1957 - 1954: August Songs

Writing about July, I mentioned that I was going to have to switch to only five songs per year at 1955, partly because there were fewer songs to pick from, and partly because they were a lot cornier.

Don't get me wrong: I like some of these corny songs. For my Ballroom Dancing 2 final, I choreographed and danced a tango to Hernando's Hideway. I did that because the soundtrack to The Pajama Game was one of the records we had when I was a kid. 

Those songs from 1957 were very popular in movies and television in the 80s, and I have residual fondness for a lot of them.

It's still nicer with rock. 

I don't know that "Rock Around the Clock" specifically had anything to do with increasing the number of hot songs in the year-end roundup, but it is generally considered to be the song that brought rock into the mainstream. Having rock around did make things different.

I found Nik Cohn's Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock pretty annoying, but I may need to revisit it. In retrospect, things that stuck with me from it seem important.

He had pointed out that previously young people and their parents were listening to the same music; then rock was adopted by only the youth.

Now, Cohn's racial analysis was terrible (that was one of the annoying things), but I know variations of this music had been around for a while; it just wasn't being listened to by the white middle and upper class. 

I suspect that was a big part of the conflict; these kids from nice families are listening to music for poor people, if not expressed in those words. That it happened at a time when these nice kids had pocket money added fuel to the fire and cash to the industry.

Cash does tend to help things catch on. 

From Billboard's Hot 50 

1957

8/1 “Whispering Bells” by The Del-Vikings
8/3 “Mr. Lee” by The Bobbettes
8/3 “Old Cape Cod” by Patti Page
8/4 “Green Door” by Jim Lowe
8/5 “Chances Are” by Johnny Mathis
8/6 “I’m Walkin’” by Fats Domino
8/7 “Silhouettes” by The Rays (Repeated on 8/8)
8/9 “Searchin’” by The Coasters
8/10 “You Send Me” by Sam Cooke
8/11 “Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)” by Harry Belafonte

1956

8/12 “Moonglow and Theme from Picnic” by Morris Stoloff
8/13 “The Great Pretender” by The Platters
8/14 “Be-Bop-A-Lula” by Gene Vincent
8/15 “Long Tall Sally” by Little Richard
8/16 “Lisbon Antigua” by Nelson Riddle
8/17 “Love Me Tender” by Elvis Presley
8/18 “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” by Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
8/19 “More” by Perry Como
8/20 “The Wayward Wind” by Gogi Grant
8/21 “I’m In Love Again” by Fats Domino

From Billboard's Hot 30   

1955 

8/22 A Blossom Fell” by Nat King Cole
8/23 “Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White” by Perez Prado
8/24 “Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing” by The Four Aces
8/25 “Rock Around the Clock” by Bill Haley & His Comets
8/26 “Mr. Sandman” by The Chordettes

1954

8/27 “Sh-Boom” by The Crew-Cuts with David Carrol
8/28 “Papa Loves Mambo” by Perry Como
8/29 “Hey There” by Rosemary Clooney with Buddy Cole
8/30 “Hernando’s Hideaway” by Archie Bleyer
8/31 “Answer Me My Love” by Nat King Cole