Written by: Curly Putman Produced by: Peter Sullivan South African record label (unless otherwise stated): Decca
Hit number for artist
5
Peak position
1
Weeks
19
Biggest climber awards
1
Star rater climbs
2
Biggest faller awards
1
Top 20 points
289
Overall Top 20 points ranking
97
Top 20 points ranking for the artist
1
Top 30 Points
479
Overall Top 30 points ranking
=121
Top 30 points ranking for the artist
1
Annual ranking:
1966
=84
1967
3
Other chart success:
Australia
1
Austria
2
Belgium
1
Canada
5
Germany
6
Ireland
1
Netherlands
2
Norway
1
UK
1
US
11
Zimbabwe
1
The song was first recorded in 1965 by an American singer called Johnny Darrell. That same year Porter Wagoner took his version to number 4 on the US country Singles charts. Tom Jones learned of the song through Jerry Lee Lewis’ version. Others to record version of the track include Elvis Presley, Frankie Laine, Dean Martin and Gé Korsten (as ‘Groene Velde Van My Land’).
Tom Jones hit the 10 weeks at the top of the charts milestone this week. He had spent 2 weeks there with ‘It’s Not Unusual’, 3 with ‘What’s New Pussycat’ and now 5 with ‘The Green Green Grass Of Home’.
However, the song’s bid for a record equalling 6 consecutive weeks at the top was under serious threat as The Monkees’ ‘I’m A Believer’ made a massive 16 place jump up the charts from 18 to number 2, smashing the previous record of 13 places that The Fantastic Baggy’s ‘Tell ’em I’m Surfin’’ had managed back in September 1966. In total we would only see 5 occasions where a song climbed 16 or more places, 2 of which would happen when the charts were extended to a top 30 and both of those would be climbs for outside the top 20. Needless to say that The Monkees took the biggest climber of the week award.
The other star raters this week were Max Bygraves’ ‘Remember When’ which climbed 6 from 20 to 14 and Bobby Darin’s ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ which moved up 5 from 10 to 5 and was a star rater for a 3rd week running.
The New Vaudeville Band’s ‘Winchester Cathedral’ was the faller of the week, dropping 5 from 5 to 10 in a place swap with Bobby Darin’s hit mentioned above.
This week we also saw the first song to reach the 20 weeks in the chart milestone and that was Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Pea’ which sat at 13 this week. In total 235 songs would reach this mark of which 128 would spend that long in the top 20, the others making up the rest of their weeks in positions 21 to 30 once the chart was extended. ‘Sweet Pea’ was obviously still the oldest on this week’s chart.
The Spencer Davis Groups’ ‘Gimme Some Lovin’, a new entry last week, exited the chart after just 1 week which it spent at 19.
We also said goodbye to The Dream Merchants’ ‘Land Of Milk And Honey’ which had enjoyed a stay of 9 weeks on the chart, peaking at 10. This meant that we were down to just 1 local song on the charts (Des Lindberg’s ‘Ramblin’ Boy’) and also we only had 1 song left which had the word ‘milk’ in the title (Herman Hermit’s ‘No Milk Today’). In total only 3 songs with the word ‘milk’ in title would chart and we had already seen 2 of them (This excludes ‘Milky Way’ by Colombus).
The last to go was The Fantastic Baggys’ ‘Pa Pa Do Ron Ron’ which had spent 10 weeks on the chart and peaked at 10. This was the 8th song so far to have an equal weeks and peak figure and the first where that figure was 10. The departure of ‘Pa Pa Do Ron Ron’ heralded the end of The Fantastic Baggys’ SA chart career. Their stats read 2 hits, 20 weeks and a best peak of 2 with ‘Tell ‘em I’m Surfin’.
We had only had 1 week since Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch’s ‘Bend It’ left the charts but they were back again this week with a new hit, Save Me’, their 3rd hit to date. The song would give them a number 3 hit in the UK and was once again written by Alan Blaikley & Ken Howard who had brought us the previous 2 hits for the band.
