Songs of the Sixties Trivia By John William Tuohy

If you're looking for youth, you're looking for longevity, just take a dose of rock 'n' roll—it keeps you going. Just like the caffeine in your coffee, rock 'n' roll is good for the soul, for the well-being, for the psyche, for your everything. I love it. I can't even picture being without rock 'n'roll. — Hank Ballard, musician who wrote, among other things, The Twist.

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A Beautiful Morning by The Rascals was the first of the group's singles to be credited to The Rascals, the original name of the group, rather than The Young Rascals which their producer had them take in order to avoid confusion from listeners with another group The Harmonica Rascals.

A Boy Named Sue by Johnny Cash was written by Shel Silverstein and recorded the song live at California's San Quentin State Prison at a concert on 24 February 1969. The song became Cash's biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and his only Top 10 single there, spending three weeks at #2 in 1969. It also topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks charts that same year. The title might also have been inspired by the male attorney Sue K. Hicks of Madisonville, Tennessee, a friend of John Scopes who agreed to be a prosecutor in what was to become known as the Scopes Trial. Sue was named after his mother who died after giving birth

A Groovy Kind of Love is a pop song written by Toni Wine and Carole Bayer Sager for the Screen Gems music publishing company. The song title was an early use of the then-new slang word groovy. Wine, who was 17 years old when she wrote the song, said, “Carole came up with Groovy kinda… groovy kinda… groovy… and we're all just saying, 'Kinda groovy, kinda groovy, kinda…' and I don't exactly know who came up with Love, but it was 'Groovy kind of love'. And we did it. We wrote it in 20 minutes. It was amazing. Just flew out of our mouths, and at the piano, it was a real quick and easy song to write.”

Alvin for President was record by Alvin and the Chipmunks. And I’m glad it was. It’s a happy song in a generally unhappy decade. Released in 1960 it was a smash hit. Upon hearing the song, presidential candidate John F. Kennedy commented I'm glad to know that I have at least one worthy opponent. Bitchy Bitch Bitchy.

All I Could Do Was Cry was recorded in 1960 by the magnificent Etta James and was written by Berry Gordy and his sister Gwen. The song was said to be inspired by James' former boyfriend Harvey Fuqua. (Who was dating Gwen at the time or used to date Gwen or whatever, the guy got around) This is one of the great songs of rock and roll and R&B.

 Alley Oop, an annoying little ditty, was recorded by the Hollywood Argyles, probably as a means to inflict pain on an unsuspecting world. Of course, the song hit number one on the Billboard Top One Hundred.  The lead vocalist on song was Norm Davis who was paid a one-time fee of $25 for his work.  He is currently a poet and poetry teacher in Rochester, New York.  Of the Hollywood Argyles he said: There were NO Hollywood Argyles at the very beginning. I Paxton was the only lead singer. Kim Fowley helped me produce it, because we were partners in Maverick Music International/BMI at the time... The drummer was Ronnie Silico (Lloyd Price's road drummer). The piano player was Gaynel Hodge of the Penguins. The bass player was Harper Cosby; a jazz bassist in L.A. Sandy Nelson (of Teenbeat fame) played the garbage can and screamed on the record. The background singers were: Dallas Frazier...Buddy Mize, Scotty Turner, Diane A friend I knew, and myself. It was recorded at American Recorders, next door to Lawrence Welk's Palladium, and across from the Moulin Rouge on Sunset Blvd. near Sunset and Vine Street. A little bitty street (Argyle Street) was next door to the studio, so I said, 'Let's call ourselves The Hollywood Argyles'

The instrumental Apache came out in June of 1961 and was a big hit for a jazz guitarist from Denmark named Jørgen Ingmann although it had actually been released a year early by a British group The Shadows and became a UK hit in its own right. (They also charted with the song in Australia, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, and South Africa)  It turned out the Shadows had been touring with a British guitarist named Jerry Lordan who played the song on a ukulele before the group reworked the sound and took it on as their own. Ingmann’s version of the song stopped the Shadows from having a hit with it in the US.

