“You Were On My Mind” (We Five)

Today’s classic song of the day is “You Were On My Mind,” a big hit for a quintet appropriately dubbed the We Five. This track was released during the summer of 1965 and peaked at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #1 (for five weeks!) on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart. Billboard ranked the song as the number-four single of the entire year.

“You Were On My Mind” was written by Sylvia Fricker, better known as the Sylvia in the folk duo Ian and Sylvia. (The Ian was Ian Tyson, who wrote “Someday Soon,” which was a hit for Judy Collins.) Sylvia wrote “You Were On My Mind” back in 1961 before she and Ian got married but after they started performing together. They released their version of the tune on their 1964 album, Northern Journey. They also released the tune as a single in Canada, where it got all the way to #33 on the north-of-the-border charts.

We Five were a folk-rock group out of San Francisco. The group was formed by Michael Stewart, brother of the Kingston Trio’s John Stewart, while he was attending the University of San Francisco. The group, despite its name, was originally a quartet, but later added a fifth member to keep people from asking stupid questions. The other original members were Beverly Bivens, vocals; Jerry Burgan, vocals and acoustic guitar; Bob Jones, vocals and electric guitar; and Pete Fullerton, vocals, acoustic guitar, and bass. Michael Stewart played guitar, banjo, and sang.

Herb Alpert signed We Five to his A&M label in 1965. “You Were On My Mind” was the title track of their debut album and their first and biggest hit. They were nominated for a Grammy in 1966 for Best Performance By a Vocal Group but lost to the Anita Kerr Quartet. (What? What?) They had another minor hit later in 1965 with ‘Let’s Get Together,” which peaked at #31 on the Hot 100.

We Five recorded one more album with the original line-up, then vocalist Beverly Bivens left in 1966 to pursue a solo career. Jerry Burgan’s wife Debbie Graf Burgan took over lead vocal duties and they recorded two more albums that sank like the proverbial stones. The band broke up in 1970.

Beverly Bivens is the only surviving member of the original band; she’s 77 years old today. Michael Stewart passed away in 2002, Bob Jones in 2013, and Jerry Burgan and Pete Fullerton in 2021.

Here’s your interesting fact of the day. We Five had first crack at a song written by Michael Stewart’s brother, John Stewart, but passed. That song was “Daydream Believer” and it became a monster hit for the group the Monkees. Oh well.

And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, We Five singing “You Were On My Mind” live on The Hollywood Palace on October 2, 1965. (Yes, that’s Fred Astaire doing the introduction.) Miss Bivens was quite a dynamic vocalist and the rest of the gang kind of rocked out, especially for a bunch of folkies. This one’s fun to watch.

And here’s another bonus for you, Nanci Griffith (backed by Maura Kennedy, Susan Cowsill, and Tom Russell) performing “You Were On My Mind” on her 1998 album Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful). It’s one of the standout tracks on a standout album.

You want another bonus? How about the Bangles performing “You Were On My Mind” during their Return to Banglemania reunion tour in 2000. The ladies nail those harmonies—and I love Susanna Hoffs’ voice!