It’s mid-winter here in July of 2023, let’s find some warmth in the pop charts of May, 1962…
Songs of the month
[new] “Caterina” – Perry Como
“Cinderella” – Jack Ross
[new] “Conscience” – James Darren
“Dear One” – Larry Finnegan
[new] “Don’t Play That Song” – Ben E. King
“Everybody Loves Me But You” – Brenda Lee
“Funny Way Of Laughin'” – Burl Ives
“Good Luck Charm” – Elvis Presley
“Hide Nor Hair” – Ray Charles
[new] “I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Ray Charles
[new] “I Sold My Heart To The Junkman” – Blue-Belles
[new] “I Wish That We Were Married” – Ronnie And The Hi-Lites
[new] “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'” – Johnny Tillotson
“Johnny Angel” – Shelley Fabares
“Johnny Jingo” – Hayley Mills
“Love Letters” – Ketty Lester
“Love Me Warm And Tender” – Paul Anka
“Lover Please” – Clyde Mcphatter
[new] “Lovers Who Wander” – Dion
“Mashed Potato Time” – Dee Dee Sharp
[new] “Most People Get Married” – Patti Page
“Old Rivers” – Walter Brennan
“P.T. 109” – Jimmy Dean
[new] “Palisades Park” – Freddy Cannon
[new] “Second Hand Love” – Connie Francis
“She Can’t Find Her Keys” – Paul Petersen
“She Cried” – Jay And The Americans
“Shout Shout” – Ernie Maresca
“Shout” – Joey Dee And The Starlighters
“Slow Twistin'” – Chubby Checker
“Soldier Boy” – Shirelles
“Soul Twist” – King Curtis
“Stranger On The Shore” – Acker Bilk
[new] “Tell Me” – Dick And Deedee
[new] “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” – Gene Pitney
[new] “The One Who Really Loves You” – Mary Wells
“Twist Twist Senora” – Gary Us Bonds
[new] “Twistin’ Matilda” – Jimmy Soul
[new] “Uptown” – Crystals
“What’d I Say” – Bobby Darin
[new] “You Are Mine” – Frankie Avalon
“Young World” – Rick Nelson
[new] = 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 2nd, 1962 the value of the Canadian dollar was put at a fixed exchange rate at 92.5 United States cents (USD 0.925) after having had a fluctuating value since September 30, 1950. The Canadian Exchange Fund would purchase U.S. dollars in order to keep the Canadian dollar from going more than one percent above 92+1⁄2¢ American, until May 30, 1970. Which is putting all the crypto “stable coin” malarkey over the past few years in perspective for me – ain’t nothing new under the sun!
On the 19th Marilyn Monroe made her last significant public appearance, singing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” at a birthday party for President John F. Kennedy at Madison Square Garden. The event was part of a fundraiser to pay off the Democratic Party’s four million-dollar debt remaining from Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign. Monroe was stitched into a $12,000 dress “made of nothing but beads” and wore nothing underneath it. Kennedy thanked her afterward, joking, “I can now retire from politics after having had ‘Happy Birthday’ sung to me in such a sweet, wholesome way.
And on the 22nd American composer Richard Rodgers became the first “EGOT” (the winner of a Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony for television, recorded music, film and stage, respectively) when he received the Emmy Award for Outstanding Original Music for Television, as composer of music for the ABC television show Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years. He’d won an Oscar in 1945 for Best Original Song (“It Might as Well Be Spring”), his first Tony Award in 1950 (“South Pacific”), and his first Grammy Award in 1961 for “The Sound of Music”.
What’d Sadie think?
It’s three weeks at the top for “Soldier Boy” by the Shirelles before Acker Bilk’s “Stranger On The Shore” takes it for a week.
Loved ’em
- “Don’t Play That Song” – Ben E. King
- “I Can’t Stop Loving You” – Ray Charles
- “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin'” – Johnny Tillotson
- “Lovers Who Wander” – Dion
- “Second Hand Love” – Connie Francis
- “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” – Gene Pitney
- “The One Who Really Loves You” – Mary Wells
- “You Are Mine” – Frankie Avalon
Liked ’em
- “Caterina” – Perry Como
- “Conscience” – James Darren
- “I Sold My Heart To The Junkman” – Blue-Belles
- “I Wish That We Were Married” – Ronnie And The Hi-Lites
- “Most People Get Married” – Patti Page
- “Tell Me” – Dick And Deedee
- “Twistin’ Matilda” – Jimmy Soul
- “Uptown” – Crystals
Leave ’em
- “Palisades Park” – Freddy Cannon
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.