Sounds on Sunday: 50 of 50/17

WHAT WERE WE listening to 50 years ago? Here’s a short series on the hits of 1969 – two years after the Summer of Love, the year that humans landed on our moon, the last year of the 1960s.

It only reached number two in the UK single charts, but Gentle on My Mind was a hit for US crooner Dean Martin. The single, after which the album was named, was the eleventh most popular single of 1969.

Perhaps it was the lyrics that made the song so popular – looking back fondly on a past relationship, but it was also a catchy little upbeat tune. The moods of the lyrics and the melody were perhaps somewhat at odds – but that was not unusual in the 1960s.

Click below for a video of Dean performing one of his biggest hits and looking darned cheerful – almost as if he hadn’t read, or thought about, the words.

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Sounds on Sunday