Ten Great Songs From One Great Week
The songs the radio played this week in history

June 12-18, 1966

Miranda v. Arizona Ruling - (June 13, 1966) On March 13, 1963, Ernesto Miranda was arrested, by the Phoenix Police Department, based on circumstantial evidence linking him to the kidnapping and rape of a 17 year old girl ten days earlier. After two hours of interrogation by police officers, Miranda signed a confession to the rape charge on forms that included the typed statement "I do hereby swear that I make this statement voluntarily and of my own free will, with no threats, coercion, or promises of immunity, and with full knowledge of my legal rights, understanding any statement I make may be used against me."

However, at no time was Miranda told of his right to counsel, and he was not advised of his right to remain silent or that his statements would be used against him during the interrogation before being presented with the form on which he was asked to write out the confession he had already given orally. At trial, when prosecutors offered Miranda's written confession as evidence, his court-appointed lawyer, Alvin Moore, objected that because of these facts, the confession was not truly voluntary and should be excluded. Moore's objection was overruled and based on this confession and other evidence, Miranda was convicted of rape and kidnapping and sentenced to 20 to 30 years imprisonment on each charge, with sentences to run concurrently. Moore filed Miranda's appeal to the Arizona Supreme Court claiming that Miranda's confession was not fully voluntary and should not have been admitted into the court proceedings. The Arizona Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's decision to admit the confession in State v. Miranda, 401 P.2d 721 (Ariz. 1965). In affirming, the Arizona Supreme Court emphasized heavily the fact that Miranda did not specifically request an attorney.

This was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which passed 5–4. The Court held that both inculpatory and exculpatory statements made in response to interrogation by a defendant in police custody will be admissible at trial only if the prosecution can show that the defendant was informed of the right to consult with an attorney before and during questioning and of the right against self-incrimination prior to questioning by police, and that the defendant not only understood these rights, but voluntarily waived them.

This had a significant impact on law enforcement in the United States, by making what became known as the Miranda rights part of routine police procedure to ensure that suspects were informed of their rights. The Supreme Court decided Miranda with three other consolidated cases: Westover v. United States, Vignera v. New York, and California v. Stewart.

The Miranda warning (often abbreviated to "Miranda," or "Mirandizing" a suspect) is the name of the formal warning that is required to be given by police in the United States to criminal suspects in police custody (or in a custodial situation) before they are interrogated, in accordance with the Miranda ruling. Its purpose is to ensure the accused is aware of, and reminded of, these rights under the U.S. Constitution, and that they know they can invoke them at any time during the interview.

As of the U.S. Supreme Court decision Berghuis v. Thompkins (June 1, 2010), criminal suspects who are aware of their right to silence and to an attorney, but choose not to "unambiguously" invoke them, may find any subsequent voluntary statements treated as an implied waiver of their rights, and which may be used in evidence.

Music Charts:

#1 Single -- "Paint It Black" by The Rolling Stones
#1 Album -- "What Now My Love" by Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass

Other Events:

1774 – Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's colonies to ban the importation of slaves.
1967 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson nominates Solicitor-General Thurgood Marshall to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.
1977 – Convicted MLK assassin James Earl Ray is recaptured after escaping from prison 3 days before.
1983 – Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the central Solar System.
1994 – A jury in Anchorage, Alaska, blames recklessness by Exxon and Captain Joseph Hazelwood for the Exxon Valdez disaster, allowing victims of the oil spill to seek $15 billion in damages.
1997 – A jury sentences Timothy McVeigh to death for his part in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
2005 – A jury in Santa Maria, California acquits pop singer Michael Jackson of molesting 13-year-old Gavin Arvizo at his Neverland Ranch.

Sunny -- Bobby Hebb



On November 23, 1963, the day after John F. Kennedy's assassination, Harold Hebb (Bobby Hebb's bother) was killed in a knife fight outside a Nashville nightclub. Hebb was devastated by both events and sought comfort in songwriting. Though many claim that the song he wrote after both tragedies was the optimistic "Sunny", Hebb himself stated otherwise. Bobby Hebb died in 2010 at age 72. Besides this enduring hit, his claim to fame is that he once headlined a tour featuring the Beatles. The Associated Press also reported that he became one of the first black artists ever to appear on the Grand Ole Opry. At the time of Hebb's death, "Sunny" was listed as the 18th most performed song in the BMI catalog.

Sweet Pea -- Tommy Roe



This proved to be a comeback single for Roe as it was his first Top 40 hit in two years and was recorded after he finished a stint in the army. Roe was known for his fun, upbeat Pop songs (often derided by critics as "Bubblegum"), and this one is no exception - it's about asking a girl to dance. Our hero succeeds not only in dancing with Sweet Pea, but also in bringing her outside for a walk where he asks if she'll be his girl. Roe wrote the song himself. The song was recorded in Los Angeles with some of the top studio musicians of the day: Ben Benay and Mike Deasy on guitar, Jerry Scheff on bass, Jim Troxel and Toxie French on drums, and Butch Parker and Mike Henderson on keyboards.

