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As London goes down into an extra level of Covid-19 lockdown we escape to July, 1950 to see what is popping.

The songs of July, 1950

BEWITCHED,Bill Snyder
BEWITCHED,Doris Day
BEWITCHED,Gordon Jenkins / Bonnie Lou Williams
BEWITCHED,Larry Green / Honeydreamers
BONAPARTE’S RETREAT,Kay Starr
COUNT EVERY STAR,Hugo Winterhalter
GOODNIGHT IRENE,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
I WANNA BE LOVED,Andrews Sisters / Gordon Jenkins
I WANNA BE LOVED,Billy Eckstine
MONA LISA,Art Lund
MONA LISA,Nat King Cole
MONA LISA,Victor Young / Don Cherry
MY FOOLISH HEART,Billy Eckstine
MY FOOLISH HEART,Gordon Jenkins / Sandy Evans
NOLA,Les Paul
PLAY A SIMPLE MELODY,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby
SAM’S SONG,Bing Crosby / Gary Crosby
SAM’S SONG,Joe Fingers Carr
SENTIMENTAL ME,Ames Brothers
SENTIMENTAL ME,Russ Morgan
SOMETIME,Mariners
THIRD MAN THEME,Anton Karas
THIRD MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
TZENA TZENA TZENA,Mitch Miller
TZENA TZENA TZENA,Vic Damone
TZENA TZENA TZENA,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins
VAGABOND SHOES,Vic Damone

A few new songs slipped into the top 20 this month, but the repetition rate was still awfully high as discussed last month. “Bewitched” had one less version charting – 4; but 3 versions of “Mona Lisa” and of “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” and 5 other songs with a couple of versions each kept the variety low-ish. So we’ve supplemented the 16 unique songs of July’s primary pop charts with ten from the “Country and Western” juke box charts.

Here the only repetition was in artist, with Ernest Tubb having 3 different songs ringing out in saloons around the states.

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

This month in history

July, 1950 is the month that the Korean War dragged in assorted countries from around the globe. I wasn’t aware that my own homeland, New Zealand, was one of the first to send troops in to support the USA, with the HMNZS Pukaki and HMNZS Tutira departing on July 3 to join the fracas.

And where there wasn’t actual war against the “communist creep” there was anti-commie propaganda in full effect, with the launch of Radio Free Europe. Beginning July 4, 1950 it would transmit 30 minutes of American programming to Czechoslovakia from a 7,500 watt short wave transmitter located at Lampertheim in West Germany. Music became part of the broadcast over time – which was the portion of the radio transmission least likely to be blocked by the Soviets apparently. Missing a trick in how important cultural products are in winning hearts and minds.

In interesting births this month – Huey Lewis, American musician and frontman of Huey Lewis and the News was born on the 5th of July. Huey is probably best known for “Power of Love” from the film “Back to the Future” which is, of course, set in the 1950s and shows the reaction of middle America to “rock n roll” at one point. We’ll come to a song from that in 7 years or so.

Also born this month was English billionaire businessman and founder of the Virgin Group conglomerate, Richard Branson. Who would start out in the music world with a single record store before branching out into Cola and space travel… amongst other things that actually made money. Space travel got an actual boost (pardon the pun) this month with Cape Canaveral in Florida, the home of future space mission launches, being used to launch a rocket for the first time on the 24th.

A full 5 years after the end of World War II, on July 10, the United Kingdom Food Minister Maurice Webb announced that rationing of soap would end in September of that year. Since 1942, households had been permitted only three ounces of soap, per person, per week. Which doesn’t seem so bad when you do the math and realise thats 75% of a typical bar of soap, but then again that would have been used for a lot more than just a lather in the shower back then I assume.

And on July 17th, the 8063rd Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (M.A.S.H.) was activated by the states in Korea, the division referenced in the TV show of the same name, as reminisced on last month.

The music industry was’t oblivious to all the war news this month, with concerns expressed in Billboard that an all-out war effort would impact on record production as the story below illustrates. Luckily for us, that eventually never came about.

What’d Sadie think?

“Goodnight, Irene” is a 20th-century folk standard, which Lead Belly first recorded in 1933. A year after his death, The Weavers recorded a version that charted this month and was one of the biggest songs of the year. I love the original but this one loses the gut wrenching rawness in amongst a thick group arrangement and substantially waters down the lyrics. This verse is totally tossed,

I asked your mother for you
She told me that you was too young
I wish dear Lord that I’d never seen your face
I’m sorry you ever were born

“Goodnight, Irene” – Lead Belly

And the lines about a self-induced morphine death were probably rightly considered too harsh for a mainstream audience at time, but then again,

Sometimes I live in the country
Sometimes I live in town
Sometimes I take a great notion
To jump into the river and drown

“Goodnight, Irene” – The Weavers

Is in both versions. Apparently Time magazine called this version “dehydrated” and “prettied up” – but that didn’t stop it spending 13 weeks at number 1.

I’m big enough to admit when I get it wrong. And i got it wrong choosing the Art Lund version of “Mona Lisa”. Written for the Paramount Pictures crime film “Captain Carey, U.S.A.” it won the Oscar for Best Original Song this year. But it was the Nat King Cole version that spent 5 weeks at number 1 not the soundtrack version. It’s a great song, whichever version, but I’ll include the Cole one in August’s playlist while it’s still charting.

Billy Eckstine has one delicious baritone voice which “I wanna be loved” shows off to full effect. It’s not a brilliant song, but as a voice showcase it makes me wonder where the baritone voices have gone amongst the tenors and falsettos of modern pop. I’m looking at you Justin Timberlake…(we’ll get to that in about 10 years Sadie).

