I Love #1s - 1954

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Last week's titanic fight between those late-eighties pop ladies was right down to the wire, with Belinda just pipping Tiffany and Kylie to the top spot, making Heaven Is A Place On Earth your favourite number one of 1988 with a monstrous 44 ticks. This week the poll boxes might be a little less fruitful as we wind our way right back to 1954, when record sales were still counted on the fingers of two hands and rock and roll was but a glint in Bill Haley's eye.

[Poll #819053]

Comments

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I may have to YSI some of these.

The good ones are:

Doris Day - Secret Love: aka THE LOVE THAT DARE NOT SPEAK ITS NAME! Gay favourite which is a really good pre-rock ballad, it's from a fillum which was the mark of quality back then.

Johnnie Ray - Such A Night: POOR OLD JOHNNIE RAYYYYY - not so poor as he gets his end away, this is his hungover but happy befuddlement song with some comedy backing vox IIRC.

Frank Sinatra - it's OK but SO MUCH not the best here, it'll win tho cos people know it.

Rosemary Clooney - This Ole House: top choon, you will know it from the SHAKEY version but Rosemary does a good job too. I was far too harsh on this in Popular. :(

Winifred Atwell - first black woman to top the UK charts, this is a MEGAMIX of music hall party hits in romping pianner style. THE QUEEN OF THE IVORIES! Shamefully I have never been entirely sure if the copy I have of this is actually the right record - she did many along these lines.

I ticked Kitty Kallen too cos I remember it being alright.

Vera Lynn, "Cara Mia" and the Stargazers are all TERRIBLE in ways beyond the very imaginings of modern pop.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The Atwell record is the template for that Peel session by Elton John that Martin and I were talking about last week on the EJ canon thread.

I have a version of it on a 7" EP that I found for 50p in the MVE basement.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

(george = rosemary's actual real NEPHEW hurrah)

Desperate attempt to prolong comments thread.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I thought that whalefish in the comments had said that US R&B was "genetically superior to its counterparts here" and thought BLIMEY that is boldly opening a CAN OF WORMS.

But he didn't.

I don't think any of this stuff is trying to be R&B really, not that he's saying that either.

OK, so let's compare:

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

Courtesy Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_number-one_R&B_hits_(United_States)), the records that reached #1 in the US R&B chart in 1954.

1954
30 January: "The Things That I Used to Do" — Guitar Slim
6 February: "I'll Be True" — Faye Adams
27 March: "You'll Never Walk Alone" — Roy Hamilton
22 May: "Work with Me Annie" — The Midnighters
12 June: "Shake, Rattle, and Roll" — Big Joe Turner
10 July: "Honey Love" — The Drifters
4 September: "Oh What a Dream" — Ruth Brown
25 September: "Annie Had a Baby" — The Midnighters
16 October: "Hurts Me to My Heart" — Faye Adams
20 November: "Mambo Baby" — Ruth Brown
27 November: "Hearts of Stone" — The Charms
25 December: "You Upset Me Baby" — B.B. King

Re: OK, so let's compare:

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's a hell of a list. What about the Billboard #1s for the year?

Billboard #1s

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number-one_hits_of_1954_%28USA%29

Re: Billboard #1s

[martinskidmore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's pretty similar to the UK list.

Re: Desperate attempt to prolong comments thread.

[whalefish.livejournal.com]

But how good would it be if I had? I almost wish I had now, it would have at least made this afternoon fun.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

Is there a Winifred Atwell song that features the voice of Woody Woodpecker (or a voice much like his)?

I either don't know or don't like any of the songs here so not much point me voting this time.

Banned!

[koganbot]

Numerous Web sites report that "Such a Night" was banned by the BBC following listener complaints about its supposedly sexual lyrics (or is it really about a sexualized performance of not particularly suggestive lyrics)? BBC's own site mentions the song being banned by some U.S. radio stations but doesn't mention the BBC! (Numerous Web sites have been wrong in the past, so I wonder if this might be an urban legend.)

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

i'm not sure the bbc of the 50s would have needed to BAN it to not play it -- as a station it was very constrained in the range of music music it played at that date (tea orchestra pop and light classics, pretty much: certainly very little jazz or R&B or doowop or country)

[anthonyeaston.livejournal.com]

who is faye adams? i have never heard of her, but she is pretty popular in america in 1954?

also can anyone mail me the atwell?