It’s already March of 1951 in our journey through the music of the ages while back in 2020 it’s December and Xmas is just a couple of weeks away. Here at 4x Life HQ (aka The Scovell’s) we’re busy trimming the tree and wrapping presents for Sadie’s first visit from Santa. So this is a trimmed down, best of, episode.
The songs of March, 1951
Easter must be around the corner in 1951 because Gene Autry’s “Petter Cottontail” is on the charts. It’s actually grown on me since last year (3-months) ago. Give it another whirl yourself while listening to the rest of the hits of March, 1951.
March, 1951 Top 20 Hits
A Penny A Kiss A Penny A Hug, Tony Martin / Dinah Shore Aba Daba Honeymoon, Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter Be My Love, Mario Lanza Beautiful Brown Eyes, Rosemary Clooney Bring Back The Thrill, Eddie Fisher How High The Moon, Les Paul & Mary Ford I Apologize, Billy Eckstine I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat, Mel Blanc If, Perry Como It Is No Secret, Bill Kenny Jet, Nat King Cole Mockin’ Bird Hill, Les Paul & Mary Ford Mockin’ Bird Hill, Patti Page My Heart Cries For You, Dinah Shore My Heart Cries For You, Guy Mitchell On Top Of Old Smokey, Weavers / Terry Gilkyson Peter Cottontail, Gene Autry So Long, Weavers / Gordon Jenkins Sparrow In The Tree Top, Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters Sparrow In The Tree Top, Guy Mitchell Tennessee Waltz, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Tennessee Waltz, Les Paul & Mary Ford Tennessee Waltz, Patti Page The Hot Canary, Florian Zabach The Roving Kind, Guy Michell The Syncopated Clock, Leroy Anderson Would I Love You, Patti Page You’re Just In Love, Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
What’d Sadie think?
Perry Como’s “If” started 6 weeks at number 1 in March, 1951 but our number 1 for the month is “On Top of Old Smokey” by the Weavers. I’m afraid to say I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original till now, only knowing the ’60s parody, “On Top of Spaghetti” which features in many an American summercamp film.
We’ll leave you to make your own picks for March and jump back to 1950 to present our “best of” the hits from the year below. We went back through the year and selected our favourite 20 tunes. One thing we instantly realise is just how much we loved the duets in our first year!
4x Life Top 20 hits of 1950
“Slipping Around” Margaret Whiting w/ Jimmy Wakely “Music, Music, Music” – Teresa Brewer “Charley, My Boy” – Jimmy Dorsey “Dearie” – Ray Bolger & Ethel Merman “I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Pray’rs)” – Tony Martin & Fran Warren “Saturday Night Fish Fry” – Louis Jordan “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think” – Guy Lombardo ”Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep” – Mary Martin & Arthur Godfrey “With my eyes wide open i’m dreaming” – Patti Page “If I knew you were comin’ (I’d have baked a cake)” – Eileen Barton “Valencia” – Tony Martin “Sam’s Song” – Bing & Gary Crosby Joe Liggins – “Pink Champagne” “Bewitched” – Doris Day “La vie en rose” – Tony Martin “Harbour Lights” – Sammy Kaye “Bonaparte’s Retreat” – Kay Starr “Please Send Me Someone to Love” – Percy Mayfield “The Thing” – Phil Harris “Blue Smoke” – Pixie Williams
It’s February 1951 in our adventure through the charts of the past and cowboy chic is as on the rise as it is in 2020.
The songs of February, 1951
Xmas is now a couple of months behind us so the novelty tunes have fallen off the charts and a number of new songs are here to see us through the first (2020) or the last (1951) month of winter in the northern hemisphere.
