1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die - 1956

Fats

Mahalia

Jay

gonna give lonnie a vote!

anyone who doesn't choose Mahalia, Fats, or Jay is craazy

Hotel.

Must vote for my favorite Frank Sinatra song.

Heartbreak Hotel, but really any of these is a good answer.

Fats
― Iago Galdston, Friday, April 15, 2011 7:46 PM (31 minutes ago) Bookmark

Blueberry Hill

Here's another vote for Sinatra. Really, partly more of my anti-50s rock stance, but that recording is also one of the strongest Sinatra ever did.

Still seems like kind of a mish-mash to me, but I guess that's the nature of these books (or maybe lists in general). "I Walk the Line" pretty easily for me, with "Blueberry Hill" a distant second. Personal favorites from my media library not on the list: Chips' "Rubber Biscuit," Clyde McPhatter's "Treasure of Love," Nervous Norvus's "Transfusion," Ray Price's "You Done Me Wrong," Richard Berry & the Dreamers' "Pretty Brown Eyes."

"Be-Bop-a-Lula"'s amazing, and I would have voted for that at some point in my life.

Could conceivably go with Gene Vincent, Johnny Burnette, Louvin Brothers, a few other things. But I'm going with Louis Prima, even though there are tracks by him I like more.

I have to admit: I've never heard of either "Ella" or José Alfredo Jiménez.

Oh no this suddenly very hard again...

seriously... Blueberry Hill, Let's Do It, I Put A Spell on You, Folsom Prison Blues.... I could vote for all of those.

Blue Monday is my jam. Sinatra is second probably, but there are no wrong answers here.

That Sinatra recording is really great, and obviously Fats, Elvis, etc. But really ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGNLLJz4Ajw

Love this version, so sinister sounding and Gene seems surreally stoned:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7oHKNC_pDU

That is terrifying.

Think I'd choose I Walk the Line. Like the ghost stories of MR James it feels unimprovable, perfect in its fashion.

Just watching that Gene Vincent performance again, the most terrifying bit apart from all of it is when he throws that rucking great shitfit on 1:30. But just before that, at about 1:18-1:26, I wonder where he is. Kinda looks like he's wondering as well.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Going with "Hound Dog". Love that song, though there's some other great songs here.

I should say it's not just the song itself, but the way Elvis and his band recorded it.

i get why people are voting for others, but i mean:
http://youtu.be/7kGPhpvqtOc

voted knoxville girl, just because somebody should

I should say it's not just the song itself, but the way Elvis and his band recorded it.

― o. nate

It's a great version but for me Big Mama Thornton's the one to go for, more resentful and delivered in some sort of funky mambo note.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ha!

hidden hungarian contingent on ilx

I am not surprised! Voted for Fats over Screamin' Jay, but it was a tough vote...

it was kind of tough, but then i thought about how "I Put A Spell On You" remains one of the weirder, creepier songs ever. glad Jay won.

That Celia Cruz song is from 1953, btw.

I know a lot of people here love that song, so I am not surprised, but they haven't exactly been speaking a lot on this thread.

Some discussion here about why some people (especially me) don't absolutely love the song that won this poll, if anybody's interested:

favorite song on Xgau's 50's singles list?

Maybe "I Put a Spell On You" dissenters would prefer the peppier "Norther Soul Version" (which I have on a dumbfounding comp called Portrait Of A Maniac that has never left my iTunes and features a hilarious version of Cahn/Styne's "Time After Time"):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ijnBZ5mmE

I love Bryan Ferry's version much better. :)