It must have been great back in May, 1959… Star Wars hadn’t come out so no one was saying “May the 4th be with you!”. But what did it sound like?
Songs of the month
“A Fool Such As I” – Elvis Presley
“A Teenager In Love” – Dion And The Belmonts*
“Come Softly To Me” – Fleetwoods
“Come To Me” – Marv Johnson*
“Dream Lover” – Bobby Darin*
“Enchanted” – Platters
“Endlessly” – Brook Benton*
“For A Penny” – Pat Boone
“Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye” – Kathy Linden*
“Guitar Boogie Shuffle” – Virtues
“I Need Your Love Tonight” – Elvis Presley
“I’m Ready” – Fats Domino*
“It’s Late” – Ricky Nelson
“Kansas City” – Wilbert Harrison
“Kookie Kookie” – Edward Byrnes And Connie Stevens
“Lonely For You” – Gary Stites*
“Only You” – Frank Pourcel’S French Fiddles
“Personality” – Lloyd Price*
“Pink Shoelaces” – Dodie Stevens
“Poor Jenny” – Everly Brothers
“Quiet Village” – Martin Denny*
“Sea Cruise” – Frankie Ford
“Since I Don’T Have You” – Skyliners
“Six Nights A Week” – Crests
“So Fine” – Fiestas*
“Sorry” – Impalas
“Take A Message To Mary” – Everly Brothers
“Tallahassee Lassie” – Freddy Cannon*
“Tell Him No” – Travis And Bob
“That’s Why” – Jackie Wilson
“The Battle Of New Orleans” – Johnny Horton*
“The Happy Organ” – Dave Baby Cortez
“The Tijuana Jail” – Kingston Trio
“There’ll Never Be Anyone Else But You” – Ricky Nelson
“This Should Go On Forever” – Rod Bernard
“Three Stars” – Tommy Dee
“Tragedy” – Thomas Wayne With The Delons
“Turn Me Loose” – Fabian
“Venus” – Frankie Avalon
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On May the 4th the first Grammy Awards were bestowed by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, in a ceremony held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Music from Peter Gunn, by Henry Mancini, was album of the year, and Doenico Modugno’s Volare was song of the year. The Champs’ Tequila won the award for best rhythm & blues performance. You can see them performing it live below.
Sadie would have been pleased to hear that Ross Bagdasarian, Sr., better known by his stage persona of David Seville, won Best Comedy Performance and Best Recording for Children, both for “The Chipmunk Song”.
On May 30th the first trial of a hovercraft took place at Cowes in Britain. You can see a newsreel of this below – it’s interesting to see that they compared this to a flying saucer, a ’50s fascination.
Then in New Zealand news, on the same day, the Auckland Harbour Bridge, 1020 meters long, was opened.
What’d Sadie think?
“Venus” by Frankie Avalon was number 1 for a week before “Come Softly To Me” by the Fleetwoods took the title for the rest of the month.
Loved ’em
- “A Teenager In Love” – Dion And The Belmonts
- “Come To Me” – Marv Johnson
- “Dream Lover” – Bobby Darin
- “So Fine” – Fiestas
- “Tallahassee Lassie” – Freddy Cannon
Liked ’em
- “Endlessly” – Brook Benton
- “I’m Ready” – Fats Domino
- “Lonely For You” – Gary Stites
- “Personality” – Lloyd Price
- “Quiet Village” – Martin Denny
- “Goodbye Jimmy Goodbye” – Kathy Linden
Leave ’em
- “The Battle Of New Orleans” – Johnny Horton
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.