Continuing, voice recordings 043-045, Nov. 6, 2014. 046 was a Jamie Benn post-game interview.
Christina Aguiilera from 1999 -- I guess it spilled over into 2000 -- "What a Girl Wants." It's not the original "What a Girl Wants" that I remember. That one might have been the original song written in 1998. "What a Girl Wants" was re-recorded in '99 with a key change to C Major. Christina's 4,600. She's average.
Justin Timberlake, "Dead and Gone." It's like Justin trying to establish street cred with a little rap. He's not doing the rap, that was by T.I. In fact, the song is listed as T.I. featuring Justin Timberlake. I'd say 4,650, not especially good.
The late '90s were a disappointing time on the music scene. I thought the alternative rock of the mid-'90s was very good, and true to old-time rock 'n' roll. Since the advent of what could be called a second wave of bubble gum from artists such as Aguilera and Timberlake, popular music has gone downhill. Rap and hip hop became the voice of African Americans, and not as strong a voice as Motown in the '60s and '70s.
Sum 41, "Fat Lip", from 2001. 4,500.
Beginning voice recording 047, Nov. 7, 2014, through 1:10
Pink, "There You Go" from 2000. 4,450. Beyonce, "Irreplaceable" from 2006 is very replaceable. Very pedestrian musically. 4,820, and that might be too high. I think Beyonce is one of the 21st century female soloists who is not anywhere near as good as the strong female vocalists who were coming up in the '80s and '90s. For that matter, the male soloists aren't that great either. I just heard Enrique Iglesias, "Be with You," I think '06. I think I heard that a few nights ago, and I think I put it in the mid-4,000s, between 4,400 and 4,600, and that may even be generous. I'm not sure if it's that "American Idol" has lowered the bar for what's considered good or what the deal is.
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Opening this up again
My excuse/rationale/reason is that I've been busy since moving from occasional substitute teaching to going somewhere on nearly every school day to taking a full-time position. During that time, I learned that I can work with special ed students, and that I'm pretty good at it. Still, I learn something new almost every day.
I'm going back through my phone and transcribing my comments on music I heard going back to November of 2014. There might be some repeated information; if so, I'll weed that out in the process of turning my comments into a readable and informative compendium. That's the current goal. Let's see how it goes once I get back to school every weekday.
Voice recording 030-034, Nov. 3, 2014. 035-037 were recordings at Mavericks press conferences.
Sirius Channel 9, Sponge with "Plowed" from 1995, I'll go 4,300. On now is "Shoop," Salt-N-Pepa, about 3,100 with that one. Make it 3,400. That's from 1993. I just checked, and it appears that "Plowed" came out in '94. The version I heard might have come from a 1995 album.
I forgot to get the year for this one, but it's Joan Osborne, "One of Us." A nice mixture of reverence and skepticism. "What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Nobody callin' on the phone, 'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome." That one's 1,900. Then Fat Boy Slim, "Praise You," from 1999. 3,200 on that one. Going back to the last paragraph, I'll move "Shoop," back to 3,100 because I definitely like it better than "Praise You."
Fat Boy Slim had some good keyboards and a lot of engineering effects, probably a little bit too many. The producer pretty much had his way with that one. Next was Roxette, "Dangerous," from 1990. I don't remember much about Roxette. They were around for a while. I think "Dangerous" is on the low side of 4,500. From '94, we have "Tootsee Roll" from 99 Boyz. I'd say 4,000. It's kind of catchy. Later, something very similar morphed into DJ Casper's "Cha-Cha Slide" in 2000.
From 1993, Duran Duran, "Breath After Breath." Not one of their best efforts, 4,800. Real McCoy, 1995, a remake of "Come and Get Your Love," not a very good one. I'm not sure even Luke McCoy would be beaming with joy on it. I'd say 4,750.
From '91, Extreme, and this is their biggest hit, "More Than Words." It's a ballad, with acoustic guitar and pretty good lyrics. 2,100. I'm also listening to Montell Jordan from 1995, "This Is How We Do It." 4,150. No, I'll go a little higher with Montell, 3,950. It's not just the same old beat and the same old rap. He actually sings some of it. I'll give him some points for that. Something by The Cure now. I never got into The Cure. This is "Friday I'm in Love," from '92. Philip liked them, and the only I paid attention was when Robert Smith was on "South Park." I'll go 4,200.
Voice recordings 038, Nov. 4, 2014
From 2008, we've got Christina Aguilera, "Keeps Gettin' Better," though it doesn't. 4,550. From '05, Green Day, "Wake Me Up When September Ends," I'm going to go 3,950 on that from Sirius Channel 10. Justin Timberlake, "Rock Your Body," 4,700. Nelly Furtado from '06, "Say It Right." It's a little better than 4,400, so I'll say 4,375. Aerosmith, "Jaded," 4,100, not one of their best. With a little research, I saw that it was from 2000 and Mila Kunis was in the music video at age 16 or 17. Outkast, "The Way You Move," from '03. It's 4,050. Crazy Town with "Butterfly" from '01. It's about one step removed from standard-issue rap or hip hop. 4,800. Crazy Town tried to step out in that one with lyrics about Sid and Nancy, but it was more dated than edgy. From 2000, we've got Enrique Iglesias, "Be with You." Just standard-issue dance music, 4,850. Part of it reminds me of a better song, but I can't remember which song. I'll try to keep it in the back of my head, and if I do hear that other song I'll mention it.
Evanescence from '04 with "My Immortal." I'll slide this one up to 4,400 in honor of Allie, a woman I knew from back in those days. I remember her sitting in the driver's seat of her car and when some Evanescence song came on the radio -- she called them Evan Sense -- she sang the song to me as I stood outside the car window. Kind of a weird moment, and I'm not sure exactly what she meant by it but it was memorable.
Backstreet Boys, "The One," from '01, 4980. There might be 20 worse than this one in the top 5,000.
Voice recordings 042-046, Nov. 6, 2014
On Channel 10, we have The Pussycat Dolls, "Stickwitu." Because Philip once sat on a plane next to Nicole Scherzinger, I'll give it 4,600. It featured Avant, according to my later research. Script, "Breakeven" -- I thought it would have been called Falling to Pieces -- from 2008, 4,150. Not bad. Akon and Snoop Dogg, "I Wanna Luv U" I think it was called, from '06. When it's just one bite and undecipherable lyrics, it's kind of hard to give it a high score. They did mix it up a little bit toward the end, so I went up to 4,700. When I do hear music that I'm not familiar with, one of the reasons why I try to listen to certain channels every day is to try to get a feel for the music of the time and it might shake some memories for me in some of these eras that everyone has spent a lot of time listening to the music. Even if I wanted to love this song, I really wouldn't.
Lady Gaga, "Poker Face," from '09. I know it was a big hit at the time. I'm not a big fan of Lady Gaga. I'm being generous giving it 3,950. A word on how I resolve some of the differences between my scores and what they get from the general public: My recollection is that "Poker Face" was No. 2 for '09. That would make it around 99 per cent of the top score. 3,950 would be 21 per cent of the top score, and 79 per cent of the top 5,000 would be better than that. What I figure I'll do is average 21 plus 99 is 120, so I'd move it up 60 places. Or I might just move it up the difference of 39 places. Given those parameters, this one would come out to 3,890 or perhaps 3,911 or so. We'll see when the final scores come out how I apportioned the scores.
Mario, "Let Me Love You," from '04. It's kind of a melodic ballad over a steady, not rap, beat, but a steady beat. I'm saying 4,800.
