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Winter is approaching in September 1952 as summer feels tantalisingly close back here in 2021.

The songs of September, 1952

A nice grab bag of new tunes hit the charts this month. And for the first time it occurred to me it might be useful to indicate in the playlist which those are, so they are bolded below from now on:

September, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Because You’re Mine” – Mario Lanza
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“High Noon” – Tex Ritter
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“Indian Love Call” – Slim Whitman
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Harry Grove Trio
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Les Paul
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“The Glow-Worm” – Mills Brothers
“Trying” – Hilltoppers
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Walkin’ To Missouri” – Sammy Kaye / Tony Russo / Glee Club
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Dean Martin
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page
“You’ll Never Get Away” – Teresa Brewer / Don Cornell

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

This month saw the premier of the “Adventures of Superman” on TV in the USA. With the classic “faster than a speeding bullet…” intro you can watch an episode with the man of steel himself below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ9KrNGnF6s

It was also the 13th Venice International Film Festival this month. Best Production Design went to the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest which by all account is great and available to watch in full on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r6Vw4da6J8

A favourite play of mine so I’ll be sure to watch it soon as I’ve not before.

The Best Film gong went to French war film, Forbidden Games which you can watch the trailer for below:

What’d Sadie think?

Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” eked out one more week at number 1 before being usurped by Jo Stafford’s “You Belong To Me” for the rest of September.

Mario Lanza’s new song on the charts, “Because You’re Mine” is a belting number as his so often are. The intro swell reminds me of the start of a 40’s movie for some reason, probably priming from thinking of movies in the history section though.

There’s quite a few instrumental numbers in the charts this month. Leroy Anderson’s “Blue Tango” is a nice piece that’s grown on us. He was described by some as, “one of the great American masters of light orchestral music.”

Which reminds me to recommend Primephonic to any classical lovers reading – its like Spotify but with a classical catalogue and interface that allows you to easily navigate by composer, work and performances.

“Meet Mister Callaghan” by the Harry Grove Trio also has a Les Paul version, but we went with their version because Mr Paul has enough airtime as it is. I can’t actually find anything about the Harry Grove Trio, but Sadie auditioned to make it a quartet as she sung along to the nice instrumental.

Never fear fans, Les Paul still features with, “Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me” which is a new tune by him and Mary Ford and is one of our favourite songs by the pairing.

Tex Ritter’s version of “High Noon” that makes it to the charts this month trumps Frankie Lane’s version – its just even more cowboy – yeehaw!

Likewise fun is “The Glow-Worm” by the Mills Brothers. But not as catchy as Sammy Kaye’s “Walkin’ To Missouri” which is one of our favourite newbies of the month.

Also much liked is Dean Martin’s “You Belong To Me”, which benefits from Jo Stafford and Patti Page’s versions having warmed us up for it in previous months. Martin’s version is the best of the three though sorry Ms. Stafford and Page.

We end, fittingly, on our song of the month with the return of young Teresa Brewer doing a fast and fun duet, “You’ll Never Get Away”, with Don Cornell.

Rose, I love you, but don’t count your chickens.
Come dance with me.
I warn you that I’m no Boy Scout.
Relax awhile, come dance with me.
So don’t think that I’m easy pickin’.
The music’s so nice.
Rose, ’cause I just may some day pick up and pack out.
Oh, no you won’t. No, not a chance.
No arguments, shut up and dance.

“You’ll Never Get Away” – Teresa Brewer / Don Cornell

So, shut up and dance! or at least listen to this week’s full playlist on Youtube via this link.

It’s a busy weekend here in 2021 London so we’ll keep it snappy in this week’s dive back to August, 1952.

The songs of August, 1952

A few new tunes hit the charts this month which might raise an eyebrow back in 2021, but let’s have a look at the list before we get into that:

August, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Eddy Howard
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Indian Love Call” – Slim Whitman
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Rock Of Gibraltar” – Frankie Laine
“Should I” – Four Aces
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

As I’m saving my words this month, you might find the time to read an excellent article from the August, 1952 issue of The Atlantic – News and the Whole Truth.

Too much of our news is one-dimensional, when truth has three dimensions (or maybe more); we still have inadequate defenses against men who try to load the news with propaganda

Definitely a case of “there’s nothing new under the sun” here as the author explores the commercial and political influences on the role of journalists. It’s written in the era of McCarthyism which makes for an interesting historical comparison to more recent presidencies.

