A Century of Music

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Last week finished up 1955 with:

Roy Hamilton - You'll Never Walk Alone

Hamilton is a singer I only discovered perhaps 5 years ago - He's one that deserves to be remembered more. A tremendous voice who, though he covered standards bringing a gospel flavored vocal to them, had a tremendous influence of soul. He was a big inspiration of Sam Cooke. The Righteous Brothers emulated his style (and would cover one of his biggest hits "Unchained Melody"); thus the blue-eyed soulsters are in debut to Hamilton as well. Bill Medley in fact once noted in his biography that Hamilton was Elvis' favorite singer.

 

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Between yesterday (sadly too busy) and today have been going through my 1956 playlist

Top Singles of 1956
1) "Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley
2) "Don't Be Cruel" by Elvis Presley
3) "Lisbon Antigua" by Nelson Riddle
4) "My Prayer" by The Platters
5) "The Wayward Wind" by Gogi Grant
6) "The Poor People of Paris" by Les Baxter
7) "Que Sera Sera" by Doris Day
8) "Hound Dog" by Elvis Presley
9) "Memories Are Made of These" by Dean Martin
10) "Rock and Roll Waltz" by Kay Starr
11) "Moonglow and The Theme From Picnic" by Morris Stoloff
12) "The Great Pretenders" by The Platters
13) "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Pat Boone
14) "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You" by Elvis Presley
15) "Love Me Tender" by Elvis Presley

Oh what a difference a year makes with Elvis Presley hitting the charts with FIVE songs in the top 15. Not to mention two hits by the great doo wop group The Platters. Sure instrumentals from orchestra leaders Nelson Riddle and Les Baxter and whitebread standared by Pat Boone, Gogi Grant, and Doris Day still had great popularity, but the music world would never be the same

Looking at other songs of the year, fans of that era could easily make a claim that 1956 might be the best year in rock n' roll.
Not only did Elvis have a ton of great songs but also
Little Richard: "Long Tall Sally", "Slippin and Slidin", "Ready Teddy"
Chuck Berry: "Maybelline", "Roll Over Beethoven", "Brown Eyed Handsome Man", "Too Much Monkey Business"
Bo Diddley: "Who Do You Love"
Carl Perkins: "Blue Suede Shoes", "Honey Don't"
Johnny Burnette: "The Train Kept A Rollin'", "Honey Hush"
Roy Orbison: "Ooby Dooby"
Louis Prima: "Jump Jive An' Wail", "Just A Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody"
Fats Domino: "My Blue Heaven", Blueberry Hill", "Blue Monday"
Frankie Lymon: "Why Do Fools Fall In Love"
The Five Satins: "In the Still of The Night"
Gene Vincent: "Be-Bop-A-Lula"
Tennessee Ernie Ford: "Sixteen Tons"
LaVern Baker: "Jim Dandy"
James Brown: "Please, Please, Please"
Johnny Cash: "I Walk the Line"
Little Willie John: "Fever"
Shirley & Lee: "Let the Good Times Roll"
Screamin' Jay Hawkins: "I Put A Spell on You"
Harry Belafonte: "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)"
Howlin' Wolf: "Smokestack Lightnin'"
The Coasters: "Down in Mexico"
And many, many more...

A huge year for early rock, a wonderful doo wop years. Surveying the above, this was clearly the playlist of early rockers as these songs were covered by The Beatles, The Yardbirds, and other British Invasion groups.
Listening chronologically to the early 50s and now this year, one can easily see how artists like Elvis, Chuck Berry and (especially) Little Richard seemed, to parents of the time, dangerous.

 

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Frank Sinatra - Songs For Swingin' Lovers (1956)

 

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Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Cole Porter Song Book (1956)

I love Ella, and Cole Porter is my all time favorite Great American Songbook songwriter - so, yeah, I love this one.

 

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My Fair Lady (Original Broadway Cast) (1956)

Tony Winner in 1957. One of my day's top 3 musicals - mine too

 

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Harry Belafonte - Calypso (1956)

 

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Elvis Presley - Elvis Presley (1956)

 

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Glenn Gould - The Goldberg Variations (1956)

Delighted that this series has me breaking out albums that I have not heard in awhile (2016 in this case). Gould in his debut took pieces that were, up to that time, hardly recorded with such success (40,000 copies sold by 1960 - a tremendous response for a classical album). Though Gould would later be critical of many of his youthful interpretations of the Variations (and would re-record them in 1981 before his death), I think they still sound wonderful.

 

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Modern Jazz Quartet - Django (1956)

 

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Duke Ellington - Ellington At Newport (1956)

One of the most famous jazz live concerts - Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival and its subsequent best selling record was viewed as a comeback (though as we have seen in recent years on this thread, Duke was never gone and produced some wonderful albums). The original record though was actually studio re-recordings with canned applause mixed in with some live material to recreate the event (Ellington had felt the live "Festival Suite" was not up to par). Happily we now have the ACTUAL live recording (here paired with the studio album) which is, as one might expect, fantastic. I love the added introductions, song intros, but especially love the track recording the "Riot Prevention" as the concert produced that much of a stir that the crowd wanted an encore (which they got)

 

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Louis Prima - The Wildest! (1956)

I've gotten a kick out of Prima ever since I saw The Jungle Book as a kid

 

[Unsomnambulist]

The bifurcated tongue and the damage done.

 

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Ella Fitzgerald - Sings the Rodgers & Hart Song Book (1955)

Back to Ella who was prolific during this period producing two double albums of "Song Book" standards - her two best: Cole Porter and Rodgers & Hart. Great set with many of my personal favorite standards ("It Never Entered My Mind", "My Romance", "Where or When", "Little Girl Blue", "Ten Cents a Dance").

