The #1 easy listening hits of 1966

Westminster Abigail

The #1 easy listening hits of 1966 are listed here. Interestingly, the category name went from easy listening (7/17/1961) to middle-road singles (11/3/1962) to pop-standard singles (5/2/1964) to middle-road singles (10/24/1964), back to pop-standard singles (5/1/1965), finally back to easy listening (6/5/1965). It stayed there until 4/7/1979, when it became adult contemporary. I usually list the category as AC.

*Strangers in the Night – Frank Sinatra (Reprise), 7 weeks at #1; also, #1 pop

Born Free – Roger Williams (Kapp), 6 weeks at #1; also #7 pop. From the movie. He’s NOT the Roger Williams who founded Rhode Island.

*The Ballad of the Green Berets – SSgtBarry Sadler (RCA Victor), 5 weeks at #1

Spanish Eyes – Al Martino (Capitol), 4 weeks at #1; also #15 pop.

From J-archive:

#823, aired 1988-03-16

 DOUBLE TALK $800 (Daily Double): It’s what Al Martino wanted the girl to say in the following song: “Blue Spanish eyes / Teardrops are falling from your Spanish eyes…”

Somewhere My Love – Ray Coniff & the Singers, 4 weeks at #1; also #9 pop. a/k/a Larta’s Theme from the movie Dr. Zhivago. 

The Wheel Of Hurt – Margaret Whiting (London), 4 weeks at #1; also #26 pop

*Winchester Cathedral – The New Vaudeville Band (Fontana), 4 weeks at #1; also #1 pop for three weeks

Crying Time – Ray Charles (ABC-Paramount), 3 weeks at #1; also #5 RB, #6 pop

*I Want to Go With You – Eddy Arnold, (RCA Victor), 3 weeks at #1; also #1 CW for six weeks

Together Again – Ray Charles (ABC-Paramount), 3 weeks at #1; also #10 RB, #19 pop

That’s Life – Frank Sinatra  (Reprise)- 3 weeks at #1; also #4 pop, #25 RB. It was also #1 on Record World, but I’m focusing here on Billboard.

Band Of Gold – Mel Carter (Imperial), 2 weeks at #1; #32 pop

In The Arms Of Love – Andy Williams (Columbia), 2 weeks at #1; also #49 pop. Co-written by Henry Mancini.

The remaining songs were #1 AC for one week

England Swings – Roger Miller (Smash); also #3 CW, #8 pop. For reasons, when this came out, I changed a line to  “Westminster Abigail, the tower  Big Benjamin. The rosy-red cheeks of the little children-alin.”

It Was A Very Good Year – Frank Sinatra (Reprise); also #28 pop

The Impossible Dream (the Quest) – Jack Jones (Kapp); also #35 pop. The only song from Man of La Mancha I know. The changed lyric is not an improvement, but it is probably more radio-friendly than the “march into hell ” line.

I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love – Petula Clark (Warner); also #9 pop

Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra (Reprise); also #25 pop

The JEOPARDY response, What is “Si, si”?

Talking with sister Leslie

singer

Recently, I spent about an hour talking with sister Leslie about resolving an issue between a couple other parties. While I have had the chance to be the interlocutor occasionally, she is more likely to take on the role.

She’s always been more of a “people person” than I was/am.  There is a certain narrative she’s shared that’s largely true. Folks would come over to visit our parents. I was usually hanging out in my bedroom, reading a book or playing with my baseball cards. Out of a sense of obligation, I’d come out to the living room and say hello, then returned to my sanctuary. These people didn’t come to see me, after all.  

By contrast, Leslie would come out and stay for a while. I was aware enough of this – it was a small enough house – to know this. Frankly, I found it a bit baffling.  But it seemed to serve her, from her job as a hostess at Perkins Pancake to her brief career as a model to her time as a professional singer, which I suspect I’ve mentioned in the past.

