6 of the 60s: 6/18/14 (1967)

Humpday 60s time is here, and this week I've got a half-dozen nuggets from 1967, the year the Beatles released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band...

The Supremes - "Reflections"
from the album Reflections (1968)
Billboard Hot 100 peak:#2
Songwriters: Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland

Florence Ballard was already replaced with Cindy Birdsong by the time the group appeared on TV to promote the single, but her and Mary Wilson's vocals were one of the things that brought a special something to the trippy record.

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Four Tops - "Bernadette"
from the album Reach Out (1967)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #4
Songwriters: Lamont Dozier, Brian Holland, Eddie Holland

One of my all-time favorite songs, the climax of the trilogy that began with "Reach Out' then fell into "Standing In The Shadows Of Love", Levi Stubbs goes apeshit crazy with desperation for the love he knows he's lost already but can't imagine life another way.

The Temptations - "All I Need"
from the album The Temptations With A Lot O' Soul (1967)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #8
Songwriters: Eddie Holland, R. Dean Taylor, Frank Wilson

After Holland/Dozier/Holland left Motown as producers, the new crop like Frank Wilson were called up from the "minors" to helm records like this, his first with the vocal legends.

Stevie Wonder - "I'm Wondering"
from the album Greatest Hits (1968)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #12
Songwriters: Henry Crosby, Sylvia Moy, Stevie Wonder

A corner in a love triangle pleads his case in one of the Wonder's best early tracks...

Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston - "It Takes Two"
from the album Take Two (1966)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #14
Songwriters: Sylvia Moy, William Robinson

This was Marvin's first big hit in Britain, and was an even bigger hit there in 1990 when Rod Stewart and Tina Turner remade it.

Martha & The Vandellas - "Love Bug Leave My Heart Alone"
from the album Riding High (1968)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #25
Songwriters: Richard Morris, Sylvia Moy

The trio's warning to a old ex, this record was the first legendary DJ John Peel played on Radio One in Britain.

That's it for today's 60s trip...I'll be back tomorrow with seven more from 1977 and 8 from 1987...