Feature Response: Popular

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http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/

For people to comment on this as it unfolds.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:10 (twenty-two years ago)

i posted this on the nylpm thread, but:

do you think it'd be possible to date the entries. (date the songs, i mean, not by the day you do them.) or would that defeat the point or something?

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

oh hooray, you did already!

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

the internet in action.

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 16:59 (twenty-two years ago)

wish I'd thought of it first, as usual. can't WAIT to see this unfold.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 17:25 (twenty-two years ago)

It's going to take forever to get to the good bits (i.e. the 80s). So if you make it that far, you'll doubtless have a lot of people hooked.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 17:49 (twenty-two years ago)

awesome awesome idea. It will take about a decade to get to the stuff I remember growing up to though...

― The Lex (The Lex), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

tom were you able to find most (any) of this info online or did you have to go combing thru microfiches, dusty old music journals, etc.?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:21 (twenty-two years ago)

and was this inspired by that guy's now... writeups?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

hmmm, why get so fixated on the number 1s? they had more power once but not really anymore. why not review all those songs that made no. 2 but couldn't quite go one better for whatever reason - some potential there.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

there's already a book on those

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:27 (twenty-two years ago)

in the U.S. that is. anyway, Tom's not doing an "official" type of thing a la the Fred Bronson no. 1s book--which is why I'm eager to read the blog as it progresses.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

someone else should write about the number 2s, somewhere else. www.everyhit.com is good for this sort of thing.
Actually, a lot of fantastic songs over the years seem to have gone number 5, not that I can cite any examples.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

i like every song that made #12, ever

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

The No.1s are easier to find out about (several websites just list the whole lot) and I like the idea of them being in some ways an arbitrary cross-section of pop as well as in another way the centre of it. The basic question being asked of them is "Are they any good?" - any wider issues will get addressed purely by accident I'd guess!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:51 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, those books tend to have an almost purely historical perspective with any critical features being limited to the generic insight - 'kung fu fighting's a novelty tune', 'candle in the wind 97 is a moving song', etc - plus they tend to focus soley on the rock era, tom's going back, way back, back in time. plus british singles charts (to my admittedly nonexpert eye) tend to be much more fluid and a bit more likely to have fluke charttoppers (cuz: uk's a much smaller country, ergo smaller sample size, ergo more chance for chance and also cuz the single is still something people buy in the uk, whereas it hasn't been that in the us for over ten years now (single charts almost entirely determined by airplay, with many (most?) top ten singles not even actually released as "singles" anymore)("u can't touch this" leading to the death of the single in the us)). bravo tom, and good luck (good luck in your new bed).

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Why did U Can't Touch This lead to the death of the single?

There will be very little historical perspective on Popular. There might be some diaristic stuff when I get to the point of me actually being around to listen to the songs. Doing the 50s stuff is interesting because it's something I am almost totally ignorant of (so apologies in advance for any howlers I may committ). Also I will probably avoid Carmody-style relations of chart-toppers to UK history not because that approach is invalid but because I'm too lazy to think that sort of thing through properly when there's 950 of these things still to go. (I hope Robin enjoys the project though, if he reads it.)

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 18:58 (twenty-two years ago)

it's the first pop instance I can think of (which admittedly doesn't mean it was the first, but I remember a billboard article at the time describing this as a 'new approach') where the big hit single wasn't actually available as a single - you had to buy the album. I remember the billboard thing being how they basically sacrificed having a number one ("u can't touch this" topped out at number two I think cuz singles chart determined by 'sales + airplay', even though there was no doubt it was the biggest hit in the country at the time)(weirdly it was a hip-hop single denied number one cuz of sales instead of airplay, cuz I can remember tone loc's "wild thing" and salt n pepa's "push it" being denied number one despite easily being the top selling singles cuz there were still pop and r&b stations that refused to play hip-hop (noone ever mentions the r&b stations that wouldn't play rap)) to increase album sales. not the first instance of single being more promotional tool instead of product but definitely very influential in making the single solely a promotional tool instead of product. the death of vinyl and the failure of the cassingle probably played a much larger role (in 88 singles are an entire aisle at the mall record store, by 92 it's just a nook the size of their reggae section)(note american mall record stores do not typically have extensive reggae sections).

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 19:15 (twenty-two years ago)

that guy mitchell song sounds incredible - tom are you on slsk?

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Not now cos I'm on a slow connection and I'm feeling rotten so I'm going to take tomorrow off, however I will try and find some way of making Guy Mitchell available as a cure for any misplaced Anglophilia that may still be lurking on ILM. There is plenty more to come from him too, I assume rock n roll did for him eventually but I don't have the necessary reference books to hand.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

As much as I'm loathe to praise any concept with such flagrating Perry Como hating, this probably will be a bookmark for 99.99% of the board here, and deservedly so.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Somebody with an insane workrate could do this faster and really annoy Tom. Don't do it. Though, maybe.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:15 (twenty-two years ago)

i must admit i would love to listen to all the UK number one singles in order right now (esp. 52 to 82) - thanks for giving me something to ~~distract myself with~~do tomorrow!

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

Good luck with finding Winifred bloody Atwell stevem!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:49 (twenty-two years ago)

I've started a brother blog called Substance & Style Abuse which is about all those lost number 2s, which will be in-part response to Tom's 'Popular' (possibly sometimes but not always asking 'why did this song fall short?' - there will be no easy answers to a question like that, in fact I may never ask it, it may even be ubiquitous implicit, this will work best I think if I put the time in listening to the number 1s too but I wont'.) This will also be diaristic too and give me a steady source of writing (my blog isn't a blog anymore really, it's where thoughts I have thunk go i.e. ex-Neumu, Stylus & FT articles out to pasture in better clothes or nicer edits). Let's see how long this lasts.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

(haha is there anywhere I can find a list of all these number 2s? I'm going to have to do this on the soulseek-able PC, aren't I?)

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

(I changed the name [already] to 'Tugging on Superman's Cape'.)

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Best resource is a copy of the Guiness Book of Top 40 Charts David! An invaluable book in general, it only starts giving the full top 40 from 1960 onwards though. The first number 2 it lists that didn't get to No.1 is "Theme From 'A Summer Place'" by Percy Faith.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

I think we may actually have that lying around in the flat somewhere. I'll have to look it out. (Does it have a green and black cover?)

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 21:54 (twenty-two years ago)

The edition I have is red and black - it's out of date though, I picked it up second hand years ago and it only goes up to '95.

I have 5 more entries written now but I will save them/spare you.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

no, post them!

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 22:04 (twenty-two years ago)

i love it when you can use the excuse of someone having died as a reason for a song not being number one e.g. Prodigy being denied early on and it's all Freddie Mercury's doing

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 22:04 (twenty-two years ago)

(haha I have changed my mind already [!!!], I was moaning to RJG that I can't 'talk' films the other night so I will make it a diary of film, sorry to ~~get yr hopes up~~ ~~mess you about~~ speak to soon. This is probably speaking too soon as well; I can't set my mind to anything recently. I might [might] eventually get round to doing this; I think my laziness is more powerful than this kind of formalism's strictures allow though.)

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 17 September 2003 22:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You're crazy Tom but so far so good.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 18 September 2003 02:13 (twenty-two years ago)

noone ever mentions the r&b stations that wouldn't play rap

Ice-T.