The Ataris, "Boys of Summer," I think '03 -- I've been debating whether to move it up to the top half over 2,500, but I don't think it's that good. I do have a soft spot for it because of the title. It reminds of Roger Kahn's book, "The Boys of Summer," about the Brooklyn Dodgers, and I'm a sucker for baseball stuff. I would not have been able to tell you the group was The Ataris until I saw it on the screen. Part of the deal with the Lady Gaga thing is that I don't believe I would raise it more than 100 places based on its popular status at the time, and rarely above 50 given the way I'm setting the parameters. 2,600.
I'm going back through my phone and transcribing my comments on music I heard going back to November of 2014. There might be some repeated information; if so, I'll weed that out in the process of turning my comments into a readable and informative compendium. That's the current goal. Let's see how it goes once I get back to school every weekday.
Voice recording 030-034, Nov. 3, 2014. 035-037 were recordings at Mavericks press conferences.
Sirius Channel 9, Sponge with "Plowed" from 1995, I'll go 4,300. On now is "Shoop," Salt-N-Pepa, about 3,100 with that one. Make it 3,400. That's from 1993. I just checked, and it appears that "Plowed" came out in '94. The version I heard might have come from a 1995 album.
I forgot to get the year for this one, but it's Joan Osborne, "One of Us." A nice mixture of reverence and skepticism. "What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us? Nobody callin' on the phone, 'cept for the Pope maybe in Rome." That one's 1,900. Then Fat Boy Slim, "Praise You," from 1999. 3,200 on that one. Going back to the last paragraph, I'll move "Shoop," back to 3,100 because I definitely like it better than "Praise You."
Fat Boy Slim had some good keyboards and a lot of engineering effects, probably a little bit too many. The producer pretty much had his way with that one. Next was Roxette, "Dangerous," from 1990. I don't remember much about Roxette. They were around for a while. I think "Dangerous" is on the low side of 4,500. From '94, we have "Tootsee Roll" from 99 Boyz. I'd say 4,000. It's kind of catchy. Later, something very similar morphed into DJ Casper's "Cha-Cha Slide" in 2000.
From 1993, Duran Duran, "Breath After Breath." Not one of their best efforts, 4,800. Real McCoy, 1995, a remake of "Come and Get Your Love," not a very good one. I'm not sure even Luke McCoy would be beaming with joy on it. I'd say 4,750.
From '91, Extreme, and this is their biggest hit, "More Than Words." It's a ballad, with acoustic guitar and pretty good lyrics. 2,100. I'm also listening to Montell Jordan from 1995, "This Is How We Do It." 4,150. No, I'll go a little higher with Montell, 3,950. It's not just the same old beat and the same old rap. He actually sings some of it. I'll give him some points for that. Something by The Cure now. I never got into The Cure. This is "Friday I'm in Love," from '92. Philip liked them, and the only I paid attention was when Robert Smith was on "South Park." I'll go 4,200.
Voice recordings 038, Nov. 4, 2014
From 2008, we've got Christina Aguilera, "Keeps Gettin' Better," though it doesn't. 4,550. From '05, Green Day, "Wake Me Up When September Ends," I'm going to go 3,950 on that from Sirius Channel 10. Justin Timberlake, "Rock Your Body," 4,700. Nelly Furtado from '06, "Say It Right." It's a little better than 4,400, so I'll say 4,375. Aerosmith, "Jaded," 4,100, not one of their best. With a little research, I saw that it was from 2000 and Mila Kunis was in the music video at age 16 or 17. Outkast, "The Way You Move," from '03. It's 4,050. Crazy Town with "Butterfly" from '01. It's about one step removed from standard-issue rap or hip hop. 4,800. Crazy Town tried to step out in that one with lyrics about Sid and Nancy, but it was more dated than edgy. From 2000, we've got Enrique Iglesias, "Be with You." Just standard-issue dance music, 4,850. Part of it reminds me of a better song, but I can't remember which song. I'll try to keep it in the back of my head, and if I do hear that other song I'll mention it.
Evanescence from '04 with "My Immortal." I'll slide this one up to 4,400 in honor of Allie, a woman I knew from back in those days. I remember her sitting in the driver's seat of her car and when some Evanescence song came on the radio -- she called them Evan Sense -- she sang the song to me as I stood outside the car window. Kind of a weird moment, and I'm not sure exactly what she meant by it but it was memorable.
Backstreet Boys, "The One," from '01, 4980. There might be 20 worse than this one in the top 5,000.
Voice recordings 042-046, Nov. 6, 2014
On Channel 10, we have The Pussycat Dolls, "Stickwitu." Because Philip once sat on a plane next to Nicole Scherzinger, I'll give it 4,600. It featured Avant, according to my later research. Script, "Breakeven" -- I thought it would have been called Falling to Pieces -- from 2008, 4,150. Not bad. Akon and Snoop Dogg, "I Wanna Luv U" I think it was called, from '06. When it's just one bite and undecipherable lyrics, it's kind of hard to give it a high score. They did mix it up a little bit toward the end, so I went up to 4,700. When I do hear music that I'm not familiar with, one of the reasons why I try to listen to certain channels every day is to try to get a feel for the music of the time and it might shake some memories for me in some of these eras that everyone has spent a lot of time listening to the music. Even if I wanted to love this song, I really wouldn't.
Lady Gaga, "Poker Face," from '09. I know it was a big hit at the time. I'm not a big fan of Lady Gaga. I'm being generous giving it 3,950. A word on how I resolve some of the differences between my scores and what they get from the general public: My recollection is that "Poker Face" was No. 2 for '09. That would make it around 99 per cent of the top score. 3,950 would be 21 per cent of the top score, and 79 per cent of the top 5,000 would be better than that. What I figure I'll do is average 21 plus 99 is 120, so I'd move it up 60 places. Or I might just move it up the difference of 39 places. Given those parameters, this one would come out to 3,890 or perhaps 3,911 or so. We'll see when the final scores come out how I apportioned the scores.
Mario, "Let Me Love You," from '04. It's kind of a melodic ballad over a steady, not rap, beat, but a steady beat. I'm saying 4,800.
The Ataris, "Boys of Summer," I think '03 -- I've been debating whether to move it up to the top half over 2,500, but I don't think it's that good. I do have a soft spot for it because of the title. It reminds of Roger Kahn's book, "The Boys of Summer," about the Brooklyn Dodgers, and I'm a sucker for baseball stuff. I would not have been able to tell you the group was The Ataris until I saw it on the screen. Part of the deal with the Lady Gaga thing is that I don't believe I would raise it more than 100 places based on its popular status at the time, and rarely above 50 given the way I'm setting the parameters. 2,600.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Girl groups, orchestras, The King and the gospel
Voice recording #259, from Jan. 7.
The Platters, maybe "You've Got the Magic Touch", year? This song and a number of others were on a novelty album called "The Flying Saucer", which included excerpts from radio broadcasts about a saucer's landing. The announcer would say they were going to a correspondent for a bulletin, which would be snippets from other Platters songs. The Platters were '50s icons. This is not their best, but it's pretty good. 4,400.
Little Richard, "Tutti Frutti", year? Little Richard was a straight-up rocker. I don't think rockers even existed when he was coming up, but he was one of those who defined what it meant to rock. The instrumentation was different from what we're used to from rock. There's piano, but it's hard-driving piano. The bridges between the verses were likely to be horns -- saxophones, in this case. Little Richard was a giant. 4,100.
Crests, "Isn't It Amazing", year? I've mentioned that '50s music was limited partly because of a lack of technical knowledge, partly because of a lack of imagination in engineering and instrumentation, but also because the lyrics lacked imagination. This song does things such as rhyming angels from above with turtle dove. At worst, it's a really sappy song, at best it's not very good. 4,900, which may be generous.
