(Vanity) TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS II ('50S) - ROUND 6

author | 2/20/22 | the OlLine Rebel

[the OlLine Rebel]

(VANITY) TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS II ('50S) - ROUND 6

ROUND 6 OF THE '50S TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS II COMMENCES!

ROUND 6 – THE FINAL 4

Votes due: Sunday, Feb 20 @ 12:00 pm Eastern.

4 songs, 2 pairs, 2 winners! Vote for your favorite in each pair listed.

Any ties will be broken via Billboard annual ranking, then back to Round 1 ranking (seed), then Round 1 point total, then Round 1 vote count.

See run-down of the pairs in my next reply post.

Format in survey: Poll seed – year - song title – act

The survey is at 1950s survey Final 4

My YouTube playlist is 1950s playlist Final 4

[the OlLine Rebel]

Round 6:

There are 2 pairs from the '50s to compare. 2 songs will emerge as the winners of this round.

The vote is simply: which of each pair is better?

Please vote on as MANY pairs as possible! However, it is not required in order to “complete” the survey. You can do as many pairs as you like.

Past Rounds:

Rounds 1A and 1B: 50s Round 1A Top 10s, 50s Round 1B Top 10s

Round 2: 50s Round 2 play-offs

Round 3: 50s Round 3 play-offs

Round 4: 50s Round 4 play-offs

Round 5: 50s Round 5 play-offs

[the OlLine Rebel]

TOURNAMENT OF CHART-TOPPERS 1950S II PING LIST

Please PM if you would like on or off this ping list!

(This is a temporary ping list, so don’t worry it won’t last forever!)

Listed are the 4 pairs for Round 6. Please see start of thread for Round 5 rules!

Again, the survey is here: 1950s survey Final 4

My YouTube Playlist covers ALL these songs, but is in order of year, not paired up as the preview below: 1950s playlist Final 4

ROUND 6 PAIRS/BRACKETS (TOCT seed/year/BB rank/title/act)

1 1950 2 "Mona Lisa" Nat King Cole
4 1957 3 "Little Darlin'" The Diamonds

2 1958 2 "All I Have to Do Is Dream" / "Claudette" The Everly Brothers
3 1955 2 "Rock Around the Clock" Bill Haley & His Comets

[Jim W N]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC73jtokqP8

Walter Wart the Freaky Frog, Always One Step Ahead of the Crowd.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I forgot to update the DUE DATE!

DUE Feb 27 @ 12:00 p.m. Eastern.

Sorry!

[Family Guy]

Relatively easy choices. All the songs are exceptional, but one stood above the other in each pair.

Depending how it turns out, next week could be difficult.

[CaptainPhilFan]

Dang. None of my favorites made it to finals. I’m wondering what demographic this contest represents. FWIW, I’m a 50-something lady and my top pick was Mack the Knife.

[Pendergast]

Me too! None of the other songs are close. The recording was perfectly done.

[Fiji Hill]

I’m wondering what demographic this contest represents.

A good question, as the final four consist of two rockers and two pop standards.

[stylin19a]

now, for me it’s about... Marines...that means...Everly Brothers

[the OlLine Rebel]

I’m 52 and don’t care for the subject matter of “Mack the Knife”.

Plus, it is too ‘40s, Frank Sinatra. Esp. From 1959….could’ve at least been 1952. Not a real good representation. It’s a great tune but too cutesy and celebratory about a nasty subject.

But, it’s all based on whatever we choose as criteria….sometimes it’s just what I like and others it’s what is more emblematic.

Last time this song made it to the top….beaten by Bill Haley. Phew.

[CaptainPhilFan]

This forum is jumping off place for all kinds of education 8-)

I’m waiting for the potatoes to boil and came to look up the origins of Mack, knowing that it was from some old opera or something.

The Beggar’s Opera - 1727, and then the 3 Penny Opera - 1928, had a song with the same tune but sung in German and very dark. I didn’t realize HOW old.

.... “The song is based upon the story of a fictional eighteenth-century highwayman named Captain Macheath, who first appeared in John Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera (1727) and whose story was subsequently reimagined in Bertold Brecht’s The Three-Penny Opera (1928)” ....
(Stephen Basdeo, a writer and historian based in Leeds).

Wonderful history here: and is well worth a click.
https://reynolds-news.com/2017/10/28/mack-the-knife-the-true-story-behind-the-song-stephen-basdeo/

In the German play, the narrator sings the song, telling things Mack is suspected of and telling everyone how Mack gets away with all of his crimes. It’s not fun or bouncy at all.