February, 1951 Top 20 Hits
A BUSHEL AND A PECK, Perry Como / Betty Hutton A PENNY A KISS A PENNY A HUG, Tony Martin / Dinah Shore ABA DABA HONEYMOON, Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter BE MY LOVE, Mario Lanza BRING BACK THE THRILL, Eddie Fisher HARBOUR LIGHTS, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner HARBOUR LIGHTS, Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets I APOLOGIZE, Billy Eckstine I STILL FEEL THE SAME ABOUT YOU, Georgia Gibbs I TAUT I TAW A PUDDY TAT, Mel Blanc IF, Perry Como MOCKIN’ BIRD HILL, Les Paul & Mary Ford MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Dinah Shore MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Guy Mitchell MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Jimmy Wakely MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Vic Damone NEVERTHELESS, Mills Brothers SO LONG, Weavers / Gordon Jenkins TENNESSEE WALTZ, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner TENNESSEE WALTZ, Les Paul & Mary Ford TENNESSEE WALTZ, Patti Page THE ROVING KIND, Guy Mitchell THE ROVING KIND, Weavers THE THING, Phil Harris WOULD I LOVE YOU, Patti Page YOU’RE JUST IN LOVE, Perry Como / Fontane Sisters ZING ZING ZOOM ZOOM, Perry Como
For a reason that will become clear soon, we’re supplementing the pop charts with a top 10 country chart this week:
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
Down a rabbit hole we go this month thanks to an advert in an issue of Billboard Magazine from February. You can read it for yourselves below but in essence it documents the growing popularity of mechanical horse rides for kids.
Wait… did we read that right?! They were originally designed as weight loss devices for adults? It would seem so.
In fact, as the Atlantic recounts in, “The brief history of a widely mocked electric horse in the White House” there’s a rich history of mechanical horses for adult exercise. President Calvin Coolidge notoriously had one in the White House during his term in the 1920s for some years after the secret service made him give up riding real horses.
Coolidge’s electric exercise horse.
His model was designed by the cereal pioneer, John Harvey Kellogg, who attested to its ability to keep riders trim. This wasn’t actually his biggest bullshit, that was left for his promotion of circumcision to stop the evils of masturbation. A whole other story you’ll need to google for yourselves readers!
When the mechanical horse was discovered it became a point of mockery, including in a poem that was read out on the floor of the House of Representatives,
“‘Twould not be very strange, indeed/If history should repeat,’/And discovery of the White House steed/Should encompass Cal’s defeat.”
It was a a couple of years later that they would be repurposed for children, where at least the claims that they provided a minute of entertainment that would “satisfy the kids” is true.
In a history of the Memphis Metal Manufacturing company, who are credited in the Billboard article as the manufacturer of some of the first rides for kids, they recount this transition, “It began when the owner of the first Memphis supermarkets, Mr. Fred Montesi, had asked my father to make a machine similar to one at the gym that he could use at home,” said the owner of the company. “So we put a 55 metal drum with a motor on it and one of the guys said ‘You know this kind of simulates a horse.’ Then they cut down metal and welded a horse’s head and they put on a tail. That was the design.”
This article from Billboard has a great showcase of the various rides available as the category exploded in the early 1950s. And here’s a video of a young lad in the ’80s riding an original 1950 model from the company:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA7hpbez7pg
Within just a few years shopping streets and malls across the west were littered with rides of all sorts, from horses – fuelling a fad for cowboy costumes – through to a spaceships in tandem with the growing interest in science fiction.
What of Harry Saltzman who Billboard credited as a pioneer in this space? Well it turns out that horse rides were just a side-project for him, albeit a profitable one, his main pursuit was producing films. He, in early 1961, excited by reading the James Bond novel Goldfinger, made a bid to land the film rights to the character and would go on to produce them for two decades.
What’d Sadie think?
Another month of Patti Page’s Tennessee Waltz dominating the number 1 position but it’s Tony Martin and Dinah Shore’s duet, “A penny a kiss, a penny a hug” that is my number 1 for the month. And it got the Sadie smile of approval too.
I’m gonna save a penny Every time we kiss goodnight. And honey when we’re married We can own a bungalow.
“A Penny a Kiss, a Penny a Hug”
Contrition seems to be the theme for the month, “I apologise” by Billy Eckstine and his outstanding voice for one, and “I feel the same about you” by Georgia Gibbs for another.
Guy Mitchell’s “The Roving Kind”, one of two versions of the song charting in February, is less contrition and more commiseration though in a tale of what a song from six decades later would called a ‘gold digger’.
