist of the male part describing a mysterious, powerful woman named Phaedra, who educated the speaker in the ways of love. The male part alternates with the female part, who identifies herself as Phaedra and speaks over ethereal, twinkling music about beautiful nature imagery and about the secrets held by an unknown collective "us".

The song was featured in the 1967 TV special "Movin' With Nancy", starring Nancy Sinatra, released to home video in 2000

"Green Tambourine" was the primary hit by the 1960s Ohio-based rock group The Lemon Pipers, as well as the title track to their debut-album Green Tambourine. The song has been credited as being the first bubblegum pop chart-topper. Released towards the end of 1967, it peaked at number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for one week at the start of February, 1968 and earned the group a gold record for over a million copies sold. The record remained on the chart for three months. It was also the first U.S. number-one hit for the Buddah label. The Lemon Pipers would never repeat this success, although "Rice Is Nice" and "Jelly Jungle" did make it onto the charts in 1968.

The song is the story of a street musician pleading for someone to give him money. In exchange, he would play his green tambourine. The song's instrumentation contains the title tambourine as well as an electric sitar, a frequent signature of the so-called "psychedelic sound." Another hook is the heavy, psychedelic tape echo applied to the word "play" in each chorus and at the end, fading into a drumroll ("Listen while I play play play play play play/my green tambourine.") The echo is noticeably different in the mono and stereo mixes. The mono version also starts fading out slightly earlier than in the stereo version.

The single's B-side, "No Help From Me," featured lead vocal by keyboardist Bob Nave and did not appear on either of the group's two albums.

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional ballad of Great Britain.

The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.

As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair" are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2), which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").

A Beautiful Morning" is a song written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and recorded by The Rascals. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first single released under that name rather than The Young Rascals. The first album on which the song appeared was Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits. It continued the theme of carefree optimism that had distinguished the previous year's "Groovin'". The song was a big hit in the United States, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and also reaching number thirty-six on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. It was RIAA-certified as a Million Seller on June 28, 1968. The song had an introductory sound of mystical wind chimes and bells.

A Beautiful Morning was used in advertisements for the drug Vioxx produced by Merck & Co. and also used for Bounce commercials. The song also featured in a Scrubs episode, at the start of a season 6 episode with Zach Braff who plays JD dancing to it. It was also featured at the end of a second season episode of The Greatest American Hero in which Ralph had to disarm a nuclear missile. 

The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the #1 hits "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as A Beautiful Morning (#3 1968) and the lesser-known A Girl Like You. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The Rascals were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010

"Classical Gas" is an instrumental musical piece composed and originally performed by Mason Williams. Originally released in 1968 on the album The Mason Williams Phonograph Record, it has been re-recorded and re-released numerous times since by Williams. One later version served as the title track of a 1987 album by Williams and the band Mannheim Steamroller.

Williams re-recorded "Classical Gas" as a solo guitar piece on his 1970 album Handmade. The song was also re-released by Sony in 2003, after being featured in the film Cheaper by the Dozen.

Williams was the head writer for The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour at the time of the piece's release and premiered the composition on the show. Williams performed it several times over several episodes. After the piece had reached the Top Ten, Williams asked an experimental filmmaker named Dan McLaughlin to create a video montage of classical art works edited in time to the music, using the visual effect now known as kinestasis. The pioneering work, 3000 Years of Art, premiered in 1968 and may have helped push the song high on the charts; it peaked at Number 2 for two weeks in August that year

• In 1969, the piece won three Grammy Awards: Best Instrumental Composition, Best Contemporary-Pop Performance, Instrumental, and Best Instrumental Arrangement.
• In 1998, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) awarded Williams a special Citation of Achievement. The piece has logged over five million broadcast performances to become BMI's all-time number-one instrumental composition for radio air play.

Fire" is a 1968 song by Arthur Brown, Vincent Crane, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker. Performed by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, it was released as a single and on the band's debut album, also called The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The single made #1 in the UK (in August 1968) and Canada. In October, it made #2 in the US Billboard charts and #19 in Australia. It also made #6 in the Netherlands. "Fire" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.

The song is an example of the psychedelic rock of the period, though its lack of guitars or bass guitar distinguished it from many of its contemporaries. The lead instrument in this case was Vincent Crane's Hammond electronic organ, augmented by an orchestral section featuring prominent brass. The singer's opening proclamation of himself as "the god of hellfire" became a lasting epithet. The song's other memorable line is "You're Gonna Burn!!". The song ends with the sound of a wind from hell.

During live performances and in the black and white promotional television clip, Brown performed the song wearing a burning helmet. The helmet was improvised with a leather skull cap onto which was bolted a metal dish that held lighter fluid or petrol. As the cap was not insulated, the heat from the burning fuel quickly conducted through the fixing bolt to the top of Brown's head, causing him considerable pain.

