Billboard's Top 10 Songs...

[Jeff H]

...of 1955!!! (Made you look!)

Marky seems to have the '70s and '80s pretty well covered, but I read this list in yesterday's edition of a struggling afternoon newspaper here in Pittsburgh. I'm guessing they publish the top songs from nearly 50 years ago as a nod to this area's increasingly old(er) population.

Anyway, Billboard's Hot 100 listed these as the Top 10 Songs for 1955:

1. Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White -- Perez Prado
2. Rock Around the Clock -- Bill Haley & His Comets
3. The Yellow Rose of Texas -- Mitch Miller
4. Autumn Leaves -- Roger Williams
5. Unchained Melody -- Les Baxter
6. The Ballad of Davy Crockett -- Bill Hayes
7. Love is a Many Splendored Thing -- Four Lads
8. Sincerely -- McGuire Sisters
9. Ain't That a Shame -- Pat Boone
10. Dance With Me Henry -- Georgia Gibbs

I'm guessing that a large number of people who post here will be unfamiliar with many of these songs; Marky and I, of course, had the original 78s. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Videoskooter]

Always liked Perez Prado but the other ones????

I'm definitely not into rockabilly and cie.

[markydefad]

Ah Jeff.....those were all BIG songs; I remember them well. This was an interesting time...just at the cusp of Rock's introduction ( note the seminal "Rock Around the Clock" is at #2) with most of the chart dominated by what we now call "easy-listening" ("Autumn Leaves") and "novelty" tunes" ("Ballad of Davy Crockett").

Then there's two examples of safe "white" covers of what might have been deemed "too raw" for mainstream radio: Pat Boone's cover of "Ain't That a Shame" and "Her Nibbs" Miss Georgia Gibbs' cover of "Dance With Me Henry" by Etta James. They covered R&B records and made it sound "white" and pop.

lyric sample:

While the cats are ballin'
You better stop your stallin'
It's intermission in a minute
So you better get with it
Dance with me Henry
You better dance while the music goes on
Roll on, roll on, roll on

Etta James made it much rawer ("Roll With Me Henry" was the title), as you can well imagine.

From AMG: (Etta James)
"When she was 14, bandleader Johnny Otis gave the trio an audition. He particularly dug their answer song to Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' "Work With Me Annie."

Against her mother's wishes, the young singer embarked for L.A. to record "Roll With Me Henry" with the Otis band and vocalist Richard Berry in 1954 for Modern Records. Otis inverted her first name to devise her stage handle and dubbed her vocal group the Peaches (also Etta's nickname). "Roll With Me Henry," renamed "The Wallflower" when some radio programmers objected to the original title's connotations, topped the R&B charts in 1955. "




This was just before the time that some of our parents ("Baby Boomers" anyway) thought that the world was coming to an end with this new "rock & roll" noise ("why can't they dance like we did/what's wrong with Sammy Kaye?)....just like I had to accept the end of the world with the advent of Gangsta Rap & Tween Pop and screaming snarling punks.

"Everything must change/nothing stays the same." :roll:

But where the **** do we go from here? :o :o :o :o :o

[QUINNY]

Some of us listen to Jazz (eh Marky?) and become our parents.
I remember most of these tunes well, evn though I was only 3 when they were released. Back in those days, a popular record had a shelf life of at least 2 decades.

[Jeff H]

Then there's two examples of safe "white" covers of what might have been deemed "too raw" for mainstream radio: Pat Boone's cover of "Ain't That a Shame" and "Her Nibbs" Miss Georgia Gibbs' cover of "Dance With Me Henry" by Etta James. They covered R&B records and made it sound "white" and pop.

Oh yes, Marky... don't think I didn't think of that Dreamgirls subplot when I saw the Pat Boone cover of "Ain't That a Shame"!!! ("Got me a Cadillac....")

And like you, I can't count the number of times I've realized that I sound just like my parents when I moan "They call this music??!" or "In my day, we had real music!" (Or does that sound more like Norma Desmond??! :lol: )

I remember very well being home on a break from college once and playing "MacArthur Park Suite" and my mother saying at the end, "Thank god that's over!"

But if everything truly is cyclical (example: the waning popularity of reality TV shows and the expected rise of nighttime soaps in the wake of the fab Desperate Housewives), when the hell are (c)rap's 15 minutes going to end??! Haven't we endured this non-music long enough?

And co$t be damned: Let's bring back real instruments while we're at it!

[markydefad]

Jeff,

I've been waiting for RAP & HIP-HOP to recede in popularilty now for 15 years....but it just doesn't seem to fade away!!! :evil: :evil: :evil: :evil: It's just become the NORM. I never dreamed there would come a day when I would look at the national Top 10 and not know any of the records on it--but since 2000--that's become my NORM. Everything's a collaboration with a rapper and 3 other rappers and one ho singa. Such credit lists!!!! :roll:

There are some new rock groups who are getting back to writing songs that I quite enjoy...but mainstream radio is sooooooooooo fucked up with their Clear Channel ownership restrictions on playlists that you just don't hear much of interest on the radio.

I've been wondering about satellite radio. I see that Larry Flick, former Billboard Disco columnist works for Sirius Radio. I wonder if he's a DJ--playing music I might like? Anyone have Sirius?

In regards to Pat Boone's ilk covering R&B and making it "safe" for white folks...I'm surprised Pat didn't get all grammatical on "Ain't That a Shame" and correct it to "Isn't That a Shame." :P

In contrast, today you gotta go Ghetto with your titles. Alica Keyes recently covered the old Gladys Knight tune "If I Were Your Woman" and retitled it "If I WUZ yur Woman"--to retain her "Street Cred". I guess. :roll: :roll: :roll:

P.S. When you wrote that Mama H. couldn't wait for "MacArthur Park" to be over--I first thought of the Richard Harris version. Yes,Virginia, I am the "older" sister. :lol: :oops: :lol:

[QUINNY]

Marky: The Richard Harris version was the pits. Just like Lee Marvin's Wonderin' Star, or Clint's trial by barely breathing, I Talk To The Trees.

Yep, dem was the good ol' days.

[Jeff H]

Funny you should mention that Clint Eastwood song, Quinny: Marky made reference to it in a e-mail to me just last week!

I know too well what you mean, Marky, about reading the Top 10 and feeling clueless (or just old!). Pop music stopped mattering to me sometime back in the '90s, and since then I'd gradually recognize only five, then two, then NONE of the songs in the Top 10.

Believe it or not, these days I usually know far more of the songs on the country chart! Yes, my shameful secret is revealed: I am a closet country music semi-fan. :oops:

My curiosity was aroused earlier this year when I was flipping channels and saw this HOT cowboy, so I stopped to listen (OK, to look). Eventually I tuned in to the country channels more often (there are three on our cable service) and saw some great videos for enjoyable songs with clever lyrics. Why, did you know that not all current songs have the word "muthafukka" in them??! :lol:

Sure, sometimes the good-old-boy flag-wavin' and cross-bearin' is too much for me, and that mopey twang doesn't appeal to me either. But the country songs I like best remind me of the kind of stuff the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, etc. were doing in the '70s.

Plus, some of the guys are hot! Tim McGraw, Joe Nichols, Chris Cagle... woof woof woof. Are there any hot guys in pop music these days??! All I ever see are thugs and pimps.