OTIS REDDING & CARLA THOMAS * 1967
— BILLBOARD: Peaked #26, June 24, 1967 —
Audio
THE ESSENCE OF ‘SOUL’ 60S GENERATION: ’67 DEFINED!
JAMES & BOBBY PURIFY * 1967
— BILLBOARD: Peaked #25, May 27, 1967 —
THE ESSENCE OF ‘SOUL’ 60S GENERATION: ’67 DEFINED!
BRENTON WOOD * 1967
— BILLBOARD: Peaked #34, June 24, 1967 —
07/27/67: LYNDON JOHNSON ADDRESSES THE NATION
PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON * NBC RADIO NETWORK (WWJ) * JULY 27, 1967
THE PRESIDENT’S REMARKS on CIVIL DISORDERS
Thursday, July 27, 1967
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At 10:30 p.m., on the night of July 27, 1967, President Johnson addressed the nation on all major television and radio networks on civil disorders.
In his speech, Johnson announced he appointed a special presidential advisory commission (Thursday), to seek causes and cures for the country’s racial divide — moving forward — in light of recent civil disturbances, riots having taken place in Newark, Detroit, and in cities elsewhere around the country.
Also in his remarks, the President designated, Sunday, July 30, as a ‘National Day of Prayer.’ Johnson urged, “citizens in every town and city in the land to go to their churches — to pray for order and reconciliation among men.”
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Commentary by NBC News’ Richard Volariani, Washington. The President’s remarks was broadcast live on NBC radio affiliate WWJ 950 in Detroit.
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Audio source from the Gordon Skene Collection.
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For more historic audio references like the audio above, visit Gordon Skene’s fabulous website at http://pastdaily.com/ You can also find the Past Daily link in our blogroll on Motor City Radio Flashbacks.
NBC NEWS. ON THIS DAY. 50 YEARS AGO
50 YEARS AGO: WXYZ COVERS DETROIT RIOTS JULY ’67
ABC NEWS DON HOWE * Tommy McIntyre; WXYZ News * July 26, 1967
A MCRFB NOTE
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Link update (July 26, 2017): See Scott Westerman’s recent comments HOW KEENER COVERED THE SUMMER OF 1967 at his splendid WKNR tribute website, posted July 21, 2017.
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For a more comprehensive coverage on the five-day civil-disturbances in Detroit, July, this week in 1967, see Motor City Radio Flashbacks’ previous (July 16, 2012) feature — by clicking on the header-title below.
A WKNR CONTACT NEWS PRESENTATION: DETROIT 1967
(Note: Previously featured on Motor City Radio Flashbacks, July 23, 2015)
THIS WEEK 50 YEARS AGO: THE HOTTEST HIT IN THE USA!
NUMBER 1 IN AMERICA ’67 * The Doors * 07/23/67 – 08/12/1967
BILLBOARD HOT 100 TOP FIVE: WEEK-ENDING JULY 29, 1967
(Click on chart image 2x for detailed view)
NUMBER ONE FOR 1967!
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SEVENTEEN WEEKS on the singles chart, “Light My Fire” by the Doors peaked this week at No. 01 (3 weeks) on the Billboard Hot 100, week July 23 through August 12, 1967. (source: Billboard)
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MCRFB Link: For the previous No. 1 record in the U.S.A. 1967 GO HERE.
DETROIT, JULY 23, 1967: THE WEEK THAT WAS. ‘HOT 100’
BILLBOARD HOT 100 TABULATED BY RECORDS RETAIL SALES AND RADIO AIRPLAY
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 01 * The Doors * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 02 * Stevie Wonder * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 03 * The Association * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 04 * Frankie Valli * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 05 * Procol Harum * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 06 * The Music Explosion * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 07 * The Buckinghams * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 08 U.S.A. * Jefferson Airplane * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 09 * 5th Dimension * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 10 * Four Seasons * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 11 * Scott McKenzie * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 12 * Sandy Posey * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 13 * Every Mother’s Son * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 14 * Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazelwood * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 15 * Ray Charles * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 16 * Hollies * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 17 * Tremeloes * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 18 * Bar-Kays * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 19 * Young Rascals * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 20 * Engelbert Humperdinck * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 21 * Bettye Swann * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 22 * Peaches & Herb * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 23 * Smokey Robinson & The Miracles * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 24 * Monkees * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD SONG NUMBER 25 * Tommy James & The Shondells * 07/29/67
BILLBOARD HOT 100 TABULATED BY RECORDS RETAIL SALES AND RADIO AIRPLAY
DETROIT JULY ’67. THE WEEK THAT WAS
JULY 23, 1967 – JULY 29, 1967
(For more on the ’67 Detroit riot click dates above to open MCRFB.COM website link)
Looter Killed; 724 Held as Riot Spreads
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DETROIT — (Monday, July 24, 1967) — Governor Romney called in the National Guard and clamped a state of emergency on Detroit Sunday night in an attempt to quell spreading Negro sniping, burning and looting that broke out in the Twelfth and Clairmount area on the city’s west side.