But this is only one of McCarthy’s many self-contradictions; who can keep track of them all? I have a stack of his speeches two feet thick on my office shelf; but when he says something that stirs a vague recollection that he once said something very different, I seldom have time to run through his speeches.

What’d Sadie think?

Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” continues its run at the top, staying number 1 for all of August. Still not particularly sold on it but clearly the USA was in 1952.

Sadie was particularly into the music this week. She started dancing along on the sofa to “High Noon” by Frankie Laine. She’s definitely heard a lot of Frankie by now and like me has acquired a taste for his tunes.

She kept it up when a new Patti Page song dropped next, the excellent “I Went To Your Wedding”.

“Indian Love Call” by Slim Whitman is a tad problematic but has an interesting history when you dig into it. Originally a popular song from “Rose-Marie”, a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical by Oscar Hammerstein that was the longest running that decade. It was turned into a number of films in the subsequent decades with various cover versions of “Indian Love Call” , which was key to the plot.

Slim Whitman’s version crossed over from the country charts to the pop charts in 1952 and grew him a mainstream audience as a result.

Speaking of cross overs, “Jambalaya” was originally a Hank Williams song that Jo Stafford brings to the pop charts. It’s pretty catchy but obviously a tad appropriative – the tune and title being based on a Cajun song “Grand Texas”.

“Wish You Were Here” by Eddie Fisher has definitely grown on us. But it’s Nat King Cole’s “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” that has wormed its way into our ears this weeken

Check it out along with the rest of the hits of August, 1952 via this link.

It’s a lovely sunny spring Easter weekend here in London 2021 as we reach the midpoint of July, 1952 in our journey through time.

The songs of July, 1952

As it happens, the previous month’s popular songs start to multiply and we have a number of versions of “Kiss of Fire” and “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” hitting the charts:

July, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Eddy Howard
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Carioca” – Les Paul
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“Here In My Heart” – Tony Bennett
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Jane Froman
“I’m Yours” – Don Cornell
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Kiss Of Fire” – Billy Eckstine
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Smoke Rings” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Take My Heart” – Al Martino
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher

so we’ll supplement the pop charts with a top 10 country & western chart from the month:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

Shortly before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, air-traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport spotted seven slow-moving objects on his radar screen far from any known civilian or military flight paths. He called over his supervisor and joked about a “fleet of flying saucers.”

And so began a flurry of sightings and interest in UFOs in July, 1952. You can read more at the History channel or see a film about it below:

What’d Sadie think?

As alluded to last week, Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” makes it to number 1 for three weeks this month, with Percy Faith’s “Delicado” peaking for the other.

Tony Bennett enters the charts with the second version of “Here In My Heart” to hit the top twenty. Turns out ’52 was early in Bennett’s career and I’m quite the fan of his version.

Not a lot else new in the pop charts but a nice duet, “Sugarbush”, by Doris Day And Frankie Laine is well worth a listen.

A bunch of great, new to us, songs on the Country chart. Though we have to acknowledge the lack of diversity, I mean really….Hank Thompson, Williams and Snow is a lot of Hank for one chart.

Our Hank of the week goes to Hank Thompson though. “Wild side of life” and “Waiting in the lobby of your heart” are both excellent tunes.

The idea of Honky Tonk “Angels” seem to be a theme in the charts currently. “Wild side of life” sings about them and “It wasn’t God who made…” by Kitty Wells has them right up there in the title.

The latter is great too and notable in the playlist for its video. I don’t normally pay much attention to the videos associated with the playlist songs as they’re typically static images or lyrics, but this video is of someone filming the record playing which just struck me as odd and interesting enough not search out a better quality audio version.

“Full time job” by Eddy Arnold is another great tune, which is just one of the 147 he apparently had on the charts over his long and very productive life.

Finally, Hank Snow’s “Married by the Bible, Divorced by the Law” closes out this week’s playlist and a great tune to end on it is. Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

Daylight savings has arrived here in London in 2020 and we’re looking forward to our lockdown being loosened in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we’re up to June 1952 in our adventure through time…

The songs of June, 1952

A few new songs on the USA pop charts this month:

June, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Blacksmith Blues” – Ella Mae Morse
“Blue Tango” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Carioca” – Les Paul
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Jane Froman
“I’m Yours” – Don Cornell
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Guy Mitchell
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Wheel Of Fortune” – Kay Starr

But we’ll throw in a R&B chart to supplement:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

June 1952 saw the inaugural Miss Universe competition launch in Long Beach, California. Which is the perfect time for me to finally figure out which came first…the World or the Universe.

