"Pulp era top hits" Topic

I should hide my head in shame but I don't know where to find a list of Top Hits in the US from 1939 to 1954. Your Hit Parade was on the radio from the mid 30s to the early 50s, but all I can find for lists are 55 on, and Rock n Roll oriented. Anyone know where to find a by year list?

The lists on this page go all the way back to 1901: tsort.info/music/ds1900.htm

Pick your decade, there are offers for fine collections like "Hits of 1930", or "20", or "30 part II". and so on:

link

I know that you're familiar with popular rock & roll records from the 1950's as you refer to them in your other posts, but there are a couple of things here Floog. There was a seperate Billboard chart for top sellers in general and top sellers aimed at Black audiences. At various times the Black chart was called the "Harlem Hit Parade", "Race Records" and "Rhythm and Blues" charts. Quite a few of the records that were made popular by Whites were "cover" versions of songs that were made popular by Black performers that might have only appeared on the Race charts. For instance "Secret Love" by The Moonglows and then Doris Day, "You Belong To Me" by The Orioles and then by Jo Stafford, "Sh-Boom" by The Chords and then The Crew Cuts and "Wheel of Fortune" by The Cardinals and then Kay Starr. IMHO the original records were almost always superior to the "cover" versions. If you haven't heard them you should check them out.

Pat Boone made a career out of "sanitizing" black R&B songs for a white audience.

For example, here's "I Almost Lost My Mind" by Ivory Joe Hunter: YouTube link

And here's Boone's cover: YouTube link

They're similar, but Boone's is a snooze.

Right. And Boone sold a bunch of records doing that. Even Elvis Presley was guilty of "covering" songs. Most notably "Hound Dog" which was originally by Big Mama Thornton. The "sanitized" version of "Shake Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and the Comets only makes me want to hear the original by Big Joe Turner singing "you make me roll my eyes, baby make me grit my teeth" even more.

Good point, Shadow. I should have specified that I was looking for the white version, in most cases. There are exceptions, Duke Ellington had a radio show, for example. But the mass market was white. Blacks are a minority after all. So Benny Goodman is going to get the attention and the record contracts no matter how good Chick Webb is. My touchstone here is mainstream popularity.

EDIT:A number of black artists did make it into mainstream hit parades. Cab Calloway, Lady Day, Louis Armstrong Count Basie and Fats Waller.
This is a representation of popular hits for general consumption on my web site.

Floog

I can dig it. (-:

I *love* R&B from the early 1950's. When I was a teenager living in New York City I harmonized with a bunch of guys and we were always looking for more vocal groups to listen to. There was a store called "Times Square Records" in Manhattan that we went to frequently hunting for good "group" records and that's when we discoverd that so many of the songs that we heard when we were kids were originally sung by Black vocal groups. That started me collecting those records.

What's the address to your web site?

Shadow

My website is oldspaceways.com/forum I am going away for 10 days, so there won't be updates, but around the 25th I will start something I hope you will enjoy in the second world war two, Germany turn one.

I grew up around rock and roll in the 50s and 60s. I didn't discover R 7B until later. I did listen to soul, though. I also listened to big band from the 30s and 40s, as my parents got a 12 record set of Big Band hits from 1936 to 1945.

For a long time I wanted to do a mix tape of Jazz from real early Dixieland up to the present. Then I found that Ken Burns has already done it.