Tommy Edwards, "It's All in the Game", year? This song has been done before and after Tommy Edwards. It's a classic, standard banner. Not bad. 4,600.
Ray Smith, "Rockin' Little Angel", year? This one seems to have taken other tunes and put Mr. Smith's own words into them. It's not very good. 4,925.
The Shirelles, "Everybody Loves a Lover", year? There are a lot of better versions of this song. Those were probably later than the '50s. The Shirelles had some good hits, mostly in the '60s. At the divide between '59 and '60 or between Kennedy and Eisenhower, or whatever it was, girl groups really found an identity. They may have been more viable economically at a time when record companies and producers weren't ashamed of ripping off artists. I'm sure there were some engineering advancements by that time. This isn't The Shirelles' best. Generously, 4,850.
The Drifters, "Fools Fall in Love", 1957. The things I said about the girl groups also apply to The Drifters, who were much more successful financially and esthetically in the '60s than in the '50s. I thought later about the Shirelles' song that in later versions the tempo was changed, possibly syncopation was added, or starts and stops, things were done that made it a better song. 4,900.
The G Clefs, "I Understand (The Way You Feel)", year? The '50s were a time when people tended to do things without asking why. The G Clefs musically seem like a group made up of people who did what their parents or teacher, or pastor or whatever, told them to do. Their was a lot of religious feeling to this one. There were a lot of staccato strings. Playing over the melody at times was "Auld Lang Syne". 4,950.
Elvis Presley, "Hard Headed Woman", year? I may already have done this one, and if I did I don't think I would have given it higher than 4,650. It's Elvis, and that's the only reason why it would be that high. I really like Elvis, but this is not good Elvis music. This is probably well down the list of Elvis hits. I may remember this song just from having seen the title while I was filling in the database. I kind of zipped through the early '50s and the '40s. The Billboard Hot 100 was just a Top 30 during the early '50s, and there wasn't a year-end survey during the '40s but just weekly lists of who's number one. So in the '40s there might have been anywhere from four or five to 12 or 13 number one songs during a year, and those would be the only ones listed. Even with 12 or 13, there might really have been 9 or 10 because different orchestras sometimes took the same song to the top during a year. There were years during the '40s when there weren't any solo artists with No. 1 hits, but instead it would Woody Herman and His Orchestra, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra or Somebody Else and His Orchestra. Probably one of the Dorseys and His Orchestra. Occasionally a Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby would break through. So it took me a short time to add the '40s and early '50s.
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go", which was a hit in 1960. I don't know anything about Hank Ballard. My original thought was that he was a country-music guy. This song sounds more gospel; I'll check it out. The lyrics make it sound as if we're being invited to a revival meeting: "There's a three-ill upon the hee-ill. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" Some of that might be because of the '50s religious -- not fervor, but more fundamentalism. The gospel music seemed to be based more in the black churches, as opposed to some newer, made-up religions. Well, some would say they're all made up. I did go to a couple of revival meetings in the '60s and '70s, though it was in the spirit of more of a goof. I've gone to a lot of Baptist church in Texas, and I prefer the ones that aren't all fire and brimstone. I understand there's a place for that. We're supposed to behave properly, but I'm not sure we need to be frightened into doing that. This song is well intentioned. 4,850. I checked, and realized that I should know more about Ballard. The group was primarily R&B, but Ballard wrote and recorded "The Twist" before Chubby Checker covered it more successfully with a crossover audience. Ballard is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he died on my birthday in 2003.
Ritchie Valens, "Donna", year? 3,800.
The Platters, maybe "You've Got the Magic Touch", year? This song and a number of others were on a novelty album called "The Flying Saucer", which included excerpts from radio broadcasts about a saucer's landing. The announcer would say they were going to a correspondent for a bulletin, which would be snippets from other Platters songs. The Platters were '50s icons. This is not their best, but it's pretty good. 4,400.
Little Richard, "Tutti Frutti", year? Little Richard was a straight-up rocker. I don't think rockers even existed when he was coming up, but he was one of those who defined what it meant to rock. The instrumentation was different from what we're used to from rock. There's piano, but it's hard-driving piano. The bridges between the verses were likely to be horns -- saxophones, in this case. Little Richard was a giant. 4,100.
Crests, "Isn't It Amazing", year? I've mentioned that '50s music was limited partly because of a lack of technical knowledge, partly because of a lack of imagination in engineering and instrumentation, but also because the lyrics lacked imagination. This song does things such as rhyming angels from above with turtle dove. At worst, it's a really sappy song, at best it's not very good. 4,900, which may be generous.
Tommy Edwards, "It's All in the Game", year? This song has been done before and after Tommy Edwards. It's a classic, standard banner. Not bad. 4,600.
Ray Smith, "Rockin' Little Angel", year? This one seems to have taken other tunes and put Mr. Smith's own words into them. It's not very good. 4,925.
The Shirelles, "Everybody Loves a Lover", year? There are a lot of better versions of this song. Those were probably later than the '50s. The Shirelles had some good hits, mostly in the '60s. At the divide between '59 and '60 or between Kennedy and Eisenhower, or whatever it was, girl groups really found an identity. They may have been more viable economically at a time when record companies and producers weren't ashamed of ripping off artists. I'm sure there were some engineering advancements by that time. This isn't The Shirelles' best. Generously, 4,850.
The Drifters, "Fools Fall in Love", 1957. The things I said about the girl groups also apply to The Drifters, who were much more successful financially and esthetically in the '60s than in the '50s. I thought later about the Shirelles' song that in later versions the tempo was changed, possibly syncopation was added, or starts and stops, things were done that made it a better song. 4,900.
The G Clefs, "I Understand (The Way You Feel)", year? The '50s were a time when people tended to do things without asking why. The G Clefs musically seem like a group made up of people who did what their parents or teacher, or pastor or whatever, told them to do. Their was a lot of religious feeling to this one. There were a lot of staccato strings. Playing over the melody at times was "Auld Lang Syne". 4,950.
Elvis Presley, "Hard Headed Woman", year? I may already have done this one, and if I did I don't think I would have given it higher than 4,650. It's Elvis, and that's the only reason why it would be that high. I really like Elvis, but this is not good Elvis music. This is probably well down the list of Elvis hits. I may remember this song just from having seen the title while I was filling in the database. I kind of zipped through the early '50s and the '40s. The Billboard Hot 100 was just a Top 30 during the early '50s, and there wasn't a year-end survey during the '40s but just weekly lists of who's number one. So in the '40s there might have been anywhere from four or five to 12 or 13 number one songs during a year, and those would be the only ones listed. Even with 12 or 13, there might really have been 9 or 10 because different orchestras sometimes took the same song to the top during a year. There were years during the '40s when there weren't any solo artists with No. 1 hits, but instead it would Woody Herman and His Orchestra, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra or Somebody Else and His Orchestra. Probably one of the Dorseys and His Orchestra. Occasionally a Frank Sinatra or Bing Crosby would break through. So it took me a short time to add the '40s and early '50s.
Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, "Let's Go Let's Go Let's Go", which was a hit in 1960. I don't know anything about Hank Ballard. My original thought was that he was a country-music guy. This song sounds more gospel; I'll check it out. The lyrics make it sound as if we're being invited to a revival meeting: "There's a three-ill upon the hee-ill. Let's go! Let's go! Let's go!" Some of that might be because of the '50s religious -- not fervor, but more fundamentalism. The gospel music seemed to be based more in the black churches, as opposed to some newer, made-up religions. Well, some would say they're all made up. I did go to a couple of revival meetings in the '60s and '70s, though it was in the spirit of more of a goof. I've gone to a lot of Baptist church in Texas, and I prefer the ones that aren't all fire and brimstone. I understand there's a place for that. We're supposed to behave properly, but I'm not sure we need to be frightened into doing that. This song is well intentioned. 4,850. I checked, and realized that I should know more about Ballard. The group was primarily R&B, but Ballard wrote and recorded "The Twist" before Chubby Checker covered it more successfully with a crossover audience. Ballard is in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and he died on my birthday in 2003.