I took her for some fish and chips and treated her so fine And hardly did I realize she was the rovin’ kind I kissed her lips, I missed her lips and found to my surprise She was nothin’ but a pirate ship rigged up in a dis-guy-eye-ise
“The Roving Kind”, Guy Mitchell
Les Paul’s “Mocking Bird Hill, Tra la la” has his trademark distinctive guitar work and is one of two songs featuring “tweedle dee dee dee” in the lyrics. Because yes, did I say novelty songs were behind us? Xmas ones certainly, but now charing is Mel Blanc’s “I taut I saw a puddy tat” song portraying the relationship between Tweety and Sylvester – star of the Warner Bros. cartoons popular since the 1940s. Here’s the same song set to 3D animation in 2011:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGJdWcj4O8
Boogie is, oddly, word of the month on the country charts with Tennessee Ernie Ford’s, “Shotgun Boogie” and Hank Snow’s, “Rhumba Boogie” both charting. The former is my favourite of the boogies. But Hank Snow needn’t worry as he managed to have 3 songs in the charts and one of the others, “I’m movin’ on” is great.
Its Hank Williams “Moanin’ the Blues” that is my pick of the country charts for the month. And yes, I’m fairly sure that its obligatory to spell “-ing” words as “-in'” in 1950’s song titles.
And there we are for February 1951. Let’s end on a reminder that Easter is on its way as another new novelty songs, Sonny the Bunny, starts its campaign for song of the season in Billboard Magazine…
As the last month of a very weird 2020 approaches, with things hopefully looking up on the pandemic front, we find ourselves entering January, 1951 here at 4times.life. Which, as I’ve had a few questions about it, seems like as good time as any to do a post focused on how the monthly playlists get pulled together. But first the tunes…
The songs of January, 1951
January starts with a Xmas hangover, so we’ve still got Rudolph and Frosty duelling it out for those looking for some festive tunes back in 2020. But it’s Patti Page’s “Tennessee Waltz” that is number 1 for the whole month and the four other versions of it that dominate the charts across January.
January, 1951 Top 20 Hits
A Bushel And A Peck,Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely A Bushel And A Peck,Perry Como / Betty Hutton Be My Love,Mario Lanza Frosty The Snowman,Gene Autry Harbour Lights,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Harbour Lights,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville Harbour Lights,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets If,Perry Como My Heart Cries For You,Dinah Shore My Heart Cries For You,Guy Mitchell My Heart Cries For You,Jimmy Wakely My Heart Cries For You,Vic Damone Nevertheless,Mills Brothers Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,Gene Autry So Long,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins Tennessee Waltz,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Tennessee Waltz,Jo Stafford Tennessee Waltz,Les Paul & Mary Ford Tennessee Waltz,Patti Page Tennessee Waltz,Spike Jones / Sara Berner The Roving Kind,Guy Mitchell The Roving Kind,Weavers The Thing,Phil Harris Thinking Of You,Don Cherry Thinking Of You,Eddie Fisher You’re Just In Love,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters Zing Zing Zoom Zoom,Perry Como
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
So, how did we get here? (BTS)
So while you enjoy this week’s playlist, how did we get to it? Firstly we need to know what historical month to listen to in a given week. Of course, the simple answer is, “the month following the previous one”. But to start with I had to understand how long this was all going to take, and it’s handy to be able to see when we’ll be listening to a certain song/year sometime in the future.
So, this is defined in a handy spreadsheet (which you can view here):
On it I can see, as shown for example, that we’ll be listening to music from my month of birth – February 1977 – in the week of November 23, 2026. At which point Sadie will be 6 years old, and the music will be from 43 years before she was born.
Then we need to work out what was in the charts of the month. This isn’t as simple as it sounds as charts are issued weekly not monthly. At the moment we’re pretty much exclusively using the Billboard Magazine charts as the back issues from this are available online (see here) to download. e.g.
And luckily, as these are badly scanned and I’d have to type them in manually, a site called Old Charts has digitised these (see here). So we just need to work out which issues to select from. This comes in the form of another spreadsheet that assigns weeks to months. They have 4 or 5 per month depending on the math, and the final week may bleed into the next month as charts are backwards looking of course. So here’s this month (week 13) for instance:
The issue is the date the magazine came out, and the “charts w/e” is what weeks charts were in that issue – there being a week-ish delay between data and publication.
Typically I’ll want to supplement the Billboard “Pop Singles” chart with some extra songs to add some diversity. At the moment we’re still using other Billboard charts to do this as little is available from elsewhere in the world. In this case I normally go to the last weekly issue of a month’s set and find one of the many other charts (there’s about 20 different genres e.g. R&B, Country and mediums e.g. Radio play, Jukeboxes ) and take the songs from that.
