Ah, the year 1967. It’s one of the most legendary years of music in the 20th century. It was the Summer of Love and psychedelic rock was coming into mainstream view. Few could escape genuinely good tunes on the radio. And if you were a kid that year, there are more than a few nostalgic songs from 1967 that will instantly transport you to your childhood. Let’s look at just a few!
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“I’m A Believer” by The Monkees
If you were a 90s or 00s kid, you probably remember this song via Smash Mouth’s rendition from 2001 that was featured in the movie Shrek. If you were a kid in 1967, though, you likely remember the original version by The Monkees. Technically released at the end of 1966, this song was all over the place the following year. It’s a standard blue-eyed soul and pop-rock track that is still loved today. It’s also one of The Monkees’ most memorable tunes.
Fun fact: The song was actually written by Neil Diamond!
“Ode To Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry
If you grew up with country music in the 1960s, you know this nostalgic song from 1967 all too well. It’s one of Bobbie Gentry’s biggest hits, after all. “Ode To Billie Joe” topped the country charts as well as the pop charts that year. The storytelling behind this song is so enthralling, decades after it was released. And you just can’t beat Gentry’s incredible vocal ability on this song. No wonder it was nominated for a whopping eight Grammy Awards!
“Light My Fire” by The Doors
The Doors didn’t exactly produce music that was marketed toward children. However, if you were a latchkey kid in the 1960s with little in the way of parental censorship when it came to music, you definitely heard this iconic tune by The Doors at least a few times. It’s one of the most nostalgic psychedelic rock songs of 1967, and it’s also one of the earliest examples of the rise of psych-rock in the 1960s.
“Light My Fire” topped the Hot 100 chart for weeks after its debut, and the song itself has become a memorable and iconic one that symbolized the psychedelic and cultural changes of the 1960s. It’s an absolute classic.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images







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