Two studio mixes of "Fire" have been officially released, one in stereo and one in mono. The mono mix features no brass. Both versions are included on the CD reissue of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. The single B-side, "Rest Cure", was another track from the album.

Credit for the composition of "Fire" on the original vinyl single was to Arthur Brown and Vincent Crane only; however, Mike Finesilver and Peter Ker successfully sued for co-credit and royalties based on melodic similarities to their song "Baby, You're a Long Way Behind"

Pictures of Matchstick Men" is the first hit single by Status Quo, released in November 1967. It reached number seven in the British charts, number eight in Canada, and number twelve on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming their only hit single in the United States.  Francis Rossi confirmed on DVD2 of the Pictures set that it was originally intended to be a B-side to "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Cafe", but it was decided to swap the B-side and the A-side of the single. There are two versions of the song, a stereo and mono version, with significant differences: the mono version, which was the original single, has the trademark psychedelic wah-wah guitar in the breaks between lyrics, but the stereo version omits it.

The song opens with a single guitar repeatedly playing a simple four note riff before the rhythm guitar comes in with chords and the drums and lyrics begin. "Pictures of Matchstick Men" is one of a number of songs from the late sixties to feature the audio effect phasing. The song is an example of bubblegum psychedelia. Their following release, "Black Veils of Melancholy", was similar but flopped, which caused the group to change direction

Status Quo, also colloquially known as The Quo or just Quo, are an English rock band whose music is characterized by their distinctive brand of boogie rock.

The group's origins were in "The Spectres" founded by schoolboys Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster in 1962 After a number of lineup changes, the band became "The Status Quo" in late 1967, finally settling on the name "Status Quo" in 1969. They have recorded over 60 chart hits in the UK, more than any other rock group, 22 of which have reached the UK Top Ten

"Tuesday Afternoon" (sometimes referred to as "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)", or simply "Forever Afternoon") is a 1968 single by English symphonic rock band The Moody Blues, and presented in its original album form on their 1967 album Days of Future Passed in two parts.

The first part, the one most familiar to listeners, called "Tuesday Afternoon", was originally released on The Moody Blues 1967 album Days of Future Passed, a concept album chronicling a typical day. On the album, it was part one of "The Afternoon" track titled "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)".

Justin Hayward wrote the song originally intending to name it "Tuesday Afternoon". At the insistence of producer Tony Clarke, it was named "Forever Afternoon (Tuesday?)" for its release on Days of Future Passed. However, when it was released as a single a year later, its name was changed back to "Tuesday Afternoon", and it has been more commonly known by this name ever since. Some of the Moody Blues compilation and live albums list the song as "Tuesday Afternoon (Forever Afternoon)" to reflect both titles.

"Tuesday Afternoon" was released as a single in 1968, and was the second single from Days of Future Passed (the first being "Nights in White Satin"). It was backed with another Days track, "Another Morning". The single version of "Tuesday Afternoon" was oddly edited down to 2:16, ending before the repeat of the opening riff and "Tuesday afternoon" verse.

According to an interview with Justin Hayward, he wrote "Tuesday Afternoon" while sitting in the middle of a field near his home in England on a beautiful spring afternoon. He claims that he had his acoustic guitar in hand and the song just came to him. The song features Justin Hayward on lead vocals and acoustic guitar. The backing melody comes from the mellotron, which was played by Mike Pinder. There is also a short flute solo at the end played by Ray Thomas.

On Days of Future Passed, the London Festival Orchestra performs the final orchestral rendition of the chorus. This orchestral link between parts one and two of the song was recorded separately from the Moodys' portions. The link was arranged by Peter Knight, who arranged orchestral sections for the entire album. However, for the single release and subsequent releases on compilation albums, this orchestral finale was not included, and the song simply faded out during Ray Thomas's flute solo.

In concert, "Tuesday Afternoon" is usually ended with a short reprise of the opening acoustic guitar riff after the flute solo. Although, when the Moody Blues perform backed by a live orchestra, the original orchestral link ends the song.

The second half of the album version is a track entitled "(Evening) Time to Get Away", which is uncredited on the original album. Composed by John Lodge, the song hinges on the end of a work day and returning home.

In late 1967, Paul Mauriat conducted an orchestral "easy listening" version that was a number-one hit in the USA for five weeks in February and March 1968, becoming the only performance by a French artist ever to top the Billboard Hot 100. Its five-week run at the top was second longest of any instrumental of the Hot 100 era next to 1960's Theme From A Summer Place. Not surprisingly, the song spent 11 weeks atop Billboard's Easy Listening survey, and held the longest-lasting title honours on this chart for 25 years. It is the best-known version of the song in the United States. The Mauriat recording also reached number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.

