TERRY HOKNES - My All Time Favorite Songs and Music - Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart data plus my personal chart data plus youtube video and historical facts and trivia hoknes@hotmail.com

TERRY HOKNES - MY FAVORITE SONGS OF ALL TIME ! hoknes@hotmail.com

141	WHITNEY HOUSTON	LOVE IS A CONTACT SPORT	1987
142	BEATLES	I'M SO TIRED	1968
143	GEORGE MARTIN	SEA OF TIME	1969
144	CHRIS SQUIRE	SILENTLY FALLING	1975
145	JOHN LENNON	MEAT CITY	1973
146	KISS	DETROIT ROCK CITY	1976
147	GEORGE MARTIN	SEA OF MONSTERS	1969
148	MORSE CODE TRANSMISSION	HUNTING AND LAUGHING	1971
149	NANCY SINATRA & LEE HAZLEWOOD	SOME VELVET MORNING	1967
150	JEFFREY GAINES	HERO IN ME	1992
151	ALAN PARSONS PROJECT	DON'T LET IT SHOW	1977
152	LINDA CLIFFORD	REPOSSESSED	1979
153	GEORGE MARTIN	SEA OF HOLES	1969
154	BEATLES	EVERYBODYS GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT FOR ME AND MY MONKEY	1968
155	BRITNEY SPEARS	EVERYTIME	2004
156	1910 FRUITGUM CO	1 2 3 RED LIGHT	1968
157	SERGIO MENDES & BRAZIL 66	SCARBOROUGH FAIR	1968
158	BEATLES	I WANT TO TELL YOU	1966
159	GRAPEFRUIT	ANOTHER GAME	1969
160	RASCALS	BEAUTIFUL MORNING	1968

WHITNEY HOUSTON - LOVE IS A CONTACT SPORT (1987)

Album: Whitney (1987)

My all time favorite female vocalist and all time favorite top 40 pop artist. I was sad for days when she passed in February 2012.

August 7th 1987 - my #1 favorite daily song for 3 days at age 16 just before entering Grade 12. That month I spent in our backyard at Ruth Street with our brand new dog Chewie and I tried to peel the old paint off our fence while listening to Whitney Houston, Crowded House and Elvis Presley (10th anniversary of his death).

September 3rd 2004 - my #2 favorite daily song for 37 days at age 33 living at Eastview with Michelle/Brianna. My sister Jennifer in Edmonton hired me to drive out and perform piano at an event and I listened to this CD on the trip.

February 13th 2012 - my #3 favorite daily song for 67 days at age 41 living at Ave M South with Valerie now married 4.5 years in honor of Whitney passing away that week.

Whitney is the second studio album by American R&B/pop singer Whitney Houston, released in the United States on June 2, 1987 by Arista Records as the follow-up to her best selling debut album, Whitney Houston. She became an international star with this album, which made her the era's top female star. Whitney was certified 9× platinum by the RIAA on November 29, 1995. The album met the expectations of many people and was sensationally popular after its release. With this album, Houston set historic records on the charts. It debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart the issue of June 27, 1987, becoming the first album by a female artist, and only the fifth album by a solo artist.

THE BEATLES - I'M SO TIRED (1968)

Album: The Beatles (White Album) (1968)

This might possibly be the last Beatles album I ever heard as I recorded myself recording singing along with the album in possibly early 1983 (age 12) with my friend David Magnusson (age 10). I remember taking the album to his house to listen to. We moved to Ruth Street in December 1982 and I do remember having the large White Album poster up on the wall in my bedroom at that house.

I'm So Tired" is a song by The Beatles from their double-disc album The Beatles (also known as The White Album). It was written and sung by John Lennon, though credited to Lennon–McCartney.

Lennon wrote the song at a Transcendental Meditation camp when he could not sleep. The Beatles had gone on a retreat to study with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. After three weeks of constant meditation and lectures, Lennon missed his soon-to-be wife, Yoko Ono, and was plagued by insomnia that inspired the song. One of dozens of songs the Beatles wrote in India, "I'm So Tired" detailed Lennon's fragile state of mind. It was also an open letter to Ono, whose postcards to Lennon in India were a lifeline. "I got so excited about her letters," he said. "I started thinking of her as a woman, and not just an intellectual woman." Lennon later said of it: "One of my favourite tracks. I just like the sound of it, and I sing it well".