Are You Lonesome Tonight?  Hit the scene in 1926 and was a hit for Elvis in 196o (Elvis also misspelled the title to Are You Lonesome To-night?) Before that Jaye P. Morgan (The one from The Gong Show) had a small Billboard hit with the song as well. Elvis was said to have recorded the song because his unethical manager, Colonel Parker (An illegal alien from Denmark) said it was his wives favorite tune. The song went on to be one of the biggest-selling singles of 1960 and peaked at number one on the Billboard pop chart for six weeks.

As Tears Go By by The Rolling Stones was one of the first songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The Stones manager, Andrew Oldham, gave it Marianne Faithfull, who released it in 1964. It was going to be the B-side of her first single, but the record company decided to make it the A-side and it became her first hit. The Stones recorded it a year later. The original title was As Time Goes By. It was changed to avoid confusion with the song from Casablanca. Jagger said I wrote the lyrics, and Keith wrote the melody. It's a very melancholy song for a 21-year-old to write: The evening of the day, watching children play - it's very dumb and naive, but it's got a very sad sort of thing about it, almost like an older person might write. You know, it's like a metaphor for being old: You're watching children playing and realizing you're not a child. It's a relatively mature song considering the rest of the output at the time. And we didn't think of doing it, because the Rolling Stones were a butch Blues group. But Marianne Faithfull's version was already a big, proven hit song... It was one of the first things I ever wrote.”

A Well Respected Man was a song by The Kinks, written by the group's lead singer and rhythm guitarist Ray Davies in 1965. Davies wrote the song after a slight argument with upper class guests at a luxury resort in England. The song is intended to mock what he perceived as their condescension and self-satisfaction.

A World without Love by the pop group Peter and Gordon hit the charts in 1964. The song was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It is the biggest hit they wrote that was not released by The Beatles.  Peter and Gordon were Peter Asher and Gordon Waller. Paul McCartney was dating Asher's sister, actor Jane Asher. Pete Asher recalled “Paul had played Gordon and me that song at some point, just in passing. It was really just half a song. It didn't yet have a bridge. Gordon and I were working at clubs in London at that time, and we got offered a record deal by EMI, who saw us as an English version of The Kingston Trio, or a Peter, Paul and Mary type of thing. We did the American folk song '500 Miles,' and that was the song they were thinking would be our first single. Anyway, we signed the record deal with EMI, and set the date for our first recording session. At that point I went to Paul and asked him if that orphaned song was still up for grabs, since we needed three or four songs to record on that first day in the studio. Paul said we could have it, so I asked him to finish the bridge. And he did. As I recall, the bridge came in the nick of time for us to record; World without Love' at that first session.”

Alfie was sung by Dionne Warwick and written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David for the 1966 movie Alfie.  Bacharach said “With a song like Alfie, I had it all in the initial week. But I had 3 weeks before I had to turn it in and I kept fussing with it. A note here, a push there. You've got 3 and a half, 4 minutes, so there is no room for waste. Once it's there, you just try to make sure it's there. 'Alfie' could be as close to the best song Hal and I ever wrote. It was a hard one to write because most of it had to be said lyrically at first. I had to set it musically and it was challenging but it turned out great. We went in and recorded it quickly with Dionne because the original record was with Cher. Sonny (Bono) made the record with Cher and that was different than how I had envisioned it.”

A Taste of Honey was written originally an instrumental track (or recurring theme) written for the 1960 Broadway version of the 1958 British play A Taste of Honey. Both the original and a cover by Herb Alpert in 1965 earned the song Grammy Awards.

Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In were medleys from the musical Hair, and released as a single in 1969 by The 5th Dimension. It hit the number one position, becoming the first medley to ever achieve this feat and was eventually certified Platinum. The lyrics of this song were based on the astrological belief that the world would soon be entering the "Age of Aquarius", an age of love, light, and humanity, unlike the then current "Age of Pisces". This change was presumed to occur at the end of the 20th century; however, major astrologers differ extremely widely as to when.