Mauriat's version was featured repeatedly in an episode of Chris Carter's television series Millennium titled "A Room With No View," which originally aired on April 24, 1998 on the Fox Network. During the episode, the omnipresent melody is used by a kidnapper to brainwash a group of youths. His version is also briefly heard in The Simpsons episodes "There's No Disgrace Like Home" and "The Blue and the Gray

"Sunday Mornin'" is a song written by Margo Guryan and made famous by Spanky and Our Gang, whose version in summer of 1968 became a well-known single hit on the Billboard Hot 100 reaching #30 and #39 on the easy listening chart. The song also appeared in Spanky and Our Gang's album Like to Get to Know You. Singer Oliver released a 1969 version that went to #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #14 on the easy listening chart.

The song was also recorded by Guryan as "Sunday Morning" and it appeared on her critically acclaimed 1968 album Take a Picture, as well as on the B-side to her single "Spanky and Our Gang."

Also in 1968, Marie Laforêt released "Et Si Je T'Aime", a French version of "Sunday Mornin'" with lyrics by Michel Jourdan. She also recorded "E se ti amo", a version with Italian lyrics by Daniele Pace.

The group's first album, simply titled Spanky and Our Gang, was released by Mercury Records on August 1, 1967, and included three popular songs that were released as singles. These were "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" (their biggest hit, which reached number #9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in the summer of 1967), followed by "Making Every Minute Count" (reached #31) and "Lazy Day" (reached #14). Both "Sunday Will Never Be The Same" and "Lazy Day" sold over one million copies. "Sunday Will Never Be the Same" was written by Terry Cashman and Gene Pistilli. In an interview by Cashman with the Songfacts website, he revealed that the song was originally written as a ballad. However, Cashman said the group "changed it, and they added the vocal, 'Ba-da-da-da-da,' which was a great hook."

Their second album, Like to Get to Know You, was released in April 1968. Two singles were released: "Sunday Mornin'" in the spring, which reached #30, and "Like to Get to Know You", which reached #17 in the Summer 1968. The single's B-side, "Three Ways From Tomorrow", also received considerable airplay. The album included their rendition of "Stardust", and a version of "Everybody's Talkin'", best known as a hit single for Harry Nilsson and the theme song for the movie Midnight Cowboy.

"MacArthur Park" is a song by Jimmy Webb, originally composed as part of an intended cantata. The song was initially rejected by The Association. Richard Harris was the first to record it, in 1968; the song was subsequently covered by numerous artists. Among the best-known covers are Donna Summer's disco arrangement from 1978 and Waylon Jennings's version recorded in 1969.

While it was a commercially successful song multiple times after it was released, "MacArthur Park" utilized flowery lyrics and metaphors (most famously, love being likened to a cake left out in the rain) that were considered by media such as the Los Angeles Times to be "polarizing" and "loopy."

The song was first recorded by Richard Harris, after Harris first met Webb at a fundraiser in East Los Angeles, California in late 1967. Webb had been invited to provide the musical backdrop at the piano. Out of the blue, Harris suggested to him that he wanted to release a record. Webb didn't take it seriously until he later received a telegram from Harris, requesting that he come to London to begin the project. After exhaustively listening to all of Webb's compositions, Harris selected "MacArthur Park" for his pop music debut.

The Harris recording of "MacArthur Park" comprises four sections or movements:

1. A mid-tempo arrangement, called "In the Park" in the original session notes, built around piano and harpsichord, with horns and orchestra coming in, accompanying the song's main verses and choruses
2. At about two and a half minutes in, this shifts to a slow tempo and quiet arrangement paired with an alternate lyric, "After the Loves of My Life"
3. At about five minutes in, a sudden switch to an up-tempo instrumental section, "Allegro", led by drums and percussion and punctuated by horn riffs, building up to an orchestral climax
4. At about six and a half minutes in, a reprise of the first section's arrangement accompanying the final choruses and another climax.

The recording was made on December 21, 1967, at Sunset Sound Recorders in Hollywood, with further work done on December 29 and 30. The musicians in the original studio recording included members of the famous "Wrecking Crew" of Los Angeles-based studio musicians who played on many of the hit records of the 1960s and 1970s. Personnel used included Hal Blaine on drums, Larry Knechtel on keyboards, Joe Osborn on bass guitar, and Mike Deasy on guitar along with Webb himself on harpsichord.

The recording appeared on Harris's album A Tramp Shining in 1968 and was released as a single. It was an unusual choice at its more than seven minute length and multi-part structure. Harris topped the music charts in Europe and Australia, and peaked at No. 2 on the American charts. The song peaked at No. 10 in Billboard's Easy Listening survey, and was No. 8 for the year on WABC's overall 1968 chart.

