This Band Was So BADA$$ They Invented the 70s in 1968 With This Classic! | Professor of Rock

Coming up, we continue our treasure hunt, tracking down the greatest #3 hits in music history, and this time we got to arguably the best era in music history 1965-1969. Including songs by the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Stones, including California Girls, a song that popped into the mind of Brian Wilson after he swallowed his first tab of LSD… You could honestly say that the song that came from that trip started a musical revolution that inspired everything that came after. Plus a track that saved the career of future legend Stevie Wonder during a time when his label wanted to drop him because he was going through puberty. In fact, they had labeled him a novelty act; he would go on to prove them wrong as one of the last living musical geniuses... Plus one of the most prolific lyricists of all time, Jimmy Webb, captured the image of a man working on a telephone pole and turned it into a hypnotic classic… And lastly, the angry song Fortunate Song that stood up for the common man that became one of over a dozen huge hits for John Fogerty whose historic run in music was thrown off course by one of the biggest scumbags in music history. It’s a special countdown of the Top 10 Greatest #3 Hits released between ’65 & ’69, NEXT on Professor of Rock. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Executive Producer Brandon Fugal Honorary Producers Holly Hammet, Remnarc, Kevin riley, Paul Moore II, CharleyAnne ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe to the Professor of Rock Podcast Apple: https://apple.co/445fVov Spotify: https://spoti.fi/42JpfvU Amazon: https://amzn.to/44b5D6m iHeartRadio: https://bit.ly/444h8MO ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: http://bit.ly/ProfessorofRockVIPFan Merch Store: https://professor-of-rock-lsn-shop.fo... Instagram: https://bit.ly/Instagram_Professor_of... #classicrock #60smusic #vinylstory #60srock You know, in most sporting events, taking third place is no big deal. Not many care about anything other than winning a championship. But, while an artist or a band is cutting their teeth, and you told them that they would have a song that makes it to #3 on the Billboard Hot 100, they would flip out. Think about it…most musical acts don’t even crack the Hot 100, let alone have a song that captivates an entire nation and almost reaches the top of that coveted chart. Today we continue our countdown of the greatest #3 hits ever, and instead of focusing on the entirety of the 60s, we are going for the second half during one of the most pivotal periods of the Rock Era. 1965-1969 Kicking off our countdown of the Top 10 Greatest #3 Hits at #10, it’s “Pleasant Valley Sunday” by The Monkees: “Pleasant Valley Sunday” is named after a street in West Orange, New Jersey—the very one where Goffin and King lived. When they moved over from New York, they couldn’t help but notice the brand-new suburban neighborhoods with their neat, “cookie-cutter” houses, and it gave them the perfect material for a song about how the 1960s pushed people toward conformity: The Pleasant Valley Way house Carole & Gerry lived in is still a kind of landmark for fans. People say the doorbell for the front door of the house still plays their first hit, “Will You Love Me Tomorrow. Lyrically, “Pleasant Valley Sunday” pokes fun at the usual suburban “creature comfort” goals—stuff that, in the song, “numb my soul.” But later, Gerry felt like the criticism of those everyday, normal lifestyles came off harsher than he intended. Some of the lines about people mowing lawns and taking pride in their blooming roses were meant to highlight conformity, yet they ended up feeling a little mean to regular neighbors. Nearly 40 years after it was composed, Gerry actually apologized in an A&E documentary, telling the people of suburban New Jersey that he thought the lyrics were a bit too sarcastic: how about that? When the Monkees recorded it they were in a better place: they had just severed ties with Don Kirshner and taken control of their own recording. This was after the infamous More of the Monkees album: The release of that record on 9 January 1967 intensified resentment at Kirshner’s behaviour. There had been no consultation with the group over the tracks that were included on the album, or over the cover photograph, which was especially embarrassing as they were wearing some lame outfits as part of a deal Kirshner had signed with the JCPenney department store chain. In fact, the Monkees only found out about the record because they saw it in the record store. Peter Tork would later say, “We had to buy the album to hear it,” plus Kirshner’s sleeve notes