Act Naturally is a song written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Russell, originally from Mississippi, was based in Fresno, California in the early 1960s. One night, some of his friends from Oklahoma planned to do a recording session in Los Angeles and asked him to join them. In order to do so, Russell had to break a date with his then-girlfriend. "When she asked me why I was going to L.A., I answered, 'They are going to put me in the movies and make a big star out of me.' We both laughed." The Beatles' version is sung by Ringo Starr. The Beatles performed the song during an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, on August 14, 1965.

A Change Is Gonna Come" by Sam Cooke was written and first recorded in 1963 and released under the RCA Victor label shortly after his death in late 1964. Though only a modest hit for Cooke in comparison with his previous singles, the song came to exemplify the sixties' Civil Rights Movement. The song has gained in popularity and critical acclaim in the decades since its release, and is #12 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Upon hearing Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" in 1963, Cooke was greatly moved that such a poignant song about racism in America could come from someone who was not black. While on tour in May 1963, and after speaking with sit-in demonstrators in Durham, North Carolina following a concert, Cooke returned to his tour bus and wrote the first draft of what would become "A Change Is Gonna Come". The song also reflected much of Cooke's own inner turmoil. Known for his polished image and light-hearted songs such as "You Send Me" and "Twistin' the Night Away", he had long felt the need to address the situation of discrimination and racism in America, especially the southern states. However, his image and fears of losing his largely white fan base prevented him from doing so.

Ain't No Mountain High Enough was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, becoming a hit again in 1970 when recorded by Diana Ross. In the original 1967 version Terrell was e nervous and intimidated during recording because she hadn't rehearsed the lyrics.  She recorded her vocals alone and Marvin Gaye's vocal was added later.

Atlantis was written and recorded by Scottish singer Donovan in 1968 and became a worldwide hit. Many believe that the background vocals belong to Paul McCartney.

Big Bad John was sung by Jimmy Dean. In 1961 Columbia Records was considering dropping Dean before the release of this million-selling single, as he hadn't had a hit in years. Dean wrote the song on a flight from New York to Nashville because he realized he needed a fourth song for his recording session. The supposed inspiration for the character of Big John was said to have been an actor Dean met in a summer stock play, John Minto. There are two different versions of the inscription on the marble stand in front of the mine. In the original song the line read, At the bottom of this mine lies one hell of a man---Big John, but the “Hell” word was  deemed too controversial, so in the version that was most often heard on the radio, one could hear At the bottom of this mine lies a big, big man---Big John instead.

Boys was a hit for The Shirelles (Although it was released as the B-side of their Will You Love Me Tomorrow) in November of 1960. The Beatles also covered the song on their first album released in England. (They altered the words ‘My boy says when I kiss his lips...). Paul McCartney said “Any one of us could hold the audience. Ringo would do 'Boys', which was a fan favorite with the crowd. And it was great — though if you think about it, here's us doing a song and it was really a girls' song. 'I talk about boys now!' Or it was a gay song. But we never even listened. It's just a great song. I think that's one of the things about youth — you just don't give a shit. I love the innocence of those days. The Shirelles were an American girl group in the early 1960s, and the first to have a number one single on the Billboard Hot 100.  The quartet formed in New Jersey in 1958, and went on to release a string of hits including "Baby It's You" (written by Burt Bacharach), "Mama Said", "Foolish Little Girl", and the US #1 Pop hits "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Gerry Goffin/Carole King) and "Soldier Boy". Their "Sha La La" became an international hit when covered by the British group Manfred Mann, giving them a Top 5 hit in 1965, and the song "Boys" was covered by The Beatles. The Beatles also covered "Baby It's you" on their album Please, Please Me in 1963.

Born to Be Wild" is a rock song written by Mars Bonfire and made famous by the Canadian-American band Steppenwolf.

