A couple of day’s late this week – The Scovells have made the final leg of their journey and are now ensconced back in Auckland. We managed to find time to listen to the songs of August, 1954 on the weekend though so here they are:
The songs of August, 1954
“Cinnamon Sinner” – Tony Bennett
“Crazy ‘Bout You Baby” – Crew Cuts
“Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight” – Mcguire Sisters
“Hernando’s Hideaway” – Archie Bleyer
“Hey There” – Sammy Davis Jr.
“Hey There” – Rosemary Clooney
“I Understand” – Four Tunes
“I Understand” – June Valli
“I’m A Fool To Care” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“If You Love Me” – Kay Starr
“In The Chapel In The Moonlight” – Kitty Kallen
“Little Things Mean A Lot” – Kitty Kallen
“Sh-Boom” – Chords
“Sh-Boom” – Crew Cuts
“Skokiaan” – Ralph Marterie
“Sway” – Dean Martin
“The Happy Wanderer” – Frank Weir
“The High And The Mighty” – Leroy Holmes
“The High And The Mighty” – Les Baxter
“The High And The Mighty” – Victor Young
“The Little Shoemaker” – Gaylords
“The Little Shoemaker” – Hugo Winterhalter
“They Were Doin’ The Mambo” – Vaughn Monroe
“This Ole House” – Rosemary Clooney
“Three Coins In The Fountain” – Four Aces
“Three Coins In The Fountain” – Frank Sinatra
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
August saw the 15th Venice Film Festival in which “Romeo and Juliet” directed by Renato Castellani wins the Golden Lion, for which you can see the trailer below:
Speaking of tragedies, on August 24th US President Eisenhower signs the “Communist Control Act”, outlawing the Communist Party, at the height of McCarthyism. No footage of that but here’s a film of him signing another bill a few months earlier for the vibe:
Not at all significant but this timeline entry just struck me as poetic, “British cargo ship Spanker runs aground at Hook of Holland, Netherlands and is holed.”
What’d Sadie think?
Number 1 for the month was the Crew Cut’s version of “Sh-Boom” – which is a real injustice as the Chords original that we featured last week is vasty superior piece of rock’n’roll history but there you go.
“Cinnamon Sinner” by Tony Bennett is the first of our new tunes for the month. It’s everything you expect from the crooner and is a nice way to start the playlist.
Next we get a cover of the musical tune, “Hey There”, by Sammy Davis Jr which out does the original for sure..
“Skokiaan” by Ralph Marterie is a cover of a popular tune originally written by Zimbabwean musician August Musarurwa in the tsaba-tsaba big-band style. Skokiaan refers to an illegal self-made alcoholic beverage typically brewed over one day that may contain ingredients such as maize meal, water and yeast, to speed up the fermentation process. Within a year of its 1954 release in South Africa, at least 19 cover versions of “Skokiaan” appeared. The Rhodesian version reached No 17 in the United States, while our cover version Ralph Marterie climbed to No. 3. Here’s the original for good measure:
Three versions of “The High And The Mighty” pop onto the charts at once this month. We include the Leroy Holmes version on our playlist. It is a song from the film of the same name and is your standard instrumental sound track number. This version was also recorded by the conductor and arranger LeRoy Holmes. It became Holmes’ biggest hit, and his most recognisable. The song is known for its distinctive whistling, which accompanies the music, and which was provided by Fred Lowery. Here’s the film trailer:
Apparently Mambo music and dance were huge in the 1950’s. Which makes “They Were Doin’ The Mambo” by Vaughn Monroe make sense – but doesn’t make it good. It’s a bit of fun that said.
Lastly we have “This Ole House” by Rosemary Clooney originally composed and released by Stuart Hamblen as a country song. Hamblen was supposedly out on a hunting expedition when he and his fellow hunter, actor John Wayne, came across a hut in the mountains. Inside was the body of a man, and the man’s dog was still there, guarding the building. Clooney’s version if a rollicking sing-a-long and a nice way to find off our new numbers.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link. Enjoy!