Matt Monro was also enjoying his 3rd hit on our charts as ‘Wednesday’s Child’ was our second new entry. The song had a lot in common with Monro’s previous hit, ‘Born Free’ as it the song was also taken from a film (‘The Quiller Memorandum’ starring Alec Guinness, George Segal and Max von Sydow), it was also written by John Barry (he of the Bond theme fame) and would also fail to chart on either side of the Atlantic.
The Kinks became 1 of 11 acts that had now clocked up 4 or more hits to date as ‘Dead End Street’ gave them their 4th hit. Written by Ray Davies, the song would go to 5 in the UK. In the US it would manage to get to 73 which would be their lowest charting song there to up to that point and would end up being their 4th lowest so far. Elsewhere it would get to 4 in Holland, 5 in Germany, 6 in Norway and 11 in Belgium.
Matt Monro’s new entry this week meant that his week’s count ticked over to 20. Donovan and Tommy Roe were enjoying their 28th weeks and as such moved into tied 14th place with The Troggs.
‘Green Green Grass Of Home’ ticked over to 4 weeks at the top of our charts and Tom Jones extended his lead at the top of the list of weeks spent at 1 by an artist as he now had 9 weeks under his belt, 2 more than nearest rival, The Beach Boys. Nancy Ames moved up 2 into second spot with ‘Cry Softly (Liebertraum)’. We had to go back to the April of 1966 for the last time we had a solo female artist this high in the charts when Nancy Sinatra was at 1 with ‘These Boots Are Made For Walking’.
Gary Lewis & The Playboys picked up their first biggest climber award as ‘(You Don’t Have To) Paint Me a Picture’ moved up 7 from 15 to 8. Bobby Darin’s ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ and Connie Francis’ ‘All The Love In The World’ were the other climbers, both moving up a star rater 4 positions with Darin’s hit ending up at 10 and Francis’ at 14.
Herman’s Hermits’ ‘No Milk Today’ was the one dropping down the charts the quickest as it fell 5 spots from 8 to 13. This was their 4th time with the biggest faller, a total which they shared with Elvis Presley and Glenn Yarbrough. Only The Rolling Stones, who had suffered 5 such falls, had a higher total.
Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Pea’ now equalled The Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls’ and Cliff Richard’s ‘Wind Me Up, Let Me Go’ for most weeks in the charts by a song as it moved on to 19 weeks. Of these 19 weeks, 7 (including this week) had been spent as the oldest on the chart.
Bobby Bare’s ‘Streets Of Baltimore’ became the first song to spend just 1 week at the bottom of the charts as it departed from the top 20 after being a new entry at 20 last week. In total there would be 43 songs that would spend just 1 week at the lowest position on the charts (35 of them in a top 20 and the other 8 at 30 when the charts were extended). For 13 of the acts who achieved this, it would be their only SA Chart action and this was the case for Bobby Bare.
Also leaving the top 20 was Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich’s ‘Bend It’. The song had enjoyed 12 weeks in the charts, of which 2 were spent at the number 1 spot. The fivesome would return to our charts fairly soon after this.
Both the new entries this week were second hits for the artists involved. The first of these was The Monkees whose ‘I’m A Believer’ arrived at 18 this week. The song, a Neil Diamond composition (his second as song writer to chart, the other being Cliff Richard’s ‘Just Another Guy’), would knock The Beach Boys’ ‘Good Vibrations’ off the top spot in the US and would go on to enjoy a 7 week run at the top of the Hot 100. In the UK it would knock our current number 1 from the top spot before spending 4 weeks at 1 there. The song would also top the charts in Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Norway and Rhodesia. Diamond himself recorded a version of the song before the Monkees, but his version would only be a minor hit in 1971 when it went to 59 in the US, 23 in Germany and 29 in Holland.
