Program for Friday 31st. - Back to the Fifties.

A selection of goodies from the Nineteen-Fifties is on the menu today and will include the following hits:-

• A Woman In Love - Frankie Laine (1956)
• Born Too Late - the Shannons (1958)
• Bye Bye Baby - Col Joye (1959) AUSTRALIAN
• Cannonball - Duane Eddy (1958)
• Chantilly Lace - the Big Bopper (1958)
• Ginger Bread - Frankie Avalon (1958)
• Gonna Get Along Without You Now - the Keynotes (1957) - Live, from Take It From Here.
• Happy Go Lucky Me - Paul Evans (1960)
• I See The Moon - the Stargazers (1954)
• It's All In The Game - Tommy Edwards (1954)
• Lisbon Antigua - Nelson Riddle (1956)
• Lonely Guitar - Annette Funicello (1959) Two versions of the same song.
• Lonely Teardrops - Jackie Wilson (1958)
• Moritat - the Dick Hyman Trio (1956)
• Mountain Greenery - Max Geldray (1956) Live, from The Goon Show 11-Oct-1956.
• My Blue Heaven - Fats Domino (1956)
• My Heart Has A Mind Of Its Own - Connie Francis (1960)
• Rag Mop - Lionel Hampton (1950)
• Seven Lonely Days - Georgia Gibbs (1953)
• So Tough - Johnny O'Keefe (1958) AUSTRALIAN
• Splish Splash - Bobby Darin (1958)
• Stardust - Ray Conniff (1956)
• The Big Hurt - Miss Toni Fisher (1959)
• The Twist - Chubby Checker (1960 & 1962)
• There's Only One Of You - the Four Lads (1958)
• Walkin' My Baby Back Home - Johnny Ray (1952)
• Whole Lotta Loving - Fats Domino (1958)
• Wishing For Your Love - the Voxpoppers (1958)
• You Belong To Me - Jo Stafford (1953)
• You Need Hands - Eydie Gorme (1958)
• You Are The Limit - the Delltones (1961) AUSTRALIAN

As mentioned in the last entry (for Monday 27th. May) I will be presenting the first episode in the BBC radio series, "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy" in the half-hour immediately following the 3:00 PM news & weather.

Grab your towels, don your PJs and dressing-gown and prepare yourself for some whacky trans-universal comedy from the pen of Douglas Adams.

Monday 25th. - continuing from Friday

In Friday's program I played up to and including the Top Forty from the 2UW  "Fabulous Top Fifty" chart for 14th. June 1959.
So today I will continue on and play the final "bottom 10" (i.e., 41 to 50) from that list and then the New Releases and Up-And-Coming records that were also shown, as follows:-

• 41    Maybe Someday - the Young Lions --/1
• 42    You Made Me Love You - Keely Smith --/1
• 43    Dream Lover - Bobby Darin --/1
• 44    I Need Your Love Tonight - Elvis Presley --/1
• 45    Charlie Brown - the Coasters 29/7
• 46    She Say - the Diamonds 24/5
• 47    I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself - Buddy Knox --/1
• 48    Turn Me Loose - Fabian --/1
• 49    There'll Never Be Anyone Else But You - Ricky Nelson --/1
• 50    My Happiness - Connie Francis 45/7

BEST NEW RELEASES THIS WEEK

• Five Pennies Saints- Danny Kaye & Louis Armstrong
• A Teenager In Love - Dion & the Belmonts
• The Kissing Tree - Billy Grammer
• I Still Get A Thrill (Thinking Of You) - Joni James
• The Mating Game - Debbie Reynolds
• Pathway To Paradise - Johnnie Rebb <<<< AUSTRALIAN
• The Walls Have Ears - Patti Page
• The Mocking Bird - the Four Lads
• I Don't See Me In Your Eyes - Carl Perkins (Also Jim Reeves).
• She's The Ginchiest - Lee Gordon <<<< AUSTRALIAN (Lee was an American who came to Australia in 1953 and became a successful promoter. He died in England in 1963).