― Al Andalous, Thursday, 18 September 2003 02:47 (twenty-two years ago)

yeah, at the time PLENTY of rappers mentioned the r&b stations that wouldn't play rap, but when people look back at radio resistance to hip-hop now it tends to get painted as just 'whites resisting black culture', which is the majority of the truth admittedly, but doesn't explain the r&b stations that were often just as proudly rap free as rock radio, or if they did play it relegated it to a certain slot (nighttime when the majority of their core audience isn't listening).

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

David the more film blogs the better. I hope the nabobs of Do You See? will link to you (and to Swygart and Passantino's TV blog if it's still going).

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 08:05 (twenty-two years ago)

pre-"Wild Thing" most of the rap being played on radio was on college stations, cinniblount is totally right

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 18 September 2003 08:09 (twenty-two years ago)

this is grebt, grebt, grebt!!!

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 18 September 2003 08:17 (twenty-two years ago)

noone ever mentions the r&b stations that wouldn't play rap
Ice-T.

-- Al Andalous (xxxx@go.com), September 18th, 2003.

And Chuck D, that was his favorite subject.

― Mark (MarkR), Thursday, 18 September 2003 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

'radio stations i question their blackness
they call themselves black but we'll see if they play this'

public enemy - bring the noise

― joni, Thursday, 18 September 2003 12:26 (twenty-two years ago)

But rap was pretty different from R&B. Why should they have played rap just because it was black? (Sorry, maybe someone should start a thread about this, since this is a real sidetrack to the current thread.)

― Al Andalous, Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:08 (twenty-two years ago)

No no keep going, it keeps the link riding high.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I disagree about Jo Stafford's voice being a "bit too forceful and plummy". As for the claim that she can do "sensible but not seductive" - well, I agree that her voice isn't "seductive" as such but that's one of the most interesting things about her as a singer - especially as a female singer.

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:28 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a permanent link to this anywhere on NYLPM Tom? I'm too lazy to look. And if there isn't, wahey!

― David. (Cozen), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:30 (twenty-two years ago)

...and also Perry Como is a helluva underrated singer

― Dadaismus (Dada), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:31 (twenty-two years ago)

since posting those pe lines above i've had 'total confusion'
by 'a homeboy, a hippie and a funky dread' going round and
round in my head. help!

(oh good idea tom, btw)

― joni, Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:49 (twenty-two years ago)

Dadaismus I like the other Perry Como records I know a lot more ("Magic Moments" is coming up in a week or so on this, for instance) - I'm trying to write about how I hear these records rather than the singer's style or career as a whole, so some people are going to be quite badly served. (tho I don't know anything else about Jo Stafford - what are her better tunes?)

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:52 (twenty-two years ago)

David it's linked from the front of FT. There will be a link on NYLPM too, and one to I Hate Music as well.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm tellin' you, I'm seriously thinking of doing the American version of this. It could really jumpstart my blogging again.

Two small problems. I need a blog title. Maybe "Hit Record (Overnight Sensation)" but that's too power pop.

I also need to think about where to begin. I could start at 1940, which is when Billboard first published best-seller charts, though this may present problems in terms of flagging interest (mine) and song availability. Or I could pretend everything prior to "Rock Around the Clock" does not exist, which is what The Billboard Book of Number One Hits does. (Other Billboard chart books similarly treat 1955 as Year Zero, a very rock-chauvinist conceit.)

(Joel Whitburn, Billboard's primary chart historian, has EVERY charting album and single EVER, kept in some kind of climate-controlled storage facility!!!)

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 18 September 2003 17:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Go on Mike!

I would start before Rock Around The Clock (maybe not as far back as 1940). For one thing I'd guess the Billboard Charts are better than the UK ones right through the 50s, for another thing it makes a big difference to how RATC sounds.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

do it, Daddino!

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:40 (twenty-two years ago)

do it, but definitely start from the beginning

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I kind of like the idea of someone starting with the year they were born, but maybe that's just because I like talking about singles from the seventies.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd like to see you start the same week that Tom's starts and eventually see the two published bookwise, the two histories keeping up with each other on facing pages, like parallel texts.

― Tim (Tim), Thursday, 18 September 2003 18:55 (twenty-two years ago)

You can get sheet music UK charts going back much further but I'm not sure I could take it.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I would suggest a specific one-hit-wonders type thing (one number one hit, nothing else charted top 40), but that seems too Billboard-booky.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, if you're worried about completing this project - here's a suggestion: run each decade simultaneously (separate pages/links) - that way if you get stuck on or bored of one you can work on whichever stikes your current fancy. + count me in as a voice of encouragement - rave, RAVE!

― Paul (scifisoul), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:29 (twenty-two years ago)

It's a nice idea Paul but the strictly sequential format is pretty important I think - the readers and I have to suffer through the lean times to get the impact when something exciting happens. To be honest now I've started I'm not too worried about not finishing until we get into the stuff I'm really familiar with and have already written about, and even then there's a Goombay Dance Band or Livin' Joy for every Come On Eileen and Wannabe.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:51 (twenty-two years ago)

(Plus this way the high marks are more exciting too! Giving marks to things is fun* - I can see why music mags do it now.)

*if you're being stingy.

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 18 September 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

thanks for not doing a DJ mag - when the scale starts at 6 it's pretty pointless (yes I know they've changed to out-of-five now u slags)

― Paul (scifisoul), Thursday, 18 September 2003 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

this is great, i recently listened pinky and perky's 'doggie'.

― geordie racer, Friday, 19 September 2003 07:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I'd love someone to do the Billboard '40s #1s - musically my favourite decade of the 20th century! I too have the Whitburn book and all the records (though suspect most of 'em are at my mum's) so I could always do the '40s bit if Mike D's not too keen - though really I would like him to do all of it; authorial continuity and all that.

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 19 September 2003 08:43 (twenty-two years ago)

And a note for anyone thinking of doing a similar exercise on #2s, I have to warn you that the first one in the UK was Guy Mitchell's "Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po Po)." What a guy Guy was...my favourite of his was "There's A Pawnshop Somewhere In Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" sob sob...

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 19 September 2003 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

If anyone knows where I could find a soundfile/mp3 of Winifred Atwell's "Let's Have Another Party" I'd be very grateful. As it stands in about another 10 entries I'll have to skip and post-date it or suffer an unseemly pause.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh God, how can anyone not like Guy Mitchell?

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/pic200_web/drp200/p276/p27692pruha.jpg

My favorite is "The Roving Kind": guy falls in love with a ship's masthead (or whatever it's called), great chorus with big meaty handclaps and a loopable horn melody.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:21 (twenty-two years ago)

That is exactly what I imagined Guy Mitchell to look like!

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 19 September 2003 14:23 (twenty-two years ago)

His biggest record was pre-1952, but altogether now: "truly, truly fair! my truly, truly fair!"

― Marcello Carlin, Friday, 19 September 2003 14:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Isn't that just Jack Nicholson in a funny hat?

Then again, aren't we all, in our own way, just Jack Nicholson in a funny hat?

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 19 September 2003 15:17 (twenty-two years ago)

Winifred Atwell tracked down, phew.

Next missing record is Eddie Calvert's version of "Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White"

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 19 September 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, I think I'll have to start at 1950 because I can't easily find many of the earliest #1s from 1940, whereas finding the 1950 #1s on S**ls**k has largely been a cinch.