This is often also where I find some interesting industry news or advert to use in the history section.
But from where these spreadsheets?
When I was first setting the project up I quickly realised there would be too much manual “labour” for me to be able to do it every week reliably. So I created a few pieces of code to help out. These all run on a wee Raspberry Pi computer that sits on our home network.
Raspberry Pi’s are about the size of a deck of cards and cost not much more.
I could as easily run them on the macbook I use to write these blog posts on but this little computer is Sadie’s so it seems appropriate. It’s been around since before she was born – at that point it was hooked up to a mini-thermal printer that printed out a name option for our unborn child every day at 7am. (The names were randomised combinations from a shortlist we’d created).
No, Sadie’s full name was not one of the one’s printed. Yes, it has sentimental value so I use it for anything daddy-daughter related. Here’s an example:
It’s done everything from generate the aforementioned spreadsheets to creating the weekly consolidated playlist. This means taking the 4-5 weekly charts, removing some unnecessary info (chart position etc), de-duplicating (as most songs will be in the chats for several weeks in a row) and spitting out a single list of song and artist.
If you’ve wondered why the playlist is in alphabetical order by song name – that’s part of de-duplicating. Once that is done I can then go to Youtube, find the songs, and add them to a playlist with the name of the month and the year.
What’d Sadie think?
Which gets us to the point we can actually listen to the songs. This mostly happens in the morning at the moment so we can give mum some a sleep-in. Sadie’s really starting to react to the music in different ways and likes to dance along. Mostly anything that makes me look foolish by dancing to it elicits a smile!
Now that we know how we got to the playlist, what stuck out this month? “A Bushel and a Peck” in a new version by Perry Como and Betty Hutton has some great banter so is an ideal opener.
And it’s quite the month for Perry actually with four songs in the charts. “Zing, Zing, Zoom, Zoom” is utter nonsense but my other pick of his four for holiday season cheer.
Speaking of novelty songs, Phil Harris’ “The Thing” continues to be fun – every time I listen I try and come up with a different idea for what “the thing” actually. Send me yours readers!
While we’re keeping it corny, Mario Lanza’s, “Be My Love” is his usual melodramatic crooning but it has its charm.
As does Dinah Shore’s version of “My Heart Cries For You”, of which four versions managed to chart in January. Apparently it is an english version of an 18th century french song attributed to Marie Antoinette.
Which sees us at the end of our first month of our second year of the project. I hope you enjoy the playlist, and until next week that’s us!
Welcome to our first Xmas around these parts, December 1950. Hopefully close enough to the season back in the real world that you feel like an early listen to some festive tunes.
The songs of December, 1950
Actually only four different Xmas songs made it into the top 20 across the course of December, 1950. But there were no less than 3 versions of Gene Autry’s break-out hit, “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” as well. Apparently not everyone bought a copy in 1949!
December, 1950 Top 20 Hits
A Bushel And A Peck,Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely A Bushel And A Peck,Perry Como / Betty Hutton All My Love,Bing Crosby All My Love,Guy Lombardo / Bill Flanagan All My Love,Patti Page Be My Love,Mario Lanza Christmas In Killarney,Dennis Day Frosty The Snowman,Gene Autry Goodnight Irene,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins Harbour Light,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Harbour Lights,Bing Crosby Harbour Lights,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville Harbour Lights,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets I’ll Always Love You,Dean Martin I’ll Never Be Free,Kay Starr / Tennessee Ernie My Heart Cries For You,Guy Mitchell Nevertheless,Mills Brothers Nevertheless,Paul Weston / Norman Luboff Choir Nevertheless,Ralph Flanagan / Harry Prime Nevertheless,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville Oh Babe,Kay Starr Orange Coloured Sky,Nat King Cole / Stan Kenton Patricia,Perry Como Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,Bing Crosby Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,Gene Autry Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,Spike Jones Tennessee Waltz,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Tennessee Waltz,Les Paul & Mary Ford Tennessee Waltz,Patti Page The Roving Kind,Guy Mitchell The Thing,Phil Harris Thinking Of You,Don Cherry Thinking Of You,Eddie Fisher White Christmas,Bing Crosby
We’ve supplemented the pop top 40 with the top 10 R&B from one week this month – not a Xmas tune on it, which may be a negative or a positive depending on your level of festive spirit.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
We’ll leave it up to a single video to capture the times this month, a 5 minute news reel from the UK that captures imagery of Xmas being celebrated around the world. All together now, “awwwww!”.
