Top singles from the past

23 June 2025

Artist: Barry McGuire – American artist born 89 years ago in
Oklahoma City (for all NBA basketball fans out there, like me,
kudos to the Oklahoma City Thunder who just won the 2025
championship).

Single: EVE OF DESTRUCTION n

Written by: singer-songwriter P.F. Sloan in 1964, covered
by many with McGuire’s version the most successful.

Note: The song refers to lots of social issues of the (mid)sixties,
including the Vietnam War, the threat of nuclear war, the Civil Rights
Movement, turmoil in the Middle East, and the American space
program. Some American radio stations banned it.

Released: August 1965 – 60 years ago
Score: #1 in the UK and #3 in the US

“Don’t you understand, what I’m trying to say?
And can’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away,
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave,
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy,
And you tell me over and over and over again my friend,
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction”

BARRY McGUIRE: Bio