Nostalgia is a powerful drug. Under its influence, ordinary songs take on dimensions and powers, like emotional superheroes.
-- Kate Christensen
How about a personal trip down memory lane. The setting:
WW2 is now in the rear view mirror. Indochina is nowhere to be found in the local weekly newspaper or evening news. Newspaper comics were always a big deal for light reading.
TV? We have heard of it but no one we know has ever seen one.
Radio was the best electronic media for music and radio dramas. We usually listened to The Shadow, Lum & Abner, The Great Gildersleeve, and many more. I was fond of radio serials, especially Sky King, Terry and the Pirates, and Steve Canyon.
We can get the news from the RKO newsreels at the movie theatre when we go to the Saturday matinee. Always a double feature. Cowboy movie, followed by a drama. Red Ryder, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Lash Larue, Hopalong Cassidy, and the Lone Ranger.
The dramas typically featured Charlie Chan, Sherlock Holmes, or maybe a comedy with Abbot and Costello.
Those were the days….
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I went to high school in Arkansas. First in a smallish town on the Oklahoma border, then later in the city. Played football until I got a serious injury that ended my football playing. There were good times and bad times. The Korean War had started, and I knew that as soon as I graduated I would probably be going. Fortunately, the war ended before I became eligible to join or be drafted. WW2 was one thing, because the country was in a struggle for survival. Korea? Not so much.
Music was a big deal for us at that age. We had our favorite stations, and favorite disc jockeys. I aspired to a career in radio, and became a disc jockey a few years later. The reality was not what I expected as a career, so ended up going other directions after working six years in radio.
Reflecting back over those high school years, there were some really great songs that have stuck with me all these years later. Like all music, some hit songs were not to my personal taste.
I have been going over some of the great hit songs of that era. We listened to them on the radio, often in somebody’s car while out cruising around.
Here is a #1 hit we liked to sing on the football bus:
Phil Harris had a string of novelty song hits in those days. He was always funny and creative.
One of the biggest love songs when I was in high school was Mona Lisa. It was written by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston for a rather forgettable movie: Captain Carey, U.S.A. (released in 1950). The movie may not have been a blockbuster, but the song was. Mona Lisa won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for 1950.
The top selling single of 1952 was an instrumental. Blue Tango by Leroy Anderson. One commenter wrote:
“Leroy Anderson operated on a level of genius to which few could aspire and almost none equaled. His work is practically a genre unto itself.”
I cannot disagree with that.
The great Hank Williams released Jambalaya in July 1952. Six months later, he was dead. He died on New Year’s Day 1953. He was only 29 years old. Jambalaya was a crossover hit on both country and pop charts.
Rock & Roll was not on anyone’s radar. It would not be for another several years that we would hear Bill Haley & the Comets, and a lanky kid from Memphis named Elvis Presley.
I am pretty sure all our MOT readers have a few memories and maybe songs they would like to share.
Wednesday Lagniappe:
I worked at the radio station with Melvin Endsley. He was another disc jockey and announcer. Melvin was a polio survivor and confined to a wheelchair. He played a guitar on his lap, steel style. He did not have good use of his hands, so instead of using his fingers on the frets, he had an old Case knife with a loose metal handle he used as a steel slide. It had a kind of rattle-buzz when he played. He tried out several songs on me in the studio before submitting it to the record company. I liked this one. Melvin told me he had gotten the inspiration for it while watching a movie the night before.
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