SHG: Elvis Presley: "Love Me"

Elvis Presley: “Love Me”
Entered the chart on: 11/24/1956
Peaked on: 12/29/1956
Weeks at #2: 3 weeks
Song at #1: “Singing the Blues” by Guy Mitchell

The last song to peak at #2 in 1956 (but not the last #2 song to enter the chart in 1956), and it’s fitting that it’s from the man who spent the entirety of September and October in the top spot. I do hope I don’t need to tell you who Elvis Presley is, but we’ll get into some of the cultural and social ramifications of him and this song soon enough.



This isn’t one of his better-known songs. It isn’t unknown, by any means, but it isn’t one of the songs one thinks of immediately when Elvis’ name is brought up. Maybe it ought to be better-known. It was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, one of the genius songwriting teams of early rock & roll. Note that Elvis only had his first hit in March of that year, and this was his tenth entry in the Top 40, half of those were #1 hits.

This is a ballad, but even this stands apart from the male ballads heretofore enjoying popularity. Listening to Elvis’ delivery, there’s an undeniably sexual undertone to his voice. You can sense the passion in every note he sings. You really get why young girls went crazy for him, and why their parents were scared of him. Elvis was the kind of guy who would get your daughter pregnant.

The obvious comparison here would be to Carl Perkins. Both Carl and Elvis were nurtured by Sam Phillips over at Sun Records. But while Carl continued to slum it over at Sun, Elvis graduated to RCA, where he enjoyed much bigger production values. Playing this (or any of Elvis’ early singles for RCA) back-to-back with “Blue Suede Shoes” is interesting, to compare the stripped-down Sun treatment to the big-budget treatment with a big vocal chorus on “Love Me.” You don’t even need to compare it to another artist, though, just listen to one of Elvis’ early sides for Sun, then compare it to this.

I didn’t used to like Elvis. My mom liked Elvis, so I always felt it was “her” music. Now, with both Elvis and Mom passed on, listening to his music evokes bittersweet memories. I definitely appreciate his talent a lot more now than I did then. And listening to this with fresh ears, I get it!

Rating: 5

SHG: Johnnie Ray: "Just Walking in the Rain"

Johnnie Ray: “Just Walking in the Rain”
Entered the chart on: 9/8/1956
Peaked on: 10/13/1956
Weeks at #2: 1 week
Songs at #1: “Don’t Be Cruel” b/w “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley

This is an interesting top 2, artist-wise, for reasons I’ll explain later.

Poor old Johnnie Ray. A big, beloved singing star in the 50s, nowadays reduced to a passing mention in a one-hit wonder by a bunch of English boys play-acting at being Irish folkies until they got bored and moved onto their next image change. Johnnie deserves better, as he’s arguably the most fascinating male solo singer of the 1950s.

Johnnie was undeniably an oddity in 50s pop music with his rich, impassioned vocal delivery. His odd, androgynous voice confused listeners at first; many when they first heard him on the radio pictured a large, black woman, not a slender, white man. Some have claimed him to be a big influence on rock & roll, though to these ears the real inheritors of his pioneering style were the dramatic male balladeers of the 60s, singers like Roy Orbison and Gene Pitney.

It’s helpful to listen to both sides of his breakthrough single. The A-side, “Cry,” is quintessential Johnnie, and boils down his appeal nicely in three minutes. Interesting perhaps more historically than musically is the self-penned B-side, “The Little White Cloud That Cried.” This might be one of the most confessional songs of its era, its lyrics overflowing with subtext.

You see, Johnnie was gay. As in “couldn’t hide it if he tried” gay.

Columbia tried to keep him in the closet, but Johnnie’s effeminate mannerisms couldn’t be covered up. Frank Sinatra carried on a very public (and obviously more than a bit homophobic) hate campaign against Johnnie. But he had many friends as well as enemies, Frankie Laine and SHG alumnus Doris Day were Johnnie boosters, and fellow SHG alumni the Four Lads backed Johnnie on his early singles. He helped give (the also underrated and sadly forgotten) Timi Yuro* her first break. Elvis Presley counted Johnnie as an early influence, as did later stars such as David Bowie. And that’s not even counting the legions of (mostly female) fans he commanded at the time.

Got all that? Good. Because I really dislike this song.



Ugh! Where to begin? Johnnie is just the wrong singer for a song like this. The lyrics are the usual heartbreak theme that Johnnie has done a good job of milking for years. But Ray Conniff does an awful job of trying to turn this into a Pat Boone song, with drippy backing vocals, an annoying whistling hook and inappropriate ukulele accompaniment. It’s like he was trying to sabotage the song, or at least try to make him more acceptable for the squeaky-clean, increasingly conservative tastes of grown-up audiences as the 50s progressed. Johnnie tries, but he can’t save what’s essentially a pretty poor song.

I’d say “go ahead and listen to ‘Cry’ instead,” which would be good sooth, but pretty much any of Johnnie’s songs would be preferable. The follow-up hit, “You Don’t Owe Me a Thing,” is infinitely better as is its B-side, the gorgeous “Look Homeward, Angel.” This isn’t the first time a singer I like has released a song I hate (I’