I'm a liberal pagan living in West, Texas. Yes. That West, Texas.

Monday, June 26, 2006

THE BACK GROUND MUSIC OF MY YOUTH-50'S


If there is one song that I love more than all the songs of the 50's when i was 7-16...I think it would be "Wear My Ring" by Gene Vincent...Gene Vincent was the bad boy singer before Elvis...duck tail, white t-shirt with rolled up sleeves and a pack of Lucky's tucked in the roll...blue jeans with cuffs,leather belt and leather boots...yes, he was bad...and what did this BAD boy sing? 'Wear my ring, around your neck and you'll be mine I know by heck.' that's bad alright...'by heck'....But it was a different time...Connie Francis was a good Italian Catholic who sang about My Happiness, the Drifters sang "There goes my baby,"and Dion And The Belmon'ts sang about 'A teenager in Love.'...man, were those sweeter and simpler days or what..I remember the first time I heard The Everly Brothers sing "Wake up Little Susie"(which was one of my family nicknames'susie'..) I was on one of my very few allowed dates and we went to the drive-in-movie and was supposed to be home by 10pm and we actually fell asleep during the movie(no, no sex...just pooped kids) and I woke up to hear The Everly Brothers singing 'wake up little susie, ya gotta go home'...
Lets see there was The Cordettes singing 'Lollypop',oh and one of my favorites was 'Little Star'(where are you ....little star?) by the
Elegants, and the song that my first asshole husband and I had chosen for 'our song' was "It's All In The Game".by Tommy Edwards...(many a tear will fall, but it's all in the game)..if I had only known then...what I know now...although I did invent the frisbee with that 45..after one of our many fights I slung that sucker sideways at him and like to have took off his head...if only..remember dancing away at the 'Teen Club' at Bergstrom AFB, Austin, Texas to Danny and the Jrs. At The Hop....Johnny Mathis singing Teacher's Pet, I just wanna be teachers pet..'..and doing the swing to Wilbert Harrison's Kansas City...I was a really good dancer...and could 'cut a rug' with the best of them..remember crying to "Tears on My Pillow, pain in my heart, cause of you" by Little Anthony And the Imperials...and Lloyd Price singing Stagger Lee...As much as I loved all the rock and roll and pop songs..the first 45 that I bought with my own money was Scarlet Ribbons by Harry Belafonte...used to make me cry...Then came Elvis and Ricky Nelson....my favorite Elvis song was and is "I want you, I need you I love you...with all my heart.."....and Ricky....Hello, Mary lou...man..I am digging it..and it is swinging...Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino, and then .......Buddy....oh he was so good...Buddy Holly and The Crickets...I will remember forever where I was when I heard that the plane carrying him, the Big Bopper and Ricky Valens went down...In Houston Texas living with my Aunt Leola and had been deathly ill...when I heard Buddy was gone, I had a relapse and nearly croaked...well, hell, i was only 14?15...Jackie Wison singing "lonely teardrops"...Had a huge crush on Fabian...Turn Me Loose...now that I look back on it..he was probably the worse singer ever, but damn..he was hot...I went thru a pretty boy stage there for awhile...DeDe Dinah by Paul Anka...oh oh...Diana...two great songs...he could really write them..also wrote the tonight show theme song..and did you know that Barry Manilow wrote the words to Bandstand?
WE'RE GOIN' HOPPIN'(HOP)

WE'RE GOIN' HOPPIN' TODAY
WHERE THINGS ARE POPPIN'(POP)
THE PHILADELPHIA WAY, WE'RE
GOIN'DROP IN(DROP)
ON ALL
THE MUSIC THEY PLAY ON BAND STAND...
ahh, the memories...didja' know that Jerry Lee Lewis 'Whole Lotta Shaking Going On, was the first song played on the Bandstand's first national telev
ised show? and the first guests were Billy Williams and The Chordettes...
I loved
Bandstand..Remember rushing home from school so I could watch it and learn the latest dances...my mother and I would wage world war 3 over the tv...she wanted to watch Guiding Light and I wanted to watch Bandstand...I would promise to do all the dishes and laundry for a month each time she let me watch it...I never did..I was so spoilt...Well, I have stumbled, tripped and skipped thru the music of my 50's..I left out many songs and artists but wanted to add a bunch of pictures...I am becoming slick with the pictures..oh, and just in case you think all the songs of the 50's were sweet and lovely...there was the Hank Ballard songs about Annie...Work With Me Annie(we snuck a 45 of it into the Teen Club and almost got barred for life over it...)work with me annie...any ole place at all, on the wall in the hall...work with me annie..
then
the scandleless Annie Had A Baby, Can't Work No More...oh yes, we were bad...
fuckme till I do the Dirty Bop...

12 comments:

Big Pissy said...

nah, leo~you're right! :)

Anonymous said...

This certainly brings memories! Those were the songs I remember very well, too.
It is somehow revealing that even before the internet we actually lived in the global village. The frozen piece of tundra, which also is my home country, actually was listening the same music than you with perhaps a 6 month time delay. GOOD GOLLY MISS MOLLY!

Aurelius said...

Another great blog

apositivepessimist said...

even tho I wasn’t born till ’65 I know some of these earlier ones...naah not talking about bloody Elvis here...EVERYBODY knew who Elvis was eh.

on this latest cd she does a cover of wake up little susie.

please do the 60’s music JS. I love the sixties.

Anonymous said...

i love the music u were talking about...those songs will stay fresh forever, when any of those songs strt playin u just feel like jiving :)

Current day music is garb... n this is coming from the mouth of an 19 yr old :D

BriteYellowGun said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
BriteYellowGun said...

Ooops...nevermind. That was Gene Pitney. I have no idea who you're talking about then. LOL

Unknown said...

You pretty well covered all my favorites except maybe Ricky Nelson's The Wonderer and Travelin man. Star Jones is gone. lol lol lol lol lol

Anonymous said...

I remember bandstand, but I watched it when it came on Saturday's. Lot's of great rock and roll bands got there start on that show. Gosh now I'm feeling old.

Nit Wit said...

Elvis who?
I remember all the music but I heard most of it in the 60's
I do remember seeing the Beatles on the Sullivan show. My teenage cousin almost had a heart attack and kept screaming.
Barry Manilow also wrote about 80% of the jingles you hear on the commercials on TV. He still puts on a good show.

Anonymous said...

*laughs* I'm with your Mom on Guiding Light...I was a 5 year old soap opera addict. We had just come back from Germany, and Mom took in ironing to make ends meet, since she didn't want to put me in daycare. She'd iron all day while the soaps were on and I used to sit there with her and watch them. Love of Life, As the World Turns, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, Guiding Light, and Secret Storm...I knew them all back then.

Scottish Toodler said...

Hey JS!!! What a great post!!! Are you doing your own pic posting now??? Just catching up, might take me til tomorrow! Happy Fourth!!