Baby I Need Your Loving was a 1964 hit for The Four Tops.  The song was the group's first Motown single and their first pop Top 20 hit, and was also their first million-selling hit single. The song was also recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1967and became a number-three hit on the Billboard pop chart. The Four Tops were founded in Detroit, Michigan as The Four Aims with lead singer Levi Stubbs. The group remained together for over four decades, having gone from 1953 until 1997 without a single change in personnel. The group began their careers together while they were high school students in Detroit. They scored with "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)", "It's the Same Old Song", "Something About You" "Shake Me, Wake Me (When It's Over)",  "Reach Out I'll Be There", "Bernadette" "7-Rooms of Gloom", "If I Were A Carpenter" and the Left Banke's "Walk Away Renée" in early 1968.

Bend Me, Shape Me was first recorded by The Outsiders in 1966. However the best known version of the song is the 1967 single by The American Breed (Above) that peaked at #5 in the US in early 1968.

Big Spender was written for the musical Sweet Charity, set to the beat of a striptease".

Brown Eyed Girl is by Northern Irish singer-songwriter Van Morrison and was released in 1967 and is Van Morrison's signature song. Originally titled "Brown-Skinned Girl", Morrison changed it to "Brown Eyed Girl" when he recorded it. Morrison remarked on the original title: "That was just a mistake. It was a kind of Jamaican song. Calypso. It just slipped my mind. I changed the title. After we'd recorded it, I looked at the tape box and didn't even notice that I'd changed the title. I looked at the box where I'd lain it down with my guitar and it said 'Brown Eyed Girl' on the tape box. It's just one of those things that happen."

By the Time I Get to Phoenix was written by Jim Webb and originally recorded by Johnny Rivers in 1965, but was made famous by Glen Campbell.   Webb said of the song 'This song is impossible.' And so it is. It's a kind of fantasy about something I wish I would have done, and it sort of takes place in a twilight zone of reality. It's more of a song about something I wish I had done than something I really did, in that I did not get in my car and drive back to Oklahoma to punish this young woman for not reciprocating my love and affection. 

Born on the Bayou by Credence Clearwater Revival was released as the B-side of the single "Proud Mary" and reached #2 on the Billboard Charts. Songwriter and singer John Fogerty said “Born on the Bayou" was vaguely like "Porterville," about a mythical childhood and a heat-filled time, the Fourth of July. I put it in the swamp where, of course, I had never lived. It was late as I was writing. I was trying to be a pure writer, no guitar in hand, visualizing and looking at the bare walls of my apartment. Tiny apartments have wonderful bare walls, especially when you can't afford to put anything on them. "Chasing down a hoodoo." Hoodoo is a magical, mystical, spiritual, non-defined apparition, like a ghost or a shadow, not necessarily evil, but certainly other-worldly. I was getting some of that imagery from Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters.

Bridge over troubled water. The song originally had two verses and different lyrics. Simon specifically wrote it for Garfunkel and knew it would be a piano song. The chorus lyrics were partly inspired by Claude Jeter's line "I'll be your bridge over deep water if you trust in me," which Jeter sang with his group, the Swan Silvertones, in the 1958 song "Mary Don't You Weep."

Baby Elephant Walk was composed by Henry Mancini, for the 1962 release of the movie Hatari!  The cheerful tone, like that of Mancini's "The Pink Panther Theme", presents a stark contrast to more melancholy Mancini standards such as "Moon River".

Barbara Ann was written by Fred Fassert and performed by The Regents in 1961. The recording reached a peak position of #13. The most famous cover version is by The Beach Boys, who released in December of 1965.