The theme of insomnia complements Lennon's earlier song "I'm Only Sleeping" on the Revolver album. The song is in the key of B flat major and features Lennon singing the main tune in a slow, flowing fashion while the rest of the band sings the chorus, which is repeated twice and yelled at the end of the second time.

GEORGE MARTIN & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - SEA OF TIME (1969)

Album: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (1969)

My best friend Zender Millar had the Yellow Submarine album at his house and we would listen to it around 1980/1981 around the time that John Lennon died and this was one of the earliest Beatles albums I ever heard along with Rubber Soul and Sgt Pepper at age 10. My sister Leslie (age 8), Zender (age 11) and myself saw the movie together for the first time for free at the Frances Morrison Public Library in the basement. This has always been my favorite Beatles album due to having most of side 1 my all time favorite Beatles songs and my immense love of the instrumentals by George Martin from the movie soundtrack. Yellow Submarine is also my favorite movie of all time and so much of that is inspired by the great dark moods set by George Martins instrumentals in the soundtrack.

Sir George Henry Martin CBE (born 3 January 1926) is an English record producer, arranger, composer, conductor, audio engineer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"—a title that he has described as "nonsense"—in reference to his extensive involvement on each of The Beatles' original albums. He is considered one of the greatest record producers of all time, with 30 number one hit singles in the UK and 23 number one hits in the USA.

CHRIS SQUIRE - SILENTLY FALLING (1975)

Album: Fish Out Of Water (1975)

Yes became my new favorite band in 1984 at age 13 and I bought every album they released that year including venturing into solo albums and I had this album by March 1985 at age 14. Chris is my all time favorite bass guitarist.

Fish Out of Water is the first solo album by English bass guitarist Chris Squire, released in 1975 on Atlantic Records. It was released during a period of inactivity from his progressive rock band Yes. Bill Bruford and Patrick Moraz of Yes contribute to the record, while Squire employs his signature bass skills as well as 12-string guitars and vocals. Also on the album are Mel Collins on saxophone and Squire's friend Andrew Pryce Jackman on piano. The album is in the same vein as the Yes album of the previous year, Relayer, though the sound is more fleshed out with the help of a full orchestra and the jazz context of "Lucky Seven". It was a moderate success, reaching number 25 on the UK Albums Chart.

Andrew Jackman, Squire's former bandmate in The Syn, partnered with Squire in arranging and conceptualizing the album. Over the course of sketching out the album, he ended up making some compositional contributions. Because of this, Squire offered to give him some co-writing credits, but Jackman declined. Squire's staple thematic oratorios appear on this album. First, "Fish" (his nickname) appears in the title (being "...Out of Water" referring to being out of the usual Yes oeuvre); second, the number seven, manifested as the seven-minute, 7/8 time signature piece "Lucky Seven". The song's title was drawn from it being in this time signature. Musically, a melodic passage from Yes' song "Close to the Edge" re-appears in the finale of "Safe".

The first track begins with a short fanfare style introduction played on the organ at St. Paul's Cathedral, London by the cathedral organist Barry Rose. The organ continues throughout the song creating an original sound and revealing Squire and Jackman's experience together as church choristers in their boyhood.

JOHN LENNON - MEAT CITY (1973)

Album: Mind Games (1973)

This was the very first Beatles related album I ever owned (tied with Double Fantasy). My mother did own Rubber Soul but when John Lennon died my mom took me to Midtown Plaza to the record shop to buy a John Lennon record. All his classic albums were sold out except for Mind Games and Double Fantasy so those are the 2 she bought me on approximately December 11th 1980 at age 9 when I was in Grade 4 and that began my obsession with The Beatles and rock music.

December 21st 2009 - my #2 favorite daily song for 36 days in tribute to 29 year anniversary of Lennon's death over Xmas 2009 and my 39th birthday while living at Ave M South.

