It’s September, 1957 in our trip through time…which for a minute was sounding exactly like August, 1957. An administrative glitch in my pre-prepared playlists meant I had doubled-up somehow. Annoyingly only noticed at the end of building the playlist. Anyway, enough of 2022’s problems…back in time we go!
The songs of September, 1957
“And That Reminds Me” – Della Reese*
“Around The World” – Mantovani
“Bye Bye Love” – Everly Brothers
“Chances Are” – Johnny Mathis*
“Diana” – Paul Anka
“Fascination” – Jane Morgan*
“Flying Saucer 2Nd” – Buchanan And Goodman
“Goody Goody” – Frankie Lymon & Teenagers
“Happy Happy Birthday Baby” – Tune Weavers*
“Honeycomb” – Jimmie Rodgers
“Hula Love” – Buddy Knox & Rhythm Orchids*
“I’m Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter” – Billy Williams
“In The Middle Of An Island” – Tony Bennett
“It’S Not For Me To Say” – Johnny Mathis
“Jenny Jenny” – Little Richard
“Lotta Lovin’” – Gene Vincent*
“Love Letters In The Sand” – Pat Boone
“Love Me To Pieces” – Jill Corey
“Mr. Lee” – Bobbettes
“Old Cape Cod” – Patti Page
“Rainbow” – Russ Hamilton
“Remember You’Re Mine” – Pat Boone
“Searchin’” – Coasters
“Send For Me” – Nat King Cole
“Shangri-La” – Four Coins
“Short Fat Fannie” – Larry Williams
“So Rare” – Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra
“Stardust” – Billy Ward
“Tammy” – Ames Brothers*
“Tammy” – Debbie Reynolds
“Teddy Bear” – Elvis Presley
“That’Ll Be The Day” – Crickets
“The Flying Saucer” – Buchanan & Goodman
“There’s A Gold Mine In The Sky” – Pat Boone*
“To The Aisle” – Five Satins
“Whispering Bells” – Dell-Vikings
“White Silver Sands” – Don Rondo
“Whole Lot Of Shakin’ Going On” – Jerry Lee Lewis
“Wonderful Wonderful” – Johnny Mathis
“You’re My One And Only Love” – Rick Nelson*
* = New to the chart this week.
We’ve thrown in a top 10 R&B chart from the month, but the cross-over now means only 2 songs are novel.
You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:
This month in history
On September 5th Beat classic, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac is published by Viking Press in New York. Here’s him reading some passages:
In a “spoiler alert” , on September 6th Elvis records “White Christmas”, “Silent Night” & “Here Comes Santa Claus” – I’d say we are fairly sure of seeing them in the charts in a few weeks.
And on September 26 Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim and Jerome Robbins’ musical “West Side Story” premieres at the Winter Garden Theater, NYC; runs for 732 performances, wins 2 Tony Awards. A composite of clips from the the original run is below:
What’d Sadie think?
Elvis is pushed out of the top spot by Debbie Reynold’s “Tammy” which takes it for the full month. We added that song last month so its actually a cover by the Ames Brothers we have in our playlist this week.
The song is from 1957 film “Tammy and the Bachelor” which starred Debbie Reynolds, you can see her singing it in the film below. The Ames Brothers version actually featured across the film credits and it’s a bit sappy and a bit alright.
“And That Reminds Me” by Della Reese ain’t a bad tune either. Apparently the music was based on the Italian instrumental, “Concerto d’autunno,” by Camillo Bargoni and was first a pop song named “Autumn Concerto” by Flo Sandons the previous year.
“Chances Are” by Johnny Mathis is kind of forgettable. But what’s not forgettable, once you know it, is that Mathis is still kicking around at 86 and has sold over 400 million records worldwide to date, making him the third-biggest selling artist of the 20th century after Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.
“Fascination” was a popular waltz song from 1904 that became a pop hit for Jane Morgan more than half a century later. There’s not a lot of songs with an accordion that pique our interest and this is no exception.
“Happy Happy Birthday Baby” was the only major hit for the Tune Weavers and its kind of catchy.
“Hula Love” by Buddy Knox & the Rhythm Orchids is…problematic from title through to lyrics so we’ll just be dancing (not the hula) quickly onto the next new song…
“Lotta Lovin’” by Gene Vincent sees him doing a passable Elvis, it’s actually quite a fun song. We give it a little, rather than a lotta lovin’ though.
“There’s A Gold Mine In The Sky” is yet another chart hit for Pat Boone. To date, nothing of his has really hit it out of the ball park for us. But who are we to judge his numbers, he was the second-biggest charting artist of the late 1950s, behind only Elvis Presley. And there’s a reason why it seems like he’s been in the charts non-stop for a time… Until the 2010s, Boone held the Billboard record for spending 220 consecutive weeks on the charts with one or more songs each week.
“You’re My One And Only Love” meanwhile is the first hit for Ricky Nelson at age 17. From age eight he had starred alongside his family in the radio and television series “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet”. You can see him playing in that show below:
“Farther up the Road” by the most excellently named “Bobby Blue Bland” is a tune and a half. It is, by all accounts, an early influential Texas shuffle and features guitar playing that represents the transition from the 1940s blues style to the 1960s blues-rock style.
And we end on a high with “Think” by the Five Royals which will have you clapping, or snapping, along with it.
Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.
