Winter isn’t seeming to be arriving anytime soon back here in May of 2022, so let’s listen to the sounds of April, 1957 as the sun beats down…
The songs of April, 1957
“A Poor Man’s Roses” – Patti Page
“A White Sport Coat” – Marty Robbins*
“All Shook Up” – Elvis Presley*
“Almost Paradise” – Roger Williams*
“Banana Boat Song” – Harry Belafonte
“Banana Boat Song” – Tarriers
“Butterfly” – Andy Williams
“Butterfly” – Charlie Gracie
“Chantez-Chantez” – Dinah Shore*
“Come Go With Me” – Dell-Vikings
“Dark Moon” – Bonnie Guitar*
“Don’t Forbid Me” – Pat Boone
“Gone” – Ferlin Husky
“I’m Sorry” – Platters
“I’m Stickin’ With You” – Jimmy Bowen & Rhythm Orchids
“I’m Waiting Just For You” – Pat Boone
“I’m Walkin'” – Fats Domino
“Just Because” – Lloyd Price*
“Little Darlin'” – Diamonds
“Love Is A Golden Ring” – Frankie Laine*
“Love Is Strange” – Mickey And Sylvia
“Lucille” – Little Richard*
“Mama Look At Bubu” – Harry Belafonte
“Marianne” – Hilltoppers
“Marianne” – Terry Gilkyson & Easy Riders
“Ninety Nine Ways” – Tab Hunter*
“Party Doll” – Buddy Knox
“Party Doll” – Steve Lawrence
“Rock-A-Billy” – Guy Mitchell*
“Round & Round” – Perry Como
“School Day” – Chuck Berry*
“Sittin’ In The Balcony” – Eddie Cochran
“So Rare” – Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra*
“Teenage Crush” – Tommy Sands
“Too Much” – Elvis Presley
“Walkin’ After Midnight” – Patsy Cline
“Who Needs You” – Four Lads
“Why Baby Why” – Pat Boone
“Young Love” – Sonny James
“Young Love” – Tab Hunter
* = New to the chart this week.
We’ll throw in an R&B chart for the month… except this only adds in 2 new songs as the cross-over gets increasingly strong.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
On April 10 the filmic adaption of the 1954 play, “12 Angry Men”, directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring Henry Fonda is released. It’s a classic for a reason…
Browsing through an issue of Billboard for the month I spotted this feature – “charts from the past”. Funny to think of people from a time we are revisiting doing the same. And actually one of those was from a year we’ve been through – 1952.
On April 11 the Ryan X-13 Vertijet becomes 1st jet to take-off & land vertically – which makes for some cool footage in this news reel:
What’d Sadie think?
“Butterfly” by Andy Williams is top of the hit parade for 2 weeks before the inevitable supremacy of “All Shook Up” by Elvis Presley for the rest of the month.
“A White Sport Coat” by Marty Robbins is a great tune. Apparently Robbins recalled writing “A White Sport Coat” in twenty minutes. He is said to have had the inspiration for the song while driving from a motel to a venue in Ohio, where he was due to perform that evening. During the course of the journey, he passed a local high school, where its students were dressed ready for their prom.
And then we have the number 1, “All Shook Up” by Elvis. Seems unnecessary to say it, but yes a great song. According to one account the composer, Blackwell, wrote the song at the offices of Shalimar Music in 1956 after Al Stanton, one of Shalimar’s owners, shaking a bottle of Pepsi at the time, suggested he write a song based on the phrase “all shook up.” But then Elvis apparently claimed otherwise, “I’ve never even had an idea for a song. Just once, maybe. I went to bed one night, had quite a dream, and woke up all shook up. I phoned a pal and told him about it. By morning, he had a new song, ‘All Shook Up’.”
“Almost Paradise” by Roger Williams is film score-esque and takes the energy down to many notches. As does “Dark Moon” by Bonnie Guitar.
“Chantez-Chantez” by Dinah Shore is faux french? Disappointed with her recent chartings, Shore had held “open houses” for composers at her residence to find strong material for her next single and through this process discovered “Chantez, Chantez”.
“Just Because” by Lloyd Price is on both of our charts – mainstream and R&B but to be honest it doesn’t grab us. Frankie Laine’s “Love Is A Golden Ring” doesn’t do much more for us.
“Lucille” by Little Richard is top of the R&B charts as well as on the mainstream and this one definitely deserves a place on both.
“Ninety Nine Ways” by Tab Hunter is a precursor to Jay Z’s “99 Problems”? Maybe not – but it’s a good tune for what it is. Also “Tab Hunter” is a strong name. Google the man, as wikipedia says he was, “known for his blond, clean-cut good looks [and] Hunter starred in more than forty films.”
“Rock-A-Billy” by Guy Mitchell is inane but catchy.
“School Day” is classic Chuck Berry and an ode to the transformative nature of this sound, “Hail, hail rock and roll / Deliver me from the days of old”
“So Rare” by Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra is originally from 1937. Apart from that it’s not very notable.
“C C Rider” by Chuck Willis on the other hand is a great tune with a hella sax part. And by all accounts its relaxed beat, combined with mellow vibraphone backing and chorus, inspired the emergence of the popular dance, “The Stroll”.
Empty Arms by Ivory Joe Hunter ends the charts on a mellow vibe and we like it. Apparently a cover version by chart fave Teresa Brewer became a hit the same month as this but it didn’t make it into our to 20.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.