It turns out that Miss World started in the UK the year before in 1951. So Miss Universe was predictable American oneupmanship, naming wise. But it was also started as a marketing stunt by a California clothing company, Pacific Knitting Mills, after the winner of Miss America refused to wear one of its swimsuits. (Exactly why is unclear and is interesting given Miss America started in 1921 as a “bathing beauty revue”…)

The first event happened the day after the first Miss USA competition at the same venue. 30 contestants from around the world competed, including Miss USA crowned the previous day, but ultimately 17-year-old Armi Kuusela of Finland was triumphant.

My favourite fact: Kuusela was the first, and only, Miss Universe to be crowned with the Romanov Imperial Nuptial Crown – previously owned by Russian monarchy.

You can see some of the event below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4d34kz4ekg

And you can see Armi 60 years later in an interview at another Miss Universe event:

By all accounts she has lived an interesting life since winning. Meanwhile, of course, the attitude to “Beauty” contests has changed somewhat. Sadly it had to get worse before it got better of course, like the period when former President Trump (yes, that still happened) owned the Miss Universe contest for some time in the ’80s:

You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that…

– The man who was President of the USA in the late 2010s, seriously.

Makes you long for the wholesome ’50s doesn’t it, so let’s get to the music.

What’d Sadie think?

Al Martino’s “Here in my Heart” was number 1 for 3 of the 4 weeks of June, giving it up to “Blue Tango” for the other.

New to the charts is Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart”. Clearly the war was long enough ago for a German named song to hit the right notes. It was originally composed by German Eberhard Storch around 1950 who wrote it for his wife Maria while he was in the hospital for some time. Cheery!

The English language lyrics were written by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons who were commissioned by Lynn after she heard the original sung in Beer Halls in Switzerland.

Her version, which featured accompaniment by Soldiers and Airmen of HM Forces and the Johnny Johnston Singers, was the first song recorded by a non-American artist to make number one on the U.S. Billboard charts. (Spoiler alert, this happens next month.)

In reaching number-one, it would be almost six years before another British artist would top of the U.S. pop charts.

It’s an alright song, but we prefer the other new entry, Rosemary Clooney’s “Botch-a-me” which you can see her singing below back in ’52:

If, like us, you’re wondering what the “Botching” in “Botch-a-Me” is – apparently the song is from an Italian original, “Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina”. Baciami in Italian means “kiss me”. Ah huh!

Song of the month for us is Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”. At the time Price was working for New Orleans radio station WBOK provided jingles for various products, including those hawked by DJ James “Okey Dokey” Smith. One of Smith’s catch phrases was “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, which he used in ad slogans such as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy, eat Mother’s Homemade Pies and drink Maxwell House coffee!”. Price’s accompanying tune proved popular with the radio audience and he developed it into a full-length song. And a great song it is.

Our other fave is ” Moody’s Mood for Love” whose melody is derived from an improvised solo by jazz saxophonist James Moody on a 1949 recording of the 1935 song “I’m in the Mood for Love”. It’s by the awesomely named “King Pleasure” who was a jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese (where a singer sings words to a famous instrumental solo.)

You can hear the 1949 inspiration below…

…before listening to the full month’s playlist on Youtube via this link.

It’s May, 1952 on our journey through the charts of the past and Sadie is solidly into solids… has this changed her taste in music any? Only those who read on will know…

The songs of May, 1952

It’s one of those months where we have 5 weeks of charts, rather than 4, so there’s plenty to listen to:

May,1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Any Time” – Eddie Fisher
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Blacksmith Blues” – Ella Mae Morse
“Blue Tango” – Guy Lombardo
“Blue Tango” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Carioca” – Les Paul
“Cry” – Johnnie Ray
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Jane Froman
“I’m Confessin’” – Les Paul And Mary Ford
“I’m Yours” – Don Cornell
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Kiss Of Fire” – Billy Eckstine
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Perfidia” – Four Aces
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Guy Mitchell
“Tell Me Why” – Four Aces
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“What’s The Use” – Johnnie Ray
“Wheel Of Fortune” – Kay Starr
“Whispering Winds” – Patti Page

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

In May of 1952 the first jet airliner flew its maiden commercial flight – from London to Johannesburg carrying 35 people. A triumph for British engineering, the BOAC (that would become British Airways) Comet jet could fly higher, faster, and more smoothly as a result making for a more pleasant journey. Though it still took 23 hours and stopped 5 times.

