It’s beginning to feel a lot like…Xmas? Yes indeed because here we are at the very end of a second year in our 4x Life journey. 1951 is all but done and dusted just as the last dustings of snow fall on London back in 2021.
The songs of December, 1951
We’ve combined the top 20 pop hits of the month…
December, 1951 Top 20 Hits
“Any Time” – Eddie Fisher “Because Of You” – Tony Bennett “Charmaine” – Mantovani “Cold Cold Heart” – Tony Bennett “Cry” – Johnnie Ray “Dance Me Loose” – Arthur Godfrey / Chordettes “Domino” – Tony Martin “Down Yonder” – Del Wood “Down Yonder” – Joe Fingers Carr “I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin “It’s No Sin” – Eddy Howard “It’s No Sin” – Four Aces “It’s No Sin” – Savannah Churchill “Jealousy” – Frankie Laine “Jingle Bells” – Les Paul “Mother At Your Feet Is Kneeling” – Bobby Wayne “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” – Gene Autry “Shrimp Boats” – Jo Stafford “Slow Poke” – Helen O’Connell “Slow Poke” – Pee Wee King / Redd Stewart “Tell Me Why” – Four Aces “The Little White Cloud That Cried” – Johnnie Ray “Turn Back The Hands Of Time” – Eddie Fisher “Undecided” – Ames Brothers / Les Brown “Unforgettable” – Nat King Cole “White Christmas” – Bing Crosby
…with a top 10 R&B chart for a playlist full of ’51s finest.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
For very dull technical reasons I have to spend some time this week working on some of the code that keeps 4x Life purring. Without boring you (much further) the source I’m getting my charts from has changed slightly and to automate how 4-5 weeks of charts are combined into one de-duplicated chart for the month I need to make some tweaks under the hood.
So we’ll skip over the history of the month except to say…oh 1951, you don’t what a “trying” year is! Try 2020 on for size, eh!
What’d Sadie think?
And we’ll leave the song commentary for the week just as simple. Unlike last year, there was no big battle for the Xmas song of the season it seems. No new contenders and the old classics, White Xmas and Rudolph only made it as high as number 16 in consecutive weeks. One assumes most people still had a copy of them from the past couple of years!
The number one spot was shared across the month, twice by Tony Bennett’s “Cold, Cold Heart”, then twice by Eddy Howard’s “It’s No Sin”, with Johnnie Ray’s “Cry” rounding out the month.
Which was the best? We’ll go for Johnnie Ray’s “Cry” but you make up your own mind when you listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
We’re starting to see Daffodils popping up about the place as we go for our state-sanctioned daily exercise here in London. Meanwhile its nearing Xmas time again back in our 1951 timeline…
The songs of November, 1951
A few new songs hitting the charts this month…
November, 1951 Top 20 Hits
“And So To Sleep Again” – Patti Page “Because Of You” – Les Baxter “Because Of You” – Tony Bennett “Blue Velvet” – Tony Bennett “Charmaine” – Mantovani “Cold Cold Heart” – Tony Bennett “Cry” – Johnnie Ray “Domino” – Tony Martin “Down Yonder” – Del Wood “Down Yonder” – Joe Fingers Carr “I Get Ideas” – Louis Armstrong “I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin “It’s All In The Game” – Tommy Edwards “It’s No Sin” – Eddy Howard “It’s No Sin” – Four Aces “It’s No Sin” – Savannah Churchill “Jealousy” – Frankie Laine “Just One More Chance” – Les Paul & Mary Ford “Out In The Cold Again” – Richard Hayes “Shrimp Boats” – Jo Stafford “Slow Poke” – Pee Wee King / Redd Stewart “The Little White Cloud That Cried” – Johnnie Ray “The Loveliest Night Of The Year” – Mario Lanza “The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise” – Les Paul & Mary Ford “Turn Back The Hands Of Time” – Eddie Fisher “Undecided” – Ames Brothers / Les Brown “Unforgettable” – Nat King Cole “Whispering” – Les Paul
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
A single song of ’51 throughout the decades
Pop songs of the ’50s invariably have a rich history when I dig into them. So few just arrive at the time, many being based on folk songs or pieces from decades prior that have been mixed and mashed with new lyrics or placed into a new genre.
I found the back story to Tommy Edwards’ “It’s All In The Game” particularly fascinating. It didn’t make it to number 1 this month, that was Tony Bennett’s “Cold Cold Heart” which dominated after his song “Because of You” won the top spot the previous month.
The melody to “It’s all in the game” was composed by by Charles G. Dawes, who was later Vice President of the United States under Calvin Coolidge in the late ’20s. But he wrote it back in 1911. A friend of his took it to a publisher without his knowing so he was surprised to see it in a store window being sold alongside a picture of himself.
