Blog

Here in London, 2020 it’s our first snow day of winter. And Sadie’s first ever, so much excitement to be had. Let’s soundtrack the occasion with the songs of September, 1951.

The songs of September, 1951

Quite a few new songs on the pop charts to delve into this month so we’ll stick to all those that made it into the top 20 across the course of the month:

September, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“And So To Sleep Again” – Patti Page
“Because Of You” – Jan Peerce
“Because Of You” – Les Baxter
“Because Of You” – Tony Bennett
“Because” – Mario Lanza
“Belle Belle My Liberty Belle” – Guy Mitchell
“Cold Cold Heart” – Tony Bennett
“Come On-A My House” – Rosemary Clooney
“Detour” – Patti Page
“Down Yonder” – Del Wood
“I Get Ideas” – Louis Armstrong
“I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin
“It’s No Sin” – Eddy Howard
“It’s No Sin” – Four Aces
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Josephine” – Les Paul
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Guy Mitchell
“Shanghai” – Billy Williams Quartet
“Shanghai” – Doris Day
“Sweet Violets” – Dinah Shore
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole
“Turn Back The Hands Of Time” – Eddie Fisher
“Undecided” – Ames Brothers / Les Brown
“Vanity” – Don Cherry
“Whispering” – Les Paul

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

This month in history

So what was going on in September, 1951?

US, Australia and New Zealand sign the ANZUS mutual defense treaty. Mostly notable, for my youthful memories, because 3 decades later the USA would pull out of the treaty in response to New Zealand’s refusal to allow nuclear powered, or armed, vessels into their water. Go kiwis!

Meanwhile in less progressive news, in this month in 1951 Swiss males votes against female suffrage. Which already seems a little out of step with the times until you dig into it and realise that they didn’t allow women to vote in national elections until 1971, and even later in some regions.

In more positive news, and a win for nominative determinism, Professor Jongbloed (“young blood”) of Holland demonstrated an artificial heart in Paris this month.

In high-art news, Stravinsky’s opera “Rake’s Progress,” premiered in Venice. The Opera is based on the eight paintings A Rake’s Progress by William Hogarth from 1734. The series shows the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell, the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in Bedlam. Making them a kind of comic for the 18th century.

You can actually hear the premiere of the Opera on Youtube:

An in other premieres, this month saw the first broadcast of “Search for Tomorrow” on CBS in the USA. The program was one of several packaged from the 1950s through the 1980s by Procter & Gamble, the broadcasting arm of the household products megacorp. P&G used the show to advertise products like Joy dishwashing liquid and Spic and Span household cleaner. You can see an episode from 1953 and get a peek into ’50s life here:

What’d Sadie think?

As well as experiencing her first snow day Sadie turned 5 months old this week. So she’s really starting to show preferences for certain songs – particularly the melodic and clearly rhymed of course.

So she particularly liked Patti Page’s, “And So To Sleep Again” which is very sweet number indeed.

Big thank you to Tony Bennet this week, because his song “Because of You” knocked “Come-on-a my house” off the top of the charts for the last 3 weeks. It was one of 3 versions of the song charting across September – we’ve actually included the Jan Peerce version this time. And one of two songs that began with “Because…”, the other being the excellent Mario Lanza tune.

“Belle Belle My Liberty Belle” by Guy Mitchell is catchy but a little retrograde when it comes to its sexual politics:

There’s pretty girls in Singapore and the Philippines
All along Killarney shore, oh, the fair colleens
There’s sweet Fifi from gay Paree and Wilhelmina, too
But Belle, Belle, my Liberty Belle, I’m still in love with you

“Belle Belle My Liberty Belle” by Guy Mitchell

It reminds me of a style of rap song from my own childhood, such as “Hypnotize” by the Notorious B.I.G. which does a similar shout out to women from different places around the world (and their sartorial tastes in this case):

I put hoes in NY onto DKNY (Uh-huh)
Miami, D.C. prefer Versace (That’s right)
All Philly hoes go with Moschino (Come on)
Every cutie with a booty bought a Coogi

“Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G.

The other Tony Bennet song in the charts was his version of the Hank Williams song, “Cold Cold Heart”. Apparently his version is credited with exploding Williams’ country sound to a wider audience. Allmusic writer Bill Janovitz notes, “That a young Italian singing waiter from Queens could find common ground with a country singer from Alabama’s backwoods is testament both to Williams’ skills as a writer and to Bennett’s imagination and artist’s ear.”