You can see a film inside a BOAC jet of the time below:

For another glimpse into the past, and because the British Royal family is particularly topical right now, here’s a film from a few months earlier in January 1952, of The Queen, then Princess Elizabeth, bidding farewell to King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret at London airport before departing with Prince Philip for a world tour of Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

On a less happy note the BOAC Comet would be taken off the market a few years later allowing the USA’s Boeing to swoop in after a series of crashes. In March 1953 a Comet crashed on take-off killing all 11 on board. Two months later another went down a few minutes after take-off from Calcutta killing all 43 people. The following January another dived into the Mediterranean killing 35. Metal fatigue from pressure at high altitude was to blame.

What’d Sadie think?

Two number ones this month. Kay Starr’s okayish “Wheel of Fortune”, then Leroy Anderson’s version of “Blue Tango”. Which is 1 of 3 versions of the alright instrumental tune charting in May. Lucky for Leroy as the song was composed by him.

Which makes me think I must see how many times the original composer isn’t the most successful version when there’s multiple covers vying for ear-time.

“Be Anything (But be mine)” by Eddy Howard is a nice tune. And also makes me wonder how frequently songs had parenthetical additions to their names in the ’50s compared with today.

“Delicado” by Percy Faith is a nice instrumental piece. Apparently there’s a Dinah Shore (who we like) cover which will hopefully chart for us to listen to soon. (Yes, I could just seek it out but where’s the fun in that.) (Yes, I am now overusing parentheses.)

“Here In My Heart” by Al Martino is a nice piece of dramatic crooning. And is particularly notable as the very first chart number 1 in the United Kingdom.

As the story goes, in 1952 Percy Dickins of the New Musical Express gathered a pool of 52 stores willing to report sales figures. For the first chart Dickins telephoned approximately 20 shops, asking for a list of the 10 best-selling songs. These results were then aggregated into a Top 12 chart published in NME on 14 November 1952, with Al Martino’s tune awarded the number-one.

We’ll take a look to see if we can find some of these charts to use in future weeks. Well, come November 1952 in a few weeks we will.

Another nice piece of crooning is Don Cornell’s “I’m Yours” which was also covered by Eddie Fisher in the charts this month.

“Kiss of fire” meanwhile was thrice in the charts and has grown on us. As has “Tell me why” which is a real ear worm today we’re finding. In fact, the Four Aces seem to manage to get tunes stuck in one’s head as also charting, “Perfidia” easily does the same.

“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” by Johnnie Ray is yet another song about…well, walking a date home. At least, unlike Doris Day’s “A Guy Is A Guy” which has a similar plot, there’s no element of consensual kissing. Both are catchy mind.

“What’s the use” is the 3rd Johnnie Ray song in the charts, the man can definitely sing a tune. And he was surely pleased “cry” outlasted the parody version, “Try” that we mentioned last week.

I’d not noticed, till some album artwork came up, that Patti Page tunes are frequently a Waltz tempo. “Whispering Winds” is another one and closes this months charts on a lovely note.

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

It’s mid-March here in 2020 and the world has gone crazy for digital art to the tune of paying millions of pounds for mere pixels so let’s run back to the relative safety of April, 1952 where people exchanged money for lumps of vinyl shaped into grooved discs.

The songs of April, 1952

Not a lot of change on the mainstream pop charts…

April, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Any Time” – Eddie Fisher
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Bermuda” – Bell Sisters
“Blacksmith Blues” – Ella Mae Morse
“Blue Tango” – Guy Lombardo
“Blue Tango” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Broken Hearted” – Johnnie Ray
“Come What May” – Patti Page
“Cry” – Johnnie Ray
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Hambone” – Frankie Laine / Jo Stafford
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Perfidia” – Four Aces
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Guy Mitchell
“Please Mr. Sun” – Johnnie Ray
“Tell Me Why” – Eddie Fisher
“Tell Me Why” – Four Aces
“Try” – Stan Freberg
“Tulips And Heather” – Perry Como
“What’s The Use” – Johnnie Ray
“Wheel Of Fortune” – Bobby Wayne
“Wheel Of Fortune” – Kay Starr
“Whispering Winds” – Patti Page
“Wimoweh” – Weavers / Gordon Jenkins

…so let’s supplement with a top 10 R&B chart from the month:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

Does all the interesting history clump together into certain months? Probably not, I think I just happen across more certain weeks. But either way we have a bumper crop.