“Play a simple melody” by Bing Crosby with his son Gary was recorded before the latter wrote a highly critical autobiography of his father, decades later. It’s an alright song but hardly a passing of the torch between generations.

“Hoop-de-doo” is still in the charts and still nonsense, but it’s become a song Sadie and I like to dance along to, so there’s the power of repetition and a simple catchy melody in effect.

Vic Damone has two charting songs during July, “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena” and “Vagabond Shoes”. The latter is fine but unremarkable. The former had three versions on the charts in July and was notable for being the first, and last, Hebrew song on the pop charts. But like “Goodnight, Irene” the lyrics were watered down. Who adapted it for the 1950s? The Weavers strike again. Clearly a successful technique of theirs. The full story of the song is well worth a read.

The country charts sound exactly how you expect a 1950’s country chart to sound – full of lost love and dead dogs. And completely owned by Ernest Tubb one week, with 3 songs on the charts – “Throw your love my way”, “I love you because”, “Give me a little old-fashioned love.”. I’m surprised a man that successful had to beg so many ways for a little lovin’…

They’re all pretty interchangeable ditties, if I had to choose one it would be “Give me a little old-fashioned love.” mostly because it makes me wonder what this new-fashioned love he’s contrasting this with is…?

My pick song of the country charts has to be Hank Williams, “Why Don’t You Love Me” because, well, Hank Williams. And he does longing better than Tubb does in any of trio his songs,

Well, why don’t you be just like you used to be
How come you find so many faults with me
Somebody’s changed so let me give you a clue
Why don’t you love me like you used to do

“Why Don’t You Love Me” – Hank Williams.

But I have to say, the design of this advert for another charting song, “Enclosed, one broken heart”, by Eddy Arnold from a Billboard issue this month is a visual delight that endeared me to the tune before I even heard it.

And on that note I leave you with a month’s worth of hits to listen to in an easy 1 hour, 12 minute playlist of pop.

It’s only six weeks into our adventure in audio and we’ve already reached the middle of 1950. Thanks to everyone for tuning in again and for the responses to the survey in our last post – your feedback is being taken into consideration. If you didn’t have your say, then feel free to click the link and do so.

The songs of June, 1950

BEWITCHED,Bill Snyder
BEWITCHED,Doris Day
BEWITCHED,Gordon Jenkins / Bonnie Lou Williams
BEWITCHED,Jan August / Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats
BEWITCHED,Larry Green / Honeydreamers
BONAPARTE’S RETREAT,Kay Starr
COUNT EVERY STAR,Hugo Winterhalter
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Mills Brothers
DOOP-DEE-DOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Doris Day
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Kay Starr
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
I WANNA BE LOVED,Andrews Sisters / Gordon Jenkins
I WANNA BE LOVED,Billy Eckstine
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
MONA LISA,Nat King Cole
MY FOOLISH HEART,Billy Eckstine
MY FOOLISH HEART,Gordon Jenkins / Sandy Evans
MY FOOLISH HEART,Mindy Carson
NOLA,Les Paul
ROSES,Sammy Kaye / Kaydets
SAM’S SONG,Joe Fingers Carr / Carr-Hops
SENTIMENTAL ME,Ames Brothers
SENTIMENTAL ME,Russ Morgan / Morganaires
THE OLD PIANO ROLL BLUES,Hoagy Carmichael / Cass Daley
THIRD MAN THEME,Anton Karas
THIRD MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
TZENA TZENA TZENA,Weavers / Gordon Jenkins
WANDERIN’,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo

According to Billboard magazine in June 1950, record sales were slow, for which six reasons are given in the short article included below. I can’t wait to explain to Sadie about record players and why “Too many speeds” and “Too many different sized spindle holes” was a problem one day. But the one that really resonates this month is “the need for an impartial committee to pick out the three top versions of a tune instead of having the 13 versions now available on ‘Third Man Theme'”. 13…versions!

Actually from my point of view, “Bewitched” would have been a better example. Only 2 versions of “Third Man Theme” flew as high as the top 20 this month, whereas 5 versions of “Bewitched” did. Bill Snyder, Doris Day, Gordon Jenkins, Larry Green, Bill Snyder and Jan Murad all had a crack at it. I’ve included the latter on this week’s playlist.

In fact, due to versionitis*, of the 29 songs that hit the top 20 in the four charts of June, there were only 17 unique songs. So I’ve supplemented the playlist with the top 10 from a Rhythm & Blues chart from June.

*Not a term used in the 1950s but I’m happy to offer them the term retrospectively.

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

This month in history

Whenever I find myself in a sports-orientated bar in the states it never ceases to amaze me how many TVs they can pack into the joint. There’s not an angle you can sit at, in some of them, without having a gigantic screen in front of you. Suffice it to say it wasn’t always this way, but by June 1950 TVs were already starting to encroach on people’s eye lines in bars.

Which was effecting Juke Box music plays, as the article below describes, a major source of direct revenue and promotion for record labels. But never fear, the canny jukebox manufacturers took the fight directly to the medium itself with TV ads to be played on the very TVs that were competing with them. Savvy!

In an attempt to showcase humankind’s ability to take one step forward, and two back the month of June, 1950 saw a life saving medical procedure created and a new major war begun.

The first human organ transplant in history was performed at the Little Company of Mary Hospital, in Chicago, Illinois on June 22, 1950. The patient received a kidney from a patient who had died an hour earlier from cirrhosis of the liver and would survive for five more years after the operation.

Only three days later the Korean War began when South Korean army bases near the border with North Korea came under fire without warning. After 45 minutes of shelling, North Korean troops invaded with six infantry divisions, an armoured brigade and three border brigades coming across the 38th parallel. With many of their personnel on weekend leave, the four South Korean divisions in the area were quickly overwhelmed, and the invaders proceeded toward the South Korean capital of Seoul.

