US #1s of 1950

Obv "Rudolph" is great and "Mona Lisa" is Beautiful Song Straight Fire, but right now I'm feelin' like some perky "Music! Music! Music!"

Eileen Barton, "If I Knew You Were Comin' (I'd've Baked a Cake)" was Tom Dowd's first recording gig.

Also, "Goodnight, Irene" was taught to the Weavers directly from Ledbelly.

Lot's of really good options here

Ames Brothers, "Rag Mop"

Teresa Brewer, "Music! Music! Music!"

Can't find Sammy Kaye's "Harbor Lights", but Guy Lombardo's is close

Red Foley, "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy"

"The Third Man Theme"

"Rag Mop" vs. "Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy"

Gotta think this one out.

can't resist "put another nickel in/in the nickelodeon." but i'm curious if the song represented any kind of wave of ragtime nostalgia. nothing leaps to mind, but were there other things like that, postwar?

don't put another dime in the jukebox
i don't want to hear that song no more

Good question. The horns at the end of "If I Knew You Were Comin'" seem to hit on something like that, too.

xp

also who's the guitar on "rag mop"? pretty hot. (wikipedia doesn't say, but it does aver that it was the last #1 hit to be released solely on 78. everything after was on 45.)

what a decade for technology. rca signed elvis in 1956 as a way to market their new 12" album format.

there're a lot of novelty arrangements in the pre-rock 50s (especially rosemary clooney), but specifically tinny ragtime sounding, i'd have to dig.

also who's the guitar on "rag mop"? pretty hot.

the whole thing has a art van damme quintet feel, but i don't really know.

(sans vibraphone, that is)

i just love that darn third man theme

Tennessee Waltz:

Oh how I absolutely HATED this song when I was a little one, but now I kinda like it!

yeah, i think it's a great song, but patti page's version is far from best (e.g. mary ford's)

converse, i loved "the thing" when i was a kid.

"Third Man Theme" all the way. It's my favorite movie ever--how could I not? (Rev, have you seen The Third Man?)

No, but the opening in the youtube video certainly caught my attention.

i love the third man theme as part of the movie. on its own though it's sort of irritating.

There're some good oddball arrangements of Third Man theme out there worth their own weight.

I voted Rag Mop.

Rev, if you want some 1950 Jump Blues R&B stuff like that, I can make a lil package...

Certainly! (though not sure what here falls under that category...?)

Okay, I did not realize "The Thing" was THAT song. That song is awesome.

Damn, I just realized I still haven't listened to your Japanese zip, PW.

Love the Third Man Theme, had no idea it was a #1! It was supposed to be our wedding first dance but the band never learned how to play it. (Even dubbed the guitarist copies of the Karas and Hank Garland versions, still no dice.) The DVD has a great short of Karas playing it in a nightclub.

Still though, voting anything but Goodnight Irene would feel wrong.

kind of amazing that all these songs seem like they're from 4 or 5 eras ago, but there was pete seeger last week onstage with bruce et al.

pete seeger is vampire

bump

Harbor Lights

Voted Rudolph because I am not certain if I've heard anything else. Not heard Gene Autry's version though. :)

Hmmm. Should have voted for "Third Man" of course.

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