The spring and early summer of 1970 was such a fertile time for great pop singles, many of which were one-hit wonders, that we’re extending our look at that period through another week. With that in mind, today’s classic 1970 song of the day is that incredible earworm, “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?,” by the Poppy Family.
What makes “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” such a memorable tune? Some of it is the performance by lead vocalist Susan Jacks, with just the right blend of innocence and longing. Some of it is the instrumentation, with that jangly electric guitar, busy bass, and ethereal combo organ. But mainly it’s the melody, which is pentatonic to the max—and pentatonic melodies almost aways get the job done. That’s especially true in the chorus, which incorporates a hook big enough to catch a blue whale; this is where you hear the step-wise melody echoed by the wide open electric guitar playing the ascending pentatonic scale. It is so catchy I guarantee you won’t be able to get it out of your head for the rest of the day. That melody propels what would otherwise be somewhat melancholy lyrics into a blast of sunshine pop that clears the clouds away.
Of those lyrics, songwriter Terry Jacks provides his version of how the song came about:
“It was in 1969 and I had been reading about all these guys going to Vietnam and leaving their women behind in Seattle, and I knew somebody down there that was doing that. I thought, ‘Wow, that must be awful.’ These guys go and their wives or girlfriends wouldn’t know whether they were coming back. That’s quite a deal, going to war over there, and it was such a stupid war. So I said, ‘That’s what I’m going to write about: this woman that’s left behind. Which way you going, Billy? Can I go, too?'”
Singer Susan Jacks, then Terry’s wife, has some issues with her ex-husband’s comments and remembers things a bit differently:
“Anyone listening to the lyrics will realize the whole song is written about a woman whose husband doesn’t want her anymore and in no way remotely resembles anyone going to Vietnam. I only ask that you listen to the lyrics. Why the ridiculous stories about ‘Billy, Billy Went a Walkin’ and Vietnam, I have no idea.“
Whatever the song is really about, “Which Way You Goin’ Billy” was released in Canada in October of 1969 and in the U.S. in March of 1970. (The Poppy Family was a Canadian group.) It hit #1 in Canada and #2 on both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 charts on June 6, 1970.
The Poppy Family was pretty much songwriter/guitarist Terry Jacks and his wife, singer Susan Jacks. Terry Jacks wrote “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” and Susan sang it. They were a one-hit wonder in the U.S., with nothing else breaking into the Top 40. They had a few more more Top 10 hits in their native Canada, however, including “That’s Where I Went Wrong,” “Where Evil Grows,” “No Good to Cry,” and “Good Friends,” good tunes all. Terry and Susan dropped the pretense of leading a group and got rid of the Poppy Family name in 1972, with all subsequent recordings released under one or another of their personal names.
Terry and Susan divorced in 1973. Terry Jacks had a #1 hit in 1974 with “Seasons of the Sun” but then exited the music business, choosing instead to work with documentary films. He’s still going today, age 79.
Susan Jacks kept singing for a number of years, then moved to Nashville in 1983 to become a staff songwriter for a publishing company there. She returned to Canada in 2004, received a kidney transplant in 2010, and in 2016 was hospitalized again for complications from kidney failure. She recovered from that one but passed away in 2022 of another kidney disease-related illness, age 73.
