DAILY DIRT: Love is in the air, and we’re starting with the ’60s

Daily Dirt for Monday, July 28, 2025

 … Welcome to today’s three thoughts that make up Vol. 1,356 of The Daily Dirt.

1. So, what makes some love songs touch your heart and others fall flat?

Just like love itself, there’s no real manual to follow when it comes to matters of the heart. Those kind of things just “happen”. What separates Elvis Presley’s classic “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You” from “More Than Words” by Extreme? Why is the Elvis song a classic for all time, and the Extreme offering little more than a forgotten semi-hit from the early 1990s? I wish I knew the answer to that. Both are quality songs, but “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You” has always touched us in a way few of that genre have or ever will.

With that in mind, The Daily Dirt begins a week-long tribute to love songs — after all, I am The Doctor of Love (see above) — that will feature my favorites from the four most important decades of pop tunes (1960s through the 1990s), and then a final leaderboard for for that entire era.

Today we start with the 1960s. These are my 10 favorites from that particular decade:

1. “(I Can’t Help) Falling In Love With You,” Elvis Presley (1961): Timeless, and particularly for that era the closest thing there was to a perfect love song. Truly iconic, in every sense.

2. “Unchained Melody,” Righteous Brothers (1965):A monster hit in the ’60s, the song resurfaced in the 1990 movie “Ghost” and took on an entirely new life.

3. “Brown-Eyed Girl,” Van Morrison (1967): Morrison was only 22 when this song became a worldwide hit. Sadly, he doesn’t like to perform it any longer. Morrison, who will soon turn 80, says he can longer “relate” to the song now that he’s an “elder statesman”. Well, Van, I’m an elder statesman, too, and I still love the song.

4. “I Only Want to Be With You,” Dusty Springfield (1963): This was her debut single, and many will argue her best-ever release.

5. “Be My Baby,” Ronettes (1963): Ronnie Spector’s voice, coupled with producer Phil Spector’s famous “Wall of Sound,” will always set this song apart. This song served as an inspiration for many, including the Beach Boys.

6. “Summer Song,” Chad and Jeremy (1964): Not only is this a magnificent song, but it rekindles memories of transistor radios and long, lazy summer days.

7. “Sweet Caroline,” Neil Diamond (1969): Hey, love songs do not all have to be sad and slow.

8. “Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch),” Four Tops (1965): I think it’s pretty much impossible to not love a Levi Stubbs-led Four Tops song. He always had that cry in his voice that set him and the group apart from most others. 

9. “Yesterday,” Beatles (1965): Surprisingly, John Lennon absolutely hated this song.

10-tie. “Roses Are Red (My Love),” Bobby Vinton (1962): I first heard this song in second grade and thought it was so-o-o sad. And I still do.

10-tie. “God Only Knows,” Beach Boys (1966): The late, great Brian Wilson wrote this song in 45 minutes and said it came to him “like a vision”. The song was so unlike most of the Beach Boys’ surf-and-sand selections of the time, and almost 60 years following its release is still considered one of the group’s classics. Paul McCartney has even gone on record saying it is one of his favorite songs of all-time.

Underrated: “Ask the Lonely,” Four Tops (1965): One of Stubbs’ best-ever performances.

2. Did you know (Part 439)

• That originally, Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl” was about an interracial couple and was called “Brown-Skinned Girl”.
• That the Beatles had 12 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 for the week April 4, 1964. 
• That the No. 1 song in the U.S. on this day in 1966 was “Hanky Panky” by Tommy James and the Shondells, on this date in 1967 it was “Windy” by the Association, on this date in 1968 it was “Grazing in the Grass” by Hugh Masekela and on this date in 1969 it was “In the Year 2525” by Zager and Evans. 
• That the first No. 1 song of the 1960s was “Why” by Frankie Avalon and the last was “Someday We’ll Be Together” by Diana Ross and the Supremes.
• That among the stars of the ’60s who got their start at Motown Records in Detroit, Mich., were Diana Ross Ross and the Supremes, Four Tops, Temptations, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and Stevie Wonder.

3. Appalachian Word of the Day: Solo.

“Man, this lady her shirt solo, I could see her whole chest.”

Steve Thought O’ The Day — I’m going to listening and re-listening to A LOT of love songs this week, and for those wondering I have no idea at this point which one will be the ultimate No. 1 come Friday.

Steve Eighinger writes daily for Muddy River News. Looks like he has his “Doctor of Love” hat on this week.