Category: Monthly

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!

It’s already March of 1951 in our journey through the music of the ages while back in 2020 it’s December and Xmas is just a couple of weeks away. Here at 4x Life HQ (aka The Scovell’s) we’re busy trimming the tree and wrapping presents for Sadie’s first visit from Santa. So this is a trimmed down, best of, episode.

The songs of March, 1951

Easter must be around the corner in 1951 because Gene Autry’s “Petter Cottontail” is on the charts. It’s actually grown on me since last year (3-months) ago. Give it another whirl yourself while listening to the rest of the hits of March, 1951.

March, 1951 Top 20 Hits

A Penny A Kiss A Penny A Hug, Tony Martin / Dinah Shore
Aba Daba Honeymoon, Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter
Be My Love, Mario Lanza
Beautiful Brown Eyes, Rosemary Clooney
Bring Back The Thrill, Eddie Fisher
How High The Moon, Les Paul & Mary Ford
I Apologize, Billy Eckstine
I Taut I Taw A Puddy Tat, Mel Blanc
If, Perry Como
It Is No Secret, Bill Kenny
Jet, Nat King Cole
Mockin’ Bird Hill, Les Paul & Mary Ford
Mockin’ Bird Hill, Patti Page
My Heart Cries For You, Dinah Shore
My Heart Cries For You, Guy Mitchell
On Top Of Old Smokey, Weavers / Terry Gilkyson
Peter Cottontail, Gene Autry
So Long, Weavers / Gordon Jenkins
Sparrow In The Tree Top, Bing Crosby / Andrews Sisters
Sparrow In The Tree Top, Guy Mitchell
Tennessee Waltz, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
Tennessee Waltz, Les Paul & Mary Ford
Tennessee Waltz, Patti Page
The Hot Canary, Florian Zabach
The Roving Kind, Guy Michell
The Syncopated Clock, Leroy Anderson
Would I Love You, Patti Page
You’re Just In Love, Perry Como / Fontane Sisters

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

What’d Sadie think?

Perry Como’s “If” started 6 weeks at number 1 in March, 1951 but our number 1 for the month is “On Top of Old Smokey” by the Weavers. I’m afraid to say I don’t think I’ve ever heard the original till now, only knowing the ’60s parody, “On Top of Spaghetti” which features in many an American summercamp film.

We’ll leave you to make your own picks for March and jump back to 1950 to present our “best of” the hits from the year below. We went back through the year and selected our favourite 20 tunes. One thing we instantly realise is just how much we loved the duets in our first year!

4x Life Top 20 hits of 1950

“Slipping Around” Margaret Whiting w/ Jimmy Wakely
“Music, Music, Music” – Teresa Brewer
“Charley, My Boy” – Jimmy Dorsey
“Dearie” – Ray Bolger & Ethel Merman
“I Said My Pajamas (and Put On My Pray’rs)” – Tony Martin & Fran Warren
“Saturday Night Fish Fry” – Louis Jordan
“Enjoy Yourself, It’s Later Than You Think” – Guy Lombardo
”Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep, Go To Sleep” – Mary Martin & Arthur Godfrey
“With my eyes wide open i’m dreaming” – Patti Page
“If I knew you were comin’ (I’d have baked a cake)” – Eileen Barton
“Valencia” – Tony Martin
“Sam’s Song” – Bing & Gary Crosby
Joe Liggins – “Pink Champagne”
“Bewitched” – Doris Day
“La vie en rose” – Tony Martin
“Harbour Lights” – Sammy Kaye
“Bonaparte’s Retreat” – Kay Starr
“Please Send Me Someone to Love” – Percy Mayfield
“The Thing” – Phil Harris
“Blue Smoke” – Pixie Williams

You can listen here to our top 20 of 1950 or via the embed below:

Enjoy the extra playlist and see you next week for April, 1951 as Xmas 2020 hits us.

It’s February 1951 in our adventure through the charts of the past and cowboy chic is as on the rise as it is in 2020.

