And a happy new year from 1955 where we are starting the year off down in Kokomo…
The songs of January 1955
“Count Your Blessings” – Eddie Fisher
“Dim Dim The Lights” – Bill Haley & The Comets
“Earth Angel” – Penguins
“Hearts Of Stone” – Charms
“Hearts Of Stone” – Fontane Sisters
“Hey There” – Rosemary Clooney
“I Love You Madly” – Four Coins*
“I Need You Now” – Eddie Fisher
“Ko Ko Mo” – Crew-Cuts*
“Let Me Go Lover” – Joan Weber
“Let Me Go Lover” – Patti Page
“Let Me Go Lover” – Teresa Brewer
“Ling Ting Tong” – Charms*
“Ling Ting Tong” – Five Keys*
“Make Yourself Comfortable” – Sarah Vaughan
“Mambo Italiano” – Rosemary Clooney
“Melody Of Love” – Billy Vaughn Orchestra
“Melody Of Love” – David Carroll Orchestra
“Melody Of Love” – Four Aces
“Mr. Sandman” – Chordettes
“Mr. Sandman” – Four Aces
“No More” – Dejohn Sisters*
“No More” – Mcguire Sisters*
“Open Up Your Heart” – Cowboy Church Sunday School
“Papa Loves Mambo” – Perry Como
“Runaround” – Three Chuckles
“Shake Rattle And Roll” – Bill Haley & The Comets
“Sincerely” – Mcguire Sisters
“Song Of The Barefoot Contessa” – Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra*
“Teach Me Tonight” – Decastro Sisters
“Teach Me Tonight” – Jo Stafford*
“That’s All I Want From You” – Jaye P. Morgan
“The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane” – Ames Brothers
“The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane” – Archie Bleyer*
“This Ole House” – Rosemary Clooney
“This Ole House” – Stuart Hamblen*
“Tweedlee Dee” – Georgia Gibbs*
“Tweedlee Dee” – Lavern Baker*
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
I always look at the births and deaths for the month in question but thus far we’ve had few people born who are relevant to pop-culture today. But this month we have Rowan Atkinson, English comedian and actor born on January 6, 1955 and US artist Jeff Koons born on the 21st. You can see a documentary on the latter’s life below:
On January 7th the Halas and Batchelor film animation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, the first full-length British-made animated feature, is released. You can watch the whole thing here:
Meanwhile on the same across the pond, Marian Anderson becomes the 1st African American to perform with the New York Metropolitan Opera. You can see her performing in 1951:
On the 15th one of our favourite composers Dmitri Shostakovich’s “From Jewish Folk Poetry” premieres in Leningrad. The piece was actually composed in the autumn of 1948, but after Shostakovich’s denunciation in the Zhdanov decree of that year was unable to be performed for another 7 years.
What’d Sadie think?
The classic “Mr. Sandman” by the Chordettes stays at number 1 for 3 weeks before “Let Me Go Lover” by Joan Weber takes the top spot for the remaining two.
“I Love You Madly” by the Four Coins starts off the new songs on the charts this week. The group apparently used the name the Four Keys until they learned another vocal group had it under copyright. They then became The Four Coins. To be honest I’d believe they changed their name because they had a reputation for being terrible to escape… it’s not great.
“Ko Ko Mo” by the Crew-Cuts is a bit of fun though. Originally recorded by rhythm and blues duo Gene and Eunice in November 1954 it was covered by at least 17 different musicians in the first few months of 1955 alone, including Perry Como, The Charms, Louis Armstrong and of course the The Crew-Cuts whose version ain’t too bad.
We have two versions of “Ling Ting Tong” on the charts, one by the Five Keys… who were, to be clear, not the Four Keys that forced the Four Coins to change their time. Following this? Us neither. To simplify things (?) we included the version by the Charms on our playlist. But maybe we should have skipped it because it’s downright racist. Sorry you can keep it 1950s.
Next we have “No More” by the Mcguire Sisters where the 1950s do what they do best. Listen to this one twice and skip the previous song.
Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra give us the instrumental “Song Of The Barefoot Contessa” which is from the soundtrack to the 1954 film of the same song. It’s Bogart so its worth watching the trailer at least:
Then chart regular Jo Stafford delivers the jazz standard, “Teach Me Tonight”. It’s a sultry wee number and we like it lots.
We have a new version of “The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane”, by Archie Bleyer this time. It’s no longer (presuming you’re paying attention) a spoiler to mention how this odd song is about a newborn baby not a lady of the night… This version just as odd but also oddly catchy.
We’ve had the even catchier and classic, “This Ole House”, on the charts for a while. This week Stuart Hamblen’s version is also charting, which is fair as it was his original. But its no patch on the Rosemary Clooney version.
Lastly we have “Tweedlee Dee” by Lavern Baker, described as an “R&B novelty song”. Wikipedia also notes, “The arrangement and vocal style of the song attempted to adapt a black vocal style to one that would satisfy the tastes of the white record-buying market, featuring a light tone and a frisky rhythm beat.”. So it’s not great, but it is a bit of fun.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.