The week of March 22, 1966, found the Vietnam era hit ‘The Ballad of the Green Berets‘ hanging on the #1 spot of the Billboard Hot 100. The British Invasion was hot on its heels, with the next two slots going to The Rolling Stones and The Beatles.
The Stones’ ’19th Nervous Breakdown’ sat at #2, where it would peak, held out of the top spot by the Green Berets. This was the band’s third top five single on the U.S. chart in nine months, after ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ and ‘Get Off of My Cloud’ became their first #1 hits in the States the previous summer.
Mick Jagger wrote the lyrics to this song after a frenzied five-week tour of the United States. At the end of one draining day, he said to his bandmates, “Dunno about you folks but I feel about ready for my nineteenth nervous breakdown” and immediately knew he was onto something.
The Beatles, meanwhile, sat at #3 with ‘Nowhere Man.’ I often wish I was alive when these two bands were trading hits and regularly releasing some of the most iconic recordings of all time.
You’re the kind of person
You meet at certain dismal dull affairs
Centre of a crowd, talking much too loud
Running up and down the stairs
Well, it seems to me that you have seen
Too much in too few years
And though you try, you just can’t hide
Your eyes are edged with tears
[Chorus]
You better stop, look around
Here it comes, here it comes
Here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
[Verse 2]
When you were a child, you were treated kind
But you were never brought up right
You were always spoiled with a thousand toys
But still you cried all night
Your mother who neglected you
Owes a million dollars tax
And your father’s still perfecting ways
Of making sealing wax
[Chorus]
You better stop, look around
Here it comes, here it comes
Here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
[Bridge]
Oh, who’s to blame?
That girl’s just insane
Well, nothing I do don’t seem to work
It only seems to make matters worse
Oh, please
[Verse 3]
You were still in school when you had that fool
Who really messed your mind
And after that, you turned your back
On treating people kind
On our first trip, I tried so hard
To rearrange your mind
But after a while, I realized
You were disarranging mine
[Chorus]
You better stop, look around
Here it comes, here it comes
Here it comes, here it comes
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
[Bridge]
Oh, who’s to blame?
That girl’s just insane
Well, nothing I do don’t seem to work
It only seems to make matters worse
Oh, please
[Verse 4]
When you were a child, you were treated kind
But you were never brought up right
You were always spoiled with a thousand toys
But still you cried all night
Your mother who neglected you
Owes a million dollars tax
And your father’s still perfecting ways
Of making sealing wax
[Chorus]
You better stop, look around
Here it comes
[Outro]
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown
Here comes your 19th nervous breakdown…
Meet Me In Montauk 