Tanks, Jeeps and 2 1/2 ton trucks moved in ahead of infantry units to clear a sealed-off area bounded by W. Grand Blvd., Chicago, Linwood and the Lodge Freeway.
The state of emergency — a step just short of martial law — was ordered by the governor at 9:05 p.m., amid of reports of sporadic rifle fire throughout the city. Three looters were wounded early Monday, one fatally.
When the emergency order was issued, more than 800 stores had been looted, more than 200 persons were arrested and hundreds had been treated in hospital emergency rooms.
At 1 a.m. Monday, Police Commissioner Ray Girardin said a total of 724 persons had been arrested. This included 600 adults and 124 juveniles. The charges ranged from breaking and entering, through felonious assault to curfew violations.
After 17 hours of rampaging by Negroes, triggered by an early-morning police raid on an illegal after-hours liquor spot, the area was a shambles of shattered and demolished stores and blazing buildings.
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— DETROIT FREE PRESS
A MCRFB VIEWING TIP
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Click your server’s back button to return to MCRFB home page.
On your mobile device? Tap on image. Open to second window. “Stretch” across your device screen to magnify for larger print view.
THE BILLBOARD TOP 25
July 29, 1967
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These were the records played on the radio prior, during, and after that tragic week remembered still in Detroit July 23 through July 29, 1967.
Many went on to become some of the most popular singles heard played on AM Top 40 radio, July 1967, on WKNR, CKLW, and WXYZ. Also as well on soul stations WCHB and WJLB, conservative album-oriented, easy-listening WJR and WJBK radio in Detroit.
For reference purposes the audio tracks 1 through 25 were added in the same order to correlate with this special Billboard chart feature presentation, week-ending 7/29/67.
(Note: Previously posted on Motor City Radio Flashbacks. July 23, 2015)
THE NATION’S 100 SINGLES 1967
A WKNR CONTACT NEWS PRESENTATION: DETROIT 1967
From the the desk of Jim Feliciano
A 1967 WKNR Keener Contact News Presentation
(Note: Re-post; updated; previously featured July 16, 2012)
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DETROIT. 50 YEARS AGO
“My Fellow Americans, we have endured a week, such as no nation should live through. A time of violence and tragedy.” — Lyndon Johnson, President of the United States
“I think the President of the United States, uh, played politics uh, in a period of tragedy and riot.” — George Romney, Governor of Michigan
“We made it very clear — we do not want more than our share and we are determined to settle for nothing less than our share.” — Walter Reuther, UAW President
“I deplore the actions of the UAW in forcing Ford into this situation. I am sorry that we do not have laws, that effectively prevent the use of this kind of bludgeon, against the public interest.” — Henry Ford II, Ford Motor Company
DETROIT. 1967. The opening commentary you will hear is the voice of WKNR News Director Philip Nye —
“These are the sounds and voices of a year. As WKNR News present an electronic diary in 1967. A year marked by rioting, by a continuing war and growing protest, by a rise in crime and cost, and by tragedy and triumph. As with all years, there was good and bad. We shall recall both.”
. . .WKNR microphones was there.
Philip Nye WKNR KEENER CONTACT NEWS 1967 (Play 43:43 audio)
Sunday, July 23, 1967
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T H I S 1 9 6 7 W K N R N E W S N A R R A T I V E recalls many of the events which affected the city of Detroit. Of certain news events which impacted the lives of Detroiters marking the passing of 1967 moving forward into 1968. The stories, news, voices and sounds you will hear was electronically imprinted on recorded tape by the WKNR news staff who covered the stories. The sounds you will be hear was permanently preserved on vinyl records by the WKNR news department ending the year 1967. This news recording served as a marker of what took place in Detroit that year. Whether covering the news, inside or outside the boundaries of the city, the WKNR microphones was there. When it happened. As it happened. How it happened. This WKNR Contact News album will take you back to a time and place. This was 50 years ago. The city was Detroit.
But the biggest story that placed the city on national and international news headlines — the riot that was the summer of 1967. The date set was July 23, to be exact. And the WKNR news department microphones was there when Philip Nye and his six-man news staff and the station’s two mobile units began picking up the story.
By early Monday morning more dramatic news began to intensify with every passing hour as “the story” began to unfold. The civil disturbance sparked with a toss of a single Molotov cocktail during the early morning hours on Sunday. The flashpoint was marked on 12th near Clairmount in the city’s near west side. The riot’s spark ignited during a Detroit police raid on a liquor establishment’s “blind pig.” By mid-afternoon, the rioting spread rapidly out of control. Spreading from block to city block. Looting, shootings, arson became widespread. Within 24 hours, the destruction and carnage would cover 129 square miles of the city. Detroit, the fifth largest metropolis in the United States, was up in flames.
