Music Memory Lane
Would you like to hear the tunes that you see up there on the jukebox?
All you have to do is click The PHS Jukebox link above.
All you have to do is click The PHS Jukebox link above.
We all know the power of an old song to transport us back in time, to times and places remembered from our teenage years. Psychologists call it the “reminiscence bump”. Which songs bring back memories from your past? Has a song on the car radio, or in a shopping mall, caught you off guard and brought back a flood of memories? There’s always one song you can listen to over and over. That special song that speaks to you; one you can listen to and feel better in an instant. One song that brings back all the old memories from 1955 to 1960? There’s a kid still inside of each of us and it only takes that one song to bring you back to that time and place when you first heard it.
The film Blackboard Jungle premièred in 1955, featuring Bill Haley & His Coments' "Rock Around the Clock" over the opening credits, the first use of a rock and roll song in a major film and the first to chart at #1. By 1960, following the deaths of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens in a plane crash, the retirement of Little Richard to become a preacher, and reports of bribery and corruption, the initial phase of rock and roll was coming to an end, but for that brief five year period, from1955 to 1960, we had Rockabilly (Elvis), Doo Wop (The Platters, The Coasters, The Drifters), played on 45 rpm records to dance to. We were just starting 8th grade in 1955. Remember Friday nights at Bayview Park listening to the Platters singing Only You? Click HERE to see a list of Billboard's top 30 singles of 1955. The top 100 list didn't start until the following year.
Elvis had five records in the top 15 in 1956, #1 was Heartbreak Hotel, and #2 was Don’t Be Cruel. Further down the list was Hound Dog at #8, and I Want You, I Need You, I Love You at #14, followed closely by Love Me Tender at #15. I still can remember standing in line at the FLORIDA Theatre on a Saturday afternoon in November, 1956, to see Elvis in his acting debut in Love Me Tender (in black and white, not color!). Click HERE to see the list of the top 100 singles we danced to in 1956.
In 1957 the #1 song of the year was All Shook Up by Elvis Presley. Pat Boone's Love Letters in the Sand held the #2 spot on the charts, and Little Darlin' by The Diamonds came in at #3. Does anyone remember Pat Boone's movie debut where he introduced his big hit? It was Bernadine, in which "America's new boyfriend" appeared on screen for the first time. He was the second biggest charting artist of the late 1950's, behind only Elvis. Pat Boone was just 23 years old in 1957 and he will celebrate his 85th birthday on June 1st, 2020. Click HERE for a list of the most popular tunes on the radio in 1957.
There were so many great songs popular in 1958, it's difficult to choose just a few. The #1 hit was Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu), also voted as the song of year at the very first Grammy Awards Show in 1959. The Everly Brothers had two tunes tied at #2, All I Have to Do is Dream and Claudette, and two more tied at #13, Devoted to You and Bird Dog. Elvis held on to #3 with Don't. Click HERE for Billboard's list for 1958, remembering just a few of the tunes we loved back then.
The #1 song for 1959 was...(I think you may be surprised by the answer): The Battle of New Orleans, sung by Johnny Horton. Some of the more familiar tunes are probably Mack The Knife (Bobby Darin), Personality (Lloyd Price), Venus (Frankie Avalon), and Come Softly to Me (The Fleetwoods), #2 through #5. Click HERE to see a list of the top 100 singles for 1959.
The #1 song of 1960 should come as no surprise: Theme from A Summer Place. Surely you remember going to the Saenger Theatre with a date on a Saturday night to see those young lovers Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue light up the screen. Much further down on the list at #30 is Let It Be Me by the Everly Brothers, which I have to admit is one of my all-time favorites. Click HERE to see the list of the most popular tunes we listened to in 1960, at the end of our Senior year at PHS.