1950s Your Picks on Top Ten Tuesday
Howdy-hi, folks! There’s no telling where I might go with the music series. For the past three weeks, I’ve invited you to pitch a song title that works with the weekly theme. Some of you did just that and so I decided to use the first 10 contributions that I received to build today’s TTT playlist. While you won’t find 10 songs actually on my playlist, if you factor in the extra credit in my explanation of who submitted what and all of my babbling then you’ll see there are more than 10 songs for you to enjoy today. 😉
Special thanks to these bloggy friends for their song title contributions!
- Sandee “All I Have To Do Is Dream” made the Rolling Stones’ The 500 Greatest Songs of All Times list ranking at 141 by The Everly Brothers recorded in March 1958. This song did very well for the Everly Brothers becoming the most played song by DJs, Top 100 chart, Billboard Singles chart, Billboard Hot 100, #1 R&B chart, #1 country charts. The song made a return to the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1961. Crazy popular song and continues to be the most recognizable version on the planet. It’s fun to see who covers a popular song. This one hasn’t been recorded too many times over the years. Naturally, my eyes pop a little when I saw that Andy Gibb & Victoria Principle recorded the song. I had forgotten these two were a couple at one time.
- Brian “Peggy Sue” recorded by Buddy Holly & the Crickets in 1958. At first I thought Brian just shortened Peggy Sue Got Married (2007 remastered version) but it turns out that one is sequel that Holly recorded with The Hollies.
- Debbie “Tequila” by The Champs according to SongFacts originally released on the B-side “Train to Nowhere” in December 1957. SF doesn’t say why but DJs flipped the record instead to play “Tequila” and it went to #1 in the US where it stayed for five weeks making it the biggest hit of the ’50s. It was neat to learn some familiar names in music were once member of The Champs like Glenn Campbell and Seals & Crofts. I’m sure others I know but don’t recognize the names. The song has been covered a couple of dozen or so times. The only group that jumped out at me was Hot Butter (1973), in my humble opinion doesn’t come close to being as good as the original.
- Tom “Love Letters in the Sand” is a really old song. It first published in 1931 by Ted Black. The song’s origin was inspired by 1881 arrangement, “The Spanish Cavalier” (music only) by William D. Hendrickson. Pat Boone’s covered the song in 1957 and it became a major hit for Boone spending five weeks at number one on Billboard Top 100 but spent a whopping 32 weeks altogether on the chart. Incidentally “Love Letters in the Sand” lyrically doesn’t sound anything like the The Spanish Cavalier versions I listened to at YT, if you’re curious. In fact, The Spanish Cavalier rendition I found old country & western artists did which is quite suiting for that genre. I did find country singer, Tom T. Hall covered “Love Letters in the Sand” from 1984.
- CW (blog reader) “Mr. Blue” a number one hit for The Fleetwoods in November 1959 is new-to-me. After reviewing who’s covered this old tune, I found it interesting that country singer, Garth Brooks recorded the song for his 1990 album, No Fences. FYI: Brooks album topped the Billboard’s Top Country Albums chart in August of the same year.
- Eugenia “The Great Pretender” released November 1955 become The Platters best selling R&B song in January 1956, topping The Top 100 chart the following month and was the 12th best selling song of that year. This song hasn’t been covered too much but was an interesting discovery to learn east Tennessee native, Dolly Parton recorded a version in 1984 which has a southern gospel flavor to it.
Let’s build a playlist together! Leave a song of your choice in comments from any decade that you just love and if I use it, then I’ll give you credit for the contribution! That’s it for today. Don’t scoot off just yet, following this post you’ll find a new installment of random musing and giggles in Tickle Me Tuesday. Have a terrific day! X💋X💋, Cathy
11 Comments
messymimi's meanderings
Fifties music was fabulous, i always loved listening to the albums my parents had!
Thomas Anderson
Yessum, the spacing is back to normal and the comments are much easier to read. Thanks, Cathy!