What’d Sadie think?
We first mentioned Xmas back in our February, 1950 post when we talked about how the classic “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” tune had only just been released a few months earlier for Xmas 1949. And how he was attempting to replicate the success with an Easter tune, “Peter Cottontail”.
Then in August we noted that, according to Billboard magazine, the battle for Xmas had already begun with a range of new hits being recorded and exclusive deals with department stores being inked to get them to worm into consumer’s consciousness. Well it worked for 4 tunes.
Bing Crosby’s version of Irving Berlin’s “White Xmas” was a hit right throughout the forties and as popular in 1950 it seems. Gene Autry’s cover of Rudolph again charted, but so did versions from Bing and Spike Jones. We’ve included the Spike version as it uses character voices to tell the story so it’s great for kids. But I’d go for the Crosby version with a glass of whisky on a cold winter’s night myself.
Gene wasn’t resting on his Xmas laurels, oh no – he had another go at it with “Frosty The Snowman”. Which had the help of an animated TV version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SocOdoXKYY
This helped it chart as high as number 7 over Xmas, but it never topped Rudolph’s highest place of number 3. It was actually another novelty song, “The Thing” (which we charted last month) that made it to number 1 for most of the month. With the Xmas number one being Patti Page’s decent, but not very festive tale of infidelity, “Tennessee Waltz”. At least it wasn’t an X-Factor act’s song back then! (Sadie I’ll explain in a decade’s time…)
The other Xmas tune was Dennis Day’s “Christmas in Killarney” – a twee Irish-American number that I couldn’t recommend. Aside from the Xmas tunes I’d definitely listen out for “A Bushel And A Peck”, another great duet by by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely (from “Guys and Dolls”, which had its first hit run on Broadway that year). And “Rocking with Red” by Piano Red, from the R&B charts, which apparently popularised the term “rock and roll” in some parts of the states and definitely has a kick.
Sadie was particularly attentive this week, she’s 3 months old now – happy quarterversary sweetie! She particularly enjoyed mum and dad singing along to Frosty and Rudolph – we think… And also seemed to love Perry Como’s “Patricia”, which does indeed have a sweet melody.
And of course, Xmas also means we’ve reached the end of our very first year. Thanks for those who have been following along for the last 3 months of real time, and new followers – welcome! Here’s to a 1951 of great times, from me and Jimmy Durante…
p.s. If you really love Xmas, don’t worry – we’ll be back to the season by early February in 2020 time! In the meanwhile listen to this month’s full playlist on Youtube via this link.
Coincidences abound this week. Not only are we listening to the music of November, 1950 in November of 2020 but this happens to be my dear mother’s 70th birthday. Yes, the spanning years encompass her whole life. Happy birthday mum!
The songs of November, 1950
In honour of my mother we’ll focus our trip back in time this week to New Zealand of 1950. Though first let’s see what was on the Billboard pop charts for the month:
November, 1950 Top 20 Hits
A Bushel And A Peck,Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely A Bushel And A Peck,Perry Como / Betty Hutton All My Love,Bing Crosby All My Love,Guy Lombardo / Bill Flanagan All My Love,Patti Page All My Love,Percy Faith Bonaparte’s Retreat,Kay Starr Can Anyone Explain,Ames Brothers Goodnight Irene,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins Harbour Lights,Bing Crosby Harbour Lights,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Harbour Lights,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville Harbour Lights,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets I’ll Always Love You,Dean Martin I’ll Never Be Free,Kay Starr / Tennessee Ernie Mona Lisa,Nat King Cole Nevertheless,Mills Brothers Nevertheless,Paul Weston / Norman Luboff Choir Nevertheless,Ralph Flanagan / Harry Prime Nevertheless,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville Oh Babe,Kay Starr Oh Babe,Louis Prima / Keely Smith Orange Coloured Sky,Nat King Cole / Stan Kenton Our Lady Of Fatima,Kitty Kallen / Richard Hayes Patricia,Perry Como Play A Simple Melody,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby Sam’s Song,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby Tennessee Waltz,Patti Page The Thing,Phil Harris Thinking Of You,Don Cherry Thinking Of You,Eddie Fisher
A few new songs, which we’ll get to later, and a few new covers. There seems to be an inverse correlation between songs we love and ones that get multiple versions, but there we go!