As Sadie is starting to show some real interest in different toys, let’s start there. In April of 1952 the famous “Mr Potato Head” is first advertised on television. You can see an arly advert for it in the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsBIz1fiOpw

In searching for this ad we also found an April, 1952 episode of the “All Star Revue” with Bob Hope – a comedy/talent showcase from the early ’50s. This one is worth watching just for the adverts that are included, including a very dated one for “Pet” baby milk!

Meanwhile on the big screen, we have the release of the film “April in Paris” starring Doris Day who is in the pop charts again this month. Which, viewing the trailer, looks only about as cliched as the show “Emily in Paris” that so polarised the world last year/

Slightly more obscurely we have “April 2000” an Austrian sci-fi film which used the medium to take a stand on Austria’s post-war treatment by the allies. Full film below:

But I said it was a big month for history, and it was quite literally. The notion of the “big bang theory” of the origin of the universe was given further credence from an unlikely source, when Pope Pious XII announced in 1952 that it affirmed the notion of a transcendental creator and was in harmony with Christian dogma. The competing theory at the time,”Steady-state” theory, denying any beginning or end to time, was in some minds loosely associated with atheism. Boom!

What’d Sadie think?

Not a lot new to comment on in the pop charts as mentioned. But “Try” by Stan Freberg pricked up our ears – a parody of Johnnie Ray’s “Cry” which is still charting this month. It’s one of those parodies that actually function as a good song in its own right.

Apparently Johnnie Ray was furious until he realised the success of the parody was actually increasing sales and airplay of his own record. Freberg meanwhile reported getting more angry feedback for “Try” than from any of his other parodies

Iiiii-if yore happy hand((and)) yore eyes are always daaa-rye((dry))
[Sob.] Don’t you know that it’sss the thththing-k to sob and sigh?
[Sob.] Sss-singers do it, carr-rowds do it
Even little white caaa-louds do it. 1
He-yew((you)) too can be hunhappy((unhappy)) if you terr-rye((try))

“Try” by Stan Freberg

I assume the line “even little white clouds do it” is a reference to another recent Johnnie Ray song “The Little White Cloud That Cried” which does rather make the song feel like a bash at the singer not just his song so I can understand why fans of the crooner might have gotten up in arms.

“Wheel of Fortune” by Kay Starr was number one across the month – it’s grown on us, there’s some interesting production work that makes it sound quite modern in ways.

The first song in the R&B chart is Jimmy Forrest’s “Night Train” which is apparently based on a Duke Ellington tune Happy-Go-Lucky Local. It reminds me of two things – playing it in High School band on the sax and mock stripper scenes in old movies.

Song of the week is Ruth Brown’s “5-10-15 Hours” a great blues number that is one for the repeat button. Looking forward to lots more by Brown, the “Queen of R&B”, over the coming years. Also one of many songs in the chart with a great tenor sax solo.

As does Rosco Gordon’s “No More Doggin” whose title doesn’t age well in the UK but whose tune does. The lyrics of Gordon’s other song, “Booted” are a bit retrograde too but there you go.

On a similar theme is the Clover’s “One Mint Julep”, which stated a whole sub-genre of blaming “women problems” on a particular drink:

The lights were burning low, there in the parlor
When through the kitchen door, up popped her father
He said “I saw you when you kissed my daughter
Better wed her right now, or face a slaughter!”
I didn’t know just what I was doing
I had to marry or face ruin

“One Mint Julep” by The Clovers.

Which again has a great Tenor sax piece. And also reminds me to wish my lovely wife, Emily, Happy Mother’s Day! (The link there being… a show we watched together last night having a plot line involving a literal “shotgun wedding.”)

I must admit to not much appreciating B B King’s work until he started appearing in these charts. It sounded too much of the past to me as a child when he was still an active artist, but in the context of the 1950s one realises how great it really was.

Our other favourite from the month is Dinah Washington’s “Blow Top Blues”. Go listen to it and the other tunes on Youtube via this link now and see you next time!