Mind Games is John Lennon's fourth post-Beatles album, and was recorded and released in 1973. Like his previous album, the politically topical and somewhat abrasive Some Time in New York City, Mind Games was poorly received by music critics. It reached No. 13 in the UK and No. 9 in the US, where it went gold. The album was recorded at the beginning of Lennon's 18-month separation from Yoko Ono.

In mid-1973, as Yoko Ono was completing her fourth album, Feeling the Space, Lennon decided he also wanted to record a new album. He liked the musicians assembled for Ono's album by their assistant and production coordinator, May Pang

KISS - DETROIT ROCK CITY (1976)

Album: Destroyer (1976)

I found the Beth 45 single that had this song on the B side in 1984 when I was 13 in Grade 9.

A great rock anthem and still one of the most powerful rock songs ever.

Song had a huge effect on me as by the end of 1984 I had voted it as one of my top 10 favorite songs ever and here it is almost 30 years later and still ranking high.

"Detroit Rock City" is a song by the American hard rock group Kiss featured on their 1976 album, Destroyer. The song was written by Paul Stanley and Bob Ezrin and is about a real Kiss fan who was killed in a car accident on his way to a Kiss concert

GEORGE MARTIN & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - SEA OF MONSTERS (1969)

Album: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (1969)

MORSE CODE TRANSMISSION - HUNTING AND LAUGHING (1971)

Album: Morse Code Transmission (1971)

December 13th 1989 - my #1 favorite daily song for 6 days at age 18 living at the Monastery at Muenster, SK for 1st year University. I think I bought this album at a garage sale and may have had it for a few years possibly before listening to it. Canadian rock band.

September 17th 2010 - my #9 favorite daily song for 32 days at age 39 living at Ave M South with Valerie now married 3 years and Nicholas is 4.5 years old.

Keyboardist/singer Christian Simard had already played and sung with several club and recording groups by the time of his nineteenth birthday, near the end of April 1968. The following month, he would be approached by a former classmate by the name of Raymond Roy (drums). Both were already aware of each other's musical talents, and Simard accepted Roy's offer to audition for the latter's band. Soon, Simard was playing alongside Roy in Les Maîtres, touring throughout Quebec. Several singles and appearances on popular shows permitted the group's manager to negotiate an english-language album deal with RCA. The group, which included bassist Michel Vallée by this time, changed its name to Morse Code Transmission. Two albums were recorded for RCA, both heavily influenced by psychedelia and not unlike The Guess Who's late-'60s recording output. Despite charting two singles on Canadian radio, the group was dissatisfied with the album and fell out with their producers. Luckily, they managed to release the second album on RCA, "Morse Code Transmission II". This album was closer to their live shows, both heavier and with lengthier tracks, but didn't grant the band greater success, and the band soon saw itself without a recording contract.

NANCY SINATRA & LEE HAZELWOOD - SOME VELVET MORNING (1967)

Album: Movin' With Nancy (1967)

May 30th 1995 - my #1 favorite daily song for 259 days straight (9 months!) This song is the 2nd longest running #1 song ever on my daily chart. This was due to me not updating my charts very much during the mid 1990's as I was so busy travelling touring full time as a musician. A great psychedelic dreamy pop song - love the mood.

Some Velvet Morning" is a psychedelic pop song written by Lee Hazlewood and originally recorded by Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra in late 1967. It first appeared on Sinatra's album Movin' with Nancy, the soundtrack to her 1967 television special of the same name. The song has been covered many times since, almost always as a duet. Interesting versions include ones by Primal Scream, and Irish Electro band "Les Marionettes". Although "Some Velvet Morning" is one of the more famous duets Hazlewood and Sinatra recorded together, it is considered a departure from their usual fare, as it is decidedly less influenced by country & western music. The single peaked at number 26 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1968

JEFFREY GAINES - HERO IN ME (1992)

Album: Jeffrey Gaines (1992)

I won a national music trivia contest in Canada in 1992 and in the batch of prizes included a copy of this CD. It quickly became one of my all time favorites and this is one of the best songs ever written ! He opened for Melissa Etheridge in 1993 and I bought a ticket so I could see him open as a solo act just him and his acoustic.

This entire album is deep and and serious in music and lyrical content. The song first became my #1 favorite on September 14th 1992 the month I entered 4th year University. It was the first of 2 #1 songs for me by Jeffrey Gaines. This album has returned to #1 numerous times over the years.