Our other new entry was the 80th song by a UK act to chart and it was The Spencer Davis Group with their hit ‘Gimme Some Lovin’. The song made it to number 2 in the UK and 7 in the US. The writing credits only list Steve Winwood but, according to the Wikipedia entry for the song, Spencer Davis and Muff Winwood also had a hand in writing it. ‘Gimme Some Lovin’ has appeared in numerous films including, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘The Big Chill’ and ‘Good Morning Vietnam’. It was also covered by The Blues Brothers in the film ‘The Blues Brothers’. Amongst the production credits on the song is the name Chris Blackwell. Blackwell started up Island records and has been responsible for bringing acts such as Bob Marley, Grace Jones and U2 to the public’s attention.
The Fantastic Baggys celebrated their 20th week in our charts. Jim Reeves moved into tied 13th spot on the weeks count list as his 28 to date equalled that of The Troggs. Tommy Roe was now 16th on the list with 26. The Dream Merchants moved tied 8th with Emil Dean on the local list as they clocked up their 15th week.
The grass was still green for Tom Jones as ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’ enjoyed a 3rd week at the top of the charts. This put Jones out in front for weeks at 1 by an artist as he moved 1 clear of The Beach Boys. Jones had now spent a total of 8 weeks at the top of the charts (2 with ‘It’s Not Unusual’, 3 with ‘What’s New Pussycat’ and now 3 with ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’). Previous chart topper, The New Vaudeville Band’s ‘Winchester Cathedral’, had dropped to 4 last week, but was now moving back up the charts as it jumped up 2 to 2.
There was only 1 star rater this week and it was therefore obviously our biggest climber and that was Bobby Darin’s ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ which moved up 4 from 18 to 14.
This week’s faller was The Dream Merchant’s ‘Land Of Milk And Honey’ which dropped 4 places from 13 to 17. This was the 20th time a local song had taken the biggest faller award, but it was the first time for The Dream Merchants.
Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Pea’ enjoyed its 6th week as the oldest on the charts as it moved on to 18 weeks. More importantly thought was that it now joined Roger Williams’ ‘Lara’s Theme (From Dr Zhivago)’ as the second highest number of weeks spent on the charts by a song. Only The Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls’ and Cliff Richard’s ‘Wind Me Up, Let Me Go’ were ahead of them on 19 weeks.
We lost 2 song off the chart this week, the first was David Garrick’s ‘Mrs Applebee’ which lasted just 3 weeks and only peaked at 19. This would be his only SA Chart hit. In the UK he would manage one other minor hit with ‘Lady Jane’ which went to 28 there.
We also said goodbye to The Sandpipers’ ‘Guantanamera’ which stayed with us for 14 weeks and peaked at 2. They would go on to have further SA Chart success.
We had recently seen a number of 50’s stars having hits on our charts. Artists such as Bobby Darin, Eddie Fisher and Connie Francis had all had much success in the 50s and were coming to the end of their careers, but still managed to have the odd hit reach our top 20. To this list we added Max Bygraves this week. Bygraves had 12 UK hits in the 50s (well the last of those would have spilled over into the 60s) and only 6 thereafter. ‘Remember When’ was our newcomer this week and it was not one of his UK hits. The song included Bert Kaempfert in the writing credits and he recorded a version in 1965. The most successful recording of this song on the global front appears to be Wayne Newton’s version which went to 69 in the US.
The other new entry came from country singer Bobby Bare. ‘Streets Of Baltimore’ was written by another country singer, Tompall Glaser, but Bare beat him in recording it by about 3 months. Bare’s version would go to number 5 on the US country singles charts. The song has been covered by a good number of artists but none have made the main US charts. Gram Parsons’ cover featured in the TV series ‘The Wire’.
