Donovan SunshineSuperman Taiwan record 600

the cheesiest semi-legal records in the world!

I MOVED TO CALIFORNIA from Pennsylvania in June 1978. I naively believed I would find some semblance of “the sixties” hidden away in San Francisco. But in only a few years, most of it had been blotted out. There were still a lot of hand-painted Victorian houses and a few hip coffee shops and bookstores.

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the #1 hit records on the pop charts 1967

THIS IS THE EIGHTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Hey, There Georgy Girl, Penny Lane, And Ruby Tuesday! [Continue reading]

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the #1 hit records on the pop charts 1966

THIS IS THE SEVENTH in a series of ten articles listing and addressing the #1 records of the year as they appeared on Cash Box magazine’s Top 100 chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “You Keep Me Hanging On The Poor Side Of Town” on my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium on July 5, 2019. [Continue reading]

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the #1 hit records on the pop charts 1965

THIS IS THE SIXTH in a series of ten articles addressing the #1 records of the year on Cash Box magazine’s pop chart from 1960 through 1969. It was originally published as “Let’s Hang On To Our Ticket To Ride” in my publication Tell It Like It Was on Medium back on June 2, 2019. [Continue reading]

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a nexus between a few old articles and their new versions

THIS IS NOT A NEW ARTICLE! It’s a transfer point from a series of old articles to a series of rewritten articles. So, if you just came upon this piece accidentally, there’s nothing here to read. However, if you are looking for any one of the eleven articles from the “We Buy White Albums” series from 2105, then read on. [Continue reading]

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donovan knows a beach where it never ends

DONOVAN CAME ON FAST in 1965 with three Top 10 hits in the UK: “Catch the Wind,” “Colours,” and “The Universal Soldier.” None of these came close to duplicating that success in the US, where Donovan remained a peripheral figure on the waning folk scene. [Continue reading]

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getting back to roots and things (beatles ’68 part 4)

ONCE UPON A TIME IN 2013, I became aware of Mr. Rutherford Chang and his “We Buy White Albums” project. It seems Chang had been collecting used, neglected, and even abused copies of The Beatles (lovingly known by one and all as The White Album) and had turned his “collection” into an art presentation at a gallery in New York City. [Continue reading]

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unplugging the white album (beatles ’68 part 3)

WE’RE OFF TO SEE THE MAHARISHI, the wonderful Maharishi of Oz!” On February 16, 1968, John and Cynthia Lennon and George and Pattie Harrison arrived in Delhi, later joined by Ringo and Maureen Starr and Paul McCartney and longtime girlfriend Jane Asher. They were there for a prolonged stay at the Rishikesh ashram of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi for special courses in Transcendental Meditation. [Continue reading]

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in search of the lost mentor (beatles ’68 part 2)

MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI played an important role in the Beatles career, one that has been shoved aside by fans and historians. If you were of age and paying attention in 1968, the Maharishi was the Big Poobah in the Fab Four’s lives, at least for a while. [Continue reading]