This song was controversial when it was released because of the obvious drug references. The harmony singing makes it a fun listen.
Brewer & Shipley had relocated from Los Angeles to Missouri by the time that "One Toke Over The Line" was released. It reached #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 and caused Spiro Agnew, then the Vice President of the United States, to call the duo subversive to American youth. Oddly enough, two members of Lawrence Welk's band performed the song on his show, with Welk calling the song a "modern spiritual".
The duo didn't have any significant chart success after this song. They stopped performing together in the mid-1970s but got back together in 1989, continuing to perform until the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020. Michael Brewer passed away in 2024 and Tom Shipley passed away in 2025.
Created August 18, 2026.