Two days later still and U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered warships of the Seventh Fleet to assist South Korean forces in their resistance of the North Korean invasion – dragging the super power into what would be a 3 year conflict in which, as we know, millions of lives were lost.

M*A*S*H, the ’70s TV series set during the Korean War, was one of my favourite sitcoms as a child in the ’80s. I can’t find a definitive list of songs played on the show, but this playlist has 83 of them. The only one that I recognise from our adventure so far is, “Chattanooga Choo Choo”.

What’d Sadie think?

It’s been in the top 20 for three months but there’s no chance of me running out of new versions to listen to as we know, so this week it was Jerry Murad’s version of “Bewitched”. It seems that once a song has at least 3 versions charting, one of them inevitably has to be an instrumental version in 1950.

It’s less of a requirement that the version should be performed on…Harmonicas but that was going to be the case when Murad’s band is called, “The Harmonicats”. Which wins quirky band name of the week, and has led me to learn that harmonicas come in different flavours – with the four members of the group playing chromatic (x2), bass and chord harmonicas respectively. And in case I make them sound like one-hit wonders, actually the group charted with a number of different songs during this time and even had a number 1 hit a couple of years prior. So kudos them. Still not sold on this version of the song though.

Meanwhile, the Doris Day version of “Hoop-Dee-Doo” is much more to my liking than the Perry Como version from last month. Doris Day was an original “triple threat” – singer, dancer, actor. 1950 was early in her film career but here she is doing all three in a scene from “Tea for Two” that year:

I thought perhaps my historical knowledge was failing me when I couldn’t link the title of “Bonaparte’s Retreat” and the lyrics.

So I held her in my arms and told her of her many charms, I
Kissed her while the fiddles played
The Bonaparte’s Retreat

– Kay Starr, “Bonaparte’s Retreat”

But it turns out to be an intriguing amalgam of a song. The melody is a fiddle tune that dates back to the 1800s and celebrated Bonaparte’s retreat from Russia in 1812 that led to his defeat. Country artist Pee Wee King picked up that melody in 1950 and added lyrics about wooing a girl, with a very post-modern reference to the fiddle tune being played while he did so. Kay Starr then covered his version and sent it into the regular pop charts which is where we find it. Good tune, great back story.

“I wanna be loved” is in the pop charts covered by The Andrew Sisters and also in the R&B charts by Dinah Washington. The latter is our pick of the two. At some point in the next virtual year though we need to dig deeper into The Andrew Sisters who charted dozens of hits in the ’40s and sold over 80 million records over their career, which came to a close the beginning of this decade.

Ear worm of the week goes to “Sam’s Song” by Joe Carr, which is very meta as it is simply a song about what a catchy song it is…

Here’s a happy tune you’ll love to croon
They call it Sam’s song
It’s catchy as can be, the melody
They call it Sam’s song
Nothing on your mind
And then you’ll find you’re humming Sam’s Song

“Pink Champagne” by Joe Liggins is our pick from the songs on the R&B chart. Officially a “jump blues” song it sounds very proto-rock’n’roll to these ears from the future, and topped the R&B charts for a number of weeks as well as making it into the lower tiers of the pop charts even. #crossover

“Well, oh well” by Tiny Bradshaw is another great rockin’ number from this chart. Tiny is better known for another song that has some real rock’n’roll history, but we’ll discover that in a few months time…#spoileralert

So before we get ahead of ourselves let’s sign off for this week and leave you to enjoy the songs of June, 1950.

As of writing it’s the first week of October, 2020 and its been nothing but rain, rain, rain for three days here in London. But as the lyrics of ‘Rain’ by Frank Petty’s Trio, in May 1950’s charts, remind us, “Rain, it’s so cosy in the rain, There’s no reason to complain”. Perfect weather for listening to a new playlist of tunes in fact.

The songs of May, 1950

ARE YOU LONESOME TONIGHT,Blue Barron / Bobby Beers
BEWITCHED,Bill Snyder
BEWITCHED,Doris Day
BEWITCHED,Gordon Jenkins / Bonnie Lou Williams
BEWITCHED,Jan August / Jerry Murad’s Harmonicats
CHOO N GUM,Teresa Brewer
COUNT EVERY STAR,Hugo Winterhalter
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Mills Brothers
DEARIE,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
DEARIE,Jo Stafford & Gordon MacRae
DEARIE,Ray Bolger / Ethel Merman
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Kay Starr
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
I WANNA BE LOVED,Andrews Sisters / Gordon Jenkins
IF I KNEW YOU WERE COMIN’,Eileen Barton
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
LET’S GO TO CHURCH,Margaret Whiting
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Teresa Brewer
MY FOOLISH HEART,Billy Eckstine
MY FOOLISH HEART,Gordon Jenkins / Sandy Evans
MY FOOLISH HEART,Mindy Carson
RAIN,Frank Petty Trio
ROSES,Sammy Kaye / Kaydets
SENTIMENTAL ME,Ames Brothers
SENTIMENTAL ME,Russ Morgan / Morganaires
THE OLD PIANO ROLL BLUES,Hoagy Carmichael / Cass Daley
THE STARS AND STRIPES FOREVER,Frankie Laine
THIRD MAN THEME,Anton Karas
THIRD MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
VALENCIA,Tony Martin
WANDERIN’,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo

We’re sticking to the main Billboard chart this month, which gives us no less than 4 versions of “Bewitched”. But if that’s not enough, “variety” for you… just you wait for June’s sextet of covers of the song!

As usual I’ve just picked the one version of duplicate songs, the great Doris Day rendition in this case. Which does raise the question dear readers, would you prefer playlists included all versions that were charting that month or a single selection? And in a related ask, would a Spotify playlist be easier for you than a Youtube one?