The songs of February, 1951

Xmas is now a couple of months behind us so the novelty tunes have fallen off the charts and a number of new songs are here to see us through the first (2020) or the last (1951) month of winter in the northern hemisphere.

February, 1951 Top 20 Hits

A BUSHEL AND A PECK, Perry Como / Betty Hutton
A PENNY A KISS A PENNY A HUG, Tony Martin / Dinah Shore
ABA DABA HONEYMOON, Debbie Reynolds / Carleton Carpenter
BE MY LOVE, Mario Lanza
BRING BACK THE THRILL, Eddie Fisher
HARBOUR LIGHTS, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
HARBOUR LIGHTS, Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets
I APOLOGIZE, Billy Eckstine
I STILL FEEL THE SAME ABOUT YOU, Georgia Gibbs
I TAUT I TAW A PUDDY TAT, Mel Blanc
IF, Perry Como
MOCKIN’ BIRD HILL, Les Paul & Mary Ford
MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Dinah Shore
MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Guy Mitchell
MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Jimmy Wakely
MY HEART CRIES FOR YOU, Vic Damone
NEVERTHELESS, Mills Brothers
SO LONG, Weavers / Gordon Jenkins
TENNESSEE WALTZ, Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
TENNESSEE WALTZ, Les Paul & Mary Ford
TENNESSEE WALTZ, Patti Page
THE ROVING KIND, Guy Mitchell
THE ROVING KIND, Weavers
THE THING, Phil Harris
WOULD I LOVE YOU, Patti Page
YOU’RE JUST IN LOVE, Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
ZING ZING ZOOM ZOOM, Perry Como

For a reason that will become clear soon, we’re supplementing the pop charts with a top 10 country chart this week:

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

This month in history

Down a rabbit hole we go this month thanks to an advert in an issue of Billboard Magazine from February. You can read it for yourselves below but in essence it documents the growing popularity of mechanical horse rides for kids.

Wait… did we read that right?! They were originally designed as weight loss devices for adults? It would seem so.

In fact, as the Atlantic recounts in, “The brief history of a widely mocked electric horse in the White House” there’s a rich history of mechanical horses for adult exercise. President Calvin Coolidge notoriously had one in the White House during his term in the 1920s for some years after the secret service made him give up riding real horses.

His model was designed by the cereal pioneer, John Harvey Kellogg, who attested to its ability to keep riders trim. This wasn’t actually his biggest bullshit, that was left for his promotion of circumcision to stop the evils of masturbation. A whole other story you’ll need to google for yourselves readers!

When the mechanical horse was discovered it became a point of mockery, including in a poem that was read out on the floor of the House of Representatives,

“‘Twould not be very strange, indeed/If history should repeat,’/And discovery of the White House steed/Should encompass Cal’s defeat.”

It was a a couple of years later that they would be repurposed for children, where at least the claims that they provided a minute of entertainment that would “satisfy the kids” is true.

In a history of the Memphis Metal Manufacturing company, who are credited in the Billboard article as the manufacturer of some of the first rides for kids, they recount this transition, “It began when the owner of the first Memphis supermarkets, Mr. Fred Montesi, had asked my father to make a machine similar to one at the gym that he could use at home,” said the owner of the company. “So we put a 55 metal drum with a motor on it and one of the guys said ‘You know this kind of simulates a horse.’ Then they cut down metal and welded a horse’s head and they put on a tail. That was the design.”

This article from Billboard has a great showcase of the various rides available as the category exploded in the early 1950s. And here’s a video of a young lad in the ’80s riding an original 1950 model from the company:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RA7hpbez7pg

Within just a few years shopping streets and malls across the west were littered with rides of all sorts, from horses – fuelling a fad for cowboy costumes – through to a spaceships in tandem with the growing interest in science fiction.

What of Harry Saltzman who Billboard credited as a pioneer in this space? Well it turns out that horse rides were just a side-project for him, albeit a profitable one, his main pursuit was producing films. He, in early 1961, excited by reading the James Bond novel Goldfinger, made a bid to land the film rights to the character and would go on to produce them for two decades.

What’d Sadie think?