To supplement the charts I’ve managed to dig up some tunes that would have been on the airwaves in New Zealand at the time. Still no sign of actual charts from New Zealand of 1950 but the signs are these songs would have been on high rotate (more on that later). Big thanks to Carl down in New Zealand who did some sleuthing and pointed me in the right direction.
Finding versions of NZ releases online proves harder than US releases, so I’ve had to go for a quartet of songs by the same artist, Mavis Rivers. Luckily she’s brill so no worries there. Plus a couple of others I could dig up.
“Blue Smoke” – Pixie Williams Mavis Rivers – I’ll String Along With You Mavis Rivers – Dear Hearts And Gentle People Mavis Rivers – Candy and Cake Henry Rudolph’s Harmony Serenaders w/ Soloist John Hoskins – Dreamers Holiday The Kiwi Concert Party Orchestra – Mr. &Mrs. Millionaire Mavis Rivers – Farewell Samoa
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
If New Zealand feels a long way away for those of us in the northern hemisphere even today, imagine what it was like with the communications technology of the 1950s. Even as a child, in the ’80s, I can remember the only direct contact with the UK being phone calls which had a multi-second delay on them as they pinged up and down via Satellite making us feel truly at the bottom of the world.
Only three years before, in 1947, New Zealand had adopted the statue of Westminster gaining more autonomy over its own government – but it was still very much looked towards the UK for most things.
Though perhaps increasingly less so when it came to the arts, or pop-culture at least, as post-war US began its assault on western airwaves. You can see this in a NZ magazine of the time, Screen Parade, touted as “The best pictorial movie magazine” – which heavily featured American films.
You can read a few pages of this November, 1950 issue online including profiles on Vivien Leigh, Errol Flynn and a review of musical “Annie Get Your Gun”.
Mum was born on a Sunday, so the first newspaper edition published after she was born was the Monday edition. Below is part of the cover of the Otago Daily Times, November 20, 1950. You can read it online.
I’m obviously biased, but its always the adverts that catch my attention the most when diving back into old titles – so revealing! Literally in this case…(or not, “no bulge” – different times).
But I think we can all agree this is a brilliant article:
If you want a bit more of a peek into 1950’s New Zealand then Ngā Taonga, New Zealand’s audiovisual archive, have an excellent online repository. This 14 minute advert for a home perm is as hilariously fake as this 5 minutes footage from a wedding is real.
And this short clip of children at a primary school doesn’t seem too different from my own country school in NZ in the ’80s, so I assume when mum started school a few years later it looked very similar. 1950 was also the centenary of the European settlement of that area of New Zealand and is captured in an audio re-enactment.
There’s no contemporary music that I can find in their archives for the year but there are some great radio shows showcasing traditional Māori songs. Such as this Radio New Zealand recording of a visit by boys from Te Aute College near Napier in April, 1950. Or this short radio documentary on Ngā Pao Me Ngā Pakiwaitara A Te Iwi Māori (Song And Story Of The Māori).
What’d Sadie think?
Television hadn’t yet arrived in New Zealand in 1950. It was was only demo’d that year, before trials began a couple of years later – not really getting rolled out till the end of the decade. Plenty on that history here. But as a consequence, we can assume, radio and music was even more important in the cultural milieu.
Here’s the radio programmes being broadcast on November 20, 1950:
3YA in Christchurch is the station in mum’s hometown. Really a pity I couldn’t find a recording of the “Christchurch Highland Pipe band” to include on the playlist.
We’re able to hazard a guess at what pop music was popular by looking at the catalogue of New Zealand record label TANZA (‘To Assist New Zealand Artists’) which was the first NZ owned independent label, issuing its first 78 in 1949 and ceasing operation in 1959.
That first record was “Blue Smoke” written by Ruru Karaitiana and sung by Pixie Williams, becoming the first record wholly produced in New Zealand from composition to pressing. You can read the fascinating 10 year story from composition to recording online. It would make its way out of New Zealand – being recorded by Dean Martin no less in 1951.