Apparently Williams subsequently, jokingly, telephoned Bennett to say, “Tony, why did you ruin my song?” an anecdote he used on stage throughout his life.

“Down Yonder” by Del Wood is an instrumental tune that sounded very 1920’s silent film soundtrack to my ear, which turns out to be spot on as it was first published in 1921. I wonder if that hitting the charts was the equivalent of a ’90s cover today?

Apparently the Tony Martin version of “I get ideas” charted higher than the Louis Armstrong one, which is a great injustice as the Armstrong one is much better and the one we’ve included this month.

I noticed Sadie really enjoying Frankie Laine’s “Jezebel”, which has really grown on me too. Also the version we’ve included in the playlist this week has some hilarious imagery and the lyrics included if you watch the video. There’s any number of versions of some of these songs uploaded by various people on YouTube and some amusing imagery and contents if you bother to look.

Dinah Shore’s “Sweet Violets” is one of my favourite songs of the month. I love the lyrical trope she employees, which I have just learnt the name for – “subverted rhyme”. That is where the expected rhyme of each couplet is replaced with an unexpected word which segues into the next couplet or chorus.

There once was a farmer who took a young miss
In back of the barn where he gave her a…
Lecture on horses and chickens and eggs
And told her that she had such beautiful…
Manners that suited a girl 

“Sweet Violets” by Dinah Shore

Two Les Paul songs in the charts this month. Every time I hear something from him, especially a track like the instrumental “Whispering” I just think, “bring on the guitar solos of 70s/80s rock…”. Though, that’s some way off yet!

His other song is “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” with Mary Ford. Which feels like a song, thematically at least, for these times – as a new President is inaugurated in the USA and the Covid vaccine rolls out. On that positive note, enjoy this week’s playlist, and see you next time!

It’s August back in 1951 and my how time flies… especially if you missed out on July, 1951 – which many of you may have as I forgot to press send on last week’s entry. Oops! So jump back to July if you’re interested before seeing what this month has in store.

The songs of August, 1951

Not a lot of variety in the charts this month…

August, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“Because Of You” – Les Baxter
“Because Of You” – Les Baxter Chorus
“Because Of You” – Tony Bennett
“Because” – Mario Lanza
“Belle Belle My Liberty Belle” – Guy Mitchell
“Cold Cold Heart” – Tony Bennett
“Come On-A My House” – Kay Starr
“Come On-A My House” – Rosemary Clooney
“Detour” – Patti Page
“Down Yonder” – Del Wood
“How High The Moon” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin
“I Won’T Cry Anymore” – Tony Bennett
“I’M In Love Again” – Henri Rene / April Stevens
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Josephine” – Les Paul
“Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” – Weavers
“Laura” – Stan Kenton Orchestra
“Mister And Mississippi” – Patti Page
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Guy Mitchell
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
“Rose Rose I Love You” – Frankie Laine
“Shanghai” – Doris Day
“Sweet Violets” – Dinah Shore
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole
“Vanity” – Don Cherry
“Whispering” – Les Paul

…so we’re supplementing with the top 10 R&B songs from the month:

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

This month in history

The biggest thing going on in August, 1951 (probably not) was the 12th Venice International Film Festival. Which had some particularly fine films premiering.

The Special Jury Prize went to “A Streetcar Name Desire” in which Marlon Brando defines what masculinity looks like for the decade.

And Best Picture went to Kurosawa’s “Rashomon”, which is a personal favourite.

A film I hadn’t heard of is “Ace in the Hole” which won Best Original Music. Which sounds both excellent and timely. As wikipedia describes it, “The story is a biting examination of the seedy relationship between the press, the news it reports and the manner in which it reports it. The film also shows how a gullible public can be manipulated by the press.”.

The Hollywood Reporter was one of many newspapers who took umbrage, calling it “ruthless and cynical…a distorted study of corruption and mob psychology that…is nothing more than a brazen, uncalled-for slap in the face of two respected and frequently effective American institutions – democratic government and the free press.”. Check out the trailer below:

What’d Sadie think?

Of course, after wishing it away last week, “Come on-a My House” was number 1 for all of August, 1951, typical!

“I’m In Love Again” by April Stevens has been charting for a couple of months but hadn’t really hit it with me till this week. Which caused me to take a look behind the scenes and discover that April is still around (at 91) which got me thinking I should check that out more – I’d assumed most of the hitmakers from this far back would have passed away.

