(vanity) TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS II - '50s

author | 1/9/22 | the OlLine Rebel

[the OlLine Rebel]

FREEPERS, LET'S START THIS CONTEST FOR THE GREATEST SONG OF THE '50S!

ROUND 1A – ‘50s

The baseline for the survey is the top 10 hits of each year of the '50s, as compiled by BILLBOARD. This is NOT based on personal preferences, biases, prejudices, or counter-culture fringe-element reactionism. Nor based on weekly charts.

Round 1 involves ranking candidate songs in order of preference for each year. Part A (as well as B next week) will be 5 years’ worth of rankings, so hunker down because that’s 50 songs to handle!

(The remaining rounds are handled as play-offs, starting with 32 pairs of songs to compare. More on that later.)

For the first time ever, WE WILL USE A SURVEY WEBSITE for the polling! NO MORE TYPING YOUR CHOICES IN THE THREAD!

Following posts list the pieces for instant review. Again, however, links to SurveyHero will be used for the surveys, and links to YouTube for the hits.

ROUND 1A DUE DATE: SUNDAY JANUARY 16 @12:00PM EST

[Pelham]

bookmark

[Pelham]

ping

[Fiji Hill]

Those who sit through all of 1950 deserve some kind of little combat medal for trauma to their ears. Theres some real stinkers there.

Indeed. Only one of those made my personal Top 10 list for the year, which I will post shortly. However my #1 and #2 song for the entire decade of the fifties are from 1950:

1. Bewitched--Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra

2. No Other Love--Jo Stafford

[the OlLine Rebel]

Disagree. Maybe you’re prejudiced because they’re not in Hi-Fi.

As I stated, too, you don’t have to do every year. But if you pick a year to do, you must rank all of them with no ties.

I still like a lot of music. Esp. The fact there are real singers then.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Note: You can start a survey and come back to it later.

To that point, I have an “incomplete” on my 1950 as of now, from about 4:30. If you are the one who has made one pick on that survey and doesn’t want to finish it, PM me! I can delete those which are incorrect/unwanted.

But if you just want to continue later, no problem as in my note. Just want to ensure this is the intention.

[upchuck]

Here’s my favs and thanks for doing this survey:

1950: “Mona Lisa” Nat King Cole
1951: “How High the Moon” Les Paul & Mary Ford
1952: “You Belong to Me” Jo Stafford
1953: “The Song from Moulin Rouge” Percy Faith
1954: “Three Coins in the Fountain” The Four Aces

What happened to 1955 - 1959?

[the OlLine Rebel]

Hi upchuck - you’re welcome.

Please see the #1 “reply” (actually part of starting thread). In there I list the 5 years with their surveys as hyperlinks. You are to go to the survey site (thru link) and rank the songs in that year.

One needn’t do every year, but if you want to work on a year survey, you DO need to rank all 10 songs in there.

[Fiji Hill]

What happened to 1955 - 1959?

Stay tuned. They're coming up.

[Fiji Hill]

My own Top 10 for 1950

1. Bewitched--Gordon Jenkins & His Orchestra

2. No Other Love--Jo Stafford

3. Boogie Woogie Blues--Charline Arthur

4. Mr. Stalin, You’re Eating Too High on the Hog—Arthur Smith & the Crackerjacks

5. The Red We Want (Is the Red We’ve Got in the Old Red, White & Blue)—Elton Britt

6. Auf Wiedersehen—Rudi Schuricke

7. The Fiery Bear--Tex Ritter

8. Old Glory—Stuart Hamblen

9. When That Hell Bomb Falls--FredKirby

10. Waxahachie Boogie--Jim Boyd & His Men of the West

[octex]

Ping Ping

[the OlLine Rebel]

I’m afraid you’ve run into the same nonsense I did with FR.

SZEEMS ONLY YOUR FIRST 2 links work.

I spent 2 hours today trying to start this tournament. Mostly because (despite my testing last week) I mysteriously couldn’t not simply cope and paste from my draft Word Doc - without FR claiming my links go nowhere.

Couldn’t figure it out. I had to brute force it and just re-type eveerything!

[the OlLine Rebel]

Oh and as Fiji said, next week is the latter ‘50s.

[the OlLine Rebel]

OK I made 1950 picks.

Have to say I love “Music Music Music”, but downgrade it just a bit to “Mona Lisa” because it’s an obvious knock-off of “Goodbye, My Lady Love” yet never seems to be acknowledged, anywhere!

[Roccus]

Thank you OLR

Gotta say that my picks were ALL based on sentimental value and absolutely NOT on artistry. Perhaps as the survey whittles down some and as we get into the latter part of the decade that’ll change.

[SamAdams76]

I just listened to the 1950 songs and ranked them. This is WAY before my time but I was familiar with some of the melodies, such as "Goodnight Irene" and "Chattanooga Shoe-Shine Boy".

I'll move on to 1951 tomorrow. What a totally different era for pop music. I felt like I should have poured a tumbler of scotch, lit up a pipe and been better dressed while listening like this guy here.

I'm thinking by the time we reach the rock and roll era (1956), I'll recognize a lot more tunes.

[Fiji Hill]

I also tried to copy and paste the links from a Word doc. Guess that doesn’t work on FR. Anyway, those tunes are all on Youtube.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Indeed.

Much more adult.

Much as I like R&R, and its derivatives (let’s be honest, what’s still called “rock” isn’t at all like the inventors of the ‘50s), I feel it brought down the culture a peg.

Now it’s all about teenagers, and people wanting to be childish. Seems in the old days, adults ruled the charts, and teenagers wanted to be adult.

[the OlLine Rebel]

You’re welcome, but this is not an “artistry” or “guess the BB placing” poll - it’s for people to pick as they wish!

So you have nothing to worry about. Just go with your gut - and your heart. I sure do.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yes, and I fear I’ll be playing the same games next week!

[Fiji Hill]

It amazes me that the Gordon Jenkins/Weavers’ version of “Goodnight, Irene” was such a big hit—the biggest hit of 1950. It was somewhat toned down from Huddie Ledbetter’s earlier version in which he sang “I’ll get you in my dreams.” The tune goes back to the nineteenth century.