If I started with "Rock Around the Clock" I wouldn't be able to write about "Secret Love," "It's In The Book," "How Much is that Doggie in the Window," "Goodnight Irene," two different versions of the "Third Man Theme," and Johnnie Ray's "Cry." (Though if I started with "Cry," I could call the blog "Cry Onward.")

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Friday, 19 September 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Then definitely do not start with "Rock Around the Clock"!

― Nicolars (Nicole), Friday, 19 September 2003 16:04 (twenty-two years ago)

"How Much is that Doggie in the Window,"

Man, Pink Flamingos means I can only think of this song one way...(was actually thinking about it and the film the other day).

"Singer...Johnnie Ray." Why isn't he famous again? I actually only know him through a cover of "The Little White Cloud That Cried" by Marc Almond, which I enjoy muchly.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 September 2003 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Seriously, Ned? You should really hear the original. It's wonderful.

― Nicolars (Nicole), Friday, 19 September 2003 16:58 (twenty-two years ago)

I remember around the time he passed there was mention of a couple of CD collections but that they were something like only 20 minutes long? Presumably this situation has improved. He's just one of those folks I keep meaning to look into more for years but never got around to it -- bizarrely enough, I first heard about him through an extended sample/spoken word bit on Robert Plant's "White, Clean and Neat"!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 September 2003 17:18 (twenty-two years ago)

... that is bizarre

― Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 19 September 2003 17:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, are you still looking for the Eddie Calvert track?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 19 September 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes Dan!

I'd never heard any Johnnie Ray before starting this either - the problem is that the 1952 cut off means his most famous stuff is behind him: what I did hear didn't make much impact.

― Tom (Groke), Saturday, 20 September 2003 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Drop me an email; we should be able to work something out.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 22 September 2003 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I was just about to post to this saying I've found it! Thanks though Dan.

The next one I'm missing is "Rose Marie" by Slim Whitman, but lots of people have it, it's just I'm in queues for it. Next hard-to-find one is "It's Almost Tomorrow" by the Dreamweavers.

I'm tempted to put a comments function on the page as the formalised nature of it seems to lend itself to more structured - does anyone know a good one?

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 22 September 2003 13:20 (twenty-two years ago)

pedantism, but the date on the david whitfield entry reads 2003 instead of 1953.

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Monday, 22 September 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom, just avoid Enetation at all costs. I think Haloscan is fairly reliable and it's now accepting new users again.

― Angus Gordon (angusg), Monday, 22 September 2003 14:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I've never made up my mind about whether "I See The Moon" is awesomely awful or deranged genius. It's only a couple of moves away from something like "Alley Oop" yet I can understand it being used as the prime example of Why Elvis Was Needed. I keep having nightmare visions of a reformed Steps or S Club doing a cover for Christmas.

I'm curious to know what Tom will make of "Lay Down Your Arms" by Anne Shelton when he gets to it (1956)...

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 22 September 2003 15:03 (twenty-two years ago)

These days there would be some kind of veiled charitable excuse for it I expect.

I only found the Shelton this afternoon actually - blimey.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I should have my thing started tonight -- might be called "Hit Me!" or "American Hot Wax." I have some chart data to check this afternoon before I do anything, though.

I toyed with making an entirely new blog but I didn't like the designs I cam up with so it's going on Land of a Thousand Dances. I'll have to finish Send in the Clones another time.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 22 September 2003 15:20 (twenty-two years ago)

Fascinating. Now the BBC Light service brings you 'Music While You Breed'.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 22 September 2003 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Still looking for the Dreamweavers, Tom?

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 22 September 2003 17:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a lead on it but yes - not tonight though, I'm about to switch off and go home having downloaded a kajillion sixtes songs.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 22 September 2003 18:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I can help you, my friend! Email etc.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 22 September 2003 18:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Since Tom is embarked on this excercise in listening (and one of the things I'm finding most interesting in his 50s commentaries is the way he's dealing with the possibility that actually hearing these songs in the way they were intended to be heard is no longer possible -- what then do we hear when we listen to them?), and since listening is enhanced by contrast and gestalt shifts in context, I wanted to propose a series of listenings which survey the parallel ghost-regions of 'the Unpopular'.

Specifically, sixteen 45 minute audio documentaries about experimental radio called 'Radio Radio'. Fantastic stuff, and linked thematically to 1950s pop. They're both about radio, both about its capacity to create community by communication, although one is deliberately doxic and populist, the other subversive and avant gardist. Prescribed counter-listening.

― Momus (Momus), Monday, 22 September 2003 19:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Thanks Dan - after a great run of downloading this morning I now have pretty much every No.1 up to 1970 (and I don't foresee too many difficulties with the 70s onwards). I'm going to run a little sidebar thing thanking people who've helped and linking to Mike's concurrent project - I'll also give those documentaries a mention Momus, cheers.

The reason for the slowdown in posts is that I'm trying to build up a cushion of material for when other things have to take precedence.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 23 September 2003 12:41 (twenty-two years ago)

'Kitty Kallen seems hooked on rolling her 'r's, and as soon as you notice this you spend the whole song listening out for it.'

Do you think this is because she is called Kitty and wants, Eartha Kitt style, to affect a cattish mien? Is it a purr?

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 02:38 (twenty-two years ago)

This makes me want to do one on number-one movies (though I dunno if I mean opening weekend [probably not for the older stuff, before that really mattered] or what)

― s1utsky (slutsky), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 03:06 (twenty-two years ago)

Do it Slutsky! (If you can find them)

Mike's version of this has started! Yay!

(sorry Mike if you were purposely not linking it)

http://www.epicharmus.com/loatd.htm

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm actually conducting Google image searches on some of the artists Tom mentions... Frankie Laine resembles a particularly charmless 70s TV "personality" but Kitty Kalen = k-rowr!

It's also engaged my interest in the relationship between image and record sales on records this ancient.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Meanwhile, does anyone else see the unnerving resemblance between Guy Mitchell and a fresh-faced Mark E Smith?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:06 (twenty-two years ago)

this will turn out to
be the single best pop-write
project of all time.

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

I know! The compilation to go with it will be even better.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 13:33 (twenty-two years ago)

Mark DC can you post a picture of Kitty Kallen FOR RESEARCH PURPOSES. The relationship wasn't fully established obv as she was a one-hit wonder.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:17 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.radioshowtime.com/images/gallery/Th_kallen.jpg

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.bigbands.net/images/int-KittyKallen.jpg

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.flipsideweb.com/websiteimagesi-q/mitchell,guy-same-45.JPG http://www.phespirit.info/pictures/heroes/images/p003.jpg

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Wow hey Mr Mitchell you look kind of like Mark E Smith but more suave! (that's a good thing)

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:31 (twenty-two years ago)

DAMN YOU HARVELL.

Actually, for a one-hit wonder, I'm mildly surprised someone waited around for 50 odd years before taking a picture of her and putting it on the Interweb (assuming it's genuine).

http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/radio/stargazers.jpg

The Stargazers look like they're recording an episode of The Archers.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Hello Kitty:

http://www.gocontinental.com/photos3/kalen.jpg

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

My God! Look at those two Stargazers on the left! It's George Orwell and JG Ballard!

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:49 (twenty-two years ago)

change the makeup a little and hey you look like her out of that indie band (that's a good thing).