Solitary Man -- Neil Diamond



This was Neil Diamond's first charting single as a recording artist. In a 2005 Times Online interview, Diamond said: "After four years of Freudian analysis I realized I had written 'Solitary Man' about myself." According to David Wild, who interviewed Diamond for Rolling Stone, this was a turning point in Diamond's songwriting. When we asked David if Diamond's songs were personal or character-driven, he told us: "I think they're all personal for Neil - that may be part of the secret of his success. He's a deeply personal performer - a groundbreaking introspective singer songwriter since "Solitary Man" - who transforms himself into an exhibitionist onstage."

Sloop John B -- The Beach Boys



This is a traditional West Indies tune about a sunken boat. It was adapted in 1951 by Lee Hays of the Weavers (as "The John B Sails") and revived in 1960 by Lonnie Donegan. The Beach Boys' Folk music buff, Al Jardine, turned Brian Wilson onto the Kingston Trio's recording of the song. For their updated version, Wilson added elaborate vocals and a 12-string guitar part. He also changed some of the lyrics, including "This is the worst trip since I've been born" to "...I've ever been on" as a wink to acid culture. This was the biggest hit from their landmark album Pet Sounds. The album was the brainchild of Brian Wilson, and he got the title when Mike Love suggested dogs were the only creatures that would like it. To keep the animal theme, Wilson put some barking dogs on the album.

Paperback Writer -- The Beatles



Paul McCartney wrote this after helping some friends, including John Dunbar, set up the Indica Bookshop (in the basement was the Indica Gallery, where John Lennon eventually met Yoko Ono), in January of 1966. Paul was the first customer of the shop. This song was a sort of an homage to lots of authors, including John Lennon, who had already written 2 books: In His Own Write and A Spaniard In The Works. He also was thinking of the author Martin Amis, whom he had just developed a passion for.

You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me -- Dusty Springfield



Originally, this was a Italian song composed by Pino Donnagio. Springfield heard Donnagio perform it at the San Remo festival and asked her friend Vicki Wickham, who produced the British TV show Ready Steady Go, to write some English lyrics for it. With the help of Yardbirds manager Simon Napier-Bell, she did. In the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, Simon Napier-Bell is quoted as saying: "Vicki and I used to eat together, and she told me that Dusty wanted a lyric for this song. We went back to her flat and started working on it. We wanted to go to a trendy disco so we had about an hour to write it. We wrote the chorus and then we wrote the verse in a taxi to wherever we were going. It was the first pop lyric I'd written, although I've always been interested in poetry and good literature. We'd no idea what the English lyric said. That seemed to be irrelevant and besides, it is much easier to write a new lyric completely."

It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World -- James Brown



This song was recorded as if it was a sermon. It lists man's life enhancing inventions, but the singer admits he would be nothing without a woman. Brown developed the impassioned ballad from some lyrics written by a woman, Betty Newsome. Her words were derived from the Bible and her observations of some of her ex-boyfriends, including the Godfather of Soul himself. The song was originally called "It's A Man's World', but James Brown added the extra words to the title as a reference to the 1963 hit comedy It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.

I Am A Rock -- Simon and Garfunkel



This song is about a recluse locking himself away from the world. When he says, "I am a rock, I am an island," he means away from everything and everyone. It's far from autobiographical, as Paul Simon was doing his best to write a hit song with this effort, and didn't write it for himself. The use of the word "Rock" is interesting in that Simon considered himself a Folk singer, and didn't associate himself with Rock music. In the vast majority of songs with the word "rock" in the lyrics, it is used to imply music or lifestyle, but for Simon, it was just a piece of stone. He did the same thing in 1973 for his song "Loves Me Like A Rock."

When A Man Loves A Woman -- Percy Sledge



This song is a huge part of music history, as it is the first #1 Hot 100 hit recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, where Aretha Franklin, Paul Simon, The Rolling Stones and many other famous musicians would later record some of their classic songs. Sledge says that when he originally sang this, he had in mind Lizz King, his girlfriend for 3 years who left him for a modeling job in Los Angeles. Said Sledge: "I didn't have any money to go after her, so there was nothing I could do to try and get her back." This song had a completely different title and meaning when it started. Sledge recalled in a 2010 interview with Spinner: "When I wrote the song at first, it was called 'Why Did You Leave Me Baby.' And I changed it from that to 'When a Man Loves a Woman.' I just reversed it.

Paint It Black -- The Rolling Stones



This is written from the viewpoint of a person who is depressed. He wants everything to turn black to match his mood. The Rolling Stones wrote this as a much slower, conventional Soul song. When Bill Wyman began fooling around on the organ during the session doing a takeoff of their original as a spoof of music played at Jewish weddings. Co-manager Eric Easton (who had been an organist), and Charlie Watts joined in and improvised a double-time drum pattern, echoing the rhythm heard in some Middle Eastern dances. This new more upbeat rhythm was then used in the recording as a counterpoint to the morbid lyrics.