Fact #139867
When:
Short story:
Gravel-throated ex-New Christy Minstrel turned protest singer, Barry McGuire, takes Eve Of Destruction to the Billboard Top 40 Singles Chart in the USA No1 position for one week. On the same day he reaches No1 in the Cash Box magazine chart.Full article:
P.F.Sloan (songwriter) : I was in bed. My parents were asleep. I woke my mom up at three in the morning and said, 'You'll never believe what just came through to me,' and I showed her the lyrics to Eve Of Destruction. She said, 'Be quiet. You'll wake your father up.'
It was a rapid-fire thing about the millenium coming on. You couldn't seem to get away from it. I really began to get fed up, and said, 'What's going on here?' I was absolutely disgusted, right down to the core It was disgust for the pictures I was seeing on television and what I was feeling inside… When you tried to talk about politics or integration, they'd say, 'What are you? A Communist?' They'd just tune themselves out.
I went up to Trousdale Music and played them Eve Of Destruction and the rest, and they didn't like the songs. They thought they were awful, you know, 'That's not hit material. Forget it.'
He (Barry McGuire) came into the office there and they didn't know what to do about him. They played him all the Goffin and King songs, all the standard New York songs, and he said, 'No, I'm looking for something that means something.' So I played him Sins Of The Family, Eve Of Destruction, This Mornin' and Take Me For What I'm Worth. He put his arms around me and kissed me and said, 'You're what I've been looking for.'
When every major market refused to play it, that's when the label decided to really push it. I hear some DJ in Ohio or somewhere in the Midwest played Eve Of Destruction every hour on the hour. It was number one there in, like, no time. That's what broke it nationally.
Paul McCartney (The Beatles) : I think Barry McGuire's Eve Of Destruction is rubbish. When I first heard it I thought it was bad. When I saw McGuire in person leaping around in those boots and growling, I just fell about.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
John Lennon (The Beatles) : The 'protest' label means absolutely nothing. It's just something that the press has latched onto and, as usual, flogged to death. Some of the songs which appear to come under this heading are simply good songs - some are not. Personally I have no time for the 'Eve Of Destruction' songs.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
Paul McCartney : The Manfreds (Manfred Mann) did a protest number on tv which was the end. It was so bad they must have written it themselves.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
Phil Everly (Everly Brothers) : We have no objection to protest songs. People have a right to say what they want to say. You can't put someone down in a democratic society for practicing freedom of speech.
But for our personal taste, protest and pop don't mix. That's why we've not written a protest song - and probably never shall.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
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It was a rapid-fire thing about the millenium coming on. You couldn't seem to get away from it. I really began to get fed up, and said, 'What's going on here?' I was absolutely disgusted, right down to the core It was disgust for the pictures I was seeing on television and what I was feeling inside… When you tried to talk about politics or integration, they'd say, 'What are you? A Communist?' They'd just tune themselves out.
I went up to Trousdale Music and played them Eve Of Destruction and the rest, and they didn't like the songs. They thought they were awful, you know, 'That's not hit material. Forget it.'
He (Barry McGuire) came into the office there and they didn't know what to do about him. They played him all the Goffin and King songs, all the standard New York songs, and he said, 'No, I'm looking for something that means something.' So I played him Sins Of The Family, Eve Of Destruction, This Mornin' and Take Me For What I'm Worth. He put his arms around me and kissed me and said, 'You're what I've been looking for.'
When every major market refused to play it, that's when the label decided to really push it. I hear some DJ in Ohio or somewhere in the Midwest played Eve Of Destruction every hour on the hour. It was number one there in, like, no time. That's what broke it nationally.
Paul McCartney (The Beatles) : I think Barry McGuire's Eve Of Destruction is rubbish. When I first heard it I thought it was bad. When I saw McGuire in person leaping around in those boots and growling, I just fell about.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
John Lennon (The Beatles) : The 'protest' label means absolutely nothing. It's just something that the press has latched onto and, as usual, flogged to death. Some of the songs which appear to come under this heading are simply good songs - some are not. Personally I have no time for the 'Eve Of Destruction' songs.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
Paul McCartney : The Manfreds (Manfred Mann) did a protest number on tv which was the end. It was so bad they must have written it themselves.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)
Phil Everly (Everly Brothers) : We have no objection to protest songs. People have a right to say what they want to say. You can't put someone down in a democratic society for practicing freedom of speech.
But for our personal taste, protest and pop don't mix. That's why we've not written a protest song - and probably never shall.
(Source : item in KRLA Beat magazine, December 18, 1965)