1960 - 1958: July Daily Songs

When I was a kid I used to conflate 50s and 60s music, lumping 20 years' worth of music together. 

As I work on this, the distinctions are becoming clearer. I suspect it would be even more clear if I were working forward instead of backward.

While I have referenced the superiority of Domenico Modugno's "Volare" to Bobby Rydell's, I have both of them featured in July. 

This is the time period of my parents' courtship and marriage. It's not just that the songs my mother would talk about come up, but two of my favorite records growing up were At the Hop and Cruisin' 1956. Those albums were released in 1975 and 1970, respectively, but I understand their appeal to my parents better now.

1958 was the first year before Billboard did a hot 100. Prior to that there had been three years of a hot 50 (1956, 195, and 1958), and then just a hot 30 before that.

In my listening I just finished 1950 and for posting I just started 1955.

One change coming up is that when we get into the hot 30 years, I am only picking five songs instead of ten. That is partly an issue of availability, but also as we get less rock, the music becomes less fun. I will write about that more when I get to those posts.

For now I want to mention it because of two things. 

After the 1958 songs had all been posted (so, 2 - 3 weeks ago), a song I had not chosen, "Chanson D'Amour" started playing in my head. Written by Wayne Shanklin and recorded by Art and Dotty Todd, part of the song's success was due to a lot of DJs not wanting to play rock.

They were wrong for that. They were right that the song is not rock. I like it anyway, though I guess it took a while to grow on me.

Then we ended July with "Rumble" by Link Wray & His Ray Men. It is a good song, which is reason enough to play it. However, while it did make it to number 16 on the pop charts, and number 11 on the R & B charts, it did not spend enough time there for it to be on the year-end hot 100. 

That happens to lots of songs, but in this case I can't help but think that part of it was many stations refusing to play it because the term "Rumble" was associated with street fights. 

Now, that might be interesting on its own, but let's add to the story that Link Wray originally named the song "Oddball"; Phil Everly suggested the title when he heard it, as he thought it sounded like a street fight.

Okay, he kind of has a point, but it appears he didn't do Wray any favors. 

1960 

7/1 “Stay” by Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs
7/2 “Wonderful World” by Sam Cooke
7/3 “Image Of A Girl” by The Safaris & The Phantom’s Band
7/4 “Theme from A Summer Place” by Percy Faith
7/5 “Only the Lonely” by Roy Orbison
7/6 “Devil or Angel” by Bobby Vee
7/7 “Georgia On My Mind” by Ray Charles
7/8 “Tell Laura I Love Her” by Ray Peterson
7/9 “Volare” by Bobby Rydell
7/10 “Beyond the Sea” by Bobby Darin

1959

7/11 “Lonely Boy” by Paul Anka
7/12 “Sleepwalk” by Santo & Johnny
7/13 “Donna” by Ritchie Valens
7/14 “The Happy Organ” by Dave Cortez
7/15 “There Goes My Baby” by The Drifters
7/16 “A Lover’s Question” by Clyde McPhatter
7/17 “A Teenager in Love” by Dion & the Belmonts
7/18 “Only You (And You Alone)” by Franck Pourcel
7/19 “It’s Late” by Ricky Nelson
7/20 “Sorry (I Ran All The Way Home)” by The Impalas

1958 

7/21 “At the Hop” by Danny & the Juniors
7/22 “Get a Job” by The Silhouettes
7/23 “Twilight Time” by The Platters
7/24 “Yakety Yak” by The Coasters
7/25 “Rockin’ Robin” by Bobby Day
7/26 “Rebel-‘Rouser” by Duane Eddy
7/27 “The Stroll” by The Diamonds
7/28 “Endless Sleep” by Jody Reynolds
7/29 “Peggy Sue” by Buddy Holly
7/30 “Volare (Nel blu dipinto di blu)” by Domenico Modugno

7/31 “Rumble” by Link Wray*