It’s the last week of June here in 2022 and we’re passed the shortest day of the year. We’ve also managed to skip an email again. This time because, for the first time, we didn’t get to listen to the playlist on the weekend. Sadie had too much of an active social life last weekend, so we waited till the end of the week to listen to the tunes. As a result you can find October, 1957 on the blog and we’ll dive into November, 1957 now…
Songs of the month
“All The Way” – Frank Sinatra*
“Alone” – Shepherd Sisters*
“April Love” – Pat Boone*
“Be-Bop Baby” – Ricky Nelson
“Black Slacks” – Joe Bennett And The Sparkletones
“Chances Are” – Johnny Mathis
“Could This Be Magic” – Dubs*
“Deep Purple” – Billy Ward
“Diana” – Paul Anka
“Fascination” – Jane Morgan
“Happy Happy Birthday Baby” – Tune Weavers
“Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” – Ricky Nelson*
“Honeycomb” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Hula Baby” – Buddy Knox & Rhythm Orchids
“I’m Available” – Margie Rayburn*
“In The Middle Of An Island” – Tony Bennett
“Jailhouse Rock” – Elvis Presley
“Just Between You And Me” – Chordettes
“Just Born” – Perry Como*
“Keep A Knockin'” – Little Richard
“Little Bitty Pretty One” – Thurston Harris*
“Lotta Lovin'” – Gene Vincent
“Melodie D’Amour” – Ames Brothers*
“Mr. Lee” – Bobbettes
“My One Sin” – Four Coins*
“My Special Angel” – Bobby Helms*
“Peanuts” – Little Joe And The Thrillers
“Peggy Sue” – Buddy Holly*
“Rainbow” – Russ Hamilton
“Raunchy” – Bill Justis*
“Raunchy” – Ernie Freeman*
“Remember You’Re Mine” – Pat Boone
“Rock & Roll Music” – Chuck Berry*
“Send For Me” – Nat King Cole
“Silhouettes” – Rays*
“Stardust” – Billy Ward
“Tammy” – Debbie Reynolds
“That’ll Be The Day” – Crickets
“Till” – Roger Williams*
“Treat Me Nice” – Elvis Presley*
“Wait And See” – Fats Domino*
“Wake Up Little Susie” – Everly Brothers
“White Silver Sands” – Don Rondo
“Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On” – Jerry Lee Lewis
“You Send Me” – Sam Cooke*
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On November 3rd the Soviet Union launches Sputnik 2 with space dog Laika aboard, a mostly-Siberian husky, the 1st animal in space. His story in the video below:
On November 16th BBC’s 1st pop music show, the “Six-Five Special”, is broadcast from the tiny 2i’s Coffee Bar in London. Six-Five Special was the BBC’s first attempt at a rock-and-roll programme. The title was derived from its broadcast time, as it aired at 6:05 on Saturday evening. It began immediately after the abolition of the Toddlers’ Truce, which we covered a few weeks back, in which programming ceased between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. so that children could be put to bed.
The 2i’s Coffee Bar was a coffeehouse on Old Compton Street in Soho, London, that was open from 1956 to 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain’s skiffle and rock and roll music culture in the late 1950s, and several major stars including Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were first discovered performing there. We’ve yet to discover them in our charts…
On November 22nd the Miles Davis Quintet debuts at Carnegie Hall in NYC. No recording of that but we have a colorised version of a performance on french TV in Paris the next month… that set though?!
What’d Sadie think?
The classic “Wake Up Little Susie” by the Everly Brothers manages a second week at the top of the charts after making it there the last week of October. But then its back to Elvis dominating, with Jailhouse Rock, released last month, nabbing the top spot for the rest of November.
Love ’em
“Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly is the most classic of the new songs this month. Apparently the song was originally entitled “Cindy Lou”, after Holly’s niece. The title was later changed to “Peggy Sue” in reference to Peggy Sue Gerron, the girlfriend (and future wife) of Jerry Allison, the drummer for the Crickets, after the couple had temporarily broken up
A whole bunch of other new songs this month – pre-xmas releases perhaps? Either way a bunch of other great tunes:
“Have I Told You Lately That I Love You” – Ricky Nelson
“Little Bitty Pretty One” – Thurston Harris
“Rock & Roll Music” – Chuck Berry
“You Send Me” – Sam Cooke
Like ’em
“All The Way” – Frank Sinatra
“April Love” – Pat Boone
“Could This Be Magic” – Dubs
“Just Born” – Perry Como
“Melodie D’Amour” – Ames Brothers
“My Special Angel” – Bobby Helms
“Raunchy” – Bill Justis
“Silhouettes” – Rays
“Treat Me Nice” – Elvis Presley
“Wait And See” – Fats Domino
Lose ’em
“Alone” – Shepherd Sisters
“I’m Available” – Margie Rayburn
“Till” – Roger Williams
“My One Sin” – Four Coins
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.