Ritchie Valens, "Donna", year? 3,800.
The '50s were more kookie than ginchy
Voice recording #254, more from Jan. 7, again on Sirius Channel 5.
Eddie Cochran, "Sittin' in the Balcony", no year given. Cochran was an early rocker. I' not sure this song qualifies as rock 'n' roll. It has guitars and a very constant rhythm. 4,850.
Jim Henderson, "Snap Your Fingers", year? 4,900. And I moved Eddie Cochran up from 4,900 because I feared I might be able to populate most of the 4,900-5,000 slots just today otherwise.
James Darren, "Pin a Medal on Joey", year? 4,825.
Elvis Presley, "Need Your Love Tonight", year? 4,750.
The Browns, "The Old Lamp-Lighter", late '50s. He was the old lamp-lighter "of long, long ago." This song now qualifies as long, long ago. It was a remake -- at least I assume it was the same old lamp-lighter song that was a No. 1 hit during the '40s. The Browns had a number of nostalgic, sentimental songs. This was not the best. I think "The Three Bells" was by The Browns. This one is 4,800.
The Flares, "Foot Stompin' Part 1", year? I don't know whether there was a part two. The beat, just by stomping the sound, wasn't as dynamic as, say, The Lumineers' foot stomping. Another pet peeve: The Flares are spelled like a warning flare, but I have seen people write something like, "He finished the project with flare," when what they really mean is "with flair," as in panache. 4,825.
The Moonglows, "Mostly something", year? It's not just a case of being old so there weren't as many bells and whistles in the production, but this is not a very good piece of music. 4,840.
Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin'", year? This is a classic, with drums and Jerry Lee's rocking' piano. 4,400.
Ike and Tina Turner, "A Fool in Love", year? I didn't realize they were recording in the '50s. I remember then from the mid-60s -- which really isn't must of a stretch, as I look back at it. I'm not sure which of them sang the lead. Ike's career didn't last much past the mid-60s, but Tina has kept going pretty much to the present. This is an early soul-rock song, more rock than soul. 4,825.
Pat Boone, "Speedy Gonzales", year? This song would not be made today. It caricatures and generalizes about Hispanics/Latinos. I'm not sure what was the the purpose for this song, but I guess it was supposed to be a funny novelty record. It's definitely dated. 4,925.
Little Richard, "Jenny Jenny", 1957. It's classic Little Richard, right down to the "Woooooo!" It is a great classic. It has been remade since, I believe by Mitch Ryder and possibly others. 3,900.
Bobby Vee, "Rubber Ball", year? This song is not to be confused with The Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball" from the '60s. This one is a song about a guy who has been done wrong by a woman who treats him like a rubber ball because he comes bouncing back to her. 4,200.
Fronc Pourcel, "Only You", year? This is an orchestral version of a song with actual words -- a love song, of course. There are a whole lot of strings in a high register, and they do a lot of things with those strings. The sung song is a better version. 4,600.
The Kingston Trio, but I neglected to record the song's title and year. They were probably the foremost folk group of a really folky decade. 4,700.
The Earls, "Remember When", year? It goes "re-mem-mem, re-mem-ba-mem-ber." It's a catchy tune. 4,600.
Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens, "Kookie Kookie" (Lend Me Your Comb)", year? Edd "Kookie" Byrnes was a short-lived Hollywood heartthrob on the original "77 Sunset Strip" TV show. I believe his character's name was Kookie. He had a lot of long, wavy hair, pretty well Brylcreemed up in the '50s style. I pretty sure the character was known for combing his hair on the show. Connie Stevens was frequently seen as a beach bunny in the surfer movies that were popular then. This was a chance to take advantage of current popularity with a novelty song. The time warp that produced this song was probably best illustrated by Kookie's final words to Connie Stevens: "Baby, you're the ginchiest." I don't think that was a popular slang word even in the '50s. This song wasn't the ginchiest, but for its novel effects I'll give it 4,750.
Sam Cooke, I believe it's called "Send Me Your Lovin'", year? Sam had a long and distinguished career, but this was not one of its highlights. This is more a song of unrequited love than a gospel song, but there is kind of a gospel choir singing backup. 4,800.
The Dell-Vikings, "Come Go With Me", year? This was a typical group of the time, with a lead singer doing the melody and a deep-voiced guy for special effects. It's a jaunty tune, up-tempo, a good song for its time. The lyrics played with the four words in the title. At times the group sang, "come and go with me" and "come on, go with me."4,350.
Jelly Beans, I believe it's "I Want to Love Him So Bad", year? Probably about as bad as the singing in this one. 4,850, possibly.
The Big Bopper, but I didn't record the title or year. I hadn't heard it before, but the music is almost identical to "Chantilly Lace". I'm not sure why that was possible. Perhaps the same person wrote both songs so there was no copyright problem. This song was not good. 4,950.
Everly Brothers, "Dream", year? I believe that's the title; the words are "all I have do is dream," or more accurately "dre-ee-ee-ee-eam, dream, dream, dream." The Everly Brothers were the most underrated (or least rated) act of the '50s. They were not in Elvis country, but up there near the top. Their music was good, and this was one of their best songs. I think it was Don Everly, not Phil, who died in 2014. I give the song 4,050.
The Crows, "Gee", as in the first half of gee whiz, year? Before there were Black Crowes or Counting Crows or even Sheryl Crow, there were The Crows. They and this song were not particularly good. 4,900.
Faron Young, "Hello Walls", year? It's a country crossover. He was saying hello to the walls in a deep voice. 4,850.
Eddie Cochran, "Sittin' in the Balcony", no year given. Cochran was an early rocker. I' not sure this song qualifies as rock 'n' roll. It has guitars and a very constant rhythm. 4,850.
Jim Henderson, "Snap Your Fingers", year? 4,900. And I moved Eddie Cochran up from 4,900 because I feared I might be able to populate most of the 4,900-5,000 slots just today otherwise.
James Darren, "Pin a Medal on Joey", year? 4,825.
Elvis Presley, "Need Your Love Tonight", year? 4,750.
The Browns, "The Old Lamp-Lighter", late '50s. He was the old lamp-lighter "of long, long ago." This song now qualifies as long, long ago. It was a remake -- at least I assume it was the same old lamp-lighter song that was a No. 1 hit during the '40s. The Browns had a number of nostalgic, sentimental songs. This was not the best. I think "The Three Bells" was by The Browns. This one is 4,800.
The Flares, "Foot Stompin' Part 1", year? I don't know whether there was a part two. The beat, just by stomping the sound, wasn't as dynamic as, say, The Lumineers' foot stomping. Another pet peeve: The Flares are spelled like a warning flare, but I have seen people write something like, "He finished the project with flare," when what they really mean is "with flair," as in panache. 4,825.
The Moonglows, "Mostly something", year? It's not just a case of being old so there weren't as many bells and whistles in the production, but this is not a very good piece of music. 4,840.
Jerry Lee Lewis, "Whole Lotta Shakin'", year? This is a classic, with drums and Jerry Lee's rocking' piano. 4,400.