I ask not idly, here is a link to a survey with 3 questions that I shall diligently listen to the results of, and my act on. So go ahead and let me know.

So go ahead and listen to May 1950’s tunes in the Youtube playlist now:

This month in history

Covid-19 seems like 2020’s answer to the challenge, “what could be more disruptive to the United Kingdom this year than Brexit?”. So it’s interesting to read that May, 1950 saw the inaugural Charlemagne Prize awarded for work done “in the service of European unification”. The first recipient was Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi, the founder of the Pan-European Movement. Who, again in a timely sense, also had an optimistic view of the future of race politics.

The man of the future will be of mixed race. Today’s races and classes will gradually disappear owing to the vanishing of space, time, and prejudice.

Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi,founder of the Pan-European Movement.

Meanwhile, in a less progressive place, the town of Mosinee, Wisconsin, was the site of a mock Communist takeover, designed to “teach Americans the meaning of good Americanism.”, staged by the local American Legion outpost. The town was renamed “Moskva” in the exercise and a Soviet flag flew in front of the American Legion outpost.

They went full method it appears, “There was a coup to oust the mayor; Russian flags hung along Main Street; townspeople who sang religious songs were arrested and ushered to a mock concentration camp; a menu at a local restaurant was changed to Russian fare.”

Mayor Ralph E. Kronenwetter, who had participated in the mock coup by allowing himself to be “arrested”, suffered a cerebral hemorrhage that evening, and died six days later which no doubt cemented the local’s objections to “commies”.

May was also the month that the McMinnville UFO photographs were taken and popularised, published in Life magazine and in newspapers across the country – kickstarting a phenomenon of similar sightings.

To this date many still claim them as the best evidence of alien visitation.

In other ideas that seemed all-to-alien at the time, May 1950 saw two landmark studies published, which gave tentative support to the crazy notion that cigarettes caused cancer. Which initially just gave brands the idea that science might be as well used to promote the habit, as disparage it, as seen in this 1953 advert:

And finally, in relevant births this month, Stevie Wonder, soul musician, was born Steveland Hardaway Judkins, in Saginaw, Michigan on May 13. We’ll see you in a few years Stevie!

What’d Sadie think?

April 1950 really affected me. I’m starting to hear talking trumpets everywhere. Like in the intro to Blue Barron (and his Orchestra’s) take on “Are you Lonesome Tonight?”. That aside, it’s a nice chill rendition. And while the mind instantly goes to the Elvis version from 1960, the original was actually from 1926. And subsequent versions, including this one, all included a spoken bridge which was based on a line in Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, and included a riff on Shakespeare, “You know someone said that the world’s a stage. And each must play a part”.

Spoken bridges are an interesting phenomenon and these days could be compared with a “rap” verse being dropped at the end of a pop song, which was almost de rigueur in the late ’90s. If we’re finding parallels to modern song structures, as I’m wont to do it seems, then I also note the frequent use of recorded introductions by the band leader/conductor to the singer, as in “It Isn’t Fair” By Sammy Kaye where he chimes in after the intro, “To sing this beautiful song, here is Don Cornell”. These days producers often drop an ID sample at the beginning of a song to identify it as theirs. As in the famous “mustard on the beat” sample (NSFW) used by DJ Mustard. Nothing’s new Sadie!

“It Isn’t Fair” is a better tune than “Roses” or “Wanderin'” which are the other two Sammy Kaye songs that charted this month – busy chap! Which don’t rate much of a mention, except to say that the name for his backing group, “the Kaydets” is great and I look forward to a ’50s of more ridiculous backing group names.

While her hit, “Music, Music, Music” is still on the charts Teresa Brewer has another with “Choo’n Gum” in May. Which shows again that nthing has changed and teen pop idols were as likely to go off the rails in the ’50s as they are today,

My mom gave me a nickel
To buy a pickle
I didn’t buy a pickle
I bought some choo’n gum

– “Choo’n Gum” by Teresa Brewer

Yikes! A quick descent into a drug habit from there I’m sure…stay tuned.

Lastly, Tony Martin’s cover of “Valencia” is a song of yearning for summer and faraway places that we can all feel after Summer 2020 in lockdown.

In my dreams it always seems
I hear you softly call to me
Valencia
Where the orange trees forever
Send the breeze beside the sea

– “Valencia” by José Padilla

It’s a great version. But will struggle to do as well as the 1926 version recorded by Paul Whiteman & his Orchestra, which became one of the biggest hits of 1926, topping the charts for 11-weeks straight. So let’s round out the month on a throw back to the ’20s with that version:

Shout outs to our Southern Hemisphere readers who are lucky enough to just be moving into summer now – make the most of it! And see you all in June, 1950 in a week’s time.

Welcome readers to April, 1950 and week 4 of our wee odyssey in music history. Kia Ora to those who recently find themselves following along after hearing about the project on Radio New Zealand’s “Sunday Morning with Jim Mora” show this weekend.

If you didn’t catch this, and want to hear a bit more about the project – then you can listen online. Thanks to Jim and Dave down there at RNZ for a very enjoyable chat. As Jim noted, even after 7 years in London, I’ve “not lost my kiwi accent”, so global listeners beware!