Valleri" is a song written by Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart for The Monkees, who had a #3 on Billboard Hot 100 and #1 on Cash Box with it in early 1968. The song also rose to #12 in the UK.

Responding to Screen Gems president and music supervisor Don Kirshner's early-morning request for a "girl's-name song" to be used in the Monkees's television series, Boyce and Hart improvised "Valleri" on their way to Kirshner's office, after pretending over the telephone that the song was already finished. Nonetheless, Kirshner was pleased with their work, and "Valleri" took its place on the Monkees recording schedule, with Boyce and Hart producing the original sessions in August 1966.

The original recording (with instrumental backing by the Candy Store Prophets, plus session musician Louie Shelton contributing a flamencoesque guitar solo) was featured in the show's first season in 1967; a staged performance showed Michael Nesmith copying Shelton's guitar licks, and singer Davy Jones appearing to physically outgrow his bandmates, through forced perspective and camera trick shots. While the first version of "Valleri" went unreleased, a few off-air recordings received radio airplay (thanks to DJs taping the audio directly from the video), and later surfaced on bootleg recordings.

By the end of 1967, the Monkees had gone from only singing on their records (to meet their filming, recording, and appearance schedules) to also playing, to a mix of both. More importantly, they had gone from having no say over the music production to being in near-complete creative control. Their fifth album, The Birds, The Bees & the Monkees, rounded out the selection of songs from the show to appear on record, with the second season (1967–1968) being its last. Assuming both performing and producing roles, the Monkees remade both "I'll Be Back Up On My Feet" and "Valleri", duplicating the latter as closely as possible to the original, to the point of bringing back the Candy Store Prophets and Louie Shelton to perform. Boyce and Hart were not pleased that their production was not being used, but understood the reasons, and still collected writer's royalties. Mike Nesmith had been reluctant to remake the song, and adamant against it being released as a single, declaring it the "worst record ever", but he was overruled by Colgems Records.

When Lester Sill of Colgems heard the track, he felt it needed something extra, and had a brass section overdubbed. The remade "Valleri", released on March 2, 1968, made it to Number Three in the US, and was to be the band's last top ten hit of the 1960s.

"This Guy's in Love with You" is a song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and recorded by Herb Alpert. Although known primarily for his trumpet playing as the leader of the Tijuana Brass, Alpert sang lead vocals on this solo recording, arranged by Bacharach.

The recording's origin occurs, as documented in a "Biography" cable episode featuring Bacharach, when Alpert asked Bacharach, "Say, Burt, do you happen to have any old compositions lying around that you and Hal never recorded; maybe one I might use?" Alpert said he made it his practice to ask songwriters that particular question; often a lost "pearl" is revealed. As it happened, Bacharach recalled one, found the lyrics and score sheet, and offered it to Alpert: "Here, Herb . . . you might like this one."

The composition had an easy, recognizable Bacharach-David feel, a spot for a signature horn solo in the bridge and in the fadeout, and was an easy song to sing within Alpert's vocal range. Herb saw the possibilities for it for himself. Alpert originally sang "This Guy's in Love with You" on a 1968 television special, The Beat of the Brass. In response to numerous viewer telephone calls following the broadcast, it was decided by Alpert that the song should be released as a single recording, and the charted hit reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart in June of that year, remaining in the top position for four weeks. It was not only Alpert's first #1 single, but it was also the first #1 single for his A&M record label. The song also spent ten weeks at #1 on the Easy Listening chart. For the single's B-side, Alpert chose "A Quiet Tear," an album track from his first album in 1962, The Lonely Bull.

It was eleven years later when Herb Alpert would become the first (and only) artist in a recording career to reach the prized #1 top position of the Billboard Hot 100 with both a vocal performance and an instrumental performance when his instrumental, "Rise", soared to the top of the hit chart.

Interestingly, Alpert's vocal was succeeded at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 by "Grazing In The Grass", an instrumental by Hugh Masekela. On the Billboard Easy Listening chart, Alpert's song was both preceded and succeeded at #1 by instrumental hits from Hugo Montenegro ("The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and Mason Williams ("Classical Gas"), respectively

White Room" is a psychedelic rock song by British supergroup Cream, written by bassist Jack Bruce and poet Pete Brown. It originally appeared on the US release of their double album, Wheels of Fire, by Atco Records in July 1968 and was released as a single in September 1968 (see 1968 in music), on the same label.

The single reached the top 30 in 7 countries, including Australia, where it topped the Go-Set National Top 40 singles chart. The song was edited for the single release on AM Radio stations, although album-oriented FM Radio stations would play the full album version.