It’s a lovely tune and the first I’ve included on the playlist this week after the main pop charts. Meanwhile, Mavis Rivers was featured heavily on releases on the label for the first couple of years of its life – hence why I’ve included four this week. She disappears from their roster only because, Samoan born, she then moved to the USA (where Sinatra apparently called her the “purest voice in jazz”) and had a career spanning several decades. You can read a bio here.
“Well I never thought I’d live to see the day when I was happy to introduce a female vocalist, there are only two that don’t give me a pain in the ear, one of them is Jo Stafford, but the other is Mavis Rivers”
– Peter Young, Jazz Concert, Auckland Town Hall, August 1950
Moving right along.. Jo Stafford of course has featured on our charts already so that part is at least a nice comparison. As have two of the songs Mavis Rivers sings – “Dear Hearts and Gentle People” and “Candy and Cake”. It looks like most of the label’s songs were covers of American hits – hardly surprising given how often these were also covered back in the USA! Her versions are excellent.
As is the cover of “A Dreamer’s Holiday” by Henry Rudolph’s Harmony Serenaders, also released on TANZA. This featured in our charts, performed by Perry Como at the time, earlier in 1950.
There’s a couple of new entries on the USA charts worth mentioning this month. First is “Oh Babe”, a real feisty jazzy number, by Kay Starr – who is turning in a real favourite of ours, as mentioned last month. And “The Thing” by Phil Harris which is a novelty song that tells the story of a box the singer finds on the beach. Suffice to say, the thing is a MacGuffin, which is one of the wife and I’s favourite pop-cultural tropes.
I end the playlist, and this entry, on Mavis Rivers’ original “Farewell Samoa” (release dates are given between 1950 and 1952 for this) as mum spent some time growing up there as a child and it’s performed in English and Samoan. Absolutely lovely.
Happy Birthday from Sadie, Emily and I, Tessa! Love you! And to all, enjoy the playlist of November, 1950.
At the curious 4 times speed we’re progressing though the past at, we’ve arrived at October, 1950 already. Before we know it, it’ll be Xmas. But until then we have the hits of Autumn to listen to. So let’s get to it!
The songs of October 1950
“Goodnight Irene” continues its dominance with the number 1 placing right across the month. Which must have driven Nat King Cole crazy, with his version of “Mona Lisa” sitting consistently one spot beneath it the whole while. And then there’s the quantity over quality approach of “All my Love” as four different versions vie for the high spot but never go beyond 7th as they “split the vote”. Here’s all the tunes that cracked the top 20 across the month…
October, 1950 Top 20 Hits
All My Love,Bing Crosby All My Love,Guy Lombardo / Bill Flanagan All My Love,Patti Page All My Love,Percy Faith Bonaparte’s Retreat,Kay Starr Can Anyone Explain,Ames Brothers Goodnight Irene,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins Harbour Lights,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner Harbour Lights,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets I’ll Always Love You,Dean Martin I’ll Never Be Free,Kay Starr / Tennessee Ernie La Vie En Rose,Tony Martin Mona Lisa,Nat King Cole Music Maestro Please,Frankie Laine Nevertheless,Paul Weston / Norman Luboff Choir No Other Love,Jo Stafford Orange Coloured Sky,Nat King Cole / Stan Kenton Our Lady Of Fatima,Kitty Kallen / Richard Hayes Our Lady Of Fatima,Red Foley Patricia,Perry Como Play A Simple Melody,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby Sam’s Song,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby Thinking Of You,Don Cherry Thinking Of You,Eddie Fisher Tzena Tzena Tzena,Weavers / Gordon Jenkins
And because it’s getting cold here in London we needed something with a little more rhythm to keep us warm so we’ve supplemented the breezy ’50s mainstream hits with a top 10 R&B chart from October:
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
November 2020 is far too full of political machinations and stress right now so let’s look at the lighter side of history in October, 1950.
On the 2nd of the month the comic strip “Peanuts”, by Charles M. Schulz, was published for the first time. The first strip shows two children, a boy and a girl, sitting on the sidewalk. The boy, Shermy, says, “Well! Here comes ol’ Charlie Brown! Good ol’ Charlie Brown … Yes, sir! Good ol’ Charlie Brown.” When Charlie Brown is out of sight, Shermy adds, “How I hate him!” In the second Peanuts strip the girl, Patty, walks alone, chanting, “Little girls are made of sugar and spice … and everything nice.” As Charlie Brown comes into view, she slugs him and says, “That’s what little girls are made of!”.