UP-AND-COMING DISCS

• Only You - Frank Pourcel
• Sorry - the Impalas
• Tragedy - Thomas Wayne
• Come To Me - Marv Johnson
• Mason-Dixon Line - the Ames Brothers (copy not available)
• Ciao Ciao Bambina - Johnny's Boys version (Teddy Reno copy not available)
• Up Jumped A Rabbit - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
• Darlin' Cora - Harry Belafonte
• Gone Gone Gone - the Crewcuts (copy not available)
• Lonesome Old House - Don Gibson

Time will allow for the regular half-hour Comedy Spot following the 10 AM news & weather and will feature another in the Hancock's Half-hour series.

Please join me if you can as we wallow in the deep end of the nostalgia pool - as usual!

A SPECIAL program - Friday 22nd. February

I have been able to source play-list information from a half-dozen of the weekly Top Fifty lists in 1959 for Sydney radio station 2UW.
These single sheets, usually about the size of what we would think of as an A4 sheet of paper, were available from record stores and were also displayed in the lobbies of the various radio stations that targeted the teenagers of the day.
They were, quite literally, the "charts" referred to by the disc-jockies of the period.
With no video promotion, it was the presenters who held sway over what was played and, as a result, what became successful or otherwise.

So in today's program I will feature as many of the tracks that I can fit in to the three-hour time period from the list that was issued for the week of June 14th. 1959 and to do so I will be omitting the regular half-hour comedy spot that follows the 3:00 PM news & weather update.

I take this opportunity to acknowledge the contributions made by two You Tube channels, TheLimePopsicle and MaltShopPopsicle, without which several of the hit songs would not have been available. Many thanks, Tom.

Below is the list of songs as taken from that chart, with current position, previous week's position and number of weeks in the charts - shown by the two numerals following the track information.

FABULOUS FIFTY TOP TUNES

1. Bye Bye Baby - Col Joye  1/5                       <<<<  AUSTRALIAN
2. Pink Shoelaces - Dodie Stevens  2/5
3. A Fool Such As I - Elvis Presley  3/7
4. Alvin's Harmonica - the Chipmunks (David Seville)  6/5
5. The Happy Organ - Dave 'Baby' Cortez  9/4
6. Personality - Lloyd Price  19/2
7. Wang Dang Taffy Apple Tango - Pat Boone 22/4
8. Take A Message To Mary - the Everly Brothers  20/2
9. Detour - Duane Eddy  15/6
10. Tell Him No - Travis & Bob 18/3
11. It's Just A Matter Of Time - Brook Benton   11/3
12. It's Late - Ricky Nelson  14/4
13. Big Blonde Baby - Ronnie Self  27/5
14. Everybody Loves To Cha Cha - Sam Cooke  16/4
15. Tijuana Jail - Kingston Trio  23/3
16. Tall Paul - Annette Funicello  8/12
17. Come Softly To Me - the Fleetwoods  10/10
18. For A Penny - Pat Boone  26/2
19. Poor Jenny - the Everly Brothers  21/2
20. I Got A Wife - the Mark IV  12/6
21. Luther Played The Boogie - Johnny Cash  7/6
22. Venus - Frankie Avalon  4/12
23. Theme from the movie "Separate Tables" - Frank Sinatra?  17/2
24. Quiet Village - Martin Denny  --/1
25. Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me - Shirley Bassey  36/2
26. Walking Through My Dreams - the Big Bopper  --/1
27. Two Brothers - the Lettermen  --/1
28. Oh Donna - Richie Valens
29. I'm Never Gonna Tell - Jimmy Rodgers  17/6
30. Yep! - Duane Eddy  30/2
31. Jo-jo The Dog-Faced Boy - Annette Funicello  --/1
32. La Plume De Ma Tante - Hugo & Luigi  --/1
33. Guitar Boogie Shuffle - the Virtues  35/2
34. Sixteen Candles - the Crests  11/11
35. Black Nightgown (from the movie "I Want To Live") - Gerry Mulligan  --/1
36. There Must Be A Way - Joni James  42/5
37. As Time Goes By - Johnny Nash  39/3
38. Apple Blossom Time - Tab Hunter  --/1
39. No Fool Like A Young Fool - Terry Dene  --/1
40. Blah Blah Blah - Nicola Paone  35/9
41. Maybe Someday - the Young Lions  --/1
42. You Made Me Love You - Keely Smith  --/1
43. Dream Lover - Bobby Darin  --/1
44. I Need Your Love Tonight - Elvis Presley  --/1
45. Charlie Brown - the Coasters  29/7
46. She Say - the Diamonds  24/5
47. I Think I'm Gonna Kill Myself - Buddy Knox  --/1
48. Turn Me Loose - Fabian  --/1
49. There'll Never Be Anyone Else But You - Ricky Nelson  --/1
50. My Happiness - Connie Francis  45/7

With the benefit of nearly sixty years of hindsight, we can pick out a few interesting facts from the above list, not the least of which is that of the fifty records listed, only one is by an Australian artist (Col Joye.)
Another statistic is that there were no records from artists in Great Britain; the British Invasion was almost five years away. Ninety-five percent of our popular music came from the USA.