The songs of April, 1950

BEWITCHED,Bill Snyder
CANDY AND CAKE,Arthur Godfrey / Chordettes
CHATTANOOGIE SHOE SHINE BOY,Red Foley
CHINESE MULE TRAIN,Spike Jones
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Dick Todd
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Mills Brothers
DEARIE,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
DEARIE,Jo Stafford And Gordon MacRae
DEARIE,Ray Bolger / Ethel Merman
ENJOY YOURSELF,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
GO TO SLEEP GO TO SLEEP GO TO SLEEP,Arthur Godfrey / Mary Martin
HOOP-DEE-DOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
I SAID MY PAJAMAS,Tony Martin / Fran Warren
IF I KNEW YOU WERE COMIN’,Eileen Barton
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
LET’S GO TO CHURCH,Margaret Whiting
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Carmen Cavallaro / Bob Lido / Cavaliers
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Freddy Martin / Merv Griffin / Martin Men
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Teresa Brewer
MY FOOLISH HEART,Billy Eckstine
MY FOOLISH HEART,Gordon Jenkins / Sandy Evans
MY FOOLISH HEART,Mindy Carson
PETER COTTONTAIL,Gene Autry
PETER COTTONTAIL,Mervin Shiner
QUICKSILVER,Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters
SENTIMENTAL ME,Ames Brothers
SENTIMENTAL ME,Russ Morgan / Morganaires
THERE’S NO TOMORROW,Tony Martin
THID MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
THIRD MAN THEME,Anton Karas
THIRD MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
WANDERIN’,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo

April 1950 was not a month that rewarded originality – 8 songs in the charts had at least 2, if not 3, versions on high rotate. “Daddy’s Little Girl”, “Dearie”, “Music Music, Music”, “My Foolish Heart”, “Petter Cottontail”, “Sentimental”, “Third Man” and… the return of “Mule Train” as “Chinese Mule Train”, but let’s talk more about that later.

I decided to supplement the regular pop charts with the top 10 from the “Children’s Records” chart this week to see if they might appeal to Sadie. The only cross-over there was ol’ “Peter Cottontail”. Spoiler alert – this supplement was a mistake.

Go ahead and listen to the hits of April, 1950 in the embedded playlist below or on Youtube here. The children’s chart hits are at the end so listener beware.

This month in history

Do historical events cluster themselves, making some months more interesting in retrospect than others? “Probably not” a proper statistical analysis would tell us, but why let that get in the way of making the observation that April 1950 seems stacked with the beginning of “big things”?

For instance it was the month that TV got “more square”. Not in the sense of the term that was used at the time to mean someone who was out of touch, but in the sense that they moved from being slightly more widescreen to the square-ish 4:3 ratio that dominated for the next 60 years before 16:9 widescreen became the norm in the 2010s.

I imagine Sadie will view 4:3 TV content the same way I viewed black & white content as a child – old fashioned and difficult to digest. That said, I hope she agrees one day that a TV with built in drinks cabinet is something that should have survived past the 1950s…

This project finds me going down plenty of “rabbit holes” when researching the music and times, which is exactly what I’d hoped. One of which was the origin of the term “square”. The best account is that its a ’40s jazz term – referring to someone whose tastes were out of date and out of touch – derived from the rigid motion of a conductor’s hands in a conventional, four-beat rhythm. You hip?

Back to science-based firsts from April, 1950: this month Biochemists Thomas H. Jukes and Robert Stokstad announced their accidental discovery of the increased production that resulted from antibiotics mixed into animal feed. Mixing an antibiotic into feed increased the growth rate in piglets by 50 percent, and at a lesser rate in chicks and calves. Giving a major boost to industrialised farming that we have only began to rethink and pull back from with organic methods half a century later.

And, as the high street struggles to survive in 2020 thanks to Covid, we can see the first nail in its coffin way back in 1950 when “The Northgate Center” opened as the first suburban shopping mall in the United States, outside of Seattle, Washington.

But before you blame the month for birthing all of the world’s ills, some good news – on April 5, Agnetha Fältskog was born in Jönköping, Sweden. She’ll be ready to make an appearance in a couple of decades time as a member of ABBA of course.

And British comic book The Eagle was launched. Now, I’m slightly biased there as Eagle was my favourite read as a young lad. And coincidentally the reason behind my own first appearance in the media – when I wrote to a national newspaper to claim they’d made a mistake in a news story about the comic.

I think Sadie’s appearance on Radio New Zealand, aged 5 weeks, trumps that by about a decade in age and is vastly cooler. So onto the music…

What’d Sadie think?

April 1950 is a month of the good, the bad and the ugly. Let’s do this in reverse order so we can end on a high.

Firstly then, the ugly. The western film classic, “Mule Train”, performed by Frankie Laine, first appeared in our January 1950 episode and a few versions made it onto the charts over the following months. Just as they fall off the charts, a “comedy” version appears this month. I use scare quotes around comedy because this one really isn’t funny. “Chinese Mule Train” by Spike Jones and his City Slickers, with banjoist Freddy Morgan (misspelled on the record as “Fleddy Morgan” no less) is just downright racist.

I have debated whether I should include problematic songs in the playlists, but deciding where to draw the line becomes difficult when it comes to the hindsight we now have on yesterday’s culture. And in cases like this, which are so clearly out-of-step, I have decided it is best to include them, with a warning and leave them to serve as reminders of how far we’ve come, and probably (hello 2020) still have some way to go.

One of the reasons why I started this project was so I didn’t have to spend Sadie’s early year’s listening to banal children’s songs with her. So quite why I then went and chose to include the Billboard’s Children’s Records from this month is beyond me. Let’s be honest, the adult 1950s charts have been a little too saccharine and childish at times so it was only going to get worse when I dipped our ears in there. It’s all bad.

Though to be fair, “I’m glad that i’m Bugs Bunny” is probably a better Easter song than “Peter Cottontail” and there’s something creepily fascinating about “I found my mama” where Salty Homes conducts a conversation with a sing talking trumpet.