At the time he was a banker, having also served as “Comptroller of the Currency” for the US Department of Treasury. He quipped of the song, “I know that I will be the target of my punster friends. They will say that if all the notes in my bank are as bad as my musical ones, they are not worth the paper they were written on.”
Apparently he grew to detest the song as it was used to tease him during his political career. It became a favourite of violinist Fritz Kreisler, who used it as his closing number in the 1940s. You can hear that below:
Other performers such as Tommy Dorsey kept the tune topical during that decade:
Dawes actually died in April of 1951. In summer of that year, songwriter Carl Sigman had an idea for a song, and Dawes’s “Melody” struck him as suitable for his sentimental lyrics.
It was recorded by a range of artists who have come up in our charts so far – It was recorded that year by Dinah Shore, Sammy Kaye, Carmen Cavallaro, and Tommy Edwards.
As well as Louis Armstrong:
It wasn’t his 1951 version that was most famous though. In 1958, Edwards had only one session left on his MGM contract. Stereo recording was becoming a thing and it was decided to cut a stereo version of the song with a “rock and roll arrangement”. Though it’s not what we’d call rock today – but a guitar and drum backing rather than the original violins.
The single was a hit, reaching number one for six weeks in 1958 and reviving Edwards career for a few more years.
Its subsequently been recorded by a range of artists like Cliff Richard in the ’60s…
…and Merle Haggard in the 1970s. Quite the journey!
Now go listen to the full playlist of November 1951 hits via this link.
As we head towards the end of a full year in some form of lockdown, we are making it to the end of our second year of 4x life. It’s October, 1951 so let’s see what there is for us to listen to…
The songs of October, 1951
Not a lot of change on the pop charts this month…
October, 1951 Top 20 Hits
“And So To Sleep Again” – Patti Page “Because Of You” – Les Baxter “Because Of You” – Tony Bennett “Blue Velvet” – Tony Bennett “Cold Cold Heart” – Tony Bennett “Come On-A My House” – Rosemary Clooney “Detour” – Patti Page “Domino” – Tony Martin “Down Yonder” – Champ Butler “Down Yonder” – Del Wood “Down Yonder” – Joe Fingers Carr “Hey Good Lookin’” – Jo Stafford / Frankie Laine “I Get Ideas” – Louis Armstrong “I Get Ideas” – Tony Martin “It’s No Sin” – Eddy Howard “It’s No Sin” – Four Aces “It’s No Sin” – Savannah Churchill “Just One More Chance” – Les Paul & Mary Ford “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 “Whispering” – Les Paul
…so we’ll supplement with the best selling country songs of October. The two charts have a couple of songs in common, if not artists, which we’ll get to in a bit.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
If there’s a TV show which says 1950’s more than “I Love Lucy” then…someone let me know. It premiered in October of 1951 and ran through to 1957 across six seasons.
You can watch the beginning of the first episode below. It’s delightfully meta (and expectedly sexist) as it talks about Desi Arnaz’s impending TV stardom, “On television you have to have a pretty girl in your show to demonstrate your sponsors product.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5etvy5LqpW0
On a musical tip you can see a spot from a later episode where Arnaz sings the previously unknown words to the theme song:
The fact that the duo of Ball and Arnaz were a real couple (at least during the ’50s) only makes it more meta and delightful.
What’d Sadie think?
Tony Bennett’s “Because of You” continues its run at the top of the charts for all of October. It’s good but not deserving of that much time at the top to my ears.
It might be the rainy-saturday-morning-in-bed effect but this time around Les Paul and Mary Ford’s chillaxed “Just One More Chance” really struck a chord.
As did “Turn Back The Hands Of Time” by Eddie Fisher which Sadie particularly liked. It’s thematically very similar, singing about forbidden young love, as the still brilliant and still charting “Too Young” by Nat King Cole.
The pop and country charts are linked by two songs – “Hey Good Lookin’” by Jo Stafford & Frankie Laine and “Cold Cold Heart” by Tony Bennett on one side and Hank Williams who sings, and actually wrote, both on the other.
The original of a song isn’t always the best, especially in the ’50s where so many covers of hit songs are released, but in this case Hank’s versions are easily superior and both personal faves.
“I Wanna Play House With You” by Eddy Arnold is the other stand-out on the chart apart from… the quartet of hits by Lefty Frizzell. The man had a good month and listening to all four songs you can hear how his sound became so influential. As Merle Haggard said, “The impact Lefty had on country music is not even measurable. … No one could handle a song like Lefty. He would hold on to each word until he finally decided to drop it and pick up the next one. Most of us learned to sing listening to him.”
“Always Late” is my favourite of the four, with “Travellin’ blues” close behind. (Oh to have travellin’ blues as a problem we think from within lock down back in 2020.)
To end on then, here’s a video of Lefty singing one of his four hits of the month, “I want to be with you always” on TV some time later:
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…
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!
