Welcome to February, 1959. Some weeks are more arduous than others on the 4xLife front. This week I was at the very end of making the playlist when I suddenly realised it looked familiar – somehow my data has given me a 1955 playlist. I did the past couple of years as a batch last Xmas and must have hit the wrong button. This necessitated me going back to the source data to recompile this month. Which I then had to do twice when I remembered with these last years I have had too much data and had been cutting down the top 40 to a top 30 every week. Anyway, here is what February 1959 sounded like…
Songs of the month
“16 Candles” – Crests
“A Lover’s Question” – Clyde Mcphatter
“All American Boy” – Bill Parsons
“Alvin’s Harmonica” – David Seville And The Chipmunks*
“Bimbombey” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Charlie Brown” – Coasters*
“Children’s Marching Song” – Cyril Stapleton
“Children’s Marching Song” – Mitch Miller*
“Donna” – Ritchie Valens
“Goodbye Baby” – Jack Scott
“Gotta Travel On” – Billy Grammer
“Hawaiian Wedding Song” – Andy Williams
“I Cried A Tear” – Lavern Baker
“I Got A Wife” – Mark Iv*
“I’ve Had It” – Bell Notes*
“It’s Just A Matter Of Time” – Brook Benton*
“La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens*
“Little Space Girl” – Jesse Lee Turner*
“Lonely One” – Duane Eddy*
“Lonely Teardrops” – Jackie Wilson
“Lonesome Town” – Ricky Nelson
“Lucky Ladybug” – Billy And Lillie*
“Manhattan Spiritual” – Reg Owen Orchestra
“May You Always” – Mcguire Sisters
“My Happiness” – Connie Francis
“My Heart Sings” – Paul Anka
“Nobody But You” – Dee Clark
“One Night” – Elvis Presley
“Peter Gunn” – Ray Anthony
“Petite Fleur” – Chris Barber’S Jazz Band*
“She Say” – Diamonds*
“Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” – Platters
“Stagger Lee” – Lloyd Price
“Tall Paul” – Annette And The Afterbeats*
“The Chipmunk Song” – Chipmunks & David Seville
“The Diary” – Neil Sedaka
“The Lonely One” – Duane Eddy
“The Story Of My Life” – Conway Twitty*
“To Know Him Is To Love Him” – Teddy Bears
“Venus” – Frankie Avalon*
“Whole Lotta Loving” – Fats Domino
“With The Wind And Rain In Your Hair” – Pat Boone*
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
Following on last week’s mention of the Space Race kicking off, on February 2nd Thirty-five test pilots from the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force attended a briefing at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, where NASA representatives invited them to become candidates for the first group of American astronauts.
A day later, American singers J.P. Richardson, 28, “The Big Bopper”, Buddy Holly, 22, and Ritchie Valens, 17, were killed in the crash of a private plane on their way to Fargo, North Dakota. They had boarded the plane at Mason City, Iowa, along with pilot Roger Peterson. Waylon Jennings had given his seat to Richardson, and Valens and Holly’s guitarist Tommy Allsup had flipped a coin to see who would get the other seat on the plane. The plane, a Beechcraft Bonanza, took off at 12:50 a.m. and crashed minutes later on the farm of Delbert Juhl, killing all four persons on board. This became popularly known as “The Day the Music Died”.
In “apparently it takes a while for news to sink in” news, on February 14th, 1959 the United States Weather Bureau released a report that concluded “that the world is in the midst of a long-term warming trend”, based on data gathered in Antarctica. Dr. H.E. Landsberg, director of the bureau’s office of climatology, said that the cause of the global warming was unknown, but added “One theory is that the change is man-made, that a blanket of carbon dioxide given off by the burning of coal and oil retards the radiation of heat by the earth.”
Then on February 21 “The Ben Hecht Show”, a live television program on New York’s WABC-TV, was cancelled permanently after Hecht’s guest, surrealist painter Salvador Dalí, used the word “orgasm” in an interview. Ben Hecht, a screenwriter whom Mike Wallace described as “a trifle profane” on the air, had already been in trouble with the station. Wallace would later describe the episode as “the ‘Orgasm and Out!’ show… No footage of that sorry but an audio clip of Beat writer Jack Kerouac being interviewed the year prior is below.
What’d Sadie think?
This month we have a week at number one for “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” by the Platters before “Stagger Lee” by Lloyd Price takes it for the last 3 weeks of the month.
Loved ’em
Another Chipmunks song this month and Sadie went crazy when she heard it so it has to make it to our Loved list. Interesting to hear “Little Space Girl” by Jesse Lee Turner (which doesn’t) also using the sped up vocal technique that the original must have made a fad.
- “Alvin’s Harmonica” – David Seville And The Chipmunks
- “La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens
- “Lonely One” – Duane Eddy
- “The Story Of My Life” – Conway Twitty
- “Venus” – Frankie Avalon
Liked ’em
- “I’ve Had It” – Bell Notes
- “It’s Just A Matter Of Time” – Brook Benton
- “Little Space Girl” – Jesse Lee Turner
- “Lucky Ladybug” – Billy And Lillie
- “Petite Fleur” – Chris Barber’S Jazz Band
- “She Say” – Diamonds
- “With The Wind And Rain In Your Hair” – Pat Boone
Leave ’em
- “Charlie Brown” – Coasters
- “I Got A Wife” – Mark Iv
- “Tall Paul” – Annette And The Afterbeats
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.