In addition to the Top Fifty, the 2UW chart also included the following two categories:-

BEST NEW RELEASES THIS WEEK

• Five Pennies Saints- Danny Kaye & Louis Armstrong
• A Teenager In Love - Dion & the Belmonts
• The Kissing Tree - Billy Grammer
• I Still Get A Thrill (Thinking Of You) - Joni James
• The Mating Game - Debbie Reynolds
• Pathway To Paradise - Johnnie Rebb      <<<< AUSTRALIAN
• The Walls Have Ears - Patti Page
• The Mocking Bird - the Four Lads
• I Don't See Me In Your Eyes - Carl Perkins (Also Jim Reeves).
• She's The Ginchiest - Lee Gordon      <<<< AUSTRALIAN (Lee was an American who came to Australia in 1953 and became a successful promoter. He died in England in 1963).

UP-AND-COMING DISCS

• Only You - Frank Pourcel
• Sorry - the Impalas
• Tragedy - Thomas Wayne
• Come To Me - Marv Johnson
• Mason-Dixon Line - the Ames Brothers (copy not available)
• Ciao Ciao Bambina - Johnny's Boys version (Teddy Reno copy not available)
• Up Jumped A Rabbit - Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers
• Darlin' Cora - Harry Belafonte
• Gone Gone Gone - the Crewcuts (copy not available)
• Lonesome Old House - Don Gibson

Please join me for a HUGE nostalgia trip back to the 14th. of June, 1959, as we immerse ourselves in the pops and hits of 54 years ago.

Back to 1960 on Friday 9th. November

Today I'll be featuring the music of 1960 that was coming out of our transistor radios - or maybe you were also lucky enough to have parents who bought you a portable record player!



Whatever method you used to listen to your favourite music back then, you can now enjoy it not only over the radio but also by tuning into our internet streaming service (currently finalising testing).

Monday 5th. November - 1958, 1961 & 1963.

 
The core of tomorrow morning's Baby Boomer Radio show will be the pop-music we were listening to in the years 1958, 1961 and 1963.

From 1958 comes a selection of the Top 20 international hits for the month of January; for 1961 we will hear hits that were aired throughout the whole year and for 1963 it's a look at some of the music which made the Top 20 for that year.

Interspersed throughout the 3-hour show will be songs from such singers as Jo Stafford (1950s), Marianne Faithfull, Sarah Vaughan and Dionne Warwick (1960s) and Matt Monro (1970s).

To round out the presentation I will be including another episode of "Hancock's Half-Hour", first broadcast fifty-six years ago when it went to air on the BBC on the 16th. December 1956.
The espisode is entitled "The Espresso Bar" and, along with Tony Hancock, features Bill Kerr, Sid James, Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams.
I will be airing this comedy segment immediately following the 10:00 AM news and weather.

So please join me at 9:00 AM either by tuning into 89.5 Valley FM on your radio or via the Internet Stream Test .

If you love 1960s music.......

Here is a You Tube channel that is a "must" for those baby-boomers with a fondness for the pop-music of the Sixties.
It doesn't concentrate on the Top Forty, or even the Top Fifty and it doesn't focus on the "A-side" of the 45 rpm records that we were buying and listening to back then: The core of MaltShopPopsicle is the "B-side" of those hits and also any record that slipped under the Top 100 on the American charts.

At last we can hear those songs which we ignored back then as we popped the record onto the turntable - that side was always underneath the one for which we forked out our pocket money or meagre earnings.
The radio stations tended to ignore them as well, giving very little airplay to those tracks.
After all - it was essentially the DJs who held sway over what was played and that influence directly impacted on what was sold.

My thanks go to Tom, who operates the MaltShopPopsicle site, for providing us with this great selection of music that was, by and large, overlooked during our youth.
It's really nice to be able to catch up with them at last.