Hmm, don't know if I would characterize any of these as "hippie" singles, but good tunes nonetheless. I really like Sweet Cherry Wine but that might have been a case of Tommy James trying to convince hippies he was one of them and not some bubblegum teenybopper idol. The wine thing has also been interpreted as a reference to Christianity, something Tommy toyed with along with the drugs: "To save us/he gave us/sweet cherry wine [the blood of Christ]"
Good point about all of the movie soundtrack tunes making the Top 40 back in the day. The hit version of the Midnight Cowboy theme was by the MOR piano duo of Ferrante and Teicher.
I shouldn't admit this (showing my age) but Kentucky Rain was one of the first records I ever bought. This was when current 45s were 69 cents at my local discount department store. I got my copy--the only Elvis recording I have ever bought--for 49 cents at a sale in the record's waning days on the charts. The song was co-written by the late country singer Eddie Rabbit, and Elvis recording this was one of his first big breaks. What I really like about this song is that whoever wrote the lyrics really knew the state of Kentucky. There are a huge number of small towns, a lot of which don't even appear on the official state highway map--you have to go to the county maps to see all of them. And you can probably find a lot of old general stores, though they're probably repurposed or unused and dilapidated. And that POUNDING piano part right before the chorus--great stuff.
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