Speaking of which…”Dearie” by Ray Bolger and Ethel Merman was a standout from February, 1950 – and of course imitation is the sincerest form of flattery in the 1950s so by April there are 3 versions in the charts. The Guy Lombardo version I chose this week replaces the female voice with… a talking trumpet. Clearly a trending technique in 1950. I’m quite sure this travesty will be the death knell of this tune on the charts but only time will tell.

To emphasise my point about the infantile nature of some of the songs on the adult charts at the time, “Hoop-Dee-Doo” by Perry Como was released 50 years later as a single by Australian children’s band The Wiggles. Neither are great and I can only pray exposing Sadie to this version hasn’t been a gateway into her wanting to watch The Wiggles.

Onto the good then – I had hoped that “Bewitched” might have some connection to the sitcom of the same name, but that that didn’t premiere till 1964 so of course it didn’t. It is however a nice instrumental version of “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered” from the 1940 Rodgers and Hart musical “Pal Joey”. It looks like 1950 saw a whole raft of versions released, so stay tuned for those in the next few weeks.

In 1999, the British Film Institute voted “The Third Man” the greatest British film of all time. And it was in April, 1950 that its theme tune by Anton Karas hit the charts after the film’s release. Apparently this began something we are very familiar with today, a trend in releasing film theme music as singles. I’m a Graham Greene fan but haven’t seen the film actually so here’s the trailer to remind us all to give it a watch if we’ve not:

“Let’s Go To Church” is the “very ’50s” song of the month with the god fearing lyrics,

Let’s go to church next Sunday morning
Let’s kneel an’ pray side by side.
Our love will grow on Sunday morning
If we have the Lord as our guide.

Which seems less sincere and more like atonement when you realise its performed by Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely, who are behind the tune about a duo cheating on their spouses, “Slipping Around”, that featured in January 1950.

Speaking of which thanks to reader David for noting that I typo’d – “Slipping Around” as “Slipping Away” in my post from that week. Cheers David! If you notice anything amiss, or have any questions, don’t be shy to send us an email back or contact us via the form on 4times.life.

Till then, enjoy the songs of April 1950!

Welcome to March, 1950 as London, 2020 starts to feel very autumnal. I hope whatever state of Covid lockdown you and yours are in is treating you OK readers.

The songs of March, 1950

CANDY AND CAKE,Arthur Godfrey / Chordettes
CANDY AND CAKE,Mindy Carson
CHATTANOOGIE SHOE SHINE BOY,Bing Crosby
CHATTANOOGIE SHOE SHINE BOY,Red Foley
CRY OF THE WILD GOOSE,Frankie Laine
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Dick Todd
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Mills Brothers
DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE,Bing Crosby
DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE,Dinah Shore
DEARIE,Ray Bolger / Ethel Merman
ENJOY YOURSELF,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
GO TO SLEEP GO TO SLEEP GO TO SLEEP,Arthur Godfrey / Mary Martin
I SAID MY PAJAMAS,Tony Martin / Fran Warren
IF I KNEW YOU WERE COMIN’,Eileen Barton
IF I KNEW YOUR WERE COMIN’,Eileen Barton
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
IT’S SO NICE TO HAVE A MAN AROUND THE HOUSE,Dinah Shore
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Carmen Cavallaro / Bob Lido / Cavaliers
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Freddy Martin / Merv Griffin / Martin Men
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Teresa Brewer
MY FOOLISH HEART,Gordon Jenkins / Sandy Evans
PETER COTTONTAIL,Gene Autry
PETER COTTONTAIL,Mervin Shiner
QUICKSILVER,Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters
RAG MOP,Ames Brothers
RAG MOP,Johnnie Lee Wills
RAG MOP,Lionel Hampton / Hamptones
RAG MOP,Ralph Flanagan / Harry Prime
SENTIMENTAL ME,Ames Brothers
SWAMP GIRL,Frankie Laine
THERE’S NO TOMORROW,Tony Martin
THIRD MAN THEME,Anton Karas
THIRD MAN THEME,Guy Lombardo
WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN I’M DREAMING,Patti Page

Plenty of new songs on the charts from last month, some of them even new songs rather than just new versions of existing chart hits. Ah yes, 1950, the year that double (triple, quadrupled and quintupled) down on its winners!

I’ve started to automate the process of compiling my playlists – using a programme to compile weekly charts into a de-duplicated single monthly chart. This cuts down on manual admin markedly. I expect by time we’re up to listening to music from the ’90s, in the 2030s, artificial intelligence will probably be writing these posts for me…

…or maybe Sadie, aged 10, will?

I supplemented the pop charts with some classical singles from Billboard this month:

So you can listen to the month of March, 1950 in music right here:

This month in history

Many things occurred in March 1950, some of them were even unrelated to ferreting communists out of government departments in the USA. Some of these things, like the establishment of the state of Israel, are too weighty for a newsletter about pop-culture though.

So instead we can note that Karen Carpenter was born on March 2, and will pop-up here again in a few decades one can only suspect. As may the Volkswagen van – a staple of hippy culture, which will spring up a decade or so after it was first rolled off the assembly line in Wolfsburg, Germany in March 1950.

If you’re keen to see some 1950’s pop culture as well as listen to it, then March saw the launch of the first successful American science fiction television show, Space Patrol. A 15-minute afternoon series about adventures in the 30th century, it’s as camp, and as terrible, as you’d expect. Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4by5e6DUupc

Meanwhile, decades before the public voted to christian a boat Boaty McBoatface, voters in the resort town of Hot Springs, New Mexico, elected to change the town’s name to that of the popular radio show Truth or Consequences, in response to a challenge by host Ralph Edwards. The town of more than 6,000 has been known as Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, ever since.