Bus Stop was the Hollies' first US top ten hit, reaching #5 on the Billboard charts in September 1966. The writer, Graham Gouldman said the idea for the song had come while he was riding home from work on a bus. The opening lines were written by his father, playwright Hyme Gouldman. Graham continued with the rest of the song in his bedroom, apart from the middle-eight, which he finished while riding a bus to work at a men's clothing store.   "'Bus Stop'” he said “I had the title and I came home one day and he said 'I've started something on that Bus Stop idea you had, and I'm going to play it for you. He'd written Bus stop, wet day, she's there, I say please share my umbrella and it's like when you get a really great part of a lyric or, I also had this nice riff as well, and when you have such a great start to a song it's kind of like the rest is easy. It's like finding your way onto a road and when you get onto the right route, you just follow it. My late father was a writer. He was great to have around. I would write something and always show him the lyric and he would fix it for me. You know, he'd say 'There's a better word than this' – he was kind of like a walking thesaurus as well and quite often, sometimes, he came up with titles for songs as well. 'No Milk Today' is one of his titles, and also the 10cc song 'Art for Art's Sake'."

California Dreamin was released in 1965 by The Mamas & the Papas. According to John Phillips, the song was written in 1963 while he was living in New York and he dreamed the song, waking up to write it down. By early 1966, the song peaked at #4 and stayed on the charts for 17 weeks.

Chain Gang is a great song by Sam Cooke that was released in 1960and was an international hit.  The song was inspired after a chance meeting with an actual chain-gang of prisoners on a highway, while the brothers were on tour with Cooke in the Deep South. According to legend, Cooke and his brother Charles felt sorry for the men and gave them several cartons of cigarettes.  Sam Cooke, a perfectionist where his music was concerned took three months to record and rerecord the song until he was happy with it.  Banging sound in the song is Cooke friend and manager JD Alexander hitting water pipe in the studio with a fork. 

Creeque Alley is the story of how the Mamas and the Papas met and formed. The group spent time in the Virgin Islands staying in a club on a road called Creeque Alley, which provided the name of this song. The song mentions other artists who were getting their starts at the same time like Sebastian, John Sebastian, who formed the Lovin' Spoonful.  The line “McGuinn and McGuire couldn't get no higher” was written for Jim Roger McGuinn was the lead singer for the Byrds and Barry McGuire who had a #1 in 1965 with the anti-war song Eve Of Destruction.  With number one songs, they Couldn't get no higher. The line, Zallie said 'Denny, you know there aren't many who can sing a song the way that you do,' Zallie is The Lovin' Spoonful's Zal Yanovsky, and he's talking about Papa Denny Doherty, who sang the male lead on California Dreamin'. (Doherty, a Canadian, died of kidney failure on January 19, 2007 at age 66.)

Call Me Irresponsible is a 1962 song composed by Jimmy Van Heusen with lyrics written by Sammy Cahn. Van Heusen originally wrote the song for Garland to sing at a CBS dinner. At that time, Garland had just signed to do The Judy Garland Show on CBS, and the intent of the song was to parody her well-known problems. Garland later sang the song on the seventh episode of the show. However, in 1988, Sammy Cahn said during an interview with freelance writer Harlan Conti, in San Francisco, that the song was originally written for Fred Astaire to sing in the film Papa's Delicate Condition in which Astaire was to star. Cahn personally auditioned the song for Astaire's approval which was given. However, Astaire's contractual obligations prevented him from making the film and the role went to Jackie Gleason, who introduced the song. It won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 36th Academy Awards held in 1964.

Catch a Wave is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for The Beach Boys. This song is notable for the use of a harp played by Mike Love's sister, Maureen. The lead vocal was originally thought to be Dennis Wilson's, but in actuality, it is that of Mike Love with a heavy cold.

Carrie Anne was recorded by The Hollies on 1 May 1967 and was written mainly by Graham Nash (Crosby Stills &Nash above in photo) about Marianne Faithfull. The Hollies formed in Manchester in England in the early 1960s although they did not achieve major US chart success until 1966. Along with The Rolling Stones and The Searchers, they are one of the few British pop groups of the early 1960s that have never officially broken up and that continue to record and perform. The original lineup included Allan Clarke as lead vocalist, Graham Nash as guitarist and vocalist, Vic Steele on guitar, with Eric Haydock on bass guitar and Don Rathbone on drums.  Graham Nash said that the group decided just prior to a performance to call themselves the "Hollies" because of their admiration for Buddy Holly “We called ourselves The Hollies, after Buddy, and Christmas."

