Kuhl-cha
BC might have been at the center of our small universes much of the time, but it wasn’t everything. The mid-Sixties were among the most turbulent years of post-WWII America . . . in politics, music, technology, movies, and more. Even when you consider how much changed, both outside and inside BC, from fall 1964 to spring 1968, it is quite astounding.
On this page are some examples of the culture around us 1964-68.
Movies
National
Boston-based
“1968: How We Got Here”
NPR’s collection of radio reports about “the incredible year”
Music
Listen/watch on YouTube by clicking the links
The top songs in June of each of the years we were at BC, according to Billboard Hot 100:
1965 — “Help Me Rhonda,” Beach Boys; “Back in My Arms Again,” Supremes; “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch),” Four Tops; “Mr. Tambourine Man,” Byrds; “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rolling Stones
1966 — “When A Man Loves A Woman,” Percy Sledge; “Paint It Black,” Rolling Stones; “Paperback Writer,” Beatles
1967 — “Respect,” Aretha Franklin; “Groovin’,” Young Rascals
1968 — “Mrs. Robinson,” Simon & Garfunkel
May
1965 — “Mrs. Brown You’ve Got A Lovely Daughter,” Herman’s Hermits; “Ticket to Ride,” Beatles; “Help Me Rhonda,” Beach Boys
1966 — “Monday, Monday,” Mamas and Papas; “When A Man Loves A Woman,” Percy Sledge
1967 — “Somethin’ Stupid,” Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra; “The Happening,” Supremes; “Groovin’,” Young Rascals
1968 — “Honey,” Bobby Goldsboro; “Tighten Up,” Archie Bell and the Drells
April
1965 — “Stop! In the Name of Love,” Supremes; “I’m Telling You Now,” Freddie and the Dreamers; “Game of Love,” Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
1966 — “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” Barry Sadler; “(You’re My) Soul and Inspiration,” Righteous Brothers; “Good Lovin‘,” Young Rascals
1967 — “Happy Together,” Turtles; “Somethin’ Stupid,” Nancy Sinatra and Frank Sinatra
1968 — “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding; “Honey,” Bobby Goldsboro
March
1965 — “My Girl,” Temptations; “Eight Days a Week,” Beatles; “Stop! In the Name of Love,” Supremes
1966 — “The Ballad of the Green Berets,” Barry Sadler
1967 — “Ruby Tuesday,” Rolling Stones; “Love is Here and Now You’re Gone,” Supremes; “Penny Lane,” Beatles; “Happy Together,” Turtles
1968 — “Love is Blue,” Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra; “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay,” Otis Redding
February
1965 — “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling,” Righteous Brothers; “This Diamond Ring,” Gary Lewis and the Playboys
1966 — “My Love,” Petula Clark; “Lightnin’ Strikes,” Lou Christie; “These Boots are Made for Walkin’,” Nancy Sinatra
1967 — “I’m a Believer,” Monkees; “Kind of a Drag,” Buckinghams
1968 — “Green Tambourine,” Lemon Pipers; “Love is Blue,” Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra
January
1965 — “I Feel Fine,” Beatles; “Come See about Me,” Supremes; “Downtown,” Petula Clark
1966 — “The Sound of Silence,” Simon and Garfunkel; “We Can Work It Out,” Beatles
1967 — “I’m a Believer,” Monkees
1968 — “Hello, Goodbye,” Beatles; “Judy in Disguise (with Glasses),” John Fred and his Playboy Band
December
1964 — “Ringo,” Lorne Greene; “Mr. Lonely,” Bobby Vinton; “Come See about Me,” Supremes; “I Feel Fine,” Beatles
1965 — “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” Byrds; “Over and Over,” Dave Clark Five
1966 — “Good Vibrations,” Beach Boys; “Winchester Cathedral,” New Vaudeville Band; “I’m a Believer,” Monkees
1967 — “Daydream Believer,” Monkees; “Hello, Goodbye,” Beatles
November
1964 — “Baby Love,” Supremes; “Leader of the Pack,” Shangri-Las
1965 — “Get Off of My Cloud,” Rolling Stones; “I Hear A Symphony,” Supremes
1966 — “Last Train to Clarksville,” Monkees; “Poor Side of Town,” Johnny Rivers; “You Keep Me Hanging On,” Supremes
1967 — “To Sir with Love,” Lulu; “Incense and Peppermints,” Strawberry Alarm Clock
October
1964 — “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Roy Orbison; “Do Wah Diddy Diddy,” Manfred Mann
1965 — “Hang On, Sloopy,” The McCoys, and “Yesterday,” The Beatles
1966 — “Cherish,” The Association; “Reach Out I’ll Be There,” The Four Tops; and “96 Tears,” ? and the Mysterians
1967 — “The Letter,” The Boxtops, and “To Sir with Love,” Lulu
September
1964 — “The House of the Rising Sun,” Animals; “Oh, Pretty Woman,” Roy Orbison
1965 — “Help,” Beatles; “Eve of Destruction,” Barry Maguire
1966 — “Sunshine Superman,” Donovan; “You Can’t Hurry Love,” Supremes; “Cherish,” The Association
1967 — “Ode to Billy Joe,” Bobbie Gentry; “The Letter,” Boxtops
National movies
Below are the top 10 movies of each year we were at BC, according to IMDb
1964
Hush . . . Hush Sweet Charlotte
Mary Poppins
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Robin and the Seven Hoods
Fistful of Dollars
My Fair Lady
Goldfinger
Send Me No Flowers
Marnie
Strait-Jacket
1965
The Sound of Music
Doctor Zhivago
The Naked Prey
For a Few Dollars More
Thunderball
Shenandoah
Von Ryan’s Express
The Sons of Katie Elder
The Great Race
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
1966
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
Gambit
Arabesque
Persona
Triple Cross
Blow-Up
The Professionals
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Batman: The Movie
Stagecoach
1967
Casino Royale
The Graduate
The Dirty Dozen
Cool Hand Luke
The Jungle Book
Doctor Dolittle
In the Heat of the Night
Bonnie and Clyde
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Barefoot in the Park
1968
Oliver!