Ike and Tina Turner, "A Fool in Love", year? I didn't realize they were recording in the '50s. I remember then from the mid-60s -- which really isn't must of a stretch, as I look back at it. I'm not sure which of them sang the lead. Ike's career didn't last much past the mid-60s, but Tina has kept going pretty much to the present. This is an early soul-rock song, more rock than soul. 4,825.
Pat Boone, "Speedy Gonzales", year? This song would not be made today. It caricatures and generalizes about Hispanics/Latinos. I'm not sure what was the the purpose for this song, but I guess it was supposed to be a funny novelty record. It's definitely dated. 4,925.
Little Richard, "Jenny Jenny", 1957. It's classic Little Richard, right down to the "Woooooo!" It is a great classic. It has been remade since, I believe by Mitch Ryder and possibly others. 3,900.
Bobby Vee, "Rubber Ball", year? This song is not to be confused with The Cyrkle's "Red Rubber Ball" from the '60s. This one is a song about a guy who has been done wrong by a woman who treats him like a rubber ball because he comes bouncing back to her. 4,200.
Fronc Pourcel, "Only You", year? This is an orchestral version of a song with actual words -- a love song, of course. There are a whole lot of strings in a high register, and they do a lot of things with those strings. The sung song is a better version. 4,600.
The Kingston Trio, but I neglected to record the song's title and year. They were probably the foremost folk group of a really folky decade. 4,700.
The Earls, "Remember When", year? It goes "re-mem-mem, re-mem-ba-mem-ber." It's a catchy tune. 4,600.
Edd Byrnes and Connie Stevens, "Kookie Kookie" (Lend Me Your Comb)", year? Edd "Kookie" Byrnes was a short-lived Hollywood heartthrob on the original "77 Sunset Strip" TV show. I believe his character's name was Kookie. He had a lot of long, wavy hair, pretty well Brylcreemed up in the '50s style. I pretty sure the character was known for combing his hair on the show. Connie Stevens was frequently seen as a beach bunny in the surfer movies that were popular then. This was a chance to take advantage of current popularity with a novelty song. The time warp that produced this song was probably best illustrated by Kookie's final words to Connie Stevens: "Baby, you're the ginchiest." I don't think that was a popular slang word even in the '50s. This song wasn't the ginchiest, but for its novel effects I'll give it 4,750.
Sam Cooke, I believe it's called "Send Me Your Lovin'", year? Sam had a long and distinguished career, but this was not one of its highlights. This is more a song of unrequited love than a gospel song, but there is kind of a gospel choir singing backup. 4,800.
The Dell-Vikings, "Come Go With Me", year? This was a typical group of the time, with a lead singer doing the melody and a deep-voiced guy for special effects. It's a jaunty tune, up-tempo, a good song for its time. The lyrics played with the four words in the title. At times the group sang, "come and go with me" and "come on, go with me."4,350.
Jelly Beans, I believe it's "I Want to Love Him So Bad", year? Probably about as bad as the singing in this one. 4,850, possibly.
The Big Bopper, but I didn't record the title or year. I hadn't heard it before, but the music is almost identical to "Chantilly Lace". I'm not sure why that was possible. Perhaps the same person wrote both songs so there was no copyright problem. This song was not good. 4,950.
Everly Brothers, "Dream", year? I believe that's the title; the words are "all I have do is dream," or more accurately "dre-ee-ee-ee-eam, dream, dream, dream." The Everly Brothers were the most underrated (or least rated) act of the '50s. They were not in Elvis country, but up there near the top. Their music was good, and this was one of their best songs. I think it was Don Everly, not Phil, who died in 2014. I give the song 4,050.
The Crows, "Gee", as in the first half of gee whiz, year? Before there were Black Crowes or Counting Crows or even Sheryl Crow, there were The Crows. They and this song were not particularly good. 4,900.
Faron Young, "Hello Walls", year? It's a country crossover. He was saying hello to the walls in a deep voice. 4,850.
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Up to the minute
This is as close to a live blog as anything I have done in this project.
I was driving home from the Feb. 22 Mavericks game when my phone battery went dead. I have been recording my impressions almost exclusively on my Samsung Galaxy S4. (An endorsement possibility?) I partially charged the battery a couple of times Sunday, but I took it off the charger when we went to the movies in the afternoon and again in the evening while I was in the media room at American Airlines Center. So it didn't get fully charged, or even half charged.
Then after I got home, a glass of wine was spilled on the chair, the carpet and my sweater, so I lost some time and some ideas about what I wanted to say.
I did remember most of the information about the last three songs I heard, which were from the iHeart Radio Top 20 for this very week from KIIS-FM, which is Sirius XM Channel 11. I'm not sure it's just a Top 20 because it's very exclusive or (as I fear) there aren't enough good songs to go around. The guest hosts were Imagine Dragons, and I'm pretty sure there "Radioactive" wasn't part of the survey.
Maroon 5?, "I Lived", 2015 or maybe '14. This is No. 20. I have recorded observations about this song at least once. Not sure when I'll catch up with those observations on the blog thread. I think this was about 4,600. It's a fairly good song, and it doesn't have the unrelated unibeat of most current songs.
One Direction, I believe it's "Night Changes", also '14 or '15. I'm pretty sure I've commented on this one too. Tonight it came in for me at 4,650.
Imagine Dragons, "Radioactive", '14. My recollection of what I wanted to say about this one (or it might have been "Night Changes") is that it has the characteristic steady beat. It's so steady that it doesn't even change when the song goes in different directions. So I'll take away some points because the tempo doesn't vary, but add some for having a different approach. 4,675.
I was driving home from the Feb. 22 Mavericks game when my phone battery went dead. I have been recording my impressions almost exclusively on my Samsung Galaxy S4. (An endorsement possibility?) I partially charged the battery a couple of times Sunday, but I took it off the charger when we went to the movies in the afternoon and again in the evening while I was in the media room at American Airlines Center. So it didn't get fully charged, or even half charged.
Then after I got home, a glass of wine was spilled on the chair, the carpet and my sweater, so I lost some time and some ideas about what I wanted to say.
I did remember most of the information about the last three songs I heard, which were from the iHeart Radio Top 20 for this very week from KIIS-FM, which is Sirius XM Channel 11. I'm not sure it's just a Top 20 because it's very exclusive or (as I fear) there aren't enough good songs to go around. The guest hosts were Imagine Dragons, and I'm pretty sure there "Radioactive" wasn't part of the survey.
Maroon 5?, "I Lived", 2015 or maybe '14. This is No. 20. I have recorded observations about this song at least once. Not sure when I'll catch up with those observations on the blog thread. I think this was about 4,600. It's a fairly good song, and it doesn't have the unrelated unibeat of most current songs.
One Direction, I believe it's "Night Changes", also '14 or '15. I'm pretty sure I've commented on this one too. Tonight it came in for me at 4,650.
Imagine Dragons, "Radioactive", '14. My recollection of what I wanted to say about this one (or it might have been "Night Changes") is that it has the characteristic steady beat. It's so steady that it doesn't even change when the song goes in different directions. So I'll take away some points because the tempo doesn't vary, but add some for having a different approach. 4,675.
Monday, February 9, 2015
Bridging the gap to rock music
Voice recording #253, Jan. 7.
Bill Haley and His Comets, "Dim Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)", probably early '50s. This was not so much rock as jazz. He used horns instead of guitars. It wasn't very good. 4,900.
Big Dee Irwin, "Swingin' on a Star", year? This song goes back at least to the '40s, when it was a No. 1 hit for Frank Sinatra. I'm pretty sure there was another incarnation during the '50s and probably some since. It's a bit of a novelty song. Above all, it's a happy song. 4,600.