And in tech advances – the first stab at a computerised weather forecasting was made this month using the ENIAC computer at Princeton University. Which was programmed, more than likely, by women – who wouldn’t receive proper acknowledgement till the next millennium. Which gives me an excuse to mention that one of Sadie’s middle names is “ada” for Ada Lovelace. Go coders of all sorts!

What’d Sadie think?

A second version of “Daddy’s Little Girl”, from February’s hit parade, hit the charts this month – this time by a quartet called The Mills Brothers. Who it appears were the first African American group to have a hit on the regular Billboard charts back in 1943. This version is actually much more like it than the original from last month, a sweet lullaby indeed. It’s notably used in the soundtrack of the 2010 video game, BioShock 2. But it’s more creepy, less sweet, in that context.

Two tracks from Dinah Shore are in the charts, “Dear hearts and gentle people” and “It’s so nice to have a man around the house”. The former is an ode to the god-fearing “good people” who dwell in small towns, and well, the latter is what it says on the tin. Well not quite,

Oh, a house is just a house without a man
He is the necessary evil in your plan
Just a knight in shining armor who is something of a charmer
Even though he maybe someone else’s spouse
It’s so nice to have a man around the house

“it’s so nice to have a man around the house” – Dinah Shore

The 1950s were more into singing about infidelity than I expected! And Dinah Shore, who lived a life worthy of a fairly substantial Wikipedia entry with 80 chart hits and a film and TV career after, was less “picket fence” than the lyrics to “Dear hearts…” implied. In the early 1970s, “Shore had a happy four-year public romance with actor Burt Reynolds, who was 20 years her junior. “. Good on her.

I’m becoming rather obsessed with comedy duets, to be fair I was a big fan of 40s/50s films in my 20’s so this is no surprise, and this month has a corker – Mary Martin & Arthur Godfrey’s,”Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep”. In which a couple keep each other up with mutually uninteresting stories. At some point i’m going to have to get wifey Emily to sing along to one with me.

I’ve read a few excellent articles on auto-tune recently, so I was intrigued to hear that the Patti Page song, “With my eyes wide open i’m dreaming”, in this months chart uses an early vocal effect of its own – overdubbing. Having previously recorded both vocal parts on the duet “Confess”, Page had apparently been intrigued by the possibility of using overdubbing techniques to record as a “one-woman quartet” which resulted in this recording. It’s nifty. (A superlative last used in the 1950s I believe.)

You may remember that last week I mentioned Gene Autry’s attempt to create an Easter standard after his success over Xmas 1949 with “Rudolph…”. “Peter Cottontail” made it onto the charts this month, well done his marketing campaign, but fails to get me or Sadie hopping I’m afraid.

Tony Martin’s “There’s no tomorrow” is in the pop charts this month, while “O sole mio” by Mario Lanza is in the classical charts. The connection between these two is very clearl in the melody – while the lyrics are unrelated by words or overall theme. A decade later O sole mio, originally from the 1890s, would again be repurposed for “It’s Now or Never”, popularised by Elvis Presley. Catchy.

The Boston Pop’s performance of the “Warsaw Concerto”, also in the classical charts, is an excellent rendition. I didn’t realise it was from the soundtrack to the 1941 film “Dangerous Moonlight” until I dug into it. Apparently the the film-makers wanted something in the style of Sergei Rachmaninoff, but were unable to persuade Rachmaninoff himself to write a piece so commissioned this song from Richard Addinsell and its been an orchestra staple since.

If you think pop culture is reactive today thanks to social media, try the 1950s… “If I knew you were comin’ (I’d have baked a cake)” by Eileen Barton is a very catchy number this month that I can only assume is somewhat sarcastic in nature, if not in delivery, Apparently the success of this prompted Mindy Carson’s record label to record a similar number with her, “Candy and Cake”. Which doesn’t have a lot in common other than the reference to the foodstuff, but there you go. I actually included the version by Arthur Godfrey and the Chordettes (great name) which managed to chart in March as well. That’s a lot of references for one month in a time well before technology made TikTok’s near realtime sampling and resampling of pop-culture a thing.

We can’t ignore that the latter song has ridiculously sexist lyrics of course,

I can be smart, I can be wise
But, when she rolls her roly-poly jelly bean eyes
I shiver and shake, my heart’d just break
If some other love should rob me of my candy and cake

So let’s celebrate how far we’ve come (?) by leaping forward to the 2010s and ending this month on Rihanna’s female empowerment ditty, “Birthday Cake”.

See you all next week!

Another week, another month in music. And this week it’s February, 1950. 27 years before I was born and more than 70 before Sadie was. So what does it sound like?

The songs of February 1950

A DREAMER’S HOLIDAY,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
BAMBOO,Vaughn Monroe
BIBBIDI BOBBIDI BOO,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
BLUES STAY AWAY FROM ME,Owen Bradley Quintet
CHATTANOOGIE SHOE SHINE BOY,Bing Crosby
CHATTANOOGIE SHOE SHINE BOY,Red Foley
CRY OF THE WILD GOOSE,Frankie Laine
DADDY’S LITTLE GIRL,Dick Todd
DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE,Bing Crosby
DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE,Dennis Day
DEAR HEARTS AND GENTLE PEOPLE,Dinah Shore
ENJOY YOURSELF,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
I CAN DREAM CAN’T I,Andrews Sisters / Gordon Jenkins
I SAID MY PAJAMAS,Tony Martin / Fran Warren
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
IT ISN’T FAIR,Sammy Kaye / Don Cornell
JOHNSON RAG,Jack Teter Trio
JOHNSON RAG,Jimmy Dorsey / Claire Hogan
MUSIC MUSIC MUSIC,Teresa Brewer
QUICKSILVER,Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters
QUICKSILVER,Doris Day
RAG MOP,Ames Brothers
RAG MOP,Johnnie Lee Wills
RAG MOP,Lionel Hampton / Hamptones
RAG MOP,Ralph Flanagan / Harry Prime
SLIPPING AROUND,Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely
THE OLD MASTER PAINTER,Dick Haymes
THE OLD MASTER PAINTER,Phil Harris
THE OLD MASTER PAINTER,Richard Hayes
THERE’S NO TOMORROW,Tony Martin
WEDDING SAMBA,Edmundo Ros
WITH MY EYES WIDE OPEN I’M DREAMING,Patti Page

