.jpg) |
| Front cover and one of the three discs |
My
lovely hubby recently bought me a 3-CD set called ‘Number 1 hits from the
‘50s.’ It’s great value at only £3 especially as they’re all the original
artistes. And, oh, what memories those songs have brought back! There’s a wide
range of songs covering everything from the ballads and instrumentals of the
early 1950s, through to rock and roll and ending the era with Cliff Richard.
Here are some of my memories stirred by the songs.
In
1954/55, Johnnie Ray and Frankie Laine were big stars. I was about fifteen or
sixteen then and some older friends took me to see Johnnie Ray on stage, though
I can’t remember the venue. He was famous for hugging the microphone and
actually crying during his rendition of ‘Crying in the Rain.’ These same
friends also took me to see Frankie Laine at Belle Vue in Manchester. He had
such a powerful voice singing songs such as ‘Woman in Love’ that it filled the
arena. Although she’s not mentioned on the CD, about the same time, I went to
see Ella Fitzgerald at the Manchester Free Trade Hall. I will never forget her
rendition of ‘Every Time We Say Goodbye,’ which she sang unaccompanied.
Just
listening to The Platters singing ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ and The
Dreamweavers singing ‘It’s Almost Tomorrow’ now brings back vivid memories of
smooching with a boy I fancied at a somewhat seedy dance club in Horwich called the Fling. Here’s an excerpt from ‘A Suitable Young Man’ in which my heroine,
Kathy, gives her impressions of the Fling.
Intimate would have been a kind
description of the Fling. The dim lighting softened the dinginess and
shabbiness and chairs were scattered around its perimeter, interspersed here
and there with a dilapidated sofa. She’d been able to make out several couples
necking there. The music, though, was something else. The pulsating repetitive
sound of ‘Rock Around the Clock’ and others by Bill Haley and the Comets, some
she’d never heard before, sent her senses racing and her feet itching to bop.
When the music had slowed right down and the record, ‘Earth Angel’ sung by the
Crew Cuts, came on, the lights dimmed to almost blackness. Bodies welded
together, arms twined round each other, cheek bonding to cheek, becoming mere
silhouettes, only the occasional iridescence of moth-like pale colours
illuminating the scene. The atmosphere was faintly decadent, almost dangerous,
and she was stirred in a way she couldn’t put a name too.
And
Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around The Clock’ never fails to get my feet tapping.
Memories of bopping to that and others such as ‘Razzle Dazzle’ ‘Shake Rattle
and Roll’ are vivid even if I no longer have the energy or the breath to bop!
Which
brings me neatly to the advent of rock and roll. Unless you lived through those
times, you have no idea of the impact that rock and roll had on the youth of
the 1950s. After all the ballads and big band sounds of the 1940s and early
1940s that our parents loved, it’s no wonder that we appropriated the rock and
roll sound for our own and that there were riots at cinemas showing the movie
‘Rock Around The Clock.’
Nor
should anyone underestimate the effect that the introduction of Elvis Presley
caused. With his smouldering good looks, quirky smile, gyrating hips
and provocative movements, especially in such numbers as ‘All Shook Up.’ Not
listed on the CD but equally memorable was his first big hit ‘Heartbreak
Hotel.’ Here’s another excerpt from ‘A Suitable Young Man’ that sums up the
moment.
Suddenly Nick hit a clear signal and a
moody voice rang out in the cosy room, a voice that seemed to jerk from phrase
to phrase. The dark bluesy voice sang of finding a new place to dwell in
Heartbreak Hotel with a sob on the last two words.
Joyce sat up higher, intrigued. She’d
never heard anything like this before, not even when Johnny Ray had toured
Britain the previous year. ‘What’s that, Nick?’ she asked as her brother’s hand
poised over the dials, not daring to touch them now in case he moved it off
station.
‘I don’t know,’ he admitted. ‘It could be
Radio Luxembourg or that American Air Base you get some times.’
‘Sounds like cats on the lavvy roof to
me,’ harrumphed Mary.
‘Mam!’ exclaimed Joyce, still trying to
listen to the fascinating sound coming, for once, clearly from their old
wireless.
Nick, too, was silent, listening as the
sobbing voice dipped and crescendoed. When the song finished, brother and
sister sat in stunned silence apart from Joyce’s whispered, ‘Wow!’ Then the
announcer, an American, came on to say ‘And that, folks, was the rockabilly
singer Elvis Presley’s new record, ‘Heartbreak Hotel’, now storming up the Hit
Parade.’
‘Who did he say it was?’ asked Joyce,
still bemused.
‘Some bloke, American by the sound of it,
Elvis Presley.’
‘He’d have to be American with a name like
that,’ Mary commented.
A
similar effect came with Tommy Steele’s ‘Singing the Blues.’ Guy Mitchell had
released a version of the same song but it was version by the tow-haired young Tommy Steele
with his marked South London accent that became a hit in the UK.
The
1950s ended with Cliff Richard singing ‘Living Doll.’ With his own swarthy good
looks, he was seen as the UK’s answer to Elvis Presley.
Many
more tracks evoked a whole host of memories, such as Eddie Calvert’s rendition of ‘Oh Mein
Papa’ which was one of the first records my Dad ever bought for our new
radiogram but I stuck with the memories special to me.
.jpg)