(VANITY) TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS ('50S) - ROUND 7

me | 6/8/20 | ME

[CaptainPhilFan]

Mack the Knife :)

[the OlLine Rebel]

Thanks for your input. Fun to talk about some of these songs. Actually I wish there was more chatter.

As it is, the wonderful Flamingos cover hit at 73 for the year 1959; your Pat Suzuki cover seems not to have hit at all.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Hmm, according to their page on Wikipedia, the Flamingos cover hit #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 for 1959.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flamingos

Then, of course, the very best stuff may not ever reach #1 if you go by strictly “hits.”

[the OlLine Rebel]

That is the weekly charts.

For the yearly chart, they ranked #73. (In my survey, only the top 7 for the year get in.) That’s pretty good.

[Tanniker Smith]

I feared both of my last round picks would win and I’d have to choose.

All right, fun’s over. Gotta give it to:

2 1955 “Rock Around the Clock” Bill Haley & His Comets

[CAluvdubya]

2 1959 “Mack the Knife” Bobby Darin

[CAluvdubya]

My birthday Sunday......

I thought I'd missed my chance to vote because.....wait for it.......my birthday was on Sunday as well! Happy birthday to you!

[Fiji Hill]

I've been a fan of fifties music since the fifties, and I had never before heard Pat Suzuki's version of "How High the Moon."

"I Only Have Eyes for You" was originally a production number in the movie "Dames", although the version I found on Youtube is not the conplete version.

Eddie Duchin's version is also great--I like it much better than the Flamingos' version.

My favorite songs by the Flamingos are A Kiss from Your Lips (1956) and Nobody Loves Me Like You Do (1960).

[fieldmarshaldj]

The first time I heard Pat Suzuki’s version of “How High the Moon” was in the Neil Simon film version of “Biloxi Blues” (in the opening credits). The song blew me away. I thought it was one of the most haunting and beautiful songs I’d ever heard (this at about the age of 15 or so).

There was just, however, one enormous problem with its usage in the film. Although the song sounded like it was right at home in the 1940s, it didn’t come out until the last part of the 1950’s. It was cited as the most anachronistic part of that film set during WW2, even if it was beautifully utilized. Plus, a Japanese-American singer would’ve gone over like a lead balloon then, too.

[Fiji Hill]

A Japanese-American singer might have gone over like a lead balloon in this country during WWII, but by the early fifties Japanese influences started showing up in American popular music. Moon Mullican scored with Tokyo Boogie (1952), a remake of Kasagi Shizuko's Tokyo Boogie Woogie (1947) which was also released in the US on the Columbia label. Richard Bowers, backed by the Columbia Tokyo Orchestra, also had a hit with Gomen Nasai, a tune also recorded by other acts, in 1953.

[fieldmarshaldj]

At the risk of sounding patronizing, it's good the country was generally able to forgive and move past the "unpleasantness" with Japan in WW2 within a decade or so. In my opinion, one of the best songs of the 1960s is "Ue o Muite Arukō" (unfortunately and falsely translated as "Sukiyaki"), especially as originally performed by Kyu Sakamoto (although it was actually a political protest song as written against American occupation. Oh, well...)

[Fiji Hill]

The lyrics of Ue o Muite Arukō (I look up as I walk) are about being sad and lonely and remembering happier days in spring, summer and fall (but not winter). It doesn't seem to be a protest song.

Incidentally, Sukiyaki (1963) by the Blue Diamonds, a duo from Indonesia who were based in Holland, is actually about sukiyaki. Their version in English is a love song, but they also did a German version which is about a failed love affair.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The author of the song described it as such.

“Ue o Muite Aruko” was written by lyricist Rokusuke Ei and composer Hachidai Nakamura. Ei wrote the lyrics while walking home from a Japanese student demonstration protesting against a continued US military presence in the country, expressing his frustration at the failed efforts.

The lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears will not fall. The verses of the song describe his memories and feelings. Rokusuke Ei wrote this song while coming back from a protest against the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security Between the United States and Japan and feeling dejected about the failure of the protest movement, but the lyrics were rendered purposefully generic so that they might refer to any lost love.

[Fiji Hill]

The protest in question was probably one of those massive demonstrations that took place during the spring and summer of 1960 and which forced President Eisenhower to cancel a visit to Japan. Later that year, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee issued a report on those riots as well as similar protests in South America entitled Communist Anti-American Riots: Mob Violence as an Instrument of Red Diplomacy (hmmm--sounds oddly familiar).

"Ue o Muite Arukō" was a hit in Japan in 1961 and crossed the Pacific a couple years later.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Curious how it all ties together.

[Bethaneidh]

Oops, I’ve been busy elsewhere. What a choice. “rock” is mindless, and “mack” glorifies murder. Ah well, at least “mack” has an actual story line, so...

Mack the Knife.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Happy June 7!

[howlinhound]

1955 “Rock Around the Clock” Bill Haley & His Comets

[heylady]

Rock Around the Clock

[the OlLine Rebel]

TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS 1950S PING LIST
(This is a temporary ping list….so don’t worry!)

Figure I'll bump for more votes before due date tomorrow, June 14!

All are welcome to vote!

My vote: Rock Around the Clock