Bobby Vee, "Take Good Care of My Baby", late '50s. Instead of being a song about unrequited love, this one is post-requited. He's asking the guy who snaked away his girlfriend to send her back because the snake doesn't really love her the way Bobby does. There was a time when I thought Bobby Vee was the same guy as Bobby Vinton. 4,350.
Accents, "Wiggle Wiggle", year? A weird song. 4,950.
The Coasters, "Poison Ivy", late '50s. It was probably about the time when I had a case of poison ivy practically from head to toe after crawling around a cliff bank on Seneca Lake. I remember my eyes were swollen almost shut and I missed sixth-grade classes for more than a week. Another story at the time was about a school bus ride when the guys were poking fun at a girl with two syllables in her first and last name with lewd (for the '50s) lyrics about her to the tune of "Poison Ivy". Movies also have featured a Poison Ivy character, in the Poison Ivy (Drew Barrymore/Alyssa Milano/Jaime Pressly/Miriam McDonald) and Batman (Uma Thurman) franchises. Another joke/parody song by The Coasters was "Charlie Brown". They were an early rock band with guitars and drums. Not a lot of imagination, but they kept a good beat. 4,550.
Phil Phillips, "Sea of Love", year? I don't believe Phillips is related to Phillip Phillips, who had some post-"American Idol" success two generations later. This one is kind of doo-wop underneath the melody. Not a bad song. 4,500.
Jimmie Rodgers, "Bimbombay", year? He also had hits in the late '50s and early '60s. This was not his best. But it does have lyrics that are similar to the song about the woman who swallowed a fly, and I don't know why she swallowed that fly. "There's a girl in the house on the hill on the way to Bimbombay." It also has nonsense syllables: "Jing-a-ling-a-lie-ay." It is a bit of a toe-tapper. I said 4,800 at the time, but I hadn't turned off the recorder at the time, and I did get into the toe-tapping mode when I heard it again. So, 4,700.
Roy Orbison, "Crying", year? The thing about Crying" is that there's great power both in his singing and the background orchestra. It builds to a crescendo. 3,500 or higher.
Buddy Holly, "Think It Over", year? I appreciate what Buddy meant to at least a generation of music makers who followed him with some great songs. This one must have been from his early years. It doesn't have much rock inspiration. I don't remember hearing it from anyone else. It has a boogie-woogie piano in the background. 4,800.
The Times, "Somewhere", sometime in the mid-'50s. This has a simple melody and rhythm laid out on piano and drums with what sounds like finger snapping. 4,850.
Elvis Presley, "(Now and Then) There's a Fool Such As I", year? Elvis shows some vocal range, there are deep bass voices in the background, some of the time is kept by hand clapping and foot tapping rather than the finger snapping of the previous song. Elvis is pretty dramatic with it. 3,900.
James Darren, "Goodbye Cruel World", year? Not Bobby Darin, but James Darren. This can go on the listing of songs about clowns or the circus because the singer is going to go off and join the circus because he's having trouble with his girlfriend. The song was fairly popular at the time. It includes some circus-type calliope music. 4,400.
Brenda Lee, "All Alone Am I", 1962? It's a power ballad. She has some keyboard that sounds like a harpsichord, a lot of power in her voice, changing tempos, pretty dramatic. I just bought gas for $1.719, and filled the tank for $17.52. That was nice. 4,500.
Bill Haley and His Comets, "Dim Dim the Lights (I Want Some Atmosphere)", probably early '50s. This was not so much rock as jazz. He used horns instead of guitars. It wasn't very good. 4,900.
Big Dee Irwin, "Swingin' on a Star", year? This song goes back at least to the '40s, when it was a No. 1 hit for Frank Sinatra. I'm pretty sure there was another incarnation during the '50s and probably some since. It's a bit of a novelty song. Above all, it's a happy song. 4,600.
Bobby Vee, "Take Good Care of My Baby", late '50s. Instead of being a song about unrequited love, this one is post-requited. He's asking the guy who snaked away his girlfriend to send her back because the snake doesn't really love her the way Bobby does. There was a time when I thought Bobby Vee was the same guy as Bobby Vinton. 4,350.
Accents, "Wiggle Wiggle", year? A weird song. 4,950.
The Coasters, "Poison Ivy", late '50s. It was probably about the time when I had a case of poison ivy practically from head to toe after crawling around a cliff bank on Seneca Lake. I remember my eyes were swollen almost shut and I missed sixth-grade classes for more than a week. Another story at the time was about a school bus ride when the guys were poking fun at a girl with two syllables in her first and last name with lewd (for the '50s) lyrics about her to the tune of "Poison Ivy". Movies also have featured a Poison Ivy character, in the Poison Ivy (Drew Barrymore/Alyssa Milano/Jaime Pressly/Miriam McDonald) and Batman (Uma Thurman) franchises. Another joke/parody song by The Coasters was "Charlie Brown". They were an early rock band with guitars and drums. Not a lot of imagination, but they kept a good beat. 4,550.
Phil Phillips, "Sea of Love", year? I don't believe Phillips is related to Phillip Phillips, who had some post-"American Idol" success two generations later. This one is kind of doo-wop underneath the melody. Not a bad song. 4,500.
Jimmie Rodgers, "Bimbombay", year? He also had hits in the late '50s and early '60s. This was not his best. But it does have lyrics that are similar to the song about the woman who swallowed a fly, and I don't know why she swallowed that fly. "There's a girl in the house on the hill on the way to Bimbombay." It also has nonsense syllables: "Jing-a-ling-a-lie-ay." It is a bit of a toe-tapper. I said 4,800 at the time, but I hadn't turned off the recorder at the time, and I did get into the toe-tapping mode when I heard it again. So, 4,700.
Roy Orbison, "Crying", year? The thing about Crying" is that there's great power both in his singing and the background orchestra. It builds to a crescendo. 3,500 or higher.
Buddy Holly, "Think It Over", year? I appreciate what Buddy meant to at least a generation of music makers who followed him with some great songs. This one must have been from his early years. It doesn't have much rock inspiration. I don't remember hearing it from anyone else. It has a boogie-woogie piano in the background. 4,800.
The Times, "Somewhere", sometime in the mid-'50s. This has a simple melody and rhythm laid out on piano and drums with what sounds like finger snapping. 4,850.
Elvis Presley, "(Now and Then) There's a Fool Such As I", year? Elvis shows some vocal range, there are deep bass voices in the background, some of the time is kept by hand clapping and foot tapping rather than the finger snapping of the previous song. Elvis is pretty dramatic with it. 3,900.
James Darren, "Goodbye Cruel World", year? Not Bobby Darin, but James Darren. This can go on the listing of songs about clowns or the circus because the singer is going to go off and join the circus because he's having trouble with his girlfriend. The song was fairly popular at the time. It includes some circus-type calliope music. 4,400.
Brenda Lee, "All Alone Am I", 1962? It's a power ballad. She has some keyboard that sounds like a harpsichord, a lot of power in her voice, changing tempos, pretty dramatic. I just bought gas for $1.719, and filled the tank for $17.52. That was nice. 4,500.
Where it started for me
Voice recording #249 from Jan. 6, on Sirius Channel 5.
The Essex, "Easier Said Than Done", 1956. The Essex were a trend setter in that they copied baseball's Sox by becoming perhaps the first musical group whose name didn't end in S. This was a pretty good song. It has some changes in tempo. One of the better '50s songs, but I couldn't understand what I said for a score.
Gene Vincent, "Lotta Lovin'", '58. 4,850.
Roy Hamilton, "You Can Have Her", no year listed. It's unusual in that the backup singers sound like a church choir, so there's a gospel feel. The singer doesn't want his wife or girlfriend anymore, so you can have her. 4,825.