2001: A Space Odyssey
Once Upon a Time in the West
Planet of the Apes
Barbarella
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Rosemary’s Baby
Bullitt
Night of the Living Dead
Romeo and Juliet
Boston-based movies
Thomas Crown Affair (1968)
Every once in a while, you may run across a broadcast of The Thomas Crown Affair, a movie set in Boston in 1968. (There was also a lesser version that came out in 1999.)
Steve McQueen, the epitome of cool in that era to me, was the star, along with Faye Dunaway. As a movie, it was not great, but it was great to see the Boston of 1968. You’d have to watch it several times to catch all the scenes, but they include Beacon Hill, the Mass Pike, the Cape, Myopia Hunt Club … actually I figure not a lot of us hung out at Myopia.
The movie is also a “screen capture” :) of the fashion of the era, in clothes, cars, interior design, etc. Not all of those have appreciated in value, shall we say. There have been a number of movies set in Boston recently — Black Mass, Spotlight among them — but The Thomas Crown Affair is fun to see. YouTube offers options to see it now.
Regrettably, the only other movie I know of that was filmed at least partly in Boston in 1968 was The Boston Strangler. Any other movies you recall set in Boston in the 1960s?
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John Riordan (CBA) reports that The Cardinal (1963) contained scenes of Boston. According to IMDb (Internet Movie Database), that movie had scenes that were filmed in Lynn, Belmont, Lowell, and Malden, as well as Boston (and Europe).
Novels
Best-selling novels in the U.S., as determined by Publishers Weekly
1964
The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, John Le Carre
Candy, Terry Southern and Mason Hoffenberg
Herzog, Saul Bellow
Armageddon, Leon Uris
The Man, Irving Wallace
The Rector of Justin, Louis Auchincloss
The Martyred, Richard Kim
You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming
This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart
Convention, Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II
1965
The Source, James Michener
Up the Down Staircase, Bel Kaufman
Herzog, Saul Bellow
The Looking Glass War, John le Carré
The Green Berets, Robin Moore
Those Who Love, Irving Stone
The Man with the Golden Gun, Ian Fleming
Hotel, Arthur Hailey
The Ambassador, Morris West
Don’t Stop the Carnival, Herman Wouk
1966
Valley of the Dolls, Jacqueline Susann
The Adventurers, Harold Robbins
The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Robert Crichton
Capable of Honor, Allen Drury
The Double Image, Helen Mcinnes
The Fixer, Bernard Malamud
Tell No Man, Adela Rogers St. Johns
Tai-Pan, James Clavell
The Embezzler, Louis Auchincloss
All in the Family, Edwin O’Connor
1967
The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton
The Arrangement, Elia Kazan
The Confessions of Nat Turner, William Styron
The Chosen, Chaim Potok
Topaz, Leon Uris
Christy, Catherine Marshall
The Eighth Day, Thornton Wilder
Rosemary’s Baby, Ira Levin
The Plot, Irving Wallace
The Gabriel Hounds, Mary Stewart
1968
Airport, Arthur Hailey
Couples, John Updike
The Salzberg Connection, Helen Mcinnes
A Small Town in Germany, John le Carré
Testimony of Two Men, Taylor Caldwell
Preserve and Protect, Allen Drury
Myra Breckinridge, Gore Vidal
Vanished, Fletcher Knebel
Christy, Catherine Marshall
The Tower of Babel, Morris L. West
Television Ads
Here’s a compendium of television advertisements from the Sixties (9:54)
Print Ads
Here’s a selection of print advertisements from the Sixties
Beer
The tear is subtle.
Did Falstaff use the same ad agency?
Cars
Fashion
Frank and Dandy Don
Miscellaneous