Amusingly, speaking of her age, in her 2013 autobiography Stevens admitted to taking years off her age during the ’60s to compete with acts in their late teens and early 20s, that were dominating the teenybopper charts of the time.

“I’m In Love Again” was her biggest solo hit, early on in a long career, and was written by Cole Porter I now realise.

As there wasn’t much movement on the pop charts at all so let’s focus on what was in the R&B charts we’ve been gifted with for the month…

First one to really hit for me is the number 2 spot, “Don’t you know I love you” by The Clovers. The first big song from a band that would go on to produce (spoiler alert!) classics like “Love Potion no 9” in 1959.

Lucky Millinder’s “I’m waiting just for you” is a big band take on R&B which I’ve not heard much of. Apparently the awesomely named chap couldn’t read or write music, didn’t play an instrument and rarely sang, but had showmanship by the tonne and you can really feel that personality come through in the horns of this arrangement.

By the time I got to Ruth Brown’s awesome “I Know” I’d seen a name come up several times (on “Chains of Love” and “Don’t you know I love you”) – Ahmet_Ertegun. Ertegun, born in Turkey and immigrant to the USA, was the co-founder and president of Atlantic Records and not only discovered numerous R&B acts but was credited with writing a number of them also. He normally used the name, A. Nugetre, his surname backwards.

“All night long” by Johnny Otis is another great tune from Billboard magazine’s “R&B Artist of the Year (1950)”. Like Ertegun he had an unexpected background for an R&B artist, being born in California to Greek parents. He’s quoted as saying, of his deep immersion into the African-American community, “As a kid I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be black”.

“Bloodshot Eyes” by Wynonie Harris wins the politically incorrect award for the month, but it’s a catchy number all the same. Harris seems to specialise in innuendo laden tunes, which is exactly what I’ve been waiting for from the ’50s – bring on his hits “I Want My Fanny Brown” and “Lollipop Mama” etc…

On that edgy note take a listen to this week’s playlist.

In our weird accelerated trip through time we’ve made it to the middle of 1951, while we’ve barely stepped into January back in 2020. Let’s see what July, 1951 sounds like!

The songs of July, 1951

We’re sticking to the core pop charts this month and highlighting the new versions of songs that have popped on the past couple of weeks.

July, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“Be My Love” – Mario Lanza
“Because Of You” – Tony Bennett
“Because” – Mario Lanza
“Come On-A My House” – Rosemary Clooney
“Detour” – Patti Page
“How High The Moon” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin
“I Won’t Cry Anymore” – Tony Bennett
“I’m In Love Again” – Henri Rene / April Stevens
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Josephine” – Les Paul
“Longing For You” – Vic Damone
“Mister And Mississippi” – Dennis Day
“Mister And Mississippi” – Patti Page
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Patti Page
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Guy Mitchell
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Vic Damone
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Vaughn Monroe
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
“Rose Rose I Love You” – Frankie Laine
“Shanghai” – Doris Day
“Sound Off” – Vaughn Monroe
“Sweet Violets” – Dinah Shore
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole

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

This month in history

Mario Lanza’s “The Loveliest Night Of The Year” has been on the charts for a few weeks. The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed its credited in the playlist to the soundtrack of “The Great Caruso” a 1951 film about Italian tenor Enrico Caruso.

Caruso was one of the first major singing talents to be commercially recorded, making 247 commercially released recordings from 1902 to 1920, and turning himself a global star in the process.

Verdict was at the time that there were very few voices at the time that could come close to Caruso’s to play him on screen but that Lanzo did a pretty decent job. You can make up your own mind in the clips below.

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

What’d Sadie think?

Nat King Cole’s “Too Young” for 3 weeks of the month before “Come on-a my house” grates it way to the top spot. Fingers crossed its a V shaped ascent and descent because I’ve already had enough of that one!

We already knew 1951 has a diversity problem but when you’ve got Tony (Martin) vs Tony (Bennett) battling it out on the charts… you have to pick a side. Bennett’s “I Won’t Cry Anymore” is the winner for me.

Then you’ve got Vic Damone (“Longing For You”) vs Vic Damone (“My Truly Truly Fair”) where the former would be our pick.