Bill Haley and His Comets, "Mambo Rock", year? This is considered the original rock 'n' roll group, but this is not among their best. Part of it sounds like a later song, "Mambo Italiano", and it has what sounds like electric guitar picking. So it had some groundbreaking elements. This song did not create a dance craze, in the manner of the Twist or the Macarena. 4,810.
Ben E. King, "Stand by Me", late '50s. This song was revived 20-30 years later when the movie "Stand by Me" came out. The movie is supposed to be set in 1959, but imdb.com notes that there are a lot of anachronisms in it. I noticed the first time I saw it that a 1960 Topps baseball card was on the bulletin board of Will Wheaton's character's brother, who died in '59. Good movie, though, and good song. Good beat, good percussion. 4,100.
On most of these for the '50s I might be splitting hairs at the lower 4,000s among songs that might not even make the final 5,000.
I'm just about finished with the final entries in the database, at least for song names, artists and where they fit in their own year's Top 100. I still need to add information as we go along. I have more than 6,000 listed, so obviously they all couldn't make the top 5,000, and I'll be adding other songs that weren't in any year's Top 100 but still deserve mention. Songs that I like, mostly.
Lou Christie, "Two Faces Have I" from the late '50s. The late '50s into the early '60s was one of the best eras for falsetto singing, and Lou had his best in "Lightning Strikes". This was a good one too, in the same style: "One to laugh, and one to cry. Ah-Ahk." 4,350.
Larry Williams, "Dizzy Miss Lizzie", year? He had a fair number of hits in the '50s, with some early rock. His singing has a Little Richard feel. One that I couldn't remember or didn't remember who did it was by Larry Williams. (I forget which one as I write this.) 4,700.
The Schoolboys, "Please Say You Want Me Again", year? This one is painfully slow. There is some kind of chorus/background singers, but nothing really to commend this one. 4,950.
The Crickets with Buddy Holly, "Oh Boy", year? This is one of the many Buddy Holly songs that was covered by British groups. However, it wasn't Holly but Sonny West who wrote and first performed this song and "Rave On". "Oh Boy" has a lot of guitar, moves quickly and is forward-looking for its time even though the guitar play is simple in comparison to what we now expect. Buddy Holly also did things with his voice -- "ah-uh-ho" -- that almost added another instrument. 3,950.
Bonnie? Sisters, "Cry Baby", sounds like fairly early '50s. I'm imaging that this song would have been sung in jazz clubs. The sisters were pretty much drowned out by the saxophones and percussion. 4,975.
The Caravelles, "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry", year? This has in common with "Cry Baby" the words "cry" and "baby", and probably a similar time frame. Mid-'50s? The lead singer has a nice voice -- high, very breathy, but hard to pick up over the little bit of drumming and cymbals. That probably points out the fairly primitive sound engineering of the time. There probably weren't many microphones, if even more than one, and there might have been one by the drums. And of course they didn't have today's digital equipment to remix. 4,850.
Thurston Harris, "Little Bitty Pretty One", late '50s? The song moves pretty well. 4,450.
I remember the songs from the late '50s. My late sister Carolee was 3 years older, so I remember some of her records and songs she would listen to on the radio. Pat Boone was her favorite. She also had records by Guy Mitchell and Jim Lowe's "Green Door". I got my first radio for Christmas in 1958, about 6 weeks before The Day the Music Died. I remember very distinctly listening to the radio the next day, which was pretty much 24/7 talking about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. To my 10-year-old mind, that was very significant. Looking back, I guess that was akin to listening to a weekend sports-talk announcer a couple of years out of college saying that one of today's quarterbacks must be the greatest ever without regard for, or possibly even any knowledge of, Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana. My musical starting frame of reference was really the late '50s.
Kalin? Twins, "When", year? I will say that these '50s songs tend to be even shorter than those today or even a decade or two after the '50s. This song was not out of the ordinary or out of its time. The singing was not very good. 4,900.
The Olympics, "Big Boy Pete", year? I don't remember this one, but I think that The Olympics might have had a plagiarism case against whoever did "Jolly Green Giant". It's almost an identical tune, and similar subject matter about how you don't mess around with this guy. However, "Jolly Green Giant" was a better song, in part because there were better tools at the group's disposal. Forgot to give Pete a score.
The Platters, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", 1958. Anyone who lived through the '50s and '60s or has seen "Mad Men", would understand the idea of smoke in the eyes. Not just around the campfire, in those days. I'm pretty sure this is a remake of an older, classic song. The Platters had a lot of good hits during their time. Their style was mostly slow, romantic ballads. There were a lot of strings and backup singers harmonizing in the background. 4,550.
Annette, "O Dio Mio", maybe '56 or '57. Annette was the late Annette Funicello. "Mickey Mouse Club" came on TV about 1955. Not much after it debuted, I started watching it, and a lot of other kids did too. Annette, 13 at the time, was one of the first females who taught boys my age that teenage girls actually had breasts. In a way, she was the Britney Spears of her day, taking herself from "Mickey Mouse Club" to music and movies, but not as successfully. My 5,000 has to have room for an Annette song, if only for her groundbreaking activities and sweaters. And this probably isn't even her best. It does have Italian in it: O dio mio, oh my God. 4,700.
Del Shannon, "Runaway", the song was released in 1961, but somehow it got on Sirius XM Channel 5 with '50s songs. Again there's a falsetto theme: "I'm a walkin' in the rain." He did that more with this song than his others. The music has a penny whistle or maybe a piccolo. I checked, and neither of those instruments was in the song. I might have been hearing a Musitron, an electronic keyboard invented by Max Crook, who sang on the record with Shannon. The sound was similar to what we heard on Crispian St. Peters' "Pied Piper" in '66. "Runaway" was ahead of its time. 3,700.
Brenda Lee, "Sweet Nothin's", year? Brenda was pretty big in the '50s and early '60s. 4,600.
Brenda Lee, "As Usual", year? There's a lot of country in her singing. There seemed to be quite a bit more country crossover into popular music in the 50s. Certainly, cowboy shows were a big part of television programming then -- Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, The Lone Ranger, Wild Bill Hickok, The Cisco Kid and others -- and Western movies also were popular. 4,800.
Cadillacs, "Woe Is Me", year? 4,900.
Percy Faith, "Theme from a Summer Place", maybe '59? Very much lost in this era, but prevalent in the '50s and '60s, were orchestral songs that would make it on to the charts. This one I believe was No. 1 overall in the year it came out. There were words to the song that Percy Faith's orchestra made with lots of strings and horns. "The sweet secret of a summer place, is that it's anywhere where two people share all their hopes, all their dreams … all their love." Percy did OK on this one. 4,600.
Rolf Harris, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport", year? This was a folk song from Australia that played more as a novelty number here. One line that wouldn't go over well today was "Let me abos go loose," with "abos" a pejorative slang term for aborigines. Another thing I remember about this song was that my girlfriend for most of high school was Nancy Sullivan, whose dad called her "sport." Her sister, Mary, always kidded her about "Timmy kangaroo down sport."4,650 just for the song's originality.
Fabian, "Tiger" from 1959. Fabian was a heartthrob for about 10 minutes of fame at the time. No, he probably got in a full 15 minutes, but he didn't have the staying power of even Justin Timberlake. 4,900.
Next: Voice recording #253 from Jan. 7.
The Essex, "Easier Said Than Done", 1956. The Essex were a trend setter in that they copied baseball's Sox by becoming perhaps the first musical group whose name didn't end in S. This was a pretty good song. It has some changes in tempo. One of the better '50s songs, but I couldn't understand what I said for a score.
Gene Vincent, "Lotta Lovin'", '58. 4,850.