― gabbo giftington (dubplatestyle), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Guy Mitchell? Guy Chadwick more like.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

My God! Look at those two Stargazers on the left! It's George Orwell and JG Ballard!

Genius.

Guy Chadwick more like.

I was thinking the same thing!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:52 (twenty-two years ago)

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

how about the two
on the right: james woods and young
samuel beckett

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 14:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Tom you really should hang onto the MP3s and burn a series of data discs for trade with, oh, I don't know, *certain ILxors who really really want them* cough cough ahem ahem

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Look at you with your lunge for the Da Capo 2004 crown! ; )

Matos OTM too.

― David. (Cozen), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

Popular does not condone or support stealing from musicians, even Guy Mitchell. However since these were all such huge hits I'm sure that you all have them all anyway and thus it's simply a matter of having them as a single handy compilation.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

yes, exactly.

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:43 (twenty-two years ago)

Matos, check that list mail here in a bit...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 16:52 (twenty-two years ago)

sure will, Ned

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

sure will, Ned (you do realize I get it in digest form, right?)

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 17:03 (twenty-two years ago)

It'll be in today's.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

roxor

― M Matos (M Matos), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:36 (twenty-two years ago)

wtf are yall talkin bout

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 18:52 (twenty-two years ago)

YOUR DRUGS. Can I have some?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

it's secret code that
only hardcore ballers know,
crazy scribe language

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I wish I was a little bit taller

― cinniblount (James Blount), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

Should I look in the secret drug digest too??

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 24 September 2003 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

tom, where has al martino gone? i scrolled down and hey joe is at the bottom, but there are no achives linked...

― CarsmileSteve (CarsmileSteve), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I know, on my 'to do' list is sorting the archives out. Big Al must return! It's all being archived monthly but the links don't show up for some reason. :(

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:14 (twenty-two years ago)

fixed that

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:22 (twenty-two years ago)

awesome, cheers Alang!

― Tom (Groke), Thursday, 25 September 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Forward into 1955!

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I have the Dreamweavers and Stargazers tracks on my Lipstick On Your Collar soundtrack CD. I finally deleted 'I See The Moon' from my hard drive recently after it started to drive me a bit barmy. It cheered my dad up when I played it to him, though. He only remembers a straight version of it though - "They're taking the piss!" he said and I chuckled.

'It's Almost Tomorrow' is lovely, though.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Funny that Marcello should mention 'Lay Down Your Arms'. That was the other song of that ilk that my dad got nostalgic about. He's funny my dad - he was born in 1941 but largely went off pop music when rock and roll along in his teenage years. I think Alma Cogan remains his favourite artist, though he has a sneaking regard for Simon and Garfunkel.

― N. (nickdastoor), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:46 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, "This Old House" isn't about home improvement, it's about being dead.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 28 September 2003 16:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah yeah. I'll confess - the property thing was a joke, but I didn't realise the dead thing because...well, because I must have been particularly dense that day. Luckily I'll be able to make up for it when Shakin' Stevens version rolls around.

― Tom (Groke), Sunday, 28 September 2003 17:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Jesus God, I just wrote 500 words about "If I Knew You Were Comin' (I'd've Baked a Cake)." I am never ever gonna reach "Rock Around the Clock," much less the end at this rate.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 29 September 2003 01:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I really love this! Though I'm ignorant enough about this period of music that I'm anxiously awaiting Beatlemania.

― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 29 September 2003 01:15 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh, the Beatles. They're my all-time favorite group so they'll present a unique challenge.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 29 September 2003 01:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Doing this has finally got me into the Beatles (much to Isabel's distress).

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 29 September 2003 07:03 (twenty-two years ago)

Please no Beatles at the wedding!

― alext (alext), Monday, 29 September 2003 07:35 (twenty-two years ago)

The "Isabel's distress" bit covers that possibility you'll be glad to know.

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 29 September 2003 07:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I hoped so!

― alext (alext), Monday, 29 September 2003 08:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Guy Mitchell looks like him out of UB40, surely?

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Monday, 29 September 2003 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Mike - the popular referrals log has suddenly gone mental with people coming from American Hot Wax- I take it it's been featured somewhere big...?

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Ahh, it's Metafilter. OK then!

― Tom (Groke), Monday, 6 October 2003 12:58 (twenty-two years ago)

i think the date may be wrong on the johnston brothers, unless there's a joke i'm missing or something

― mark s (mark s), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 08:41 (twenty-two years ago)

Heh yes Matos wrote in about that. I do that all the time but unless I'm very tired I catch it at the preview post stage.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 08:46 (twenty-two years ago)

ROCK IS BACK!!

Erm, no - wait -

ROCK HAS ARRIVED!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 10:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Ohhhhhh...seriously, I had been wondering that myself.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 10:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I fully expect to get back to the blog, starting with Nat 'King' Cole, tonight.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 10:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you're being too harsh Mike - the guy linking did rather suggest it was a finished project. I think MeFi does have a kind of self-satisfied gimme-the-internet-on-a-plate tone to it, which is one reason I stopped reading, but it's their loss: projects like this are more fun to follow bit by bit I think. (God knows I'd fear for the sanity of anyone reading the whole 960 of mine in a setting.)

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 10:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Um, yeah...I posted to the 'Shout for the Moderator' thread to get rid of it. I just woke up. :)

Anyway, Tom...I know everybody refers to Bill Haley as being "old" (Nik Cohn comes to mind), but he was only 30 when "Rock Around the Clock" went #1. Obviously that's not teenage, but that's younger than me!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 11:01 (twenty-two years ago)

I think people refer to him being old cos he *looks* really old - I suppose in a roundabout way it was him who made it possible/OK for 30 year olds to look a lot younger though!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 11:06 (twenty-two years ago)

He does look old, it's true. The same holds for Alan Freed -- he was 34 in '55, and even before the payola uproar he looked haggard and bug-eyed, probably thanks to long-term alcoholism.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 11:23 (twenty-two years ago)

30 WAS old in those days - the days before adolescence lasted into your mid-30s and beyond

― Dadaismus (Dada), Wednesday, 8 October 2003 11:50 (twenty-two years ago)

About the "Cherry Pink" vote split: this was pretty common practice in the charts of the '50s. Have a look at the full Top 20/30 listings for 1955 and you'll find plenty of versions of "Unchained Melody" and "Stranger In Paradise." At the time in Britain, sheet music was still the sales leader, far in excess of record sales (the Geffrye Museum-style throwback to The Good Old Days when every front room had a piano in it and The Family would all gather round it and belt out some songs because In Them Days We Had To Make Our Own Entertainment, even though ITV was already going) - though I think that the shellac/postwar rationing issues may well also have had something to do with it.

Anyway, in this period The Song, rather than The Artist, was the thing, and the general practice was to go to the local record shop and buy whichever version of The Song the shop had in stock. Naturally, being Britain, local artists had much more publicity, and were able to do much more publicity (the variety circuit was still in full swing - even as late as '58 you'd find, say, Buddy Holly and Ricky Nelson sharing a bill with Des O'Connor or Arthur English) with the end result (as you'll see) that by the time the '50s drew to a close, homegrown cover versions of US hits tended to take precedence in the charts - i.e. Marty Wilde over Dion & the Belmonts, Craig Douglas over Sam Cooke, Jimmy Justice over the Drifters, etc. Mostly because it was cheaper. But sometimes both US original and UK cover would hit big time, thus Prado and Calvert both got to #1 - in the same way that both Guy Mitchell and Tommy Steele managed to get to the top in '57 with "Singing The Blues."

