What is the best song on this collection of 1968 hits off a promo CD from my local grocery store chain ?

OMG dude, that cover totally belongs in the Vampire Weekend “Global Coffeehouse Aesthetic” thread

I'm a sucker for anything Dionne did in the 60s, so San Jose wins, but Cloud Nine is a close 2nd. Unlike the later,preachier Norman Whitfield numbers (looking at you, Ball of Confusion), this one actually allows the listener to infer the critique of drug use, while also sketching out exactly *why* someone stuck in a dire situation would turn to them for escape. And the bit where Eddie Kendricks sings "I wanna say I love the life I live /and I'm gonna live the life I love" feels to me like a precursor to the "When you're high/you never wanna come down" part in Welcome to the Jungle in offering the teensiest bit of nirvana in what is otherwise a hellscape (but a rockin' one in both songs!)

As for some of the rest: I swear I've seen Yummyx3 referred to without irony as a punk song in other places, and I can't disagree. Always thought the Canned Heat song was 2 years later. Stormy has a nice vibe to it, as do all the Classics IV hits. Midnight Confessions has a genuine aura of desperation that peeks through the programmatic music - I never thought to check if anyone's done a cover of it with more feeling than the GRs were capable of displaying. Young Girl was aptly described once (on here? by the AV Club?) as "unctuous" but I'll always associate it with an old Ralph Snart comic where he sings it in a punk band, but changes every use of 'girl' to 'maggot' before going into a guitar-smashing frenzy. A great bit of cognitive dissonance.

hey, don't blame norman whitfield. he didn't start the fire.

It was always burning
Since the world's been turning

do it again. it does not sound like from 1968. it is more adventurous. like a roxy music song it is comprised of a couple of quite different parts. there is also some pretty hard blues riffing in there, quite uncommon for the beach boys.

Crimson and Clover, Do You Know the Way to San Jose, Love Is All Around, Yummy Yummy Yummy, Going Up The Country, lots of other cool tunes

Was 'Hurdy Gurdy Man' all the way until I saw the Temps.

crimson & clover vs cloud nine, probably crimson & clover

is it the original recordings, recordings by the original artists, or the cub foods house band renditions?

Source of "Going up the Country" if anyone's never heard it (and, yes, that is a pan flute):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1yhaBsD8Vw

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I love Crimson and Clover and Going Up the Country but it's Hurdy Gurdy Man in the end

"Do You Know The Way To San Jose?" Several years ago, a good friend from Frisco volunteered that he did not know, not at all. Back in the day heard it as a nice, good-hearted older lady (late-20s) from the 50s, sandbagged by the 60s. She's hopeful though.

lol

do it again. it does not sound like from 1968. it is more adventurous. like a roxy music song it is comprised of a couple of quite different parts. there is also some pretty hard blues riffing in there, quite uncommon for the beach boys.

― je est un autre, l'enfer c'est les autres (alex in mainhattan), Monday, April 15, 2019 9:03 AM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

not voting for the song but i think this is pretty otm. those guitars at the beginning are something else

going to offer my thoughts on all the songs before the poll closes but for now i’ll just say i’m surprised that nobody has spoken up about “stoned soul picnic” — a really special song imo

Midnight Confessions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:Stoned Soul Picnic" is really great

not voting for the song but i think this is pretty otm. those guitars at the beginning are something else

There aren't any guitars at the start of "Do It Again"?

Well, he did say they are “something else”

Listened to all of these as an experiment in memory, would've picked Ohio Express before but now it's undoubtedly 'Hurdy Gurdy Man.'

not voting for the song but i think this is pretty otm. those guitars at the beginning are something else

There aren't any guitars at the start of "Do It Again"?

― Freddie Starr (Hitler in shorts) (Tom D.), Saturday, April 27, 2019 5:51 AM (seven hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i was going off memory, it's been a while, for some reason i thought as a kid that those sound were super metallic chunky guitars, i guess it's just drums and a synth ? whatever it is, it sounds cool

perfect songs:

Crimson and Clover - Tommy James & The Shondells
Love Is All Around - The Troggs
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
Do It Again - The Beach Boys
Stoned Soul Picnic - The 5th Dimension
Cloud Nine - The Temptations
Stormy - The Classics IV

very very good songs:

Do You Know the Way to San Jose - Dionne Warwick
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy - Ohio Express
This Magic Moment - Jay & The Americans
Midnight Confessions - The Grass Roots
Going Up the Country - Canned Heat
Young Girl - Gary Puckett & The Union Gap

i think it has to be "crimson and clover" -- just an incredibly beautiful piece of pop music

a close runner-up is "stoned soul picnic" -- i love this song. as a kid it just evoked this rich, magical world of sounds and images. what does it mean to surry down ? what do you do at a stoned soul picnic ? "red yellow honey sassafras and moonshine" ?? yes please !! and just the effortless groove with the wandering electric keyboard figure and the piano chirps. i never get sick of hearing it.

is it the original recordings, recordings by the original artists, or the cub foods house band renditions?

― andrew m., Monday, April 15, 2019 1:56 PM (one week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry i forgot to answer that this is the original recordings and that "crimson and clover" is the singles edit.

I was a little kid in 1968 and I thought "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" was terrible then and I still do

"Cloud Nine" gets my vote but "Crimson and Clover" would also be a worthy winner

yeah i was going off memory, it's been a while, for some reason i thought as a kid that those sound were super metallic chunky guitars, i guess it's just drums and a synth ? whatever it is, it sounds cool

It's just drums, but run through a very short delay which gives them a kind of metallic sound - easy to do with digital delay, not so easy to accomplish in 1968 though!

Just now came back and noticed that my magnificent maiden post, in praise of "Crimson and Clover," is not here. Something like "Voted for 'Crimson and Clover'; it is thee psych-pop fold-in-flowering" of the whole list's appeal, incl. cool sensuous commercial mastery etc., can even/especially see the lost lady from the 50s finally getting out of her Falcon and wandering around this image of innocence---but also dig Joan Jett's version, bringing the hidden garage raunch out, "Yeahhhhhhh," though not disturbing the ritual vibe. Canned Heat's Al Wilson could have found more shades too.

from the 50s and San José (or is she from there? Maybe it's something new for her---prob beats Woodstock.)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

now available as a playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/287jzwucFKrDcTN8QDzWk4?si=2fa0dfa871d14f99

No love for "Stormy"? Top shelf EZ listening IMHO. Pretty strong competition admittedly.

Missing "Green Tambourine" by the Lemon Pipers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyhMwNU-3ao