Hello and welcome to another episode of Your Old Pal Will's Vinyl-O-Matic. In this episode, we continue our journey through a box of singles provided by the wonderful proprietor of the late great West County Herb Company. It's chockablock full of various and sundry hits and misses from the late-50s to the mid-70s. Starting things off, I can take or leave Herman's Hermits. How about you? Wowzers. That may be the longest four minutes and twenty-three seconds of my life. A little taste of the late-60s for ya for sure. That was radio personality Victor Lundberg with his 1967 Liberty Records single "Open Letter to My Teenage Son". Oh, those rascally teenagers. Believe it or not, this had a short 6 week run in the Hot 100, peaking out at number 10. Before that, we had Hong Kong rockers The Fabulous Echoes with "Please Leave Her to Me" from 1964, also on Liberty Records. That band featured four gents from the Philippines, a Scottish drummer, and their lead singer was from India. Some of them would later rename themselves Society of Seven. We also heard Berthold Brecht and Kurt Weill's classic "Mack the Knife" as interpreted into a number one single by Bobby Darin in 1959 on ATCO Records. At the top of the last set, we had Herman's Hermits with their 1967 single "I Can Take or Leave Your Loving" on MGM Records of course. This had the lads only reaching as high as number 22 on the Hot 100. Next up, an ode to actress Beverly Adams of sorts. Welcome back to Vinyl-O-Matic. I am Your Old Pal Will. If you cast your minds back, you will recall that we began that set with Vic Dana and a Dolton Records single from 1966 called "Lovey Kravezit". What? That's exactly what I said. Turns out it was inspired by a character from the C-grade James Bond-mania cash-in film The Silencers featuring Dean Martin in his first outing as Matt Helm. Beverly Adams portrayed his able-bodied (nyuk nyuk) assistant Lovey Kravesit. Astute listeners will also recall Ms. Adams from such roles as Cassandra, the object of Eric von Zipper's affection in How to Stuff a Wild Bikini, and as Dora "D.D." Danger O'Riley in the Bewitched episode George the Warlock. We followed that up with the debut single from Chicago's own The Buckinghams, "Kind of a Drag". This bit of sunshine pop is on USA Records from 1966 and turned out to be a number one hit for them. Following that, we found out what Wayne Fontana gets up to without the Mindbenders. Turns out he sings about a past love named Pamela. Rounding out that set, we had the great Irma Thomas, Soul Queen of New Orleans with her 1965 single "Some Things You Never Get Used To". While this record failed to gain any traction for her at the time, it would go on to become a classic of the Northern Soul scene. Coming up next, a single from a gentleman who played more than a few Native Americans on 1960s television. Evidently, tokes can be used as a measurement. That was Brewer and Shipley with their 1970 Kama Sutra single "One Toke Over the Line". Somehow this one made it to number 10 on the hot 100 despite the protestations of Spiro Agnew. Fun fact: This single was produced by Occidental, California resident Nick Gravenites. Prior to that, we had some quality soul from the gentleman who helped compose "Put a Little Love in Your Heart". I am talking about Jimmy Holiday and his 1966 Minit Records single "Baby I Love You". Three Dog Night brought us "Joy to the World" (as it was officially known) or Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog as it was known by your average school kid. This Hoyt Axton penned single easily made it to the number one spot on the Hot 100. Getting that set going we had Ed Ames, of the Ames brothers and later of the television series Daniel Boone, singing "My Cup Runneth Over" on RCA Victor from 1967 which turned out to be a hit on the Adult Contemporary charts. Did that first song in the last set sound like The Jackson 5? Well, that's because papa George Jackson wrote it and The Osmonds took it all the way to a number one gold record in 1970. We followed that up with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels with their uptempo version of Shorty Long's "Devil with a Blue Dress On". This rendition reached number 4 on the Hot 100 in 1967. Zut alors! We had the Paris-based band King Harvest bring us the 1972 Perception Records single "Dancing in the Moonlight", which hit number 13 on the Hot 100 that year. Rounding things out, we had The 5th Dimension delivering their version of Laura Nyro's "Save the Country" to number 27 on Bell Records in 1970. We now conclude our episode. If you have any questions or comments that you would like to share, please drop me a line: will(at)vinylomatic(dot)com. Keep in mind that you can also find show notes, many many archived episodes, RSS feeds, and sign up for the Vinyl-O-Matic newsletter by visiting vinylomatic(dot)com. Next time we will reach the back of the 45s box, so be sure to stay tuned. Join me, won't you?