We took an early morning balloon ride over Napa Valley.

Naturally, the song “Up, Up and Away” by the Fifth Dimension came to mind. (You’re welcome for the earworm.) Now, I’m not going to make fun of the Fifth Dimension—I love both “Wedding Bell Blues” and their version of “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In”—but when I Google’d the song, I saw that it won both Record of the Year and Song of the Year at the 1968 Grammys.* Let’s look at just a few other songs that were released in 1967, and thus also were eligible for a Grammy in 1968:

• “A Whiter Shade of Pale” – Procul Harem
• “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” – Marvin Gaye
• “All You Need is Love” – the Beatles
• “Brown Eyed Girl” – Van Morrison
• “Daydream Believer” – the Monkees
• “Gimme Some Lovin'” – the Spencer Davis Group
• “Higher and Higher” – Jackie Wilson
• “Light My Fire” – the Doors
• “Never My Love” – the Association
• “Ruby Tuesday” – the Rolling Stones
• “Soul Man” – Sam and Dave
• “The Letter” – the Box Tops
• “Waterloo Sunset” – the Kinks

Obviously, some of these aren’t going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and the Grammys are middle-brow, but I was amazed that “Up, Up and Away” won Song and Record of the Year, until I saw the other nominees:

With the exception of “Ode to Billy Joe,” there wasn’t much competition. But those nominee lists … compared to what was available, the Grammys were really middle-brow. Ridiculous.

*”Record of the Year” typically goes to the performer on the record, while “Song of the Year” typically goes to the composer.