The Billboard Pop Hits of 1955 Quiz

Answer: (We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock

"(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and His Comets is considered to be the first Rock & Roll record to top the Billboard Top 100 but that was not the first recording of the song. The song was written in 1953 by Max Freedman and James Myers, (the actual contribution that each made to the piece is disputed), specifically for Haley following his Number 12 charting success that year with "Crazy, Man, Crazy". However, Haley's recording date had to be postponed and another band, Sonny Dae and His Knights, beat him to the punch by about a month. Haley and his band recorded it in April 1954 and it charted for one week at Number 29 the week of May 29, 1954. It might have slipped into oblivion except it was used as the theme for the movie "Blackboard Jungle" which was released on March 25, 1955 and interest in the song exploded, culminating in its eight week run at the top of the Billboard chart with similar charting results around the world. It would take a while, but eventually the MOR ballads and instrumentals popular in the early 1950s would be replaced by this new genre.

In terms of its place in the chronology of Rock and Roll music, it was by no means the first song of that genre as witnessed by his earlier success with "Crazy, Man, Crazy". Many music historians credit the R&B hit "Rocket '88'" by Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats as the legitimate precursor to rock music while others insist that the doo-wop classic "Sh-Boom" by either the Chords or the Crew-Cuts deserves the honor. Whatever, the R&R cat was out of the bag!

Answer: Let Me Go Lover

The original title of this song was "Let Me Go, Demon". It was written by Jennie Lou Carson, a fan of Hank Williams, and the demon in this instance was alcohol, the "demon" that resulted in Williams tragically dying far too young because of his addiction to the substance. The song was re-written for its use in a TV program "Studio One" and "demon" was replaced by "lover" to fit the plot of the show. Viewer response to the song was so overwhelming that Mitch Miller, the A&R director for Columbia records, ordered thousands of copies to be pressed and released immediately to capitalize on its popularity. It topped the charts for the entire month of January.

Joan Weber was 18 years old at the time, married to a bandleader and very, very pregnant when the record broke out on the charts. Consequently, she was physically unable to support the record through personal appearances and when she was able to resume her career, her husband took over as her manager. After three recording sessions with Columbia yielded nothing, she was released from the label and she became a lounge act for a few years before vanishing entirely. Miller later offered the opinion that Weber's husband mis-managed her career, not having the experience nor connections to advance her cause. She passed away in a New Jersey mental institution in 1981 of heart failure at the age of 45.

Answer: Love and Marriage

"Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage". Fun song!

The words and music were composed by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen who contributed many, many songs to the Sinatra catalogue in the 1950s. It was introduced to the public as part of a TV production of Thornton Wilder's "Our Town" on the program "Producer's Showcase" and won the Emmy for "Best Musical Contribution" from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. It was revived as the theme song for the Fox sit-com "Married... with Children" during its eleven year run commencing in 1987.

Answer: 16 Tons

"16 Tons" was written by country singer Merle Travis in 1946 and his recording of the song at the time became a big hit on the Country charts. The song graphically described the tribulations of being a coal miner, particularly those who were indentured to the company they worked for. Their "pay" consisted of free accommodation in barracks or houses owned by the company and "scrip" which could be used to purchase food and household items at stores also owned by the company. Effectively, they were little more than slaves and would remain so until the formation of the United Mine Workers and affiliated unions who were able to curtail those practices through strikes and bargaining.

"Tennessee" Ernie Ford never knew those deprivations. His resonant baritone voice was ideal for radio announcing and that was his entrée into the music business. Most of his recordings were country oriented but done in such a way that it could easily cross-over to the pop market. He also specialized in country-boogie music which had rock and roll overtones. Later in his career he recorded a multitude of Gospel oriented LPs which served him well as his popularity in the pop and country markets waned but he also maintained an active schedule appearing on TV shows where his "grassroots, aw-shucks" personality resonated with the public. He passed away in 1991 of liver failure.

Answer: Sincerely

No songs entitled "I Love You Dearly" nor "How I Love You" ever charted on Billboard's pop charts. "Say You'll Be Mine" was a Number 20 hit for Christopher Cross in 1981 at the height of his brief period of success.

The Moonglows' version was sung in the doo-wop style with Bobby Lester singing lead, the other four members providing backing vocal support. Over the eleven years they were together (1949-59), this was their biggest hit by far. Altogether, they would only have three hits on the main Billboard charts, all peaking in the 20s. They naturally did better on the R&B charts with this Number One and another five top ten hits before they split up.

The McGuire Sisters first charted in 1954 and by the time they disbanded in 1964 when one of the girls decided to go solo, 31 of their releases made Billboard chart appearances. Of course, with ten weeks at Number One, this was their best effort followed by another chart topper in 1958 for four weeks, "Sugartime". Thereafter, most of their releases didn't fare that well on the charts but they remained a popular cabaret act in Las Vegas and on tour. But by the early 1960s, their brand of harmonizing pop ballads had become passé and retiring to domestic life with their spouses was a good option.

Answer: The Singing Dogs

A Danish recording engineer, Carl Weismann, was working on a project which entailed making audio tapes of various endemic bird species. Unfortunately, some local dogs often barked during these taping sessions drowning out the bird calls. Then he was hit with a brain wave! Consulting with an English record producer named Don Charles who was working in Copenhagen at the time, he spliced all the various dog barks onto a reel-to-reel tape player according to the pitch of the bark then arranged them in sequence to re-create "Oh Susanna" with Charles also providing musical accompaniment. How could it miss? Despite its modest Billboard chart placement, it was sufficiently popular worldwide to sell a million copies. Dolly, Pearl, Pussy, Caesar, and King were recording stars! Another disc was recorded but as could be expected, the novelty had worn off and that release went nowhere.