In the past year or so, she has talked with cousins of ours, whom I do not know, one each on our mother’s and father’s sides . She took copious notes, which I should eventually add to the Ancestry tree.

Tunes

Sister Leslie has always needed to sing. As I was looking through my hometown newspapers, there was a hit for “Leslie Green will sing and play the guitar.” She received her guitar for her 12th birthday, and was remarkably proficient a month later.  

Presently, she sings in one or more churches most Sundays, is a member of a couple of chorales, and sits in on a few gigs, occasionally with her daughter, Rebecca Jade. Twice recently, she performed as the headliner; I hope she has the opportunity to do this more often.

Happy birthday to Les and Trudy’s second-born.

Bad air

on the wife’s birthday

stolen from Don Levy, who stole it from someone else

It was Wednesday, 15 July, my wife’s birthday. My wife and I were in bed c. 7 a.m., but hadn’t gotten up. Even with the shades drawn, we knew it looked weird out. Where is the sun?

By the time we got downstairs, I had figured it out: bad air. The poor air quality was SUPPOSED to hit Syracuse, to the west of Albany, and Poughkeepsie, to the south, but the Capital District was supposed to be spared. Obviously, no one told the wind that information.

Because of the magpie thing, I briefly became obsessed with the AQI or Air Quality Index, not just in my area but in suburban Washington, DC, where I have a good friend who is vulnerable. I noticed that, at one point in the past week, Duluth, MN was horrific. I signed up for notifications. 

Here’s an article explaining this further.

Forecasts Current AQI Values Levels Colors

Naturally, FOTUS threatened new Canada tariffs over fires sending ‘filthy’ air into US cities. I could note that the US actions cutting environmental protection has escalated global warming (see much of Europe in 2026.) Theoretically, the US could send help to fight the fires, though it appears to be another robust fire season in the United States.

Natal day stuff

My wife noted that weird stuff can happen on her birthday. In 1995, a derecho, a straight line wind event started in the Midwest and eventually struck the Adirondacks and Albany. A derecho is “a line of intense, widespread, and fast-moving windstorms and sometimes thunderstorms that moves across a great distance and is characterized by damaging winds.” Those 70+ mph winds rattled the windows and woke us both from a sound sleep a little before 7 a.m.

It tore up some trees in nearby Washington Park. But a member of our then-church had dozens of broken bones when a tree fell on her up in the aforementioned Adirondacks.

The Secret Garden; Mystic Pizza

My wife and I saw two musicals in July, The Secret Garden and Mystic Pizza. The former we saw at the Mac-Haydn Theatre in Chatham, NY on

“In a house of secrets, a young girl unlocks the door to forgiveness, love, and new beginnings.” The children’s novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett was first published in book form in 1911. Decades later, it became a Broadway musical.

The book and lyrics are by Marsha Norman; she won a Tony for the former and was nominated for the latter. The music by Lucy Simon, sister of Carly and Joanne, was also nominated for a Tony. 

The theater always attracts top-notch young adult talent. J. Peter Bergman wrote in the Berkshire Edge: “Wild Handel plays Mary Lennox. Did I say ‘plays’? I should have said ‘becomes,’ for that is what happens here. She is the star of this show, and she deserves to be, for she is both amazing and more amazing in this role. She has the self-assurance of a woman of 30 who has played all the tough parts right. She sings beautifully, acts thoroughly, and maintains an India-influenced English accent throughout the show.” 

But the cast was strong throughout. Since I wasn’t at all familiar with the source material – though my wife was – it took a few minutes to grasp the narrative flow. But it was quite worthwhile.  

Connecticut

I saw the movie Mystic Pizza when it came out in 1988 or perhaps early 1989. My recollection  is that I liked it. But I couldn’t remember the plot.