...”The song Mack the Knife does not appear in Gay’s opera, but appeared Brecht’s Three-Penny Opera. While in Gay’s earlier play, Macheath is a jovial and relatively good-natured fellow who flinches from using violence, Brecht gives us a Macheath, or a ‘Mack the Knife’ who, it is hinted, has a darker side to his character. This comes through most clearly in the song entitled Die Moritat von Mackie Messer, sung usually at the beginning of the play, which is the song we all know as Mack the Knife”:
(Stephen Basdeo, a writer and historian based in Leeds).

Oh, the shark has pretty teeth, dear
And it shows them pearly white
But the knife that Macheath carries,
No one knows where it may be.[iv]

The song then gives us a litany of some of the quite brutal crimes attributed to Macheath/Mack the Knife:

On a blue and blamy Sunday
On the Strand a man has lost his life.
A man darts around the corner,
People call him Mack the Knife.
And Schmul Meier is still missing,
One more wealthy man removed,
Somehow Mackie has his money,
Yet nothing can be proved.
Jenny Towler was discovered,
With a knife stuck in her chest,
Mackie strolls along the dockside,
Knows no more than all the rest.
Seven children and an old man,
Burned alive in old Soho
In the crowd stands Mack the Knife
Who’s not asked and doesn’t know.
And the widow not yet twenty
Only her name could she say,
Defiled one night as she lay sleeping
Mackie what price did you pay?

Old video of this song in the play:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMWc4h77e2o

I’ll give you a puts a different spin on this tune for me, yet, as it plays over there in another tab I am tapping and snapping. Ok so the subject matter is a bit disagreeable after all but dang I love the tune :)

In ANY case, it’s great to know other audiophiles or melomaniacs. Thank you for putting these song contest threads up - I am glad for you you found an easier way to handle them!

[the OlLine Rebel]

Yes, slightly easier.

Now, if FR would just get rid of all the weirdness that makes it hard to start such a thread (timeliness is important)! Heck I can’t even copy and paste links….I have to retype the code for links after copying!

Thanks for your info!

[Fiji Hill]

It's kind of odd that "Mack the Knife," written by a couple of Stalinists (Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill), are so popular on a conservative board.

I especially like the concluding lines which refer to Jenny Diver, Sukey Tawdry, Lotte Lenya and Lucy Brown. Jenny Diver and Sukey Tawdry are characters in John Gay's The Beggar's Opera (1728) from which Brecht and Weill's 1928 play The Three Penny Opera was adapted. Lucy Brown is a character in that play, and Lotte Lenya played Jenny in the 1931 movie version.

[the OlLine Rebel]

I always wondered if my ears deceived me on those weird names….except ol’Lucy Brown.

[Fiji Hill]

Lotte Lenya sings another song--and a weird one--written by Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill, who brought us "Mack the Knife."

The Alabama Song--Lotte Lenya & the Three Admirals (1930)

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks for that. I always wondered where the Doors pickedthat song up from. (I like the Doors version a bit more). Weird song.

[gnickgnack2]

Nat and the Everlys

[the OlLine Rebel]

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

Welcome to all members who signed up already!

For those who have not signed up, please consider tuning into the Tournament of Chart-Toppers for the 1950s and casting your votes!

(Please PM me if you would like to be ON or OFF the ping list!)

ROUND 6 RESULTS - the Final 4 (in order of points/vote)

format: poll seed - year - Billboard rank – Piece – Act

4 1957 3 “Little Darlin’” The Diamonds
3 1955 2 “Rock Around the Clock” Bill Haley & His Comets

Notes:
-55 voters! The record so far!
-”Little Darlin’” squeeked by over “Mona Lisa” - difference of 2 for 55 votes! Phew! Dodged that tie!
- the Everly Bros’ duel entry “All I have to do is Dream”/”Claudette” lost out handily to ”Rock Around the Clock”; not a total embarrassment, but not real close

On to Round 7 - THE FINAL!

[Roccus]

Though it’s iconic, I was never a fan of Rock Around the Clock.
Everly Brothers on the other hand often remind me of basements, perfume, warm cheeks and hair tickling my nose. lol

[John Milner]

Thanks for doing this. Loads of fun!

Are you planning to do a similar poll for the 1960’s?

If it’s too soon or too much work I certainly understand. But I’m just curious about whether you were considering that.