"White Room" was proposed to be released on Cream's 1967 album Disraeli Gears, but was rejected by Atco Records. The song was similar in style and composition to "Tales of Brave Ulysses", which was written by Eric Clapton with Martin Sharp and was released on Disraeli Gears.

The backing track for "White Room" was recorded while the band was on tour with an 8-track tape recorder, rare at that time. Jack Bruce sang and played bass on the song, Eric Clapton played overdubbed guitars, Ginger Baker played drums and a timpani, and Felix Pappalardi – the group's producer – contributed by playing violas. Clapton played a Fender Stratocaster through a wah-wah pedal to achieve a "talking-effect

Itchycoo Park" is a psychedelic pop song written by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, first recorded by their group, the Small Faces. The song reached number three in the UK Singles Chart, 1967.   "Itchycoo Park" was released by mod band The Small Faces in August, 1967. Together with "Lazy Sunday", "Tin Soldier" and "All or Nothing", the song is one of the band's biggest hits and has become a classic of its time.   The song reached number 16 in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968.

Long running British music magazine NME cites readers poll voting "Itchycoo Park" number 62 out of the top 100 singles of all time.    "Itchycoo Park" climbed the charts again when it was re-released on 13 December 1975.

The song was one of the first pop singles to use flanging, an effect that can be heard in the bridge section after each chorus. Most sources credit the use of the effect to Olympic Studios engineer George Chkiantz who showed it to the Small Faces regular engineer Glyn Johns; he in turn demonstrated it to the group, who were always on the lookout for innovative production sounds, and they readily agreed to its use on the single.    Although many devices were soon created that could produce the same effect by purely electronic means, the effect as used on "Itchycoo Park" was at that time an electro-mechanical studio process. Two synchronized tape copies of a finished recording were played simultaneously into a third master recorder, and by manually retarding the rotation of one of the two tape reels using the fingers, a skilled engineer could subtly manipulate the phase difference between the two sources, creating the lush 'swooshing' phase effect that sweeps up and down the frequency range. Because the original single version was mixed and mastered in mono, the flanging effect in "Itchycoo Park" is more pronounced in its original mono mix, and is noticeably diluted in the subsequent stereo mix.

"Elenore" is a 1968 song by American pop-rock group The Turtles, originally included on the album The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands. Its writing was co-credited to the five members of the band, Howard Kaylan, Mark Volman, Al Nichol, Jim Pons and John Barbata. The song was written as a satire of one of their earlier pop hits, "Happy Together".

By 1968, The Turtles had had a number of successful pop records on the White Whale label, including Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me Babe", "Happy Together" and "She'd Rather Be With Me", both written by Gary Bonner and Alan Gordon. The band members wanted to diversify their musical output, in parallel with more innovative musical groups of the time, and to record their own material. However, their record company were reluctant to allow them to do so.

As a demonstration of their musical versatility, The Turtles recorded the album ...the Battle of the Bands, which featured performances in a wide variety of different musical styles. The band recorded "Elenore" as a parody of the type of happy-go-lucky pop songs they themselves had been performing, but with deliberately clichéd and slapdash lyrics such as: "Your looks intoxicate me / Even though your folks hate me / There's no one like you, Elenore, really"; and "Gee, I think you're swell / And you really do me well / You're my pride and joy, et cetera..."

Midnight Confessions" is a song written by Lou T. Josie and originally performed by the Ever-Green Blues. It was later made famous by American rock band The Grass Roots, who released the song as a single in 1968. The Grass Roots version became the band's biggest charting hit on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching the Top 5 of the chart.

The original recording of "Midnight Confessions" was a demo by the Evergreen Blues Band, whose manager – Lou Josie – wrote the song. The demo contained a horn section and caught the attention of Record producer/engineer Steve Barri, who was looking to produce a song for the Grass Roots that was a "West Coast" version of a Motown-style production. The Grass Roots version was produced/engineered by Steve Barri with the horn section's arrangement by Jimmie Haskell. The performers included bassist-vocalist Rob Grill, guitarists Creed Bratton and Warren Entner, drummer Rick Coonce, and various members of the group of LA studio-musicians known as the Wrecking Crew, including Carol Kaye playing the opening bass-line In fact, because of the way The Grass Roots was handled by its producers, it is unlikely that any of the members of the band actually played on the recording, although they did provide the vocals and did perform it in concert.