Des Lindberg became the 4th local artist to reach the 20 weeks on the chart milestone. Herman’s Hermits moved ahead of The Beatles for weeks on the chart as they were now on 43, compared to the Fab Four’s 42. The Hermits sat 6th overall for weeks. Tommy Roe joined the top 20 acts for weeks on the chart as he now had 24 to his name and sat tied 17th overall. He was also enjoying his 6th week with 2 in the charts and was the 5th act to reach this number of weeks with more than 1 hit in the chart.
Tom Jones joined The Beach Boys at the top of the list for weeks spent at number 1 as this, his second week at the top with ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’, was the 7th week in total he had enjoyed in pole position. The Beach Boys had managed their 3 weeks with just 2 number 1 while Tom needed 3.
It had been just over 6 months since we last saw a local act in the top 2 and that was Des Lindberg’s ‘Die Gezoem Van Die Bye’. This week Des once again flew the flag for the locals in the top 2 as ‘Ramblin’ Boy’ moved up 2 to take second spot.
Last week saw Jim Reeves’ ‘Snowflake’ and Donovan’s ‘Mellow Yellow’ take the biggest climber award with 5 place jumps. This week the same 2 songs were the biggest climbers again, but this week they only moved up 4 spots, ‘Mellow Yellow’ ending up at 8 and ‘Snowflake’ landing at 10. Reeves joined 6 other acts at the top of the list with 4 biggest climbers to their names. With the biggest climb this week being 4 places, there were obviously no other star raters.
So far we had seen 2 songs fall 10 in a week and 2 fall 9 to be the biggest falls to date. This week The Sandpipers’ ‘Guantanamera’ joined The Lovin’ Spoonful’s ‘Summer In The City’ and The Mamas And The Papas’ ‘Monday Monday’ for having a 9 place fall in a week. Only Gene Rockwell’s ‘Love’ and The Ad-Libs’ ‘Shotgun Wedding’ had seen the bigger fall of 10 places.
Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Pea’ was within touching distance of the songs that had spent the most time in our charts as it enjoyed its 17th week in the top 20. Roger Williams’ ‘Lara’s Theme (From Dr Zhivago)’ on 18 weeks was in 3rd place for weeks on the chart while The Beach Boys’ ‘California Girls’ and Cliff Richards’ ‘Wind Me Up, Let Me Go’ were in the top spot on 19. ‘Sweet Pea’ was the oldest on this week’s chart.
Donovan ended his 3 week run with 2 in the charts as ‘Sunshine Superman’ departed from the top 20 after 10 weeks and a peak of 8. This was slightly down on his 1st hit, ‘Catch The Wind’ which lasted 11 weeks and peaked at 5. ‘Mellow Yellow’ which remained in the chart was looking on course to beat ‘Sunshine Superman’s peak having equalled it this week.
The Harden Trio tippy toed out of the charts this week. Their song ‘Tippy Toeing’ had been with us for 12 weeks and peaked at 3. The bad news for the trio was that this would be the only chart action they would see on our fair shores.
Our first new entry came from American band Gary Lewis & The Playboys. ‘(You Don’t Have To) Paint Me A Picture’ was their debut hit on our charts, but they had already had 8 Hot 100 Hits in the US under their belts (including a number 1 with ‘This Diamond Ring’) before ‘(You Don’t Have To) Paint Me a Picture’ made it to 15 there. The song would also go to 9 in Canada and 58 in Australia. Lewis was the son of comedian Jerry Lewis (who had 2 Hot 100 hits himself and is not to be confused with Jerry Lee Lewis), but didn’t try to cash in on his father’s fame, simply calling the band Gary & The Playboys and making no mention of his father when they auditioned for a job at Dinseyland. They got the role, but when the record companies picked up on them (through friends of Jerry Lewis), they got the band to add ‘Lewis’ into the name.