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
Excellent news! Thanks, my friend.
Arlee Bird
The fifties were a great time to grow up in. Not so much for the music, though some of the music was fun and even pretty good, but it just seemed like a good time when I was a kid.
Cathy Kennedy
Lee,
The music was fun in the 50s but I can’t listen to it non-stop like I can stuff out of the 70s and 80s. The 50s was a wholesome time and while there was trouble back then it can’t compare to the horribleness we see or read about today. People are rude and they seem to have too much of a moral code to live by anymore. It’s quite sad. Thanks for joining me today.
Debbie D.
This is a great playlist of classic songs, Cathy! And, I enjoyed all the background info as well. You’re right – Hot Butter’s version wasn’t as good as the original, but it was still fun, anyway. 😀 Thanks for the mention.
Cathy Kennedy
Debbie,
Thanks for the song suggestion and visit. It’s always nice when you swing by, my friend. 😉
Brian
Those were really good tunes and I enjoyed the tidbits too!
Cathy Kennedy
Brian,
I’m glad you enjoyed the set, my furriend!
Thomas Anderson
Hi, Cathy!
This is a great play list and a wonderful idea to use reader submissions. “Dream” by The Everlys, (both brothers now sadly departed), was huge when I was a boy. It played several times per hour on my local top 40 radio station. My parents bought the single and I played it often on my tiny tinny turntable down in the basement.
My big brother bought Buddy Holly’s monster hit “Peggy Sue” and I played it even more often than that song by The Everlys because, even at that early age, I preferred mewsic with a faster beat to dreamy ballads.
The smoking hot, saxy instrumental “Tequila” was also a frequently heard sound on the radio during that period, and it was another 45 that my brother bought and that I played heavily on my cheap record player. Hearing these songs and tunes today, brilliantly remastered and stereo enhanced, is a genuine treat. Simply put, these oldies never sounded so good, especially compared to how they sounded on the cheap equipment I had in the 50s.
Thanks for including my pick, Pat Boone’s innocent love ballad “Love Letters In The Sand.” As you might expect, it is a record my parents bought and one that I was surprisingly fond of. At that very young age, I was developing eclectic taste in mewsic.
“Mr. Blue” is one record I don’t remember my family having back then, but I collected it years later when I became an oldies vinyl enthusiast and joined a record club. I’m sure you remember the song’s use in the OST of National Lampoon’s Vacation movie, the hilarious scene in which the dreamy song is playing on the Griswold family’s car radio at night while they’re speeding down the highway. The camera pans from one person to the next to the next, revealing that they are all asleep, including Clark, the driver.
This is truly a 50s super set, Cathy, because my parents bought “The Great Pretender” and it was probably the biggest hit of all in our neck of the woods. I remember playing and playing that Platters record, yet never took nearly as much interest in any of their other recordings, that is, until 1967, when the group, having reinvented themselves and updated their sound, scored hits with two singles, “With This Ring” and “Washed Ashore (On A Lonely Island In The Sea)” – both songs Jukebox Giants at the Shady Dell.
I’ll submit one of the top hits of the 70s, the 16th ranked song of the decade – It’s Too Late” by Carole King.
I am double spacing between paragraphs to see what happens. I don’t know if you noticed, but in my comment earlier this morning, and in the one I left yesterday, the blocks of text are all jammed together with no spaces between paragraphs. You might want to check your blog’s layout.
Have a wonderful week, dear friend Cathy!
Cathy Kennedy
Tom,
It is sad the Everly Brothers are no longer with us. They had beautiful voices. At least we can enjoy their recordings. I’m happy you liked how I used everyone’s song titles to build a playlist for today. It certainly made my job easier and I was able to learn new things about the songs. That’s always fun. Hopefully, you noticed my response in comments on your blog today about the paragraph spacing. I hope it’s now fixed after removing a recent plugin that I installed. Thanks for joining me for Top Ten Tuesdays, my friend. Have a terrific day!