"Midnight Confessions" was released as a single by the ABC/Dunhill record label in late June 1968 It was the Grass Roots first single to feature a horn section and was "a departure" from the group's previous singles and thus caused worry for the band members as it might not have become a hit. The group members, however, did not need to worry as the single was well received and became their biggest hit in the United States, peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America, with sales of over 500,000 units, on December 3, 1968. The single was also well received in Canada peaking at #4 on the RPM 100 singles chart

Nobody But Me" is a song written by O'Kelly, Rudolph and Ronald Isley, and first recorded by The Isley Brothers in 1963. The most commercially successful and widely known version was a 1968 US top ten garage rock hit by The Human Beinz. It is widely known for the word "no" repeated many times.

The Isley Brothers' original version, released as a single on Wand 131, failed to make the pop or R&B charts.

The song was covered by Youngstown, Ohio's The Human Beinz and made them one-hit wonders after the song reached number eight on the Billboard pop singles chart in 1968. The Human Beinz' recording was a reworking and extension of the last part of the Isley Brothers' original song. It was included on some versions of Lenny Kaye's Nuggets compilation, and is now recognised as a prime example of soul-influenced garage rock.

Dave Marsh, in his Book of Rock Lists named the version by the Human Beinz "The most negative song to hit the Top 40," noting that the word "no" is sung over 100 times in a mere 2:16. Marsh also counts the word "nobody" 46 times more. A segment of "Nobody But Me" was also featured during the "House of Blue Leaves" fight scene in Quentin Tarantino's 2004 film Kill Bill, Vol. 1. It was also used in The Departed in the scene where Billy kills the two gangsters from Providence

Changing tastes in the late 1960s rendered the group unfashionable, but they still continued to have modest hits through the rest of the decade, including "Ups And Downs," "I Had A Dream," "Too Much Talk," "Don't Take it So Hard," "Cinderella Sunshine," "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon," and "Let Me." On January 6, 1968, just four months after the cancellation of Where The Action Is, Revere and Lindsay returned to the air as hosts of a new Dick Clark-produced show in which the Raiders made several appearances, Happening '68 (later shortened to Happening). This weekly series was joined from July to September that year by a Clark-produced daily series It's Happening, also hosted by Revere and Lindsay. In August 1968, bassist Coe left the group again and was replaced by former Action heartthrob Keith Allison. According to author Derek Taylor, the Raiders were seen as "irrelevances. . . . Nervous citizens felt reassured that some good safe things never changed".

Mark Lindsay took more control of the band during this time. He produced all records beginning with Too Much Talk in 1968, and the psychedelic album Something Happening. Lindsay's vision was represented on songs such as "Let Me" (a 1969 gold single), and the albums Hard 'N' Heavy (with marshmallow) and Alias Pink Puzz. (According to allmusic.com, Pink Puzz was the identity under which the Raiders first tried to get the album played on FM radio, a gambit that failed though the band kept the joke name for the album title.) The success of "Let Me" allowed Paul Revere and the Raiders to tour Europe with the Beach Boys in the spring of 1969 (they also recorded two songs for the long running German music program Beat-Club at this time). Later that autumn, Happening ended its run.

Changing tastes in the late 1960s rendered the group unfashionable, but they still continued to have modest hits through the rest of the decade, including "Ups And Downs," "I Had A Dream," "Too Much Talk," "Don't Take it So Hard," "Cinderella Sunshine," "Mr. Sun, Mr. Moon," and "Let Me." On January 6, 1968, just four months after the cancellation of Where The Action Is, Revere and Lindsay returned to the air as hosts of a new Dick Clark-produced show in which the Raiders made several appearances, Happening '68 (later shortened to Happening). This weekly series was joined from July to September that year by a Clark-produced daily series It's Happening, also hosted by Revere and Lindsay. In August 1968, bassist Coe left the group again and was replaced by former Action heartthrob Keith Allison. According to author Derek Taylor, the Raiders were seen as "irrelevances. . . . Nervous citizens felt reassured that some good safe things never changed".

Mark Lindsay took more control of the band during this time. He produced all records beginning with Too Much Talk in 1968, and the psychedelic album Something Happening. Lindsay's vision was represented on songs such as "Let Me" (a 1969 gold single), and the albums Hard 'N' Heavy (with marshmallow) and Alias Pink Puzz. (According to allmusic.com, Pink Puzz was the identity under which the Raiders first tried to get the album played on FM radio, a gambit that failed though the band kept the joke name for the album title.) The success of "Let Me" allowed Paul Revere and the Raiders to tour Europe with the Beach Boys in the spring of 1969 (they also recorded two songs for the long running German music program Beat-Club at this time). Later that autumn, Happening ended its run.

People Got to Be Free" is a song released in 1968 by The Rascals. Written by group members Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and featuring a lead vocal from Cavaliere, it is an upbeat but impassioned plea for tolerance and freedom:

All the world over, so easy to see!

People everywhere, just wanna be free.

Listen, please listen! that's the way it should be

Peace in the valley, people got to be free.