Jeffrey Gaines is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, he was signed to the Chrysalis Records label in 1990 and released his debut album, Jeffrey Gaines, in 1992.

The first single off the critically acclaimed Jeffrey Gaines was "Hero In Me". Gaines performed that song live on Good Morning America and the song received some radio and MTV airplay

ALAN PARSON PROJECT - DON'T LET IT SHOW (1977)

Album: I Robot (1977)

This song starts out sounding like a religious church hymn and its soft mellow vocals by Dave Townsend make this a nice late 70's recording which remind me of Dwayne Ford's song which is also in my top 100 songs list.

September 19th 1989 - my #1 favorite daily song.

September 17th 2010 - my #1 favorite daily song for 32 days straight.

I Robot is a progressive rock album recorded by The Alan Parsons Project, engineered by Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson in 1977. It was released by Arista Records in 1977 and re-released on CD in 1984 and 2007. It was intended to be based on the I, Robot stories written by Isaac Asimov, and Woolfson actually spoke with Asimov, who was enthusiastic about the idea. As the rights already had been granted to a TV/movie company, the album's title was altered slightly by removing the comma, and the theme and lyrics were made to be more generically about robots rather than specific to the Asimov universe

LINDA CLIFFORD - REPOSSESSED (1979)

Album: Here's My Love (1979)

I picked up this album at the Frances Morrison book/record sale in 1987 for 10 cents ! One of the few disco albums I have really liked and played over and over. This in fact might be my favorite disco song of all time. Linda Clifford has had 4 #1 daily songs from this album.

May 26th 1988 - my #1 favorite daily song for 5 days at age 17 the week I graduated from high school.

September 3rd 2004 - my #1 favorite daily song for 37 days straight. It was my #6 favorite daily song of 2004. I had ordered this LP on CD and took it with me on a trip to perform piano for a special event in Calgary that month.

Linda Clifford (born June 14, 1944, New York) is an American R&B, disco and house music singer and actress, who scored hits from the 1970s to the 1980s, most notably "If My Friends Could See Me Now", "Bridge over Troubled Water", "Runaway Love" and "Red Light".In 1973, she was signed to Paramount Records and her first single, "(It's Gonna Be) A Long Long Winter", became a minor hit on the U.S. Billboard R&B chart in the winter of 1974. She moved to Curtis Mayfield's Curtom Records label in the mid 1970s. 1977 saw the release of her first album, Linda, but it was her dance cover of "If My Friends Could See Me Now" in 1978 that she had club and pop chart success with. It was her first number one on Billboard dance chart. Album of the same name became her most successful and included also "Runaway Love", a mid-tempo R&B track that proved to be one of her most recognizable tunes. In 1979 she released her disco version of "Bridge over Troubled Water" from the album Let Me Be Your Woman, followed by another record the same year, Here's My Love. The album hit #117 in USA in 1979.

GEORGE MARTIN & LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA - SEA OF HOLES (1969)

Album: The Beatles - Yellow Submarine (1969)

THE BEATLES - EVERYBODY'S GOT SOMETHING TO HIDE EXCEPT FOR ME AND MY MONKEY (1968)

Album: The Beatles (White Album) (1968)

Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey" is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their 1968 album The Beatles, also known as "The White Album".

In 1980, Lennon said: "That was just a sort of nice line that I made into a song. It was about me and Yoko. Everybody seemed to be paranoid except for us two, who were in the glow of love. Everything is clear and open when you're in love. Everybody was sort of tense around us: You know, 'What is she doing here at the session? Why is she with him?' All this sort of madness is going on around us because we just happened to want to be together all the time." George Harrison said that the first part of song's title originated from a quote by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi; however, as for the "... except me and my monkey" part, he attested that he did not "know where that came from" though McCartney believes it was a reference to Lennon's heroin habit. "John started talking about fixes and monkeys", he said. "It was a harder terminology, which the rest of us weren't into." Looking back, Lennon said, "We sniffed a little when we were in real pain. We took 'H' because of what the Beatles and their pals were doing to us."

