Music Made Our World Go Round!

                                      music makes my world go round
                                      music gets me high and keeps me on the ground
                                      music makes my world go round
                                      music lifts me up when you're, you're not around
                                      in music i feel safe and sound
                                      get lost and still be found
                                                                   From the album, "Whirlpool,"  by The Lovebugs, 2001
 

Do the images of kids today, wired to their iPods, make you feel that they are too addicted to their music? 

Well, think back!  The only difference between now and then, in my opinion, is the technology.  Music was a giant factor in what we did and, in some instances, when we did it.  I can remember, as a child with chores to do around the house or even in the yard around the house, cranking up the radio in the kitchen loud enough to hear Tennessee Ernie Ford and his rendition of "Sixteen Tons."  Studying was done with music in the background.  We ate out, gulped 'burgers at the Woody-Mac, and sipped malts and milk-shakes to the tunes coming out of juke boxes.  Courting was done with the radio on, and you really thanked your lucky stars--and the D.J.--when "Melody of Love" or "Unchained Melody" or "One Night of Sin" or "Band of Gold" came on.  Of course, by the time we were seniors, Elvis arrived on the scene and took our music preferences to a whole new level in the second half of the decade.

Looking back, rock and roll, the signature music of the Fifties, was not the only music form that intoxicated us.  In fact, in the year, 1955, only one rock tune, "Rock Around the Clock," made No. one (12 weeks) on Hit Parade.  The other 11 "official" Top Tunes of 1955 included the likes of "Ballad of Davy Crockett,"  "Sixteen Tons," "Yellow Rose of Texas," "Love is a Many Splendored Thing," "Learnin' the Blues," "Tweedle Dee," "Something's Gotta Give," "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White," "Melody of Love," "Unchained Melody," and "Autumn Leaves."  There were the crooners--like Perry Como, Tony Bennett, and even Frankie, still "Chairman of the Board," and there were songs from the movies.  Do you remember "The Top 10" broadcasts on the radio?  It seemed that the entire after-school programming of radio stations, like WLAY or WJOI, was the playing of the top 10 songs on "The Hit Parade"--counting down from 10 to Number 1.  "Number 1" was always last, late in the afternoon or early evening and announced with all the enthusiasm of the results of the presidential election or a heavyweight championship boxing match.

In her box of treasures from The Fifties, loaned to me by Barbara Laughlin South for use on the website, I found this scrap of paper with the top 7 tunes of March 26, 1955, the spring of our junior year at SHS.  Maybe it was just an oversight, but imagine how important music was to Barbara to keep this all these years.  What could it have been about 3/26/55 that made this list the one to keep?

                         

Billboard, a music trade magazine, was the authoritative source of popular music favorites.  Hit Parade was a rival radio show that was begun in 1935 and went on TV in 1949.  Billboard began publishing its list of top tunes in 1940, and the two didn't always correspond because, according to Billboard, the Number 1 tune on this day in March 1955 was "The Ballad of Davy Crockett."  This list was probably from the TV show, because the format on "the tube" was the top seven hits of the day plus 3 "Lucky Strike Extras."  The radio show featured the "Top Ten."
Well, that got me to thinking.  What were we listening to on the following special days of our high school years?  Here are the Number 1 tunes in the nation according to Billboard magazine.

 

The first day of High School  (9/2/52)

 

"Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" by Vera Lynn
Listen

Rejetta McNutt Elected Head Cheerleader

(9/12/55)

 

"The Yellow Rose of Texas" by Mitch Miller

Listen

 

Don Burleson & Jimmy Todd Elected Co-Captains, Football

(9/15/55)

 

"The Yellow Rose of Texas" by Mitch Miller was still No. 1

 

Homecoming 1955

(11/4/55)

 

"Autumn Leaves" by Roger Williams

Listen

 

 

Kitty Stribling's Wedding, First Methodist Church

(11/20/55)

 

"Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford

Listen

 

 

Sheffield Beat Coffee 13-6, Thanksgiving

(11/24/55)

 

"Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford was still No. 1

 

 

Sub-Deb Christmas Formal, VFW Hall

(12/28/55)

 

Still "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford

 

 

Senior Play

(3/15, 16/56)

 

"Lisbon Antigua" by Nelson Riddle

Listen

 

 

Jr.-Sr. Prom

(5/11/56)

 

FINALLY:

"Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley

Listen

 

 

Graduation

(6/5/56)

 

"Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley was still on top

Want to listen to some of these and other Fabulous Fifties top tunes?

Just Click Here
Linda Methvin Smith stimulated me to create this page by sending me a link to a website that tells you what the top tune in the country on the day of your birth: https://home.comcast.net/~josh.hosler/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

 

 

. . . . and here's yet another link to a multi-year top tunes websitesent to me by Linda.

http://www.tropicalglen.com/

 

 

Here's one sent to me by Carol Cahoon Hauser

http://oldfortyfives.com/

 

 

 

If you have a special high school day and want to post it here with the Billboard top tune of the day, send your request to Louis.