Other historical point which may be of some importance: the engineer on "I See The Moon" and subsequently "Lay Down Your Arms," and when you get to it, the first punk number one "Cumberland Gap" was one Joe Meek.

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 9 October 2003 07:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I think what Marcello sez is just as true, if not more so (I don't have definitive documentation, I'm working from reissues like Indigo's 19xx: The R&B Hits series) in the R&B charts as in the pop charts. "Open the Door, Richard," for instance, charted something like a dozen times all by different people.

― M Matos (M Matos), Thursday, 9 October 2003 08:12 (twenty-two years ago)

It's interesting that "16 Tons" reached number one in the aftermath of Christmas, it had never occurred to me that it might catch a seasonal mood: post Christmas overspend debts kicking in, dark evenings, ages until the next holiday, belt tightening, trying to take it easy on the ale...

― Tim (Tim), Monday, 13 October 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

The only interesting thing about Dickie Valentine was that he was J G Ballard's next-door neighbour in Shepperton, and that Ballard is on record as claiming that DV's death in a car crash in '71 was the original inspiration behind Ballard writing Crash.

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 13 October 2003 14:19 (twenty-two years ago)

"Rock N Roll Waltz" is fantastic, I have an old 45 of it lying around somewhere and I really should get reacquainted. Haven't heard it in probably 15 years, so probably the idea it might be a novelty didn't occur to me.

― edward o (edwardo), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 23:16 (twenty-two years ago)

The Dean Martin persona of that of the likeable, easy going lush, or the "epic sloth", as Stan Conryn put it wasn't really a facet of the man's act in 1956 when "Memories Are Made Of This" was released. It was only ever vaguely touched on (you have to remember that Martin in real life drank no more than Sinatra or Lawford) as minor schitck in a few Jerry Lewis sketches, indeed, looking at Lewis' portrayal of Buddy Love in "The Nutty Professor" (a barely disguised parody of his comedy partner) and there's barely a reference to alcohol or alcoholism. Martin the drinker was schtick that really came along with his TV show (which for the life of me I can't remember when it debuted. 64?).

It's fair enough to say, like you do, that early Martin wasn't an accurate reflection of the man's desired style (to be quite honest, he seemed happiest with stuff like "My Rifle, My Pony, and Me", or his Tex albums, basically he was a country singer forced to croon). Martin as a truly great recording artist (well, a truly distinctive great recording artist) never really occured until his move to Reprise anyway. If you want to see an example of the Martin style (which was a lot more bleak than many give him credit for) going up against the grain of how Capitol wanted him to record, all you'd need to do is listen to "Ain't That A Kick In The Head" (his second finest recording?), where the Sinatra-lite orchestral punches go over the lyrical ponderings of

"She's telling me we'll be wed,
She's picked out a king-size bed
I couldn't be any better or I'd be sick"

Which is basically a call of "Oh fuck, I've caused someone to be in love with me", the actual kick in the head he's talking about.

Is this going somewhere? Apart from the fact that it's 2am and I'm meant to be writing for university? Yes. Yes it is. I think you read "Memories" wrong Tom, especially to seemingly take no offence from the actual song itself (again, 1956 crooning wasn't exactly a lyrical based medium) and them damn it on the lyrics. Sure, it's a standard "Marry me, and have kids" tune, but there's just that little edge to it ("some grief"), giving those pre-echos of "Ain't That A Kick In The Head"). Indeed, there's a kind of dark irony in a Dean Martin song about family happiness containg the line "some grief".

And it's 2003, and still no bugger has put out a decent definitive Dean Martin compilation. It beggars belief, really.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 23:50 (twenty-two years ago)

And so my longest ever ILM post is dedicated to the defence of Dean Martin. I can die a happy man now.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 15 October 2003 23:52 (twenty-two years ago)

Dom, I like Dean Martin! Well, some of his stuff, just not "Memories..." - "Ain't That A Kick" is great, like you say. The Martin Myth is obnoxious though - hardly his fault but it colours the way I hear his records now, irregardless of when he made them. Popular isn't meant to be a particularly objective or historically accurate project - it's a review of how these records sound to an individual (me) at a particular time (now). Some of the records come with no baggage for me, others have a lot: in this case the whole tiresome Rat Pack thing makes me like a song less than I would.

I don't think I was particularly unfair on the guy anyway - he did a solid job with a song I don't like much.

1956 crooning not a lyrical medium? I take your point, though to be honest I have no idea how it was received back then.

Thanks for the post though - disagreements are part of the point of something like this, and I've already changed my mind about some songs (I was terribly unfair to Guy Mitchell).

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 16 October 2003 07:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I think you undersell it also tom. "memories are made of this" always sounds really lecherous to me, like he's using the concept of matrimonial bliss, the family and the home, etc. to lure his wife into the bedroom (they're decidedly not newlyweds anymore), it doesn't sound content, it sounds sly. I think it's becuz of the way he sells the title line, there's a leer in the way he sings 'memories', a dexterity to it that invokes foreplay (I won't elaborate for fear of vulgarity)('delores'), or at least what foreplay would've involved in 195x. anyhow, thanx to spike jones I can't hear this song and not hear dogs barking.

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 16 October 2003 08:06 (twenty-two years ago)

The dark side of doing Popular - after spending 3 days waiting for a download of Band Aid II doing 'Do They Know It's Christmas' I discover that it is in fact the Barenaked Ladies doing a comic live cover version of same. My life is a ruin.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 16 October 2003 09:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Flicked through my antiquated Guinness Book Of Hit Records (1997 edition, intro by Mark Lamarr) for fun yesterday to see what is still to come...

I now await Tom's thoughts on Windsor Davies & Don Estelle with some kind of perverse glee.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Thursday, 16 October 2003 09:18 (twenty-two years ago)

I love it. I think Tom is doing the 50s better than I could, because his lack of knowledge of the territory enables him to come at it from a fresh perspective, without getting bogged down in the slightly superfluous sociological stuff I would tend to add to it (I'm not sure it would greatly benefit the casual reader to know who was number one when Churchill resigned as prime minister, for example). It's a great piece of writing of and about pop music, Freaky Trigger close to its best.