And finally there’s greedy Patti Page with “Detour”, “Mockin’ Bird Hill” and “Mister And Mississippi” all charting. The latter is a bonafide ear-worm and a great sing-a-long so it gets the points.

What’s missing is a decent duet – 1950 got us addicted to them so here’s hoping that August brings us one.

It’s probably because we dove deep into “The Great Caruso” but Mario Lanza’s two songs are our chart jams of the month. So let’s end it on another with his version of “Ave Maria” from the film. Then enjoy this month’s playlist till next week!

It’s the holiday break here in London town and we’re hoping a bleak 2020 turns to a bright 2021. We also hope you all saw in the new year in a suitable, if probably different, fashion. But let’s jump back to June, 1951 and see what it sounds like there.

The songs of June, 1951

We’ll keep it compact on account of the holiday so here’s the top twenty songs across the weeks that made up June, 1951:

June, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“Be My Love” – Mario Lanza
“Because Of You” – Tony Bennett
“Come On-A My House” – Rosemary Clooney
“How High The Moon” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“I Apologize” – Billy Eckstine
“I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin
“I Like The Wide Open Spaces” – Arthur Godfrey / Laurie Anders
“I’M In Love Again” – Henri Rene / April Stevens
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Josephine” – Les Paul
“Mister And Mississippi” – Dennis Day
“Mister And Mississippi” – Patti Page
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Patti Page
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Guy Mitchell
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Vic Damone
“Old Soldiers Never Die” – Vaughn Monroe
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Burl Ives
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Vaughn Monroe
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
“Rose Rose I Love You” – Frankie Laine
“Sound Off” – Vaughn Monroe
“Sweet Violets” – Dinah Shore
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“The Syncopated Clock” – Leroy Anderson
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole
“Unless” – Eddie Fisher
“Unless” – Guy Mitchell
“When You And I Were Young Maggie Blues” – Bing & Gary Crosby

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

This month in history

Reading the pages of Billboard this month the hot topic was the first commercial TV broadcasts in colour. They trialled a range of shows and you really need to read the “reviews” to understand just how revolutionary colour was, yet how mundane the problems and technicalities were.

I’ve included the full review of the cooking show (right hand column in the first image and then subsequent) so you can enjoy such comments as, “the fried chicken certainly was lent enchantment”.

And if anything else was happening in June 1951 apart from the realisation that red nail polish was distracting during cooking shows… I don’t know about it!

What’d Sadie think?

Two number ones this month, Les Paul & Mary Ford hang on for two more weeks with “How High the Moon” after dominating May and then the much better “Too Young” by Nat King Cole hits the top spot for two.

“Jezebel” by Frankie Laine is the song that’s grown on me the most after a few weeks in the charts. And “Because Of You” by Tony Bennett is my fave new piece of schmaltz.

But its “Come On-A My House” by Rosemary Clooney that has the interesting back story this month.

It was written by Ross Bagdasarian and his cousin, Armenian-American Pulitzer Prize-winning author William Saroyan in summer 1939 but wasn’t performed publicly till it was incorporated into an off-Broadway musical, “The Son”. The melody is based on an Armenian folk song and references Armenian hospitality customs.

Bagdasarian wasn’t a name I recognised but apparently he is the creator of “Alvin and the Chipmunks” who we’ll come across in a few years. Clooney, who made the song popular with her 1951 cover, admitted she hated the song despite the number of records it sold. In fact she only sung it under duress, threatened with being fired, and claims she could hear the anger in her voice from being forced to sing it in the final recording. Personally I can’t, but it definitely does grate a little…

I also noted in Billboard that Vic Damone, who has been in our charts a number of times over the past year, has made the cross-over to the big screen in “Rich, Young and Pretty”. His song charting this month, “My Truly Truly Fair” wasn’t bad, but what is really fun is this song and dance number from the film, “How D’Ya Like Your Eggs in the Morning”.

You can find all of the song & dance numbers from the film on Youtube if you enjoyed that as much as us. In the meanwhile, Happy New Year and enjoy the hits of June, 1951!

While it’s a merry Christmas, lockdown be damned, back here in 2020; it is May, 1951 in our quest through the hit parades of the past. Let’s see what they have for us, shall we?

The songs of May, 1951

A small crop of new songs make it into the top 20 this month. But it does seems like, thus far, 1951 has less of 3, or even 4, versions of a song in the charts simultaneously. Perhaps that was a 1950 thing, not a 1950’s thing. We’ll see!

May, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“Aba Daba Honeymoon” – Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter
“Be My Love” – Mario Lanza
“How High The Moon” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“I Apologize” – Billy Eckstine
“I Like The Wide Open Spaces” – Arthur Godfrey / Laurie Anders
“If” – Perry Como
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Mister And Mississippi” – Patti Page
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Patti Page
“Moonlight Bay” – Bing & Gary Crosby
“My Truly Truly Fair” – Guy Mitchell
“Old Soldiers Never Die” – Vaughn Monroe
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Vaughn Monroe
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
“Rose Rose I Love You” – Frankie Laine
“Sound Off” – Vaughn Monroe
“Sparrow In The Tree Top” – Guy Mitchell
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“The Syncopated Clock” – Leroy Anderson
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole
“Unless” – Eddie Fisher
“Unless” – Guy Mitchell
“When You And I Were Young Maggie Blues” – Big & Gary Crosby
“Would I Love You” – Patti Page

I’ve supplemented the pop charts with a top 10 R&B chart from the month. For the first time we have a cross-over hit – “How High The Moon” by Les Paul & Mary Ford appears on both. There’s also an instrumental cover of previous pop hit “Tennessee Waltz Blues” but more on that soon.

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

This month in history

Let’s dive into some art history this month. In May, 1951 the “9th Street Art Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture” was held in New York on the eponymous street. The exhibition is notable as the debut of Abstract Expressionism, which became the first American visual art movement with international influence.

Jackson Pollock is probably the most recognisable name, but in all over 70 artists exhibited in an attempt to get them, then largely unknowns, attention by way of volume. You can read plenty more on it here.

I found an article on the, often overlooked, women of the 9th Street exhibition rather interesting. And you can see an old film, with some artists from the show, reminiscing about it below:

And then, writing this after young Sadie had a somewhat restless night, here’s a very appropriate Peanuts comicstrip from May 18, 1951.

What’d Sadie think?

As mentioned, “How High The Moon” by Les Paul and Mary Ford is on both the pop and R&B chart this month. It’s actually number 1 all throughout May on the main charts. It’s grown on me.

But it’s the other cross-over, an instrumental version of “Tennessee Waltz Blues” by the awesomely named Stick McGhee, that is one of my favourites of the month. (Apparently Stick’s nickname comes from when he used a stick to push a wagon carrying his older brother Brownie McGhee, who had contracted polio.)

Problematic tune of the month is “I Like The Wide Open Spaces” by Arthur Godfrey & Laurie Anders with its lyrics about “super chiefs” but that aside its a niece western tune.

It’s a month for singing about American geography with “Mister and Mississippi” by Patti Page which is a rather evocative story of growing up in the west:

My cradle was the river
My school a river boat
My teacher was a gambler
The slickest one afloat
My teacher was a gambler
The slickest one afloat
He taught me not to gamble on a petticoat

“Mister and Mississippi” by Patti Page

Speaking of Patti Page, we have her version of “Mocking bird hill” this month which is definitely a better cover than Les Paul’s from previously.

With the Korean War still raging, songs of war seem to be in vogue so Vaughn Monroe, of “On Top of Old Smokey” from last month, has “Old Soldiers Never Die” charting. A classic piece of American Exceptionalism it really doesn’t sit well with me…

On the seventh day of December
In the year of forty-one
The free world met disaster
At the hands of the Rising Sun

“Old Soldiers Never Die” by Vaughn Monroe

Come on… Let’s skip quickly onto the R&B charts. Where we find my song of the month, “Rocket 88” by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. It’s often credited as the first rock ‘n’ roll song and comes with a great story about how the sound came about,

“the bass amplifier fell off the car. And when we got in the studio, the woofer had burst; the cone had burst. So I stuck the newspaper and some sack paper in it, and that’s where we got that sound”.

Also great are, Percy Mayfield’s “Lost Love” and Charles Brown’s “Black Night”. The latter balances out the bombastic war lyrics of “Old Soldiers Never Die” with a sadder, timely, tale of woe,

My mother has the trouble
My father has it too
Brother’s in Korea
And I don’t know just what to do

“Black Night” by Charles Brown

Piano Red’s “Reds Boogie” is a great proto-rock sound as is the double-entendre laden “Sixty Minute Men” by The Dominoes. So go ahead and listen to this month’s playlist via this link now!

