One Hit Wonders: We Five "You Were On My Mind"

The folk group We Five made a huge splash in the music world in 1965. They had a huge (#3 US) hit with this song, "You Were On My Mind." Originally it was written by Sylvia Tyson from the folk duo Ian & Sylvia. (Side note: when I first started doing research on this song I thought these were Mickey & Sylvia, who had a hit with "Love Is Strange." Not the same duo, oops!!)

The flame shines brightest which shines the shortest. We Five had this one song and a follow-up hit,  "Let's Get Together." This second song which only barely charted was re-done a few years later by The Youngbloods. This isn't the Al Green song, which is "Let's STAY Together." This is the oldie with the refrain "I think it's so groovy now that we are finally getting together." Over and over. So I'm not surprised that it wasn't a huge hit.

After 1965 the original lead singer left. Although she was replaced by the wife of one of the other members, they never charted again. A few years later most of the other band members also quit, causing the band to self-destruct.

They did make some appearances in the Golden Oldies circuit, however. Must be hard to have only one song to pin a career on.

There are quite a few videos of this song on YouTube, but this is the one that seems the most "live." All of the others I watched seemed obviously lip-synched. Plus, this has them being introduced by the legendary Fred Astaire. How cool must that have been, right?

"You Were On My Mind"

We Five

(Sylvia Tyson)