This site consists of tunes of low meg quality and not meant for home use. However, they will sound okay for sampling the sound on your computer. Selections with quality sound can be downloaded from Amazon.com and other online music venders.
The order in which tunes are listed is very close to what their sales reflected. Some recordings are popular during the December to January cycle and sold more than reflected in a particular year. Also, many tunes become hits in the year after they were released. Whether you use air play or sales you're always going to get conflicting numbers. I put the song in the year it first hit number one or had it's highest ranking. As mentioned below, "The Tennesee Walze" sold more reconds in 1951, but was number one in sales on December 30th, 1950.
Buddy Holly’s “Peggy Sue” and Bobby Helm’s “My Special Angel” are good examples of this peculiarity when trying to evaluate top hits of any particular year. "Green Door" a 1956 hit of Jim Lowe's landed #44 Billboards top 50 for 1957, but also charted at #19 for 1956. Such is the hassles of trying to peg top hits. The "Tennessee Waltz" was number one on December 30, of 1950, but did even greater during early 1951 remaining at number one until February 10, when it dropped to number 2. On charts you'll find Patti's tune listed in 1950 or 1951 or in both years. I went with 1950, because it was a number one song during that year.
As far as ranking goes, the best thing is to use your own instincts. If you like it, it's a hit.
If you gave fifty people fifty songs to rate you'd get fifty different charts.
The Fifties, a time of moon, June and nuclear blues. The Korean split and a Patti Page hit were big news early in the decade. “I Like Ike” was a common phrase and Elvis was a teenage craze. Cars with fins were as common as Yankee wins, but the Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves would have their say. (Did you say Milwaukee? What happened to Boston?) The Braves became the Milwaukee Braves in 1953, later in 1966 they moved to Atlanta. Atlanta was a good fit.
Yes the Fifties decade was a marvelous event for those fortunate enough to live it. Television came of age and produced the $64 thousand question in 1955, and later everyone had questions about the shows integrity, and with good reason. The shows sponsor, Revlon, had introduced what they called “Revlon’s Touch-and-Glow,” new liquid make-up, made with Lanolite, early in 1950. Once the show aired Revlon's commercials, Revlon sold out overnight in some markets. The show’s MC had to apologize to the public for the shortage. Hazel Bishop, a competitor of Revlon, placed their disappointing sales on the popularity of the Television quiz show.
Strikes by the labor unions, price controls passed by congress at Truman’s request, the polio scare, narcotics becoming a problem with teenagers, the Kansas flood of 1951, Hydrogen bomb scare, also had a major impact on the people of the decade. Hypnosis would be recognized as a useful treatment for certain illnesses, by the British and American medical journals. There was the Russians Sputnik, which was a center shot at America’s collective ego, and parents hyperventilating, because they thought Elvis was a product of the Devil. Davy Crockett's coonskin cap and Pat Boone's white buck shoes were symbols of the era.
In 1950, an undeclared war in Korea, with UN support, called a “Police Action,” set the stage for many Cold War, proxy nation, conflicts or wars. (You’d have a hard time convincing the guys fighting in Korea that it wasn’t a war.) Harry Truman had become president when Roosevelt died, shortly after beginning his fourth term in 1945. Harry was new to the national ticket and hadn’t even had time to be a vice-president, when he was thrust into office as President. He ran in 1948 and by a hair beat Dewey. In 1952 he urged Senator Stevenson of Illinois to run against Eisenhower, but Stevenson didn’t want to go against Ike. He was smart enough to know he wouldn’t win. However, the party elected him at the national convention, to run on the Democratic ticket for President, so he was stuck, you might say.
Go figure, sounds fairly calm compared to happenings in the following decades - and it was. That was the nice part about it.
A great book on the fifties is David Halberstam's "The Fifties" published around 1993.
See if you remember these tunes from the fifties. We don't always agree with the charts (music sales), but it is a way of viewing the top songs of the year.
These songs were ripped at a very low meg, so, while they'll sound fine on your computer they will not have the fidelity you'll receive from the actual recordings that you can buy at your favorite music store. Also, they are .wma files.
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classic pop music
and reflections on the eras pop culture
SELECT A YEAR FROM THE MENU ON THE LEFT AND VISIT THE MUSIC AND POP CULTURE OF THAT YEAR.
Internet Explorer works great with Media Player, makes listening a snap, it's best to minimize the player
ENTER MESSAGE BELOW AND CLICK SEND