C'mon Marianne was a hit for The Four Seasons in 1967.  The record was the last Four Seasons single to reach the Top Ten of the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the 1960s, and their last Top Ten hit until "Who Loves You" in 1975.

Chain of Fools by Aretha Franklin is a rewrite of the gospel song "Pains Of Life", released earlier in 1967 by Elijah Fair & The Sensational Gladys Davis Trio. (The chorus was "Pain Pain Pain", but is changed to Chain Chain Chain" in the Franklin recording.)

Crimson and Clover by Tommy James and the Shondells was intended as a change in direction of the group's sound and composition.  Following the release of "Mony Mony", Tommy James wanted to change direction of the group's sound, and began producing his own material. At the time, James said this was out of "necessity and ambition", wanting to move from singles into albums. . The title, "Crimson and Clover", was decided before a song had been written for it. The combination of unknown meaning came to James as he was waking up, comprising his favorite color - crimson - and his favorite flower - clover. The single has sold at least 5 and a half million copies.

Come and Get It was composed by Paul McCartney for the 1969 film The Magic Christian, and a hit for the group Badfinger. The Magic Christian, stared Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr.

Crystal Blue Persuasion is a 1969 tune by Tommy James and the Shondells. The title of the song came to James while he was reading The Bible's Book of Revelation; according to James “I took the title from the Book of Revelation in the Bible, reading about the New Jerusalem. The words jumped out at me, and they're not together; they're spread out over three or four verses. But it seemed to go together; it's my favorite of all my songs and one of our most requested.” However, according to James's manager, James was actually inspired by his reading of the Book of Ezekiel where it speaks of the Blue Shekinah Light which represented the presence of the Almighty God and the Books of Isaiah and Revelation where it speaks of a bright future of a brotherhood of mankind living in peace and harmony.  Tommy James and the Shondells greatest success came in the late 1960s. They had two No. 1 singles in the U.S. — "Hanky Panky" (1966) and the most annoying mind numbing song I’ve ever heard, "Crimson and Clover" (1969) — and also charted 12 other Top 40 hits, including five in the top ten: "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mony Mony", "Crystal Blue Persuasion", "Mirage", and "Sweet Cherry Wine". The band formed in 1959 in Niles, Michigan, first as the Echoes, then under the name Tom and the Tornadoes, with Tommy James, then only 12, as lead singer. In 1964 James re-named the band The Shondells because the name "sounded good."

Carolina in My Mind by James Taylor, first appeared on his 1968 debut album, James Taylor. Taylor wrote it while overseas recording for The Beatles' label Apple Records, he was home sick at the time. . He started writing the song at producer Peter Asher's London apartment.

The Dangling Conversation is a song written by Paul Simon and released in September 1966 as a Simon and Garfunkel single .  The songs theme is failed communication between lovers who are as different as the poets mentioned in the song, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost.

In 1968, Dream A Little Dream of Me was introduced by The Mamas & The Papas and hit the US charts at number 12. The song was actually written in 1931 and was a popular standard in depression-era America.  When Michelle Phillips, a singer in the The Mamas & The Papas was 15 years old she met Fabian Andre, who co-wrote  the music for the song. Years later, when Phillips heard that Andre died (In a fall in an elevator shaft in Mexico City in 1960) she remembered meeting him and this song came up. They decided to record it with Mama Cass Elliot on lead vocals.

Dancing in the Street by Martha and the Vandellas came out in 1964 and landed at Number 2 on the charts. The song was written by Motown songwriters Marvin Gaye, Ivy Jo Hunter, and William Mickey Stevenson. The idea for the song came around when the writers were riding with Marvin Gaye through Detroit. It was summer and someone had opened fire hydrants and let the water out in the streets so the children could play and relax. To the Gaye and the others it looked like they were dancing, dancing in the Street. Mary Wells was offered this song, but she turned it down. Martha Reeves, the lead singer, was a secretary at Motown Records. One of her duties was singing lyrics to new songs onto tapes so backup singers could learn the words. This led to fill-in work as a backup singer, where she impressed Motown executives with her voice.