As it turns out, the musical I saw at Capital Rep in Albany on Saturday, July 18, had much of the storyline from the Wikipedia description of the film: 

“Sisters Kat and Daisy Araújo, and their friend Josephina “JoJo” Barboza, are young Portuguese-American women working as waitresses at Mystic Pizza, a pizza parlor owned by Leona…in the fishing town of Mystic, Connecticut. But no husband for Leona.

What the movie DIDN’T have was a litany of music from the 1980s. While well-performed throughout by the talented cast, some landed better than others. Small Town (Mellencamp) FOUR times? And I ceased to believe that Girls Just Want To Have Fun.

But other songs worked better, notably Into the Mystic, which is a 1970s song, but whatever, tied to Kat and her would-be beau Tim. 

And while Steve Barnes from the Times Union (paywall likely) didn’t buy it, both my wife and I thought Charlie, the preppy courting Daisy, sold Hit Me With Your Best Shot.

Barnes also noted: “Veteran local actor Marc Christopher makes the most of his debut at The Rep, becoming hilariously over the top in multiple roles, especially as a restaurant critic so imperious that he makes Anton Ego from the movie ‘Ratatouille’ seem friendly.” He was also the priest who was to perform the wedding ceremony for for JoJo and Bill, which was hysterical.

Barnes noted that the “17-member cast gorgeously singing Starship’s ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” …felt more like a concert than an evening at the theater.

The show is playing through August 9. 

 

Feeling patriotic

Fighting malaise

Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

Leading into the semiquincentennial, I was feeling rather bearish on the anniversary. The organization designated to run the event had been supplanted by a partisan celebration more about one man than the country.

But that made me sad. So my wife and I finished watching The American Revolution. The approach in describing how black and indigenous people participated in and/or were affected by the war was far more nuanced than I’m used to. I started feeling patriotic. 

So I decided to record the entirety of Disney Celebrates America, a “24-Hour Non-Stop Live Event.” YES, REALLY. Over the following week, I watched bits and pieces. Some of it was really cool.

Anchor David Muir reported from inside the Statue of Liberty, including the torch and crown.

“Nightline” celebrated 80 years of news storytelling at ABC News.

On “Good Morning America,” the co-anchors presented a deep dive into their own American journeys and how their families arrived in the United States.

Robin Roberts talked with the first confirmed living descendants of an enslaved individual who helped build the White House.

This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl reported atop Mount Rushmore.

Great stories about the Seven Natural Wonders of America and how they have shaped the people and culture of the country.

Other stuff was interesting, and if it wasn’t, that’s why I can fast forward.

On PBS, Carly Fiorina, new CEO of the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and National Honorary Chair of VA250 spoke of telling the “whole story” of the Revolutionary days. Be still, my heart.

Booyah

I even liked all of the folks coming for the World Cup falling in love with Boston beer and ranch dressing. (The interference in the red card debacle was unfortunate, though.)  

So now, I’m filled with patriotic vigor. But how do I square that with other things that PURPORT to be patriotic, but don’t seem to be for me?

The troglodyte Secretary of Defense continues to narrow opportunities for minorities and women. “For the first time in more than a decade, no active-duty female Navy officers are likely to be promoted to admiral this year.” Land of the free?

As Liz Dye noted, Todd Blanche is Roy Cohn … but worse. He’s worse because Cohn never held office, while Blanche is the acting Attorney General. If you mistook him for FOTUS’s personal lawyer, the confusion is understandable. I had to remember yet AGAIN that embracing the flag – literally, in the case of FOTUS – is not patriotism.  

Andy Olivastro of the Heritage Foundation proclaimed, “Election interference remains a major threat to our nation’s survival,” and that FOTUS “was crystal clear in his speech. ” But what he actually said was bunk.

Document

I’m going to cherry-pick some lines of the “grievance” section of a familiar document. He has, among other things:

refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary power.

erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation.

excited domestic insurrections amongst us. 

So, in some ways, we’ve been here before. Optimistically, this means we can figure this out again. It may not mean going to war, but it will require patriotic zeal.  

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