As we write this here in 2020 family christmases have been cancelled across the UK and disputes over fisheries are likely to scupper a Brexit deal…so let’s escape back to April, 1951 shall we?

The songs of April, 1950

A nice crop of new songs this month makes for a great playlist. Easter was in the last week of March that year so Peter Cottontail had already hopped off and away.

April, 1951 Top 20 Hits

“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
“If” – Perry Como
“Jezebel” – Frankie Laine
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Mockin’ Bird Hill” – Patti Page
“Moonlight Bay” – Bing & Gary Crosby
“My Heart Cries For You” – Guy Mitchell
“On Top Of Old Smokey” – Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
“September Song” – Stan Kenton / Orchestra
“Sound Off” – Vaughn Monroe
“Sparrow In The Tree Top” – Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters
“Sparrow In The Tree Top” – Guy Mitchell
“Tennessee Waltz” – Patti Page
“The Hot Canary” – Florian Zabach
“The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza
“The Syncopated Clock” – Leroy Anderson
“Too Young” – Nat King Cole
“When You And I Were Young Maggie Blues” – Bing & Gary Crosby
“Would I Love You” – Doris Day / Harry James
“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:

This month in history

A picture tells a thousand words and a trailer for a film from 1951… can be very amusing at least. And in April 1951 “The Thing From Another World” from director Howard Hawkes is released. I have a thing for classic era films and Hawkes is a favourite, especially when he directs Cary Grant in “His Girl Friday”. I’ve not seen “The Thing” but apparently its from a novella by sci-fi pioneer John W. Campbell and it looks kitsch enough that I’m going to have to seek it out.

From science fiction to science – April 1951 was the month of Operation Greenhouse, a nuclear weapon testing programme by the USA. Conducted at the new Pacific Proving Ground, on islands of the Enewetak Atoll, the April 7 explosion is known for an image taken of those viewing featuring numerous VIPs wearing safety goggles sitting on Adirondack chairs while being illuminated by the flash of the detonation. Oh my!

A fascinating 1951 government film about how necessary and “awesome” this all was can be watched below:

What’d Sadie think?

The number 1 for the month was split between two songs, Perry Como’s “If” and newcomer, “How High the Moon” by Les Paul and Mary Ford. I don’t rate it myself but clearly the masses did. It was also to be the last month Tennessee Waltz was to chart in the top 20, with it slipping to last place. After countless versions and months in the charts I’m not too sad to see it go.

Sadie has become a real little dancer and “Aba Daba Honeymoon” really got her going. It’s also a massive ear-worm, after the repetition of a few weeks in the charts, so we’re now gibbering like the titular chimps around this house.

Mario Lanza’s “Be My Love” is now also a favourite after a few chartings and I can see why it was his first million-seller. It’s melodramatic as all heck, but then we were listening to the Sound of Music directly before so obviously we were primed for cheese. (Why? Because it turns out neither Emily or I knew the words to “Do Re Mi” properly which was not apparent till we found ourselves trying to sing it to Sadie.)

It’s been a while since we’ve had a song that sounds like it comes straight off the soundtrack for a cowboy film, so its up to Frankie Laine’s “Jezebel” (actually an old testament story) to deliver. And you can even see Laine deliver it in a TV performance below:

Bing Crosby has three songs in the charts, two of which are duets with his son Gary – “Moonlight Bay” and “When You And I Were Young Maggie Blues”. Both feature excellent father-son banter.

“i’ve been requested to sing an old time song”

“well you’re the man to sing it dad”

“don’t be cheeky theres 3 very clever lads at home waiting to replace you”

Bing and Gary Crosby banter.

As well as both having great bants, they’re both fun tunes. And what I didn’t realise till now is Gary was only 18 at the time. His voice sounds much more mature and I’m a fan of his almost scat like rapid delivery in contrast to his father’s saloon drawl.

The other Bing Crosby song is “Sparrow In The Tree Top” with the Andrew Sisters which is another excellent duet.

“Sound off” by Vaughan Monroe is terrible but notable as a military themed song released while we were in the thick of the Korean War. The song inspired a film of the same name released the next year with Mickey Rooney. I’m also slightly sad I can’t find a version of this Spike Jones song, advertising in an April ’51 issue of Billboard, to round out the theme…

And lastly, “Too Young” by Nat King Cole is a tale of young love that just sounds (thematically and sonically) quintessentially 1950s. So enjoy that, and the rest of the playlist till next we meet!