But I promised light hearted, which on reflection Peanuts often wasn’t – on October 5 rumours that an atomic war had started set off a panic when blasts sent manhole covers as high as five stories above the street in Brooklyn, NY and sent blue flames into the air. Luckily they were just gas explosions at four sewers in the borough and nobody was injured. Light-er?
Perhaps a laugh at the expense of big media? In a lesson on backwards compatibility, that many tech manufacturers are still failing to heed, on the 11 the U.S. Federal Communications Commission issued the first license to broadcast television in colour, to CBS. It would be abandoned only a year later, in large part because its signal could not be picked up on ordinary black and white television sets without the purchase of an adapter that would cost at least fifteen dollars (equivalent to almost $150 today). So that’s where Steve Jobs got the idea from.
My childhood favourite, C. S. Lewis’s novel The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first of The Chronicles of Narnia series, was published this month in the U.K. The rest of the series would be published over the next half decade with the final book, “The Last Battle” being issued in 1956. Which was all light-hearted adventure for me reading them in the ’80s, till I hit the final volume aged 8 and realised it was all a Christian allegory and that I’d been suckered. (Sadie, we’ll read Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series instead. )
Finally, on the 20th, Tom Petty was born in Gainesville, Florida and will find his way into these pages again in a decade’s time. Till then Tom…let’s see what we thought of what as charting in October, 1950.
What’d Sadie think?
New to the charts this month is “Orange Coloured Sky” by Nat King Cole. It’s no patch on his cover of “Mona Lisa”, but is a kind of fun song seemingly based on a bad pick-up line:
I was walking along Mindin’ my business When out of the orange colored sky Flash! Bam! Alakazam! Wonderful you came by
“Orange Coloured Sky” by Nat King Cole
There’ll be a bunch of versions of the tune before the year is out so clearly 1950’s USA liked it a lot more than we did. Meanwhile there’s four versions of “All my love” in the charts already, and the Bing Crosby version I’ve included this week is the best so far. It’s also Crosby’s third hit in the charts this month – the other two being “Play a Simple Melody” and “Sam’s Song” both duets with his son.
But it’s the two Kay Starr songs that continue to chart, “I’ll Never Be Free” and “Bonaparte’s Retreat” that are Sadie and my favourite tunes for a dance along currently.
Perry Como’s “Patricia” is very forgettable but did make me wonder what portion of ’50s tunes are simply named after a woman. That might be something interesting to chart over time. Mental note!
Over in the R&B chart Lowell Fulson’s “Blue Shadows” is at number 1 and it’s got a great groove. Though it also has lyrics that are just a little too ’50s:
If you got a good woman, you better take my advice Yes and treat her like an angel, keep her home at any price
“Blue Shadows” by Lowell Fulson
The ‘blue’ references in the R&B chart continue with Louis Jordan’s “Blue Light Boogie” which is a great dance number. And the tunes only get a little more sultry and soulful from there with a trio of great tunes, all of which feature a decent saxophone part – “Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere”, “Everyday I have the blues” and “Teardrops from my Eyes”
Tune of the chart though has to be Percy Mayfield’s, “Please Send Me Someone to Love” which will make its way to number 1 in a few weeks, and is a sly mix of social commentary and love song:
Heaven please send to all mankind, Understanding and peace of mind. But, if it’s not asking too much Please send me someone to love.
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” by Percy Mayfield
Well I had intended to keep it light, but then I came across this advert in Billboard and was intrigued enough to investigate:
There’s not actually a lot I can find online about this. But apparently Private John J McCormick was killed in action in the Korean War in August of 1950 and his “last letter” home was published in newspapers across the USA. Country singer Tex Ritter then put the letter to a tear-jerker song which I’ve embedded below.
Perhaps fittingly McCormick was born in Pennsylvania, a state that has been very much a metaphorical battleground back here in 2020 this past week.
Also found in the same issue was this ad:
I wondered if Punk arrived a little earlier than I thought, but no! It’s a halloween song, that doesn’t make the charts but which might be a useful way to end the month on a lighter note:
And when you’re done with that you can listen to the full October playlist on Youtube via this link if you’ve not already started.