An unreleased demo of the song, recorded in George Harrison's Esher home in May 1968, features all-acoustic instrumentation, and a vocal sung an octave lower than the released version. The released version of the song was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 27 June 1968, and an overdub session on 1 July

BRITNEY SPEARS - EVERYTIME (2004)

Album: In The Zone (2004)

June 5th 2004 - my #1 favorite current top 40 hit for 11 straight weeks making it my #2 favorite song of 2004.

June 24th 2004 - my #2 favorite daily song for 71 days at age 33 while living with Michelle/Brianna.

Everytime" is a song by American recording artist Britney Spears from her fourth album, In the Zone. It was released on May 17, 2004, by Jive Records as the third single from the album. The song was written by Spears in 2002 after her break-up. After Spears ended her relationship with pop singer Justin Timberlake, she made friends with her backing vocalist Annet Artani. They both started writing songs together at Spears's house in Los Angeles, and then traveled to Lombardy, Italy, where "Everytime" was written. Spears composed the music on her piano, and she developed the lyrics with Artani. The song was written as a response to Timberlake's 2002 single "Cry Me a River" as well as various radio interviews, according to Artani. However, Spears has neither confirmed nor denied these allegations.

On May 22, 2004, "Everytime" debuted at number sixty-one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, becoming the "Highest Debut" of the week. On July 3, 2004, it peaked at number fifteen and stayed in the position for four weeks. The song also peaked at number four on Billboard's Pop Songs and at number seventeen and number twenty-five on the Hot Dance Club Songs and Adult Pop Songs charts, respectively. On November 18, 2004, "Everytime" was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) selling 500,000 copies As of July 2010, "Everytime" has sold 469,000 paid digital downloads in the United States. The song also peaked at number two in the Canadian Singles Chart.

1910 FRUITGUM CO. - 1 2 3 RED LIGHT (1968) hit #5

"1, 2, 3, Red Light" is a song written by Sal Trimachi and Bobbi Trimachi and was recorded by 1910 Fruitgum Company for their 1968 album, 1, 2, 3, Red Light. The song charted highest in Canada, going to #1 on the RPM 100 national singles chart in 1968. In the same year in the U.S., it went to #5 on The Billboard Hot 100 and was on the charts for 13 weeks.

The song went to #3 on the New Zealand charts; in Australia, it reached #7. It was named the #39 song of 1968 on the Cashbox charts. The song was certified as a gold disc in September 1968

The 1910 Fruitgum Company is an American bubblegum pop band of the 1960s. The group's Hot 100 hits were "Simon Says", "May I Take A Giant Step", "1, 2, 3, Red Light", "Goody Goody Gumdrops", "Indian Giver", "Special Delivery", and "The Train". Guitarist Frank Jeckell claimed to have adopted the name from a candy wrapper that he found in his attic.^[

During 1967, they were signed to Buddah Records, where they released five LPs under their own name and a variety of singles, as well as appearing on the LP The Kasenetz-Katz Singing Orchestral Circus, which sounded like the usual Buddha studio band in spite of its promotion as a "bubblegum superjam". Their first hit single, "Simon Says", was written by Elliot Chiprut, but Jeckell persuaded the band to record it. During the process they changed the beat and patterned the song after "Wooly Bully" by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. "Simon Says" soon became a success, hitting #4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. The track peaked at #2 on the UK Singles Chart. The record sold over three million copies globally, earning gold disc status. It was heard in the 1968 Frederick Wiseman documentary High School.

The band started touring, opening for major acts such as The Beach Boys. They went on to release the hits "May I Take a Giant Step", "1, 2, 3, Red Light" (U.S. #5), "Goody, Goody Gumdrops", and "Indian Giver" (U.S. #5)

SERGIO MENDES & BRAZIL 66 - SCARBOROUGH FAIR (1968)

"Scarborough Fair" is a traditional ballad of Great Britain.

The song relates the tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former lover to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back. Often the song is sung as a duet, with the woman then giving her lover a series of equally impossible tasks, promising to give him his seamless shirt once he has finished.

