Joni Mitchell-Urge For Going

In '66, Joni Mitchell was a Canadian folkie. Over the next few years, her lyrical and melodic genius would make her a fixture on the international music scene where she would stay for decades. Here's an early glimpse and with my personal favorite of her many wonderful songs.

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Batstuff # 56

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Winchester Cathedral

One of my favorite songs in '66--at age 7--was WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL, a massive radio hit that played into the earliest part of the big nostalgia boom of the era with megaphone vocals and old fashioned...well, everything. 

It would be many, many years later before I found out that the group that had this massive favorite hit...didn't actually exist. 

Although credited to The New Vaudeville band, it was expected to be just a novelty release and so the Producer just went with the demo vocal, a practice that happened fairly often in those days. The record was made by studio musicians built around that demo vocal.

But then when it became a hit, some musicians were hired to form a real band and a singer was hired who could sing like the record.

 

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Arabesque

From th director who brought you SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, 1966's ARABESQUE, starring Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck, was Stanley Donen's second Hitchcock-style thriller after CHARADE.

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Marvel in Esquire-1966

In spite of that Jack Kirby signature, Spider-Man was either drawn or at least heavily retouched by John Romita. Kirby never really could draw Spidey all that well. That may have been the ONLY thing he couldn't draw all that well, though!

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King Kong Board Game

One of my very favorite board games as a kid--and one of my mother's, too. Although it was very simple, I remember us spending hours on the kitchen table playing it.

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The Three Stooges

By 1966, the Three Stooges were nearing the end of their surprising career revival which occurred when TV picked up their old Columbia shorts. Their comic book would continue longer than they did, though, and a few photo sessions got new covers that LOOKED like they were from movies but they really weren't.

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The Professionals

It may look now like a precursor to 1969's WILD BUNCH but 1966's THE PROFESSIONALS is a force unto itself, nominated as it was for 3 Academy Awards and spotlighting a classic cast including Burt Lancaster, Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, Woody Strode, Jack Palance, Ralph Bellamy and the beauteous Claudia Cardinale.

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Monkees Theme Sheet Music

As seen posted by Jeff Bottcher on Facebook.

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Moms Mabley At the White House Conference

Moms Mabley had been around for decades but it wasn't until the Civil Rights movement that white America began taking notice of her. Here's an album she had related to exactly that back in '66. (Thanx to Drew Friedman for posting on FB)

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