I had a reader request to throw in some chart hits from my homeland of New Zealand, but upon further investigation it appears no charts are available from this time. Curiously New Zealand didn’t keep sales charts until the late 50s, and prior to that so-called “hit parades” were just the songs currently preferred by disc jockeys. Which reminds me of the number of articles in Billboard in about “Payola” during this time…

Either way these charts seem lost in time, as are those of most other countries it appears. So I’m not likely to be able to throw in non-US charts for a few years (both 4x and real-time) it seems. If anyone has any leads – let me know!

To add some diversity I’ve thrown in the top 10 songs from a week of The Billboard R&B charts. On that, Billboard actually have a dozen different charts in each issue, the core chart I use is the “Best Selling Pop Singles”.

About half the songs from last month are still charting this month. Where possible I’ve included a different artist’s rendition of a song in this week’s playlist from last. Which was easy to do with Rag Mop – which has 4 different version in the pop charts and another 2 in the R&B charts. That tune must have been impossible to avoid. Luckily it ain’t bad.

This month in history

We all know Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer the Xmas classic right? Interestingly it was popularised by a Gene Autry version in December 1949 just before our timeline began. Even more interesting is a song you might not have head of, certainly I hadn’t. Fresh off of his seasonal success Autry launched a song, and campaign, to create an Easter hit with “Peter Cotton Tail”.

Not quite as successful as Rudolph, as its not trotted out every year since, but we’ll see if it turns up in the charts of 1950 at least after getting full page ads in Billboard in February.

The pages of Billboard are also fascinating for the insights into the music industry, and advances in music technology, of the time. Just as today digital technology is accused of changing behaviours it looks like the fledgling technology of television was similarly accused of messing with the state of things. But never fear, a study released in February 1950 determined that TV ownership only increased attendance at live Sports games. Whew!

In geopolitics, February 1950 began the era of “McCarthyism”, as US Senator Joseph McCarthy announced in a speech on the 9th that that Communists had infiltrated the U.S. State Department and that he had a list of over 200 names of employees who had been identified. Only two weeks later U.S. Undersecretary of State John Peurifoy testified to a Senate subcommittee that most of the 91 employees who had been recently dismissed as security risks, weren’t barred because of Communist leanings, but because they were homosexual. Sigh!

In cheerier news, on February 1926 this year Helen Clark, 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand (1999-2008), was born in Hamilton. Known affectionately as “Aunty Helen” by many now, she went on to a career in the UN and was unjustly pipped-at-the-post for the role of UN Secretary General in 2016. As documented in the excellent film, My Year with Helen.

What’d Sadie think?

Before getting into a few of the songs themselves, it occurred to me that the first 8 years (or 2 at 4x speed) will feature only songs in mono, as stereo recordings aren’t launched until 1958. I know children have poorly developed stereoscopic vision, but I’m fairly sure even Sadie will notice the difference in a jump to 2-channel audio when it comes.

Luckily Sadie can’t read yet, as I noticed some amusing AI mistakes when I had auto-captions turned on during some of the songs. In particular the “god praising” lyrics of ‘The Old Master Painter’ by Phil Harris became, ‘The Old Masturbator”. Not sure that version is 1950’s compliant!

“Daddy’s Little Girl” has been covered plenty over the years, the version charting this month – the year after it was written – was by Dick Todd. It’s alright, but not quite the lullaby for Sadie I was hoping for.

Whereas “Dearie” is a comedy duet that could easily be verbatim of a conversation my darling wife has with me. Apparently the lyrics change depending on the (many different version) singers, as the general thrust is that each of them is teasing the other about being old by asking if they remember a particular event. This version by Ray Bolger & Ethel Merman is pretty fun for sure.

“I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Pray’rs)” by Tony Martin and Fran Warren is one of four versions of the song to chart in 1950 and another comedy duet that tickles my fancy in this week’s playlist. A couple sing about how their mutual attraction has got them all mixed up. The last lines of “this could lead to marriage, and perhaps a little carriage” is just oh so saccharine but adorable. #couplegoals

Turns out to be the right month to have dipped into the R&B charts for supplementary songs. Whilst it is full of obligatory blues numbers about cheating spouses the real joy is Louis Jordan’s, “Saturday Night Fish Fry” , easily the most upbeat number in the whole playlist.

Which makes sense when you find out it is often credited as being the first Rock ‘n’ Roll song and referenced by the likes of Chuck Berry as influential on their style. Heck the entertaining lyrics repeat the refrain, “it was rockin” a bunch of times. It was, and it still is.

Thematic surprise of the month is Guy Lombardo’s, “Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think”.

You work and work for years and years, you’re always on the go
You never take a minute off, too busy makin’ dough
Someday, you say, you’ll have your fun, when you’re a millionaire
Imagine all the fun you’ll have in your old rockin’ chair

Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think
Enjoy yourself, while you’re still in the pink
The years go by, as quickly as a wink
Enjoy yourself, enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think

Which is very reminiscent, in every way but sonically, of Drake’s “the Motto” which gave pop culture the world “YOLO” (That’s “you only live once” mother!). So let’s end this week’s post with a trip back just 8 years to that moment in pop culture:

See you all in March, 1950!