Roy Hamilton, "You Can Have Her", no year listed. It's unusual in that the backup singers sound like a church choir, so there's a gospel feel. The singer doesn't want his wife or girlfriend anymore, so you can have her. 4,825.
Bill Haley and His Comets, "Mambo Rock", year? This is considered the original rock 'n' roll group, but this is not among their best. Part of it sounds like a later song, "Mambo Italiano", and it has what sounds like electric guitar picking. So it had some groundbreaking elements. This song did not create a dance craze, in the manner of the Twist or the Macarena. 4,810.
Ben E. King, "Stand by Me", late '50s. This song was revived 20-30 years later when the movie "Stand by Me" came out. The movie is supposed to be set in 1959, but imdb.com notes that there are a lot of anachronisms in it. I noticed the first time I saw it that a 1960 Topps baseball card was on the bulletin board of Will Wheaton's character's brother, who died in '59. Good movie, though, and good song. Good beat, good percussion. 4,100.
On most of these for the '50s I might be splitting hairs at the lower 4,000s among songs that might not even make the final 5,000.
I'm just about finished with the final entries in the database, at least for song names, artists and where they fit in their own year's Top 100. I still need to add information as we go along. I have more than 6,000 listed, so obviously they all couldn't make the top 5,000, and I'll be adding other songs that weren't in any year's Top 100 but still deserve mention. Songs that I like, mostly.
Lou Christie, "Two Faces Have I" from the late '50s. The late '50s into the early '60s was one of the best eras for falsetto singing, and Lou had his best in "Lightning Strikes". This was a good one too, in the same style: "One to laugh, and one to cry. Ah-Ahk." 4,350.
Larry Williams, "Dizzy Miss Lizzie", year? He had a fair number of hits in the '50s, with some early rock. His singing has a Little Richard feel. One that I couldn't remember or didn't remember who did it was by Larry Williams. (I forget which one as I write this.) 4,700.
The Schoolboys, "Please Say You Want Me Again", year? This one is painfully slow. There is some kind of chorus/background singers, but nothing really to commend this one. 4,950.
The Crickets with Buddy Holly, "Oh Boy", year? This is one of the many Buddy Holly songs that was covered by British groups. However, it wasn't Holly but Sonny West who wrote and first performed this song and "Rave On". "Oh Boy" has a lot of guitar, moves quickly and is forward-looking for its time even though the guitar play is simple in comparison to what we now expect. Buddy Holly also did things with his voice -- "ah-uh-ho" -- that almost added another instrument. 3,950.
Bonnie? Sisters, "Cry Baby", sounds like fairly early '50s. I'm imaging that this song would have been sung in jazz clubs. The sisters were pretty much drowned out by the saxophones and percussion. 4,975.
The Caravelles, "You Don't Have to Be a Baby to Cry", year? This has in common with "Cry Baby" the words "cry" and "baby", and probably a similar time frame. Mid-'50s? The lead singer has a nice voice -- high, very breathy, but hard to pick up over the little bit of drumming and cymbals. That probably points out the fairly primitive sound engineering of the time. There probably weren't many microphones, if even more than one, and there might have been one by the drums. And of course they didn't have today's digital equipment to remix. 4,850.
Thurston Harris, "Little Bitty Pretty One", late '50s? The song moves pretty well. 4,450.
I remember the songs from the late '50s. My late sister Carolee was 3 years older, so I remember some of her records and songs she would listen to on the radio. Pat Boone was her favorite. She also had records by Guy Mitchell and Jim Lowe's "Green Door". I got my first radio for Christmas in 1958, about 6 weeks before The Day the Music Died. I remember very distinctly listening to the radio the next day, which was pretty much 24/7 talking about Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper. To my 10-year-old mind, that was very significant. Looking back, I guess that was akin to listening to a weekend sports-talk announcer a couple of years out of college saying that one of today's quarterbacks must be the greatest ever without regard for, or possibly even any knowledge of, Johnny Unitas or Joe Montana. My musical starting frame of reference was really the late '50s.
Kalin? Twins, "When", year? I will say that these '50s songs tend to be even shorter than those today or even a decade or two after the '50s. This song was not out of the ordinary or out of its time. The singing was not very good. 4,900.
The Olympics, "Big Boy Pete", year? I don't remember this one, but I think that The Olympics might have had a plagiarism case against whoever did "Jolly Green Giant". It's almost an identical tune, and similar subject matter about how you don't mess around with this guy. However, "Jolly Green Giant" was a better song, in part because there were better tools at the group's disposal. Forgot to give Pete a score.
The Platters, "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", 1958. Anyone who lived through the '50s and '60s or has seen "Mad Men", would understand the idea of smoke in the eyes. Not just around the campfire, in those days. I'm pretty sure this is a remake of an older, classic song. The Platters had a lot of good hits during their time. Their style was mostly slow, romantic ballads. There were a lot of strings and backup singers harmonizing in the background. 4,550.
Annette, "O Dio Mio", maybe '56 or '57. Annette was the late Annette Funicello. "Mickey Mouse Club" came on TV about 1955. Not much after it debuted, I started watching it, and a lot of other kids did too. Annette, 13 at the time, was one of the first females who taught boys my age that teenage girls actually had breasts. In a way, she was the Britney Spears of her day, taking herself from "Mickey Mouse Club" to music and movies, but not as successfully. My 5,000 has to have room for an Annette song, if only for her groundbreaking activities and sweaters. And this probably isn't even her best. It does have Italian in it: O dio mio, oh my God. 4,700.
Del Shannon, "Runaway", the song was released in 1961, but somehow it got on Sirius XM Channel 5 with '50s songs. Again there's a falsetto theme: "I'm a walkin' in the rain." He did that more with this song than his others. The music has a penny whistle or maybe a piccolo. I checked, and neither of those instruments was in the song. I might have been hearing a Musitron, an electronic keyboard invented by Max Crook, who sang on the record with Shannon. The sound was similar to what we heard on Crispian St. Peters' "Pied Piper" in '66. "Runaway" was ahead of its time. 3,700.
Brenda Lee, "Sweet Nothin's", year? Brenda was pretty big in the '50s and early '60s. 4,600.
Brenda Lee, "As Usual", year? There's a lot of country in her singing. There seemed to be quite a bit more country crossover into popular music in the 50s. Certainly, cowboy shows were a big part of television programming then -- Roy Rogers, Gabby Hayes, The Lone Ranger, Wild Bill Hickok, The Cisco Kid and others -- and Western movies also were popular. 4,800.
Cadillacs, "Woe Is Me", year? 4,900.
Percy Faith, "Theme from a Summer Place", maybe '59? Very much lost in this era, but prevalent in the '50s and '60s, were orchestral songs that would make it on to the charts. This one I believe was No. 1 overall in the year it came out. There were words to the song that Percy Faith's orchestra made with lots of strings and horns. "The sweet secret of a summer place, is that it's anywhere where two people share all their hopes, all their dreams … all their love." Percy did OK on this one. 4,600.
Rolf Harris, "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport", year? This was a folk song from Australia that played more as a novelty number here. One line that wouldn't go over well today was "Let me abos go loose," with "abos" a pejorative slang term for aborigines. Another thing I remember about this song was that my girlfriend for most of high school was Nancy Sullivan, whose dad called her "sport." Her sister, Mary, always kidded her about "Timmy kangaroo down sport."4,650 just for the song's originality.
Fabian, "Tiger" from 1959. Fabian was a heartthrob for about 10 minutes of fame at the time. No, he probably got in a full 15 minutes, but he didn't have the staying power of even Justin Timberlake. 4,900.
Next: Voice recording #253 from Jan. 7.
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