It became a big hit in the turbulent summer of 1968, spending five weeks atop the Billboard Pop Singles chart, the group's longest such stay. It was also the group's second-most successful single on the Billboard Black Singles chart, reaching number 14 and trailing only the previous year's "Groovin'". "People Got to Be Free" was RIAA-certified as a gold record on August 23, 1968, and eventually sold over 4 million copies. It later was included on the group's March 1969 album Freedom Suite.

The single's picture sleeve photo was previously featured in the inner album cover of the Rascals' Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits compilation. The B-side, "My World", was a track from the group's Once Upon a Dream album.

While "People Got to Be Free" was perceived by some as related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy earlier that year, it was recorded before the latter's death. In fact it was partly a reaction to an ugly encounter wherein the long-haired group was threatened by a group of rednecks after their tour vehicle broke down in Fort Pierce, Florida

The song is clearly a product of its times; however, two decades later writer Dave Marsh included it as number 237 in his book Heart of Rock and Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles of All Time, saying in reference to, and paraphrase of, the song's lyric, "Ask me my opinion, my opinion will be: Dated, but NEVER out of date."

The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the #1 hits "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as A Beautiful Morning (#3 1968) and the lesser-known A Girl Like You. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.  The Rascals were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010.

Eddie Brigati (vocals), Felix Cavaliere (keyboard, vocals), Gene Cornish (guitar) and Dino Danelli (drums) started the band in Brigati and Danelli's hometown of Garfield, New Jersey. Brigati, Cavaliere and Cornish had previously been members of Joey Dee and the Starliters. Eddie's brother, David Brigati, an original Starliter, helped arrange the vocal harmonies and sang backgrounds on many of the group's recordings (informally earning the designation as the "fifth Rascal"). When Atlantic Records signed them, they discovered that another group, Borrah Minnevitch's and Johnny Puleo's 'Harmonica Rascals', objected to their release of records under the name 'Rascals'. To avoid conflict, manager Sid Bernstein decided to rename the group 'The Young Rascals'. The Young Rascals' first television performance was on the program Hullabaloo on February 27, 1965, where they performed their debut single, "I Ain't Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore". The track reached #23 in Canada, and touched the lower reaches of the U.S. charts as well. This modest success was followed by the U.S./Canada #1 single "Good Lovin'" (1966, originally recorded by The Olympics in 1965).

The band's songwriting team of Eddie Brigati and Cavaliere then began providing most of their songs, and the hits kept coming for the next two years. Their immediate followups to "Good Lovin'", including "You Better Run" (1966; covered in 1980 by Pat Benatar) and "Come On Up" were only modest hits. "(I've Been) Lonely Too Long" (1967) did better, and "Groovin'" (#1 US/Canada, 1967) returned them to the top of the charts

She's a Rainbow" is a song by the English rock band The Rolling Stones and was featured on their 1967 album Their Satanic Majesties Request.

Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "She's a Rainbow" was recorded on 18 May 1967. It is most famous for its vibrant piano by Nicky Hopkins, Brian Jones' use of the mellotron, and its rich lyricism by Jagger.

John Paul Jones, later of Led Zeppelin, arranged the strings of this song during his session days. Despite rumours, none of The Beatles perform on this track. Backing vocals were by Jagger and Richards.

The lyrics in the chorus share the phrase "she comes in colours" with the song of that title by Love released in December 1966.

The song uses humorous devices such as when the strings play out of tune and off key towards the end of the song. Also, the rest of the Stones are singing their "La La's" like little children. The song ends on an unusual sour electric guitar chord.

It was released as a single in December 1967 and went to #25 in the United States. It is included on a large number of the Stones' hits compilations that cover this period, including Forty Licks.  It was performed occasionally on the 1997–98 Bridges to Babylon Tour. Apple Inc. used this song in an advertisement for the iMac G3. Later Sony used the song in an advert for BRAVIA.

Tommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose period of greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" (1966) and "Crimson and Clover" (1969) — and also charted twelve other Top 40 hits, including five in the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", "Mony Mony", "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". All of the above records went to #1 on WLS, except "Sweet Cherry Wine", which peaked at #4.

