It’s already the end of 1957 in our journey. That’s eight years of music in just under 2 years. Which means that Sadie’s 2nd birthday is coming up in a bit over a month. Before we get ahead of ourselves though let’s listen to the songs of December, 1957…
Songs of the month
“All The Way” – Frank Sinatra
“Alone” – Shepherd Sisters
“April Love” – Pat Boone
“At The Hop” – Danny And The Juniors*
“Be-Bop Baby” – Ricky Nelson
“Bonie Moronie” – Larry Williams*
“Buzz Buzz Buzz” – Hollywood Flames*
“Chances Are” – Johnny Mathis
“Could This Be Magic” – Dubs
“Diana” – Paul Anka
“Fascination” – Jane Morgan And The Troubadors
“Great Balls Of Fire” – Jerry Lee Lewis*
“Happy Happy Birthday Baby” – Tune Weavers
“Honeycomb” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Hula Love” – Buddy Knox & Rhythm Orchids
“I’m Available” – Margie Rayburn
“Jailhouse Rock” – Elvis Presley
“Jingle Bell Rock” – Bobby Helms*
“Just Born” – Perry Como
“Keep A Knockin'” – Little Richard
“Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” – Jimmie Rodgers*
“Liechenstein Polka” – Will Glahe Orchestra*
“Little Bitty Pretty One” – Thurston Harris
“Lotta Lovin'” – Gene Vincent
“Melodie D’Amour” – Ames Brothers
“My Special Angel” – Bobby Helms
“Oh Boy” – Crickets*
“Peggy Sue” – Buddy Holly
“Raunchy” – Bill Justis
“Raunchy” – Ernie Freeman
“Rock & Roll Music” – Chuck Berry
“Silhouettes” – Rays
“Tammy” – Debbie Reynolds
“Tear Drops” – Lee Andrews And The Hearts*
“The Joker” – Billy Myles*
“Till” – Roger Williams
“Wake Up Little Susie” – Everly Brothers
“Why Don’t They Understand” – George Hamilton Iv*
“You Send Me” – Sam Cooke
Dec 1957 Fascination Jane Morgan 1st No. 1
* = New to the chart this week.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
This month in history
On the 1st of the month Buddy Holly and the Crickets debut on “The Ed Sullivan Show”. Here he is performing, “Oh Boy” which is new to our charts this month.
Then on December 8 CBS broadcasts “The Sound of Jazz”, live from NYC: an all-star program featuring swing era and contemporary jazz artists, including Count Basie, Red Allen, Ben Webster;, Thelonious Monk, and Gerry Mulligan. A particularly highlight is the collaboration of Billie Holiday and Lester Young on “Fine and Mellow” which you can see here:
On December 18th the world’s 1st full scale nuclear power plant begins to generate electricity at the Shippingport Atomic Power Station in Pennsylvania. A doco on this below:
And then, just as he’s topping the charts on the regular, on 20th December Elvis Presley is given his draft notice to join US Army for National Service.
What’d Sadie think?
A mix of number 1s this month. Elvis’ “Jailhouse Rock” holds on for 1 more week before “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke occupies it for 3 weeks, then lastly Pat Boone gets a week with “April Love”.
And because it’s the end of the year we have to notice that new song for the month, “At The Hop” by Danny And The Juniors, was the Xmas number 1 on the first chart of the new year. And a rocking end to a year in which rock & roll seems to have truly come of age it is too.
With no sign of Bing Crosby’s “White Xmas”, are the 50’s really coming to a close? Or is it just everyone had a copy by this point?
“Bonie Moronie” by R&B singer and song writer, Larry Williams is a great tune with a brill horn section.
Likewise, “Buzz Buzz Buzz” by the Hollywood Flames is a fun song. Apparently the group were usually billed as The Hollywood Flames, but also recorded as The Turks, The Jets, and The Sounds…
“Great Balls Of Fire” by Jerry Lee Lewis is of course brilliant. It’s not number 1 yet but the song sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United State, one of the fastest selling singles ever. It featured in the 1957 “rock and roll” film, Jamboree which sounds very meta:
Its story is about a boy and girl, Pete Porter and Honey Wynn, who become overnight sensations as a romantic singing duo who run into trouble when their squabbling managers, try to turn them into solo acts.
You can see Jerry Lee Lewis perform in it below:
“Jingle Bell Rock” by Bobby Helms is our only Xmas tune of the charts, but its a debut of a classic so we can’t complain. Apparently there’s quite some dispute over who authored the song, Bobby Helms isn’t credited with it but claims to have done most of it.
“Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” by Jimmie Rodgers is a great cover of a great song. It was originally released in 1950 by Pete Seeger and Lee Hays of The Weavers – we’ve had it in our charts from 1951 before in fact. I think this is the first instance of a song from a previous chart being covered – we really are moving through time!
“Liechenstein Polka” by Will Glahe Orchestra is an accordion tune so we’ll just be moving right along…
“Oh Boy” by (Billy Holly and) The Crickets is of course great. Something about contracts meant that it was just released under The Crickets name.
And then there’s three quite average new songs to round it out, “Tear Drops” by Lee Andrews And The Hearts, “The Joker” by Billy Myles and George Hamilton IV’s “Why Don’t They Understand”. But with so many other great tunes we can hardly complain.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.