Dang Me was a 1964 novelty hit for Roger Miller. The song was written in four minutes in a Phoenix, Arizona hotel room. The song spent 25 weeks on the Billboard country-music chart, reaching number one,  and peaked at number seven on the magazine's pop chart. Miller’s other hit that years was King of the Road, this was one written in a hotel in Boise, Idaho.

Don't Sleep in the Subway was a 1967 hit for Petula Clark and is said to be her favorite and was her last hit in the US. The entire song is actually a combination of three different songs which Tony Hatch had written but did not complete. The segments of the unfinished songs were molded into one to create one song.  The subway in the song doesn’t mean the transport system but rather it the underground passages found throughout London that enable pedestrians to cross busy intersections with heavy traffic flow.  Gordon McLendon, known as The Old Scotchman, was an ultra-conservative owner of radio stations in Dallas, Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, Detroit and San Antonio in the 1960s -'70s. He refused to play this on his stations because he believed the words were: ...take off your clothes and close the door. (I though that’s what it said as well, it doesn’t, it reads take off your cloak, my love, and close the door)

Downtown by Petula Clark (better known in her native England as Pet Clark) was released in 1964 and hit the number one spot. The song is said to be about New York City and was initially written for the Drifters.

Don't Let Me Down by The Beatles with Billy Preston.  An anguished love song John Lennon wrote to Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney interpreted it as a "genuine plea", with Lennon saying to Ono, "I'm really stepping out of line on this one. I'm really just letting my vulnerability be seen, so you must not let me down."

Darlin is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for the Beach Boys. It was a re-write of a song that they had written years earlier called "Thinkin' 'Bout You Baby" which was first recorded and released as a single in April 1964 by Sharon Marie - an unrecorded teenager who had informally auditioned for Brian and Mike (by singing opera standards) after a Sacramento concert.

Don't Come Home A' Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind) by Loretta Lynn became her first number-one hit in 1967.  The song was the first of 16 No. 1 Country hits Lynn would have over the course of her career.

Down On Me is a traditional song from 1930s that became popular following its remake by Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1967.

Don't Think Twice, it's All Right by Bob Dylan, released in 1963. Dylan once introduced "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right" as "a statement that maybe you can say to make yourself feel better... as if you were talking to yourself." Several lines were taken from Clayton's "Who's Goin' to Buy You Ribbons When I'm Gone?" which was recorded in 1960, two years before Dylan wrote "Don't Think Twice."

Danke Schön is a 1962 song first recorded by Bert Kaempfert; however, it gained its fame in 1963 when Wayne Newton recorded his version of it. The song was originally intended for singer Bobby Darin as a follow-up to his hit single Mack the Knife, but after seeing Newton perform at the Copacabana, Darin decided to give the song to Newton and changed the tempo of the recording to fit Newton's voice. Newton's high tenor is sometimes mistaken for that of a female singer by those unfamiliar with the song.

Dandy was released in 1966 by The Kinks. The song was probably reference to the swinging lifestyle of Kinks guitarist Dave Davies. The song became a hit in the US for Herman’s Hermits.

Do It Again is a song written by Brian Wilson and Mike Love for The Beach Boys. The lyrics to the song, originally entitled "Rendezvous", were inspired after a day Mike had spent at the beach in which he had gone surfing with an old friend named Bill Jackson. Mike then showed the lyrics to Brian, who proceeded to write the music to Mike's lyrics of nostalgia.

D-I-V-O-R-C-E"D-I-V-O-R-C-E was written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, and made famous by Tammy Wynette as a number one country hit in 1968.Recorded in 1968, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" is a woman's perspective on the impending collapse of her marriage. The lyrics begin with an old parenting trick of spelling out words mothers and fathers hope their young children will not understand, they (the children) being not yet able to spell or comprehend the word's meaning.