 

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Three great instrumental jazz albums this AM:
Lester Young & Teddy Wilson - Pres and Teddy
Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness
Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers

A wonderfully jazzy morning.
Though recorded in 1956, Pres and Teddy was released just two months prior to the great tenor Lester Young's death. Young, starting with Count Basie in the early 1930s, is one of the two tenors (along with Coleman Hawkins) who propelled the tenor to a major jazz instrument. Here he still sounds great - quite an accessible jazz album with Pres and pianist Teddy Wilson covering well known standards.
Tenor Madness is far from my favorite Rollins album, but it does contain his only recording with John Coltrane (the title track)
Horace Silver... is just a fantastic hard bop album. Pianist Silver gets top billing here but great instrumentalists all around - Hank Mobley on tenor, Kenny Dorham on trumpet, and of course Art Blakey on drums. And the wonderful "Doodlin'" Probably in my top 25 jazz albums

 

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Next two:
Bud Powell - Jazz Giant (1956)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong - Ella and Louis (1956)

Tons of great jazz this year (and for the next several years - truly a golden age)
Another Verve album of the great Powell. A patient of mine yesterday was mentioning his piano gig. A bit of conversation ensued, and terns out this LSU student is studying jazz piano and (interestingly jazz piano influences these days are often more modern) is a tremendous bop piano fan with Bud Powell his personal favorite. We spoke about some of my favorite jazz piano albums. Great talk - he does solo shows in town/on campus and eventually would like to go see him. He has studied several solos from Jazz Giant so was delighted to break it out today - I've loved it since I've picked it up 25 years ago (sadly before this guy was even born).

The Ella & Louis set is just charming combining two of the greats (and two charismatic performers). This is the first of three albums these two would do together.

 

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Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues (1956)
Charles Mingus - Pithecanthropus Erectus (1956)

Mingus' first truly great album - for the next 7-8 years, his streak of fantastic albums would be incredible

 

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Clifford Brown and Max Roach - At Basin Street (1956)

Ended 1956 over the weekend with a favorite - the great live document of a hard bop combo that for a brief time was the greatest jazz group on the planet

 

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Onward to 1957
I've spent today with my usual Monday routine of listening to a playlist of the top 30 singles of the year then all the great singles not in that top 30

Top Singles of 1957
1) "All Shook Up" by Elvis Presley
2) "Love Letters in the Sand" by Pat Boone
3) "Little Darlin'" by The Diamonds
4) "Young Love" by Tab Hunter
5) "So Rare" by Jimmy Dorsey
6) "Don't Forbid Me" by Pat Boone
7) "Singing the Blues" by Guy Mitchell with Ray Conniff
8) "Young Love" by Sonny James
9) "Too Much" by Elvis Presley
10) "Round and Round" by Perry Como
11) "Bye Bye Love" by The Everly Brothers
12) "Tammy" by Debbie Reynolds
13) "Party Doll" by Buddy Knox
14) "(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear" by Elvis Presley
15) "Day-O (Banana Boat Song)" by Harry Belafonte
16) "Jailhouse Rock" by Elvis Presley
17) "A White Sport Coat" by Marty Robbins
18) "Come Go With Me" by The Del Vikings
19) "Wake Up Little Susie" by The Everly Brothers
20) "You Send Me" by Sam Cooke

Alright, as usual, the top singles of the year have some lightweight songs - "Tammy" by Debby Reynolds, "Young Love" by Tab Hunter (the Sonny James version is better), more Pat Boone...ugh!

But hey Elvis is still cranking out his plus the appearance of the Everly Brothers, one Mr. Sam Cooke (yay!)
Here's some other good un's from the year:
Buddy Holly: "That'll Be The Day", "Peggy Sue", "Oh Boy!", "Not Fade Away"
Patsy Cline: "Walkin' After Midnight"
The Silhouettes: "Get A Job"
Little Richard: "Lucille", "Jenny Jenny", "Keep a Knockin'"
Fats Domino: "I'm Walkin"
Chuck Berry: "Rock and Roll Music", "School Day"
Muddy Waters: "Got My Mojo Working"
Jackie Wilson: "Reet Petite"
The Mello-Kings: "Tonite Tonite" (top 5 doo wop song for me)
Bo Diddley: "Mona", "Hey Bo Diddley"
Dale Hawkins: "Susie Q"
Chuck Willis: "C.C. Rider"
Johnny Mathis: "Chances Are", "It's Not For Me to Say"
Jerry Lee Lewis: "Great Balls of Fire", "Whole Lotta Shakin Going On"
Jimmie Rodgers: "Honeycomb" (as a kid on my plastic suitcase record player, one of the first songs I loved playing - my dad's old 45 rpm)
The Chantels: "Maybe" (what.a.song)

Good stuff - 87 song playlist. Pretty darn good year

 

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Sonny Rollins - Way Out West (1957)

Man, those who know me know I LOVE this album (have it on vinyl too). The album cover is hilarious. I adore the cover of "I'm An Old Cowhand" (which I know since childhood from I Love Lucy. Country music in jazz - what a concept! Very important album in jazz as Rollins for the most part introduced the sax trio here. For a couple of years before the ascent of Coltrane, Sonny was the king!

 

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Miles Davis - Round About Midnight (1957)

Miles first album in his long relationship with Columbia. Also the first album of his "First Great Quintet" (Davis, Coltrane, Red Garland (p), Paul Chambers (b), Philly Joe Jones (d))
"Bye Bye Blackbird" - yes! Perfection!