L I S T E N A G A I N T O T H E biggest Detroit news story of 1967. Listen as —
Governor Romney requested the federal government deploy federal troops immediately into Detroit; Presidential Assistant Cyrus Vance informed the city that troops were on the ground in Detroit; President Johnson addresses the nation, deploring “law and order have broken down in Detroit, Michigan.”. . . .
Philip Nye went on to record, that, “At it’s peak, the riots spread over fourteen-square miles of the city. A curfew was in effect, a complete ban placed on liquor sales, gasoline can be purchased only during certain hours and never in a container, offices, banks, schools, businesses, industries were closed down; the heart of Detroit was deserted. Deliveries were curtailed. Food ran short. All normal activities in the nation’s fifth-largest city was at a standstill… they said it couldn’t happen here, but it did.”
The Detroit Free Press headlines below provided a more grim reality —
A VIEWING TIP
On your mobile device? Tap on newspaper images. Open to second window. “Stretch” across the featured image on your device screen to magnify for larger print view.
Above DETROIT FREE PRESS related articles courtesy freep.com newspaper archives. Copyright 2017. Newspapers.com
While the July ’67 civil disturbance overshadowed other local events and news for the year, Detroit had other issues the city found itself grappling with throughout 1967. WKNR Contact News covered these stories as well:
- A 61-day strike between the UAW and the Ford Motor Company….
- In July, the nation’s railroads were shut down by rail-machinists, affecting rail and transport commerce in Detroit….
- Teamster Steel-haulers went on strike; spanning 8 states, including Michigan, lasting 9 weeks while inciting violence….
- Detroit Federation of Teachers went on strike; teachers reached an agreement with the city two weeks into the new school year….
- Contract discussions with the Detroit Officers Association and the city reach a stalled impasse, DPOA stop issuing traffic tickets….
- The Teamsters Union strike both the Detroit newspapers over wages; The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press were still shut down due to the strike as of December 31, 1967….
And those were just several of the important news stories WKNR reported for Detroit in 1967. Headed by Philip Nye and assistant news director Eric Smith, WKNR Contact News was awarded five prestigious first-place honors — five different categories — for “news presentation par excellence” in 1966 by the Michigan Associated Press.
The entire WKNR award-winning news team in ’67 were: Philip Nye, News Director; Eric Smith, Assistant News Director; Mike O’Neill, reporter; Dick Buller, reporter; John Maher; reporter; Pat Kelly, Doug Fernlock.
“…The hour’s catalog a year’s living; A year’s dying; a year’s luck. For WKNR News… this is Philip Nye, reporting.”
“A great tragedy has visited our city, and now our ability to face an awesome challenge is being tested. It is for us to meet the challenge with the same resolve and dedication for which we have been noted in the past. We must have a united determination torebuild our city into a kind of urban environment in which every citizen can say with dignity and self-respect that he is a Detroiter and proud of it. Like the legendary Phoenix, Detroit shall rise from its ashes.”
— Jerome P. Cavanagh, Mayor of Detroit; 1967
‘KEENER CONTACT NEWS’
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For more on the Keener Contact News year-end albums, go to the left-sidebar menu column on this website and click WKNR Contact News. For everything on WKNR news, go to Scott Westerman’s WKNR tribute website at keener13.com.
MCRFB NOTES / LINKS
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The YouTube video titled “Detroit Riots 1968,” while seeming erroneous, it was titled as such the year it was released. The footage is silent.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive visual of the riots, watch this vintage 30 minute 1967 WXYZ-TV film segment on the Detroit civil disturbance GO HERE.
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ALSO| For a more comprehensive review (link; detroit1967.org) on what took place 50 years ago on this day in Detroit, GO HERE.
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ALSO| The Detroit News Interactive feature FIVE DEADLY DAYS IN DETROIT is a informative review of Detroit’s week of infamy, covering the week beginning Sunday, July 23, 1967. This special report includes many photographs of the ’67 civil unrest. For more on this Detroit News timeline GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the DETROIT NEWS archives. 150 historic photos from the Detroit 1967 riot can be SEEN HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit Free Press. Detroit ’67. An interactive hour-by-hour timeline. GO HERE.
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ALSO| From the Detroit News archives. DETROIT 1967 interactive. GO HERE.
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NEW!| Six Days In July — Coverage Of the 1967 Detroit Riots. Aired on WWJ-TV (Channel 4; time 1:28:38), Sunday, July 30, 1967:
WHEN IT HAPPENED. AS IT HAPPENED. DETROIT 1967
50TH! TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY GENERATION: TOP HITS OF ’67!
THE MONKEES * COLGEMS * 1967
50TH! TALKIN’ ‘BOUT MY GENERATION: TOP HITS OF ’67!
THE MONKEES * COLGEMS * 1967