The second new entry was also by an act enjoying their SA Chart debut, Bobby Darin, whose version of ‘If I Were A Carpenter’ arrived at 18 this week. Before this hit, Darin had had 34 Hot 100 hits in the US dating back to 1958, but he had not managed to get into the top 40 with his last 7 hits. One had to go back just over 3 years to see his ‘18 Yellow Roses’ manage to get to 10. However, with ‘If I Were A Carpenter’, which was written by Tim Hardin, he was propelled back into the upper echelons of the Hot 100, getting to number 8 there. It would also make it to 12 in the UK. Darin would return the compliment to song writer Hardin when the latter recorded Darin’s composition ‘Simple Song Of Freedom’ which gave Hardin his only Hot 100 hit as it went to number 50.
Apart from enjoying a record equalling 7th week at the top of our charts, Tom Jones also celebrated his 50th week in the charts and became only the 3rd act (after The Rolling Stones and The Beach Boys) to reach this milestone. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Titch enjoyed their 20th week on the chart while Herman’s Hermits caught up with The Beatles for weeks count as they moved on to 42 weeks and were tied 6th overall. On the local front, Des Lindberg pulled 1 clear of Four Jacks & A Jill to occupy 4th spot on his own with 19 weeks under his belt.
Like the previous year, we started 1967 with a new number 1 as Tom Jones’ ‘Green Green Grass Of Home’ took over the top spot from The New Vaudeville Band’s ‘Winchester Cathedral’. This continued Jones’ run of every second top 20 hit going to number 1. With this, his 3rd number 1, Jones joined The Rolling Stones for the most number of chart toppers to date. ‘Winchester Cathedral’ dropped into 3rd place while The Beach Boy’s ‘Good Vibrations’ moved up to 2.
It had been 59 weeks since Jones last held the top spot and this beat The Beach Boys record for gaps between number 1 hits, the latter being 28 weeks.
Donovan’s ‘Mellow Yellow’ moved up 5 from 17 to 12 to give him his first biggest climber award while Jim Reeves enjoyed his 3rd such award with the 5 place climb from 19 to 14 that ‘Snow Flake’ made.
The Seekers pulled ahead of The Beatles, Herman’s Hermits and Tom Jones for star raters as ‘Morningtown Ride’ became their 7th one to date, moving up 4 from 14 to 10. The Rolling Stones still led the way for star rater count as they had managed 9 to date.
The Harden Trio’s ‘Tippy Toeing’ was plunging down the charts as it dropped 6 places from 11 to 17 which was the biggest fall in the week.
Tommy Roe’s ‘Sweet Pea’ was on 16 weeks and this was its 4th week as the oldest on the chart.
Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny’ was the only song to leave the chart this week. It had enjoyed a run of 10 weeks and a peak position of 7 and it would be his only SA Chart hit.
It had been 75 weeks since we last had Connie Francis grace our charts, however this week she was back with a new hit, ‘All The Love In The World’. Her new entry this week meant that she took over the biggest gap between hits record, surpassing Donovan’s 62 weeks between hits. However, her career was coming to an end. She had had 53 Hot 100 hits in the US before the start of 1967, but only managed 2 after that, neither of which were ‘All The Love In The World’. In the UK her last hit had been in 1966 and she has not seen chart action there since. ‘All The Love In The World’ included Norman Gimbel in the song writing credits. He would also have a hand in writing the Roberta Flack hit ‘Killing Me Softly With His Song’.
Tommy Roe celebrated his 20th week in the charts. Manfred Mann pulled 1 clear of The Beatles on the weeks count list as they moved on to 43. This placed them 5th on the list. Jim Reeves moved tied 14th with Chris Andrews as he enjoyed a 25th week in the top 20 while Donovan, who was 1 week behind him, joined Nancy Sinatra and Simon & Garfunkel in 16th place. Des Lindberg was still climbing the local list as his 18 weeks put his tied 4th with Four Jacks & A Jill. The Dream Merchants moved tied 12th with Jody Wayne, both being on 12 weeks.
Useless fact of the week: 6 of the artists represented on the chart began with the letter ‘D’.
SA Singles Charts 