Just twelve short days ago, many of us participated in the annual rituals surrounding the Superbowl. As in the very first AFL-NFL World Championship Game held at the Los Angeles Coliseum on January 15, 1967, the Green Bay Packers prevailed in the 2011 spectacle, albeit less convincingly as during their much earlier 35-10 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Some referred to the 1967 championship as the Supergame, and only later was it renamed Superbowl I. In 1967, Green Bay quarterback Bart Starr won MVP honors, an honor recently bestowed upon his present-day counterpart, Aaron Rodgers.
Although the song was composed in November of 1966, this week’s selection was released on January 9, 1967, six days prior to the inaugural Superbowl game and although it rose no higher than #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, it is ranked #63 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It was also rated as the eighth best song of 1967 by Acclaimed Music. This song was this Rock and Roll Hall of Fame group’s only Top Forty hit, selling more than one million copies, earning Gold Record status.