Rest assured that I will step in to continue it if Tom decides to abandon the project ... but I hope he doesn't.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

oh, as for "Alley Oop" (as mentioned passim upthread by Marcello - an American number one in 1960) it has to be heard in the context of Martin Allan / Stephen Frears' 1985 Screen Two production "Song of Experience", a steam train carriage in the West Riding of Yorkshire, two fingers to authority ... and, eventually, the darkest transgression of all. Tom May will understand this, even if nobody else does.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 22 October 2003 22:47 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the only thing that would seriously hinder me now Robin would be losing my job before I've transferred the collected MP3s onto data discs - I'm glad you're enjoying it though and I'm very keen on the more knowledgeable input you and Marcello can provide on this thread!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 23 October 2003 06:27 (twenty-two years ago)

(Actually the other thing that will seriously hinder me is having to listen to Hale and Pace feat The Stonkers all the way through.)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 23 October 2003 06:29 (twenty-two years ago)

The question is: what will be the first 10 out of 10? It might just be "Cumberland Gap" if I was doing it (it certainly would be were Marcello doing it, I suspect) - if not, "Telstar" would probably be the one.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 23 October 2003 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah yes... "Song of Experience" really was a fine drama; naturalism, yet with the Dennis Potter recontextualising of popular music.
"Alley Oop" is perfect for those moments on the train; with over-confidence and adolescent railing as conveyed by the elder lad and one of the two younger ones.
"Volare" as well... (was it a #1?) that works wonderfully once the train has arrived at its destination. The swagger of "Alley Oop" continued (a smoother song admittedly, yet a demonstrative one), yet in the rain on the platform. When that was on POTP recently, it was by far the best played in its chart; like a breath of fresh, bracing air, piercing the stolid balladry.
Was "Tammy" not a UK #1 in 1957? I've only heard that song in its entirety recently and it will always be coloured for me by its sublime use by the Avalanches and its tragic, disturbing use in "Song of Experience". It moves me, on more than its charming 50s ballad level.

Popular is grand; a fine effort by Mr Ewing... coming to it fresh definitely does have its benefits.
This is the sort of project I'd love to do, but I couldn't really get hold of all the recordings. I think however, yes, the knowledge and particular takes of Robin or Marcello would make for great reading also... I'd love to read some entries on pre-1952 stuff as well; Billboard, or... was there no form of UK sales chart? Surely, a "Pennies from Heaven"-style sheet music chart? ;-)

― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 23 October 2003 20:57 (twenty-two years ago)

"Runaway", "Wonderful Land" and "Johnny Remember Me" seem obvious 1961 ones... though, 9? 10? It will depend on personal tastes. I don't know why, but my trusty book of Guinness Top 40 charts for some reason only begins in January 1960... thus I can't easily find out the 50s stuff (I bet there's a website... ;-)). It made the appearance of Santo & Johnny's "Sleep Walk" recently on POTP quite a pleasant surprise though! ;-) I'd remembered Marcello mentioning that in conunction with "Albatross"/"Stranger on the Shore"... in a CoM piece.

― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 23 October 2003 21:08 (twenty-two years ago)

The Guinness book of British Hit Singles still has a list of all No.1s back to 1952, I think.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 23 October 2003 21:10 (twenty-two years ago)

also useful - http://www.everyhit.com

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 23 October 2003 22:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Number #1's, but not the full charts curiously.

― Tom May (Tom May), Thursday, 23 October 2003 22:34 (twenty-two years ago)

They're under copyright.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 23 October 2003 22:42 (twenty-two years ago)

pity - the full archive of Italian and Norwegian Top 10s, for example, are online dating back to the late 50s, which is further than the Guinness Book of Top 40 charts goes (seemingly all the early Cliff Richard singles were massive hits in Norway - I have visions of Geir Hongro's parents being huge Cliff fans, don't ask me why). I always wondered why Gambo and the Rice Bros didn't go the whole hog and publish all the NME Top 12s/20s/30s - you can get a good idea of which songs charted in the 50s and where they peaked from the main British Hit Singles, but it doesn't have the sheer *immediacy* of finding an exact chart for a certain date, fleshing out the full context.

ah, I'd forgotten "Johnny Remember Me" - that would get at least 9 from me; "Runaway" would rate high but, had "Hats Off To Larry" been #1, it would rate higher. The vista of "Wonderful Land" would be the highest-rating of the more-than-you'd-think Shadows (and related) number ones, certainly. "Volare" (in Dean Martin's version, the most successful of many in the UK) and "Tammy" both peaked at #2 in Britain - from memory "Tammy" was kept off #1 by Paul Anka's "Diana" and "Volare" by either the Kalin Twins' "When" or Connie Francis' "Carolina Moon" / "Stupid Cupid". I'm pretty sure "Tammy" was US #1, though, as was "Volare" in the Domenico Mondugno version.

as for sheet music charts, recent editions of British Hit Singles list sheet music hits from 1950-52, although such charts had existed way back in the pre-WW2 period.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Friday, 24 October 2003 01:32 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm trying to do the markings so that 10s (and 0s) will be very rare. You and Tom are naming some good records though.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 24 October 2003 09:01 (twenty-two years ago)

Dream Weavers update - apparently they were from Miami! So my inkling of them as some kind of Morrissey-ancestor is OffTM (or is it...?).

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Friday, 24 October 2003 13:34 (twenty-two years ago)

I admit to a very odd predilection for a turn-of-the-decade #1 "Starry Eyed" by Michael Holliday; a figure about as far from the Meeks, Shannons, Spectors as you could wish, yet... this record strikes me personally as vitally alive in its production, orchestration and most chidingly, those female backing vocalists. A juddering yet becalmed guitar riff is amplified and elevated by these marvellous feminine tones; few words do they need. Holliday is certainly competent with a really rather splendid composition.
"That's just why *you're* so starry... eyed" comes the ladies' cross harmony beautifully. Utopian easy-listening pop? It's up there with Linda Scott's "I've Told Ev'ry Little Star", Connie Stevens' "Sixteen Reasons" (ok, ok, I'm a devotee of "Mulholland Drive"!) and Lesley Gore's "It's My Party", as youthful, slightly wistful girl-pop of the highest order. Yet, with the rather un-girly Holliday taking the credit. ;-)

Ashamed to say I've never knowingly heard this Dream Weavers song... :-(

― Tom May (Tom May), Friday, 24 October 2003 21:31 (twenty-two years ago)

"Starry Eyed" (an appealing song, yes) - first new #1 of the 60s! how utterly unpredictive of what was to come ... unlike NKOTB's "Hangin' Tough" at the start of the 90s which was all too predictive, both with its exceedingly low sales while at #1 (OK, that didn't characterise the *whole* decade, but it certainly did for the first couple of years) and in terms of the boyband genre generally.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 25 October 2003 04:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Robin - the non-appearance of pre-1960 NME charts in the Guinness book is down to copyright reasons; NME did put out their own book of charts in the mid-'90s but this seems to have drifted out of circulation. Shame because of course the NME's own chart continued up until 1984 and does offer an alternative history of pop, one where both "My Generation" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" got to number one. In the later years it gets especially surreal; top 20 hits for Birthday Party, Crass, Fire Engines, Postcard-era Orange Juice, which probably reflects the reduced number of shops contributing to the NME chart in its later stages but still makes for interesting comparison with the "official" chart.

― Marcello Carlin, Sunday, 26 October 2003 12:09 (twenty-two years ago)

ah, thanks for that. another piece of alternative history is one where The Who got a *second* number one, with "I'm A Boy" spending three weeks at the top. that happened in the Melody Maker charts and can be found in the self-same "Year Book of 1967" which I alluded to in the early days of The House At World's End as the quintessence of the fleeting Wilson landslide / World Cup '66 interlude (the intensive farming / Pentangle on "Take Three Girls" vignette). if a book like that, establishment enough to still write "pop" in inverted commas even after the Radio Times had largely abandoned that practice, could publish the MM charts they must have had some kudos as well - when did *they* finish? (the MM charts, that is; I'm guessing the Year Books finished around 1973/4)

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Sunday, 26 October 2003 20:34 (twenty-two years ago)

The MM charts I think also petered on until the early '80s but they actually weren't much cop - as I recall "God Save The Queen" only made #5 in the MM chart, whereas in the NME chart it was unequivocally number one in Jubilee week (and the following week).

― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 27 October 2003 09:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Damnit, if I could re-establish a normal sleeping habit, I'd be able to update "American Hot Wax." I slept from 9 to 6 last night -- WTF?

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 28 October 2003 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

http://rockmetonight.blogspot.com/

Sweet heaven it's a meme!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 28 October 2003 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

Clearly some nut-nut has to do one of the album charts.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Tuesday, 28 October 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

two weeks pass...

incidentally there are two almost perilously obsessive web pages out there detailing the non-Guinness-approved #1s of the 50s and 60s: http://uproar.fortunecity.com/galaxy/399/extranoones.htm and http://uproar.fortunecity.com/galaxy/399/noone5569.htm

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Saturday, 15 November 2003 17:13 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/popular.html

It's back!

(Thanks for the links Robin, very helpful!)

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:24 (twenty-two years ago)

No rating for Tab? :(

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Tuesday, 18 November 2003 20:42 (twenty-two years ago)

He's unrateable.

Oh OK then, 5.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 08:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Great "Cumberland Gap" appraisal, I think ... your comments on Frankie Vaughan's "Garden of Eden" being potentially an "early soul thumper" if had been recorded a few years later make me wonder what you'll think of his cover of Gene McDaniels' "Tower of Strength" - a record Marcello Carlin rates highly - when you reach it in 1961.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Wednesday, 19 November 2003 23:07 (twenty-two years ago)

You need to pop Cumberland Gap in the sidebar thing for those rated 8 & over.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Saturday, 22 November 2003 13:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I know, and there's a couple of linking blogs that need to go in there too (Marcello's and at least one other). I'm trying to get a good wodge of entries written this weekend though so I'll change the sidebar when I start posting those.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Sunday, 23 November 2003 00:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Re. Andy Williams' "Butterfly" - it's perhaps sobering to be reminded that at least two Elvis imitators/imitations got to number one in the UK before Elvis himself did ("All Shook Up" is imminent; "Heartbreak Hotel" was kept off the top by Pat Boone, btw, and "Hound Dog" by Frankie Laine!)

Hugely enjoyed the write-up of "Cumberland Gap"; looking forward to what Tom has to say about the double A-side "Gamblin' Man" and "Puttin' On The Style" which is also soon upcoming vis-a-vis psycho-skiffle x music-hall = Britpop (and at 2:58 on "Gamblin' Man" Lonnie Donegan's voice gives birth to John Lydon!).

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 26 November 2003 14:10 (twenty-two years ago)

Got to Elvis!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 December 2003 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

consistently great stuff, Tom - for the first time in this project, you're out of one "era" and into another, if you can define it in such terms (the final number ones for Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell and Johnnie Ray now passed, the first for Elvis already arrived and the first for Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers coming pretty soon). still got to listen to two Russ Conway tracks, though :).

shouldn't "Gamblin' Man" / "Putting On The Style" be added to the sidebar for records scoring 8 and over?

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 4 December 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes it should, that sidebar will be the death of me - thanks for the reminder.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Thursday, 4 December 2003 17:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Fecking fuck, I have to get back to mine!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Thursday, 4 December 2003 17:40 (twenty-two years ago)

The marks in Popular - what do they mean?

http://www.freakytrigger.co.uk/popplustwo.html

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 12:05 (twenty-two years ago)

not read much of the feature as yet, i've decided to tackle it in (big) chunks at future dates to be determined. Thanks for the article, tho' - answered a question i'd asked myself.

...but, re the methodology behind the marks, how many times do you listen to a song before rewiewing/rating it? I ask because I am unsure about the robustness of your 'longevity' test, particularly when applied to records you haven't heard before.

I'm all for instant judgements, but seems to me there's an inherent difficulty in justifying to yourself that something is "a record you'd never tire of hearing"/"want to hear repeatedly" - doesn't that usually only prove itself once you have actually heard it repeatedly?

and given the way you've gone about the task, don't some records - i.e. the ones you know - have an in-built advantage (re the longevity criterion) you can't do anything about?

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Also: I've added a comments system, as much to catch any non-ILE readers or googlers as anything else. There might even be something new to comment on later!

Zebedee - excellent point about the marking system. To be honest the longevity test isn't something I apply particularly stringently - it was a justification for a system based largely on 'feel'. You're right though in that I probably err on the site of caution with records I don't know well. But it works as much against records I know well as in their favour. Maybe I should have written "a record you can't imagine tiring of hearing" to make it more now-centric.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Also re-reading I tried to balance the longevity test with the 'would I want to own it' one.

To answer yr actual question I listen to the songs around 5-10 times each when I'm writing about them.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:52 (twenty-two years ago)

No new Popular until after Xmas (I'm trying to get a backlog of entries so I can make it more regular) but I now finally have every UK #1 on my hard drive.

The last one to be tracked down? "Gym And Tonic" by Spacedust.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 12:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Jerry Lee Lewis should be in the sidebar.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 24 December 2003 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

so he should now.

nice appraisal of Michael Holliday's "Story Of My Life", which has the same almost call-and-response backing vocals as his later "Starry Eyed" (mentioned upthread, and coming up nearly two years later in the story).

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 12 January 2004 10:47 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

flashing forward twenty years here, but may I mention at this point that the Bee Gees were young kids in Manchester when it still really did look like all those old L.S. Lowry paintings? I say this only because "Night Fever" will come straight after "Matchstalk Men And Matchstalk Cats And Dogs" (something I've genuinely only realised today - looking through my old history schoolwork on the creation of industrial Britain put the Brian and Michael song in my mind, can't think why)

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Roll on 2005 then.

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 26 January 2004 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

quite :).

I have to admit I'm following it closely enough that I really anticipate what's coming up, and what you may have to say about it - be prepared for a lurch back into the Doris Day era when you reach Jane Morgan's "The Day The Rains Came" in early 1959 (one of the songs my mum used to listen to concurrently with Debbie Reynolds' "Tammy", cf my old Elidor piece on the Avalanches, but I doubt you'd know it). all told it is exhilarating radical populism -the "Who's Sorry Now" appraisal is particularly good. I've left a comment that might explain something re. "On The Street Where You Live", as well.

Everly Brothers next, then ...

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 26 January 2004 21:05 (twenty-one years ago)

two months pass...

Finally got to the 60s, apologies for the snail's pace lately, no chance of my giving up though!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Monday, 19 April 2004 18:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Snail's pace? Dude, I've been doing them one-a-month lately!

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Monday, 19 April 2004 18:54 (twenty-one years ago)

yer both slowpokes! time to lean, time to clean!

― cinniblount (James Blount), Monday, 19 April 2004 18:55 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont understand what all this is about theres just so much crap

― jonnnni, Thursday, 22 April 2004 07:44 (twenty-one years ago)

hey jonnnni put it all behind you

― cinniblount (James Blount), Thursday, 22 April 2004 07:48 (twenty-one years ago)

posting under my own name, yes a rarity these days indeed ... but this is just to say that i've started writing about number ones in other charts than used by Guinness over the last forty-nine years, and i've just listened to and written about seven songs in one sitting (always a pleasure, never a chore, hmmm). my style is obviously different to Tom's and i'm already regretting certain things - i didn't think "Cool Water" deserved as many as 4 before listening to it on repeat, and i don't think it does after listening to it on repeat, but somehow it seemed different at the time and i have a general policy of not revising this sort of thing - but hopefully some of you here will appreciate it ...

it can be read at http://the-other-ones.blogspot.com

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Thursday, 29 April 2004 01:19 (twenty-one years ago)

two weeks pass...

