Daily Dirt for Monday, July 28, 2025
Welcome to The Daily Dirt’s Vol. 1,356: Three Thoughts for Today.
1. So, what makes some love songs touch your heart and others fall flat?
There is no actual guide to follow when it comes to matters of the heart, just like love itself. Things like that simply occur. What distinguishes Extreme’s “More Than Words” from Elvis Presley’s timeless song “I Can’t Help Falling In Love With You”? Why is the Extreme offering merely a forgettable semi-hit from the early 1990s, but the Elvis song is a timeless classic? I’d like to know the answer. Although both are excellent songs, “I Can’t Help” Falling In Love With You has always had an impact on us that few other songs in that genre have or will.
In light of this, The Daily Dirt launches a week-long celebration of love songs, starting with I Am The Doctor of Love (see above), which will include my top picks from the four most significant pop music decades (1960s through 1990s), followed by a final leaderboard for the entire decade.
We begin today with the 1960s. My top ten picks from that specific decade are as follows:
1. Elvis Presley, “I Can’t Help,” “Falling In Love With You,” 1961: Timeless and, especially for that time period, the closest thing to the ideal love song. In every way, it is truly legendary.
2. Unchained Melody, Righteous Brothers (1965): A huge hit in the 1960s, the song made a comeback in the 1990 film Ghost and assumed a completely different meaning.
3. Van Morrison’s 1967 song “Brown-Eyed Girl”: Morrison was just 22 years old when this song went viral. Unfortunately, he no longer enjoys performing it. Morrison, who will shortly turn 80, claims that as an elder statesman, he can no longer relate to the song. As an elder statesman myself, Van, I still adore the song.
4. Dusty Springfield’s 1963 record, “I Only Want to Be With You,” is regarded by many as her best-ever single.
5. Be My Baby, Ronettes (1963): This song will always stand out due to the combination of Ronnie Spector’s voice and producer Phil Spector’s well-known Wall of Sound. The Beach Boys were among the numerous people who found inspiration in this song.
6. Chad and Jeremy’s 1964 song “Summer Song” is not only a great song, but it also brings back fond memories of long, languid summer days and transistor radios.
7. Dear Caroline, Neil Diamond (1969):Hey, not all love songs have to be sluggish and depressing.
8. Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch), Four Tops (1965): I believe it’s nearly impossible to not enjoy a Four Tops song featuring Levi Stubbs. His voice was always filled with the shout that made him and the gang stand out from the majority.
9. Beatles song “Yesterday” (1965): John Lennon surprisingly detested this song.
10-tie. Bobby Vinton, “Roses Are Red (My Love),” 1962:When I first heard this song in second grade, I found it to be really depressing. I still do, too.
10-tie. God Only Knows, Beach Boys (1966): The late, great Brian Wilson claimed that this song came to him like a vision and wrote it in forty-five minutes. Nearly 60 years after its release, the song is still regarded as one of the Beach Boys’ classics since it was so different from the majority of their surf-and-sand picks at the time. In fact, Paul McCartney has stated publicly that it is one of his all-time favorite songs.
Underappreciated: One of Stubbs’ greatest ever performances was in Ask the Lonely, Four Tops (1965).
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, I could see her entire chest through her top alone.
Steve’s Daily ThoughtFor those of you who are curious, I have no idea which love song will be the top pick come Friday, but I plan to listen to a ton of them again.
Every day, Steve Eighinger contributes to Muddy River News. This week, it appears that he is wearing his Doctor of Love cap.