Another month of Patti Page’s Tennessee Waltz dominating the number 1 position but it’s Tony Martin and Dinah Shore’s duet, “A penny a kiss, a penny a hug” that is my number 1 for the month. And it got the Sadie smile of approval too.

I’m gonna save a penny
Every time we kiss goodnight.
And honey when we’re married
We can own a bungalow.

“A Penny a Kiss, a Penny a Hug”

Contrition seems to be the theme for the month, “I apologise” by Billy Eckstine and his outstanding voice for one, and “I feel the same about you” by Georgia Gibbs for another.

Guy Mitchell’s “The Roving Kind”, one of two versions of the song charting in February, is less contrition and more commiseration though in a tale of what a song from six decades later would called a ‘gold digger’.

I took her for some fish and chips and treated her so fine
And hardly did I realize she was the rovin’ kind
I kissed her lips, I missed her lips and found to my surprise
She was nothin’ but a pirate ship rigged up in a dis-guy-eye-ise

“The Roving Kind”, Guy Mitchell

Les Paul’s “Mocking Bird Hill, Tra la la” has his trademark distinctive guitar work and is one of two songs featuring “tweedle dee dee dee” in the lyrics. Because yes, did I say novelty songs were behind us? Xmas ones certainly, but now charing is Mel Blanc’s “I taut I saw a puddy tat” song portraying the relationship between Tweety and Sylvester – star of the Warner Bros. cartoons popular since the 1940s. Here’s the same song set to 3D animation in 2011:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuGJdWcj4O8

Boogie is, oddly, word of the month on the country charts with Tennessee Ernie Ford’s, “Shotgun Boogie” and Hank Snow’s, “Rhumba Boogie” both charting. The former is my favourite of the boogies. But Hank Snow needn’t worry as he managed to have 3 songs in the charts and one of the others, “I’m movin’ on” is great.

Its Hank Williams “Moanin’ the Blues” that is my pick of the country charts for the month. And yes, I’m fairly sure that its obligatory to spell “-ing” words as “-in’” in 1950’s song titles.

And there we are for February 1951. Let’s end on a reminder that Easter is on its way as another new novelty songs, Sonny the Bunny, starts its campaign for song of the season in Billboard Magazine…

See you all soon!

As the last month of a very weird 2020 approaches, with things hopefully looking up on the pandemic front, we find ourselves entering January, 1951 here at 4times.life. Which, as I’ve had a few questions about it, seems like as good time as any to do a post focused on how the monthly playlists get pulled together. But first the tunes…

The songs of January, 1951

January starts with a Xmas hangover, so we’ve still got Rudolph and Frosty duelling it out for those looking for some festive tunes back in 2020. But it’s Patti Page’s “Tennessee Waltz” that is number 1 for the whole month and the four other versions of it that dominate the charts across January.

January, 1951 Top 20 Hits

A Bushel And A Peck,Margaret Whiting / Jimmy Wakely
A Bushel And A Peck,Perry Como / Betty Hutton
Be My Love,Mario Lanza
Frosty The Snowman,Gene Autry
Harbour Lights,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
Harbour Lights,Ray Anthony / Ronnie Deauville
Harbour Lights,Sammy Kaye / Tony Alamo / Kaydets
If,Perry Como
My Heart Cries For You,Dinah Shore
My Heart Cries For You,Guy Mitchell
My Heart Cries For You,Jimmy Wakely
My Heart Cries For You,Vic Damone
Nevertheless,Mills Brothers
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer,Gene Autry
So Long,Weavers & Gordon Jenkins
Tennessee Waltz,Guy Lombardo / Kenny Gardner
Tennessee Waltz,Jo Stafford
Tennessee Waltz,Les Paul & Mary Ford
Tennessee Waltz,Patti Page
Tennessee Waltz,Spike Jones / Sara Berner
The Roving Kind,Guy Mitchell
The Roving Kind,Weavers
The Thing,Phil Harris
Thinking Of You,Don Cherry
Thinking Of You,Eddie Fisher
You’re Just In Love,Perry Como / Fontane Sisters
Zing Zing Zoom Zoom,Perry Como

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

So, how did we get here? (BTS)

So while you enjoy this week’s playlist, how did we get to it? Firstly we need to know what historical month to listen to in a given week. Of course, the simple answer is, “the month following the previous one”. But to start with I had to understand how long this was all going to take, and it’s handy to be able to see when we’ll be listening to a certain song/year sometime in the future.

