We totally jinxed it last week…as soon as I said it as feeling Spring like it started to rain and it hasn’t stopped since! So let’s escape 2022 and go back to April, 1958 to hear what it sounded like…
Songs of the month
“26 Miles” – Four Preps
“A Wonderful Time Up There” – Pat Boone
“All I Have To Do Is Dream” – Everly Brothers*
“Are You Sincere” – Andy Williams
“Ballad Of A Teenage Queen” – Johnny Cash
“Believe What You Say” – Ricky Nelson*
“Billy” – Kathy Linden*
“Book Of Love” – Monotones*
“Breathless” – Jerry Lee Lewis
“Catch A Falling Star” – Perry Como
“Chanson D’Amour” – Art And Dotty Todd*
“Dede Dinah” – Frankie Avalon
“Dinner With Drac” – John Zacherle
“Don’t You Just Know It” – Huey Piano Smith And The Clowns*
“Don’t” – Elvis Presley
“For Your Love” – Ed Townsend*
“Get A Job” – Silhouettes
“Good Golly Miss Molly” – Little Richard
“He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands” – Laurie London*
“It’s Too Soon To Know” – Pat Boone
“Kewpie Doll” – Perry Como*
“Lazy Mary” – Lou Monte
“Little Blue Man” – Betty Johnson*
“Lollipop” – Chordettes
“Looking Back” – Nat King Cole*
“March From The River Kwai And Colonel Bogey” – Mitch Miller
“Maybe Baby” – Crickets
“Maybe” – Chantels
“My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” – Ricky Nelson*
“Oh Julie” – Crescendos
“Oh Lonesome Me” – Don Gibson*
“Oh Oh I’m Falling In Love Again” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Return To Me” – Dean Martin*
“Rock & Roll Is Here To Stay” – Danny And The Juniors
“Sail Along Silvery Moon” – Billy Vaughn Orchestra
“Short Shorts” – Royal Teens
“Sugartime” – Mcguire Sisters
“Sweet Little Sixteen” – Chuck Berry
“Tequila” – Champs
“The Stroll” – Diamonds
“The Walk” – Jimmie Mccracklin
“Too Soon To Know” – Pat Boone*
“Twilight Time” – Platters*
“Wear My Ring Around Your Neck” – Elvis Presley*
“Who’s Sorry Now” – Connie Francis
“Witch Doctor” – David Seville*
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On April 2 the word “beatnik” used to describe what Jack Kerouac called “The Beat Generation”, was introduced by San Francisco Chronicle columnist Herb Caen in his daily newspaper column. Caen’s coined word was a portmanteau of “Beat” and of “Sputnik”, the satellite which had been launched almost six months earlier by the Soviet Union. Caen’s column, under the heading “Words, Words, Words”, referred to a recent party hosted by Look magazine for a photo essay on the Beat Generation in a “beach house for 50 Beatniks”,
Look magazine, preparing a picture spread on S.F.’s Beat Generation (oh, no, not AGAIN!), hosted a party in a No. Beach house for 50 Beatniks, and by the time word got around the sour grapevine, over 250 bearded cats and kits were on hand, slopping up Mike Cowles’ free booze. They’re only Beat, y’know, when it comes to work . . .
Then on April 4th Cheryl Crane (14), daughter of actress Lana Turner, stabbed to death organised crime figure Johnny Stompanato, her mother’s boyfriend, in self-defense. The crime is later ruled a “justifiable homicide”.
It’s a fascinating story that involved even more stars of the day. Earlier in the year 27-year-old former Sean Connery, was making Another Time, Another Place in London with Lana Turner, ten years his senior.
There was a strong rumor that Sean and Lana were having an affair on the set. Word got back to Turner’s mobster boyfriend Johnny Stompanato who confronted her. ‘Its not true and don’t come to the studio while we are shooting.’ Stompanato ignored her plea and witnessed the filming of a scene where Connery and Turner were embracing on a couch. After several retakes the enraged thug walked into the frame with a handgun and pointed it at Connery, telling him to take his hands off her. But the Scotsman, who grew up getting into fights with gang members in Edinburgh, simply grabbed the gun out of Stompanato’s hand, twisted his wrist and sent him running off, yelping in pain. All the while the cameraman kept filming. ‘Should I cut yet?’ he asked the stunned director.
Apparently Connery’s performance was a little “wooden” in the next film he made as he was watching over his shoulder for LA mob boss Mickey Cohen who had threatened revenge for Stompanato’s murder…
On April 12th Soviet spacecraft Sputnik 2 was launched with space dog Laika aboard on.
What’d Sadie think?
It’s three weeks at number one for the Champs fun number, “Tequila” – Champs. Before a week at the top for the Platters with new chart entrant “Twilight Time”. But it’s our favourite new tunes of the month, David Seville’s “Witch Doctor” that ends the month on the top.
Love ’em
Sadie is a big big fan of the latest incarnation of Alvin and the Chipmunks. So it was no surprise that “Witch Doctor” by David Seville had her up, dancing and crying “again! again!”. This 1958 original has the sped-up vocals of the chipmunks but wasn’t officially a chipmunks song, that comes later in the year apparently – though they did later cover this tune. David Seville was the stage name of Ross S. Bagdasarian and did also become the name of the character of the “father” in Alvin and the Chipmunks.
There’s no denying the greatness that is “All I Have To Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers. Apparently it was the only single ever to be at No. 1 on all of the Billboard singles charts simultaneously, on June 2, 1958.
Huey “Piano” Smith And The Clowns is quite a name, and not one I knew. But we do like their charting tune, “Don’t You Just Know It” this month. And by the looks of his bio Huey had a significant contribution to rock ‘n’ roll history, though this was his most successful song.
“He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands” by Laurie London is a great and well known song. Apparently it is a traditional African-American spiritual, which was first published in 1927, but this was the first time a recorded version charted.
Like ’em
A lot else to like this month…
- “Believe What You Say” – Ricky Nelson
- “Chanson D’Amour” – Art And Dotty Todd
- “For Your Love” – Ed Townsend
- “Kewpie Doll” – Perry Como
- “Looking Back” – Nat King Cole
- “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” – Ricky Nelson
- “Return To Me” – Dean Martin
- “Too Soon To Know” – Pat Boone
- “Twilight Time” – Platters
- “Wear My Ring Around Your Neck” – Elvis Presley
Leave ’em
- “Billy” – Kathy Linden
- “Book Of Love” – Monotones
- “Little Blue Man” – Betty Johnson
- “Oh Lonesome Me” – Don Gibson
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.