'Running Bear' is one of about three pop 7"s my parents bought for themselves (and easeily the best one). I didn't realise the Big Bopper was involved.

― Jeff W (zebedee), Friday, 14 May 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

Finally finished the 1960s.

― Tom (Groke), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Well done Tom, but were you really hating on Livin' Joy here?!

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

Also blimey Tom you've been doing this for THREE YEARS now.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

catch up to present within 7 years??

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Tuesday, 26 September 2006 16:06 (nineteen years ago)

Remember that was three years ago, and marking always depends on the way Tom feels about the record at the time he's writing it up.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 07:26 (nineteen years ago)

You're reading it wrong I think Steve - I don't remember writing that but I think the context is me worrying about getting bored when I hit stuff I've already written about, and then saying "anyway there's a Goombay or Livin Joy [things I've not written about yet which I would enjoy writing about] for every Wannabe or C.O.E. [things I've written about a lot]"

Yes, 3 yrs, blimey.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 07:36 (nineteen years ago)

Man!

I keep up with that, usually.

But how many went on without me looking? Twenty, probably.

Roll on the seventies!

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 08:32 (nineteen years ago)

I read it wrong yes.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 09:33 (nineteen years ago)

Totally my favorite blog right now (if my rambling comments at the site don't make that apparent). Recommended highly. I'd buy a book of it when it's done.

― Doctor Casino (Doctor Casino), Wednesday, 27 September 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

up to 1980 now and going strong. i love the list of songs that have been rated 10 so far:

* NANCY SINATRA - “These Boots Were Made For Walking” 19th February 1966
* THE BEATLES - “Eleanor Rigby”/”Yellow Submarine” 20th August 1966
* DESMOND DEKKER AND THE ACES - “Israelites” 19th April 1969
* T REX - “Hot Love” 20th March 1971
* ABBA - “Dancing Queen” 4th September 1976
* KATE BUSH - “Wuthering Heights” 11th March 1978
* BLONDIE - “Atomic” 1st March 1980
* ABBA - “The Winner Takes It All” 9th August 1980

― WHALE WARS (jabba hands), Monday, 24 November 2008 09:07 (seventeen years ago)

three weeks pass...

Popular has been voted 19th best website ever by FHM.

http://www.fhm.com/reviews/every-number-1-reviewed-20081209

― Matt DC, Thursday, 18 December 2008 12:52 (sixteen years ago)

to be fair, ich luge bullets has only been going a few months.

― special guest stars mark bronson, Thursday, 18 December 2008 12:53 (sixteen years ago)

You need to be an FHM member to leave your comment. Sign In or Sign Up here
kamfarooq Comment posted 3 hours ago
xhamster

nicnic9 Comment posted 15 hours ago
ebay

Denny123 Comment posted 15 hours ago
Cool 95 rocks!

Denny123 Comment posted 15 hours ago
I do this every tuesday!!

-RoB- Comment posted 16 hours ago
May 12th 2084...freakin ages, unless the mayan's are right

― Seannadams Molloy (The stickman from the hilarious 'xkcd' comics), Thursday, 18 December 2008 12:54 (sixteen years ago)

In the interests of research I have just checked Popular's counterpart in the FHM 100 Sexiest Ladies poll. Tom's blog is the Jennifer Love Hewitt of websites apparently.

― Matt DC, Thursday, 18 December 2008 13:00 (sixteen years ago)

the 'Cash In My Pocket' of websites

― Timezilla vs Mechadistance (blueski), Thursday, 18 December 2008 13:01 (sixteen years ago)

one month passes...

I hear on the grapevine that Famous Internet Journalist Tom Ewing is going to be talking about Popular on Chris Evans's Radio Two show this afternoon.

― Maximo Park Ji-Sung (Matt DC), Monday, 9 February 2009 16:22 (sixteen years ago)

So, check him in his pants and ting.

― Mark G, Monday, 9 February 2009 16:29 (sixteen years ago)

Ah thanks, I was looking for this thread to revive!

"I will be on Radio 2 this afternoon (at 5.35 or 6.10 - dunno yet) talking to Chris Evans about Popular."

aka, unless I'm very wrong, 9:35 am or 10:10 am Pacific Time, 12:35 pm or 1:10 pm Eastern Time, etc.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 16:31 (sixteen years ago)

is this worth tuning in to Chris Evans show for?

imo yes

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2009 16:37 (sixteen years ago)

Confirmed as 18:10.

― mike t-diva, Monday, 9 February 2009 16:45 (sixteen years ago)

I hadn't quite realized how much further of a prick Evans had become.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:05 (sixteen years ago)

(Tom's not on yet, but dealing with listening to this clown, lord.)

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:05 (sixteen years ago)

"A guy who's decided to review EVERY SINGLE NUMBER ONE!"

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:05 (sixteen years ago)

Evans talks so fast it's kinda scary

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:05 (sixteen years ago)

But hey, "Atomic."

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:06 (sixteen years ago)

Gah, 15 minutes from now.

"The team! The team fixed that up!"

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:09 (sixteen years ago)

Okay here we go. I hope.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:17 (sixteen years ago)

"Grotty and damp and a bit seedy!"

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:20 (sixteen years ago)

ha ha bring on the ming mongs

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:21 (sixteen years ago)

Hahah, well that was great!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:21 (sixteen years ago)

and now, 'Mouldy Old Dough' at drive time

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:21 (sixteen years ago)

And this is the first time I've actually heard "Mouldy Old Dough" so that's worth it. This is insane.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:22 (sixteen years ago)

i only caught the second half of this b/c i couldn't work out how to stream it bah

i don't like this 'mouldy dough' thing though :/

― lex pretend, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:23 (sixteen years ago)

I MISSED IT, DR4T WORK

WHA HAPPEN

― Tracer Hand, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:24 (sixteen years ago)

YOU GOING TO GET LOTS OF TRAFFIC

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:24 (sixteen years ago)

am sad that Tom didn't call him "ginger bollocks"

― O Supermanchiros (blueski), Monday, 9 February 2009 18:26 (sixteen years ago)

Sorry! That's got to be the first royalties Lieutenant Pigeon have got off the BBC for a while though!

They actually don't make it clear when you're off air, presumably to avoid ginger bollocks incidents. They don't warn you beforehand not to swear though either.

― Groke, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:33 (sixteen years ago)

Ewing did a good job!

― the pinefox, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:43 (sixteen years ago)

That he did!

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:44 (sixteen years ago)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hc1j2/Chris_Evans_09_02_2009/

About 1hr10mins in.

― Maximo Park Ji-Sung (Matt DC), Monday, 9 February 2009 19:42 (sixteen years ago)

NUMBER ONE NUTTAH

― Richard C, Monday, 9 February 2009 20:02 (sixteen years ago)

eight years pass...

freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/2017/07/sugababes-freak-like-me/

― etc, Monday, 10 July 2017 20:37 (eight years ago)

That's fucking brilliant!

― Mr. Snrub, Monday, 10 July 2017 21:22 (eight years ago)

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