So, this is defined in a handy spreadsheet (which you can view here):

On it I can see, as shown for example, that we’ll be listening to music from my month of birth – February 1977 – in the week of November 23, 2026. At which point Sadie will be 6 years old, and the music will be from 43 years before she was born.

Then we need to work out what was in the charts of the month. This isn’t as simple as it sounds as charts are issued weekly not monthly. At the moment we’re pretty much exclusively using the Billboard Magazine charts as the back issues from this are available online (see here) to download. e.g.

And luckily, as these are badly scanned and I’d have to type them in manually, a site called Old Charts has digitised these (see here). So we just need to work out which issues to select from. This comes in the form of another spreadsheet that assigns weeks to months. They have 4 or 5 per month depending on the math, and the final week may bleed into the next month as charts are backwards looking of course. So here’s this month (week 13) for instance:

The issue is the date the magazine came out, and the “charts w/e” is what weeks charts were in that issue – there being a week-ish delay between data and publication.

Typically I’ll want to supplement the Billboard “Pop Singles” chart with some extra songs to add some diversity. At the moment we’re still using other Billboard charts to do this as little is available from elsewhere in the world. In this case I normally go to the last weekly issue of a month’s set and find one of the many other charts (there’s about 20 different genres e.g. R&B, Country and mediums e.g. Radio play, Jukeboxes ) and take the songs from that.

This is often also where I find some interesting industry news or advert to use in the history section.

But from where these spreadsheets?

When I was first setting the project up I quickly realised there would be too much manual “labour” for me to be able to do it every week reliably. So I created a few pieces of code to help out. These all run on a wee Raspberry Pi computer that sits on our home network.

I could as easily run them on the macbook I use to write these blog posts on but this little computer is Sadie’s so it seems appropriate. It’s been around since before she was born – at that point it was hooked up to a mini-thermal printer that printed out a name option for our unborn child every day at 7am. (The names were randomised combinations from a shortlist we’d created).

No, Sadie’s full name was not one of the one’s printed. Yes, it has sentimental value so I use it for anything daddy-daughter related. Here’s an example:

It’s done everything from generate the aforementioned spreadsheets to creating the weekly consolidated playlist. This means taking the 4-5 weekly charts, removing some unnecessary info (chart position etc), de-duplicating (as most songs will be in the chats for several weeks in a row) and spitting out a single list of song and artist.

If you’ve wondered why the playlist is in alphabetical order by song name – that’s part of de-duplicating. Once that is done I can then go to Youtube, find the songs, and add them to a playlist with the name of the month and the year.

What’d Sadie think?

Which gets us to the point we can actually listen to the songs. This mostly happens in the morning at the moment so we can give mum some a sleep-in. Sadie’s really starting to react to the music in different ways and likes to dance along. Mostly anything that makes me look foolish by dancing to it elicits a smile!

Now that we know how we got to the playlist, what stuck out this month? “A Bushel and a Peck” in a new version by Perry Como and Betty Hutton has some great banter so is an ideal opener.

And it’s quite the month for Perry actually with four songs in the charts. “Zing, Zing, Zoom, Zoom” is utter nonsense but my other pick of his four for holiday season cheer.

Speaking of novelty songs, Phil Harris’ “The Thing” continues to be fun – every time I listen I try and come up with a different idea for what “the thing” actually. Send me yours readers!

While we’re keeping it corny, Mario Lanza’s, “Be My Love” is his usual melodramatic crooning but it has its charm.

As does Dinah Shore’s version of “My Heart Cries For You”, of which four versions managed to chart in January. Apparently it is an english version of an 18th century french song attributed to Marie Antoinette.

Which sees us at the end of our first month of our second year of the project. I hope you enjoy the playlist, and until next week that’s us!