With a touring group to promote the single, James went to New York City, where he sold the master of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records, at which time he changed his last name to James. With national promotion, the single became a No. 1 hit in July 1966. The Shondells played straightforward shambolic rock and roll, but soon became involved in the budding bubblegum music movement. Songwriter Ritchie Cordell gave them the No. 4 hit "I Think We're Alone Now" and the No. 10 hit "Mirage" in 1967. In 1968, James had a No. 3 hit with "Mony Mony". Co-written by James, Cordell, Cordell's writing partner Bo Gentry, and Bobby Bloom, "Mony Mony" reached No. 3 in the US and was a British No. 1 in 1968. From 1968, the group began writing their own songs, with James and Lucia penning the psychedelic classic "Crimson and Clover". The song was recorded and mixed by Bruce Staple, with James tackling vocal duties and playing all instruments, and featured the then unusual use of electronic gadgetry such as vocoders and phasers. Later in 1968, the group toured with Vice President Hubert Humphrey during his presidential campaign. Humphrey showed his appreciation by writing the liner notes for the Crimson and Clover album.  Further hits included "Sweet Cherry Wine", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and "Ball of Fire", all from 1969. They also produced "Sugar on Sunday", later covered by The Clique. As the band embraced the sounds of psychedelia, they were invited to perform at the Woodstock concert but declined.

Tommy James and the Shondells are an American rock and roll group whose period of greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" (1966) and "Crimson and Clover" (1969) — and also charted twelve other Top 40 hits, including five in the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage", "Mony Mony", "Sweet Cherry Wine", and "Crystal Blue Persuasion". All of the above records went to #1 on WLS, except "Sweet Cherry Wine", which peaked at #4.

With a touring group to promote the single, James went to New York City, where he sold the master of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records, at which time he changed his last name to James. With national promotion, the single became a No. 1 hit in July 1966. The Shondells played straightforward shambolic rock and roll, but soon became involved in the budding bubblegum music movement. Songwriter Ritchie Cordell gave them the No. 4 hit "I Think We're Alone Now" and the No. 10 hit "Mirage" in 1967. In 1968, James had a No. 3 hit with "Mony Mony". Co-written by James, Cordell, Cordell's writing partner Bo Gentry, and Bobby Bloom, "Mony Mony" reached No. 3 in the US and was a British No. 1 in 1968. From 1968, the group began writing their own songs, with James and Lucia penning the psychedelic classic "Crimson and Clover". The song was recorded and mixed by Bruce Staple, with James tackling vocal duties and playing all instruments, and featured the then unusual use of electronic gadgetry such as vocoders and phasers. Later in 1968, the group toured with Vice President Hubert Humphrey during his presidential campaign. Humphrey showed his appreciation by writing the liner notes for the Crimson and Clover album.  Further hits included "Sweet Cherry Wine", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", and "Ball of Fire", all from 1969. They also produced "Sugar on Sunday", later covered by The Clique. As the band embraced the sounds of psychedelia, they were invited to perform at the Woodstock concert but declined.

Vincebus Eruptum (the first word is pronounced 'win-kay-bus') is the debut studio album by American rock band Blue Cheer. Released in January 1968, the album was the first to feature the band's classic lineup of vocalist and bassist Dickie Peterson, guitarist Leigh Stephens and drummer Paul Whaley. A commercial and critical success, Vincebus Eruptum peaked at number 11 on the Billboard 200 albums chart and spawned the top-20 hit cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues". It is lauded as one of the first heavy metal albums.

Blue Cheer's debut album was recorded in 1967 at Amigo Studios in North Hollywood, California. In an interview with StonerRock.com, frontman Dickie Peterson explained that "Some songs I wrote have taken 20 years to really complete. And there are other songs like “Doctor Please” or “Out of Focus” that I wrote in ten minutes." On "Doctor Please" in particular, Peterson explained that "when I wrote the song (in 1967), it was a glorification of drugs. I was going through a lot of “Should I take this drug or should I not take this drug? Blah, blah, blah.” There was a lot of soul searching at the time when I wrote that song, and I actually decided to take it. That’s what that song was about and that’s what I sang it about, sort of a drug anthem for me." On the band's cover of Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues", Peterson noted that "We kept changing it around and adding/taking bits away. It also has to do with large doses of LSD."

Blue Cheer's debut album has widely been held in high regard by critics. Writing for music website Allmusic, Mark Deming described Vincebus Eruptum as "a glorious celebration of rock & roll primitivism run through enough Marshall amps to deafen an army", praising the band's "sound and fury" as one of the founding movements of heavy metal.The album has also been identified as an "All Music Guide Album Pick", denoting that it is one of the top albums recommended by the Allmusic critics. Pitchfork reviewer Alexander Linhardt gave the album nine out of a maximum ten points, although noted that the album was less structured and more experimental than its successor Outsideinside. Sputnikmusic offered the song an "Excellent" rating of four out of five, with reviewer Joe Katz praising the album as "one of the heaviest blues albums in existence", noting the "Raw production and quality [which] keep it fresh in the world of squeaky clean classic rock sounds."Online music service Rhapsody included Vincebus Eruptum in its list of the "10 Essential Proto-Metal Albums", suggesting that the band "not only inspired the term 'power trio,' they practically invented heavy metal."