As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair" are usually limited to the exchange of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight (Child Ballad #2), which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task ("For thou must shape a sark to me / Without any cut or heme, quoth he"); she responds with a list of tasks that he must first perform ("I have an aiker of good ley-land / Which lyeth low by yon sea-strand").

Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably "Mas Que Nada") met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar-nominated Burt Bacharach and Hal David song "The Look of Love" on the Academy Awards telecast in April 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, peaking at #4 and eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, Casino Royale. Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair." From 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world and enjoyed immense popularity worldwide, performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon. The Brasil '66 group appeared at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan in June 1970

THE BEATLES - I WANT TO TELL YOU (1966)

Album: Revolver (1966)

I first heard this song on the US version of Revolver but have no recollection of buying this album in either 1981/1982 at about age 10.

I Want to Tell You" is a song written by George Harrison and originally released by The Beatles on their 1966 album Revolver. Working titles, originating from Harrison's inability to name his songs, were "Laxton's Superb" (a breed of apple, following on from "Granny Smith") and "I Don't Know."

"I Want to Tell You" is in the key of A major. It is driven by bass fours and a catchy, persistent piano discord: a short, distinctive guitar melody opens and closes the song and recurs between verses. Harrison's voice is supported by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in close harmony.

GRAPEFRUIT - ANOTHER GAME (1969)

Album: Around Grapefruit (1969)

This would have been a masterpiece if The Beatles had recorded it as it sure sounds like it could have fit on the Magical Mystery Tour album but instead Grapefruit recorded this amazing powerful pop song from a perfect 60's album. I picked up this album at a garage sale in the mid 80s and it became one of my all time favorites and I have "boosted" this album on my charts 4 different occasions.

November 23rd 1987 - my #3 favorite daily song for 2 days at age 16 in Grade 12..

November 24th 1988 - my #10 favorite daily song or 1 days at age 17 after finishing highschool.

January 10th 2009 - my #10 favorite daily song for 23 days the week I turned 38 living on Ave M South now for almost a year and married to Valerie for 16 months.

Grapefruit was a London-based British band of the late 1960s. Their brand of music was a typical late 1960s blend of rock, which they often fused with psychedelic effects such as phasers and vocoders, or classical arrangements. Grapefruit's recording career spanned only two years, from late 1967 to the end of 1969. They released two albums (around in 1968, Deep Water in 1969) and several singles, none of which made a significant impact on the charts. Their best-known track is probably the Terry Melcher-produced "Dear Delilah", which was released in early 1968, and peaked at #21 in the UK Singles Chart, while their single "Deep Water" did crack the German Top 20, peaking at #19. Toward the end of their career, following the new material being written by Alexander (with some inclusions by Wale) Grapefruit shifted from melodic pop to more of a rock-based sound, referred to as "Soft Rock" in a full-page Billboard ad for the album "Deep Water".

THE YOUNG RASCALS - BEAUTIFUL MORNING (1968) hit #3

A Beautiful Morning" is a song written by Felix Cavaliere and Eddie Brigati and recorded by The Rascals. Coming out in early 1968, it was the group's first single released under that name rather than The Young Rascals. The first album on which the song appeared was Time Peace: The Rascals' Greatest Hits. It continued the theme of carefree optimism that had distinguished the previous year's "Groovin'". The song was a big hit in the United States, reaching number three on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and also reaching number thirty-six on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart. It was RIAA-certified as a Million Seller on June 28, 1968. The song had an introductory sound of mystical wind chimes and bells.

A Beautiful Morning was used in advertisements for the drug Vioxx produced by Merck & Co. and also used for Bounce commercials. The song also featured in a Scrubs episode, at the start of a season 6 episode with Zach Braff who plays JD dancing to it. It was also featured at the end of a second season episode of The Greatest American Hero in which Ralph had to disarm a nuclear missile.

The Rascals (initially known as The Young Rascals) were an American blue-eyed soul group initially active during the years 1965–72. The band released numerous top ten singles in North America during the mid- and late-1960s, including the #1 hits "Good Lovin'" (1966), "Groovin'" (1967), and "People Got to Be Free" (1968), as well as A Beautiful Morning (#3 1968) and the lesser-known A Girl Like You. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997.

The Rascals were inducted into the Hit Parade Hall of Fame in 2010