The story doesn't quite end there, though. On the flip side of "Oh Susanna" was a medley of songs including "Jingle Bells". It was pulled out of mothballs in 1971, redone as a single and became another charting success as a seasonal hit. A little ingenuity can go a long way!

Answer: Tweedlee Dee

"Tweedlee Dee" was written specifically for LaVern Baker by Winfield Scott who also co-wrote "Return to Sender" for Elvis. Baker had been singing professionally since the mid-1940s and finally achieved charting success at the age of 25. It would be her second biggest hit, the Number Six "I Cried a Tear" in 1959 ranking as her most successful. In 1969, after a USO tour in Vietnam, she accepted a position as the manager of a servicemen's club at a military base in the Philippines where she remained for twenty years. She died in 1997 due to complications from diabetes and heart disease.

Georgia Gibbs, nee Frieda Lipschitz, started singing professionally in 1936 as Fredda Gibson, changed her name to Georgia Gibbs in 1943 and didn't have a charting hit until 1950 at the age of 31. Her biggest hit, by far, was "Kiss of Fire" which topped the charts of the day for seven weeks in 1952. Her follow-up release to "Tweedle Dee" (note the slight difference in song title) was "Dance with Me Henry" which was Number One for three weeks in 1955. It was also a cover song with a different title from the original R&B hit recorded by Etta James, "The Wallflower". Her last charting success was in 1958 but she soldiered on until 1966 before retiring. She died in 2006 of leukemia.

The practice of white artists covering and "sanitizing" songs recorded by black artists had been commonplace during the mid-1950s and invariably, the white artist had the far bigger hit due to superior recording values and usually recording the song on a better label with wider distribution capabilities. It wasn't personal... the white singer did what they were told by the label. The cover of "Tweedlee Dee" was a little different. Gibbs' label went to great effort to recruit the same musicians, recording engineer and music arranger for their cover and in Baker's mind, they were infringing on her copywriting rights although they weren't, according to law. She felt so strongly about it that she attempted to have her congressman introduce legislation to curtail the practice... unsuccessfully. An anecdote was floating around at the time that before a flight, she bought insurance and named Gibbs the beneficiary since "if she was killed, Gibbs would be out of business"! Eventually, over a couple of years, the whole practice of "sanitizing" black hits by white artists faded away and black artists were reaping their just rewards.

Answer: Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

If you didn't know the answer and were reduced to a guess, probably a good way to increase your odds would be to study the rhyming scheme. Since four of the six lines in the lyrical clue ended in (-ing), your best guess would likely be the title ending the same way... "Thing". The song was composed by Sammy Fain and Paul Webster.

Singing quartets were popular in the early to mid-1950s and the two most successful groups were the Four Aces, led by Al Alberts, from Chester, PA. and the Four Lads from Toronto, Ont. Although both groups came close to Number One on a few releases, only this one was successful. The original Four Aces splintered in the late 1950s but one member of the group recruited three other singers and carried on. Ultimately, the original group reformed and they became The Four Aces featuring Al Alberts and were active until retiring for good in 1987. The second group, which retained the Four Aces name, remains active as of 2019 in the usual nostalgia venues like casinos and cruise ships, performing all the songs made popular by the original group.

Answer: Earth Angel

The Crew-Cuts may have won this particular Billboard chart battle but if you were playing word association games with music aficionados and "Earth Angel" came up, The Penguins would likely be the response the vast majority of the time. It's been estimated that The Penguins' recording has sold over ten million copies over the course of time. Although the Crew-Cuts had a nice ten year career together, it's dubious that they sold ten million copies of all their single releases combined and that includes their rendition of this song and their cover of The Chords' hit "Sh-Boom" which was Number One for nine weeks in 1954.

Writing credit for "Earth Angel", following lengthy litigation to determine that very detail, was accorded to Curtis Williams, a member of The Penguins, Geynel Hodge and Jesse Belvin. Williams and Hodge had been members of another band in 1953, The Hollywood Flames, and they wrote the song together at that time along with Belvin, their friend and mentor. The Penguins started to splinter as a group shortly after this song and they never would have another charting release on Billboard's Hot 100. After the original group broke up in 1962, Cleveland Duncan, another original member, formed another group called the Fabulous Penguins that toured the nostalgia circuit until his passing in 2012.

Answer: Make Yourself Comfortable

As a Number Six hit, "Make Yourself Comfortable" would tie "Whatever Lola Wants", also from 1955, as the highest charting hits in "Sassy's" 45-year long career. Her biggest hit, however, would be her last Top 40 entry in 1959, the Number Seven "Broken Hearted Melody" which was her only million-copy selling Gold Record.

Sarah Vaughan, "The Divine One", won an amateur talent contest at the Apollo Theatre as an 18-year-old in 1942 which led to performing with the Earl Hines band professionally. Another stint with Billy Eckstine's Orchestra was her final band affiliation before going solo in 1947. It was her misfortune to have matured as a jazz singer just as jazz was starting to decline as an influential art form giving way to the more "pop" stylings of such artists as Dinah Shore, Doris Day and Jo Stafford. Had she been performing just a decade earlier, it would have made for a grand trio with Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald. Still, of the three, she likely had the most exquisite voice if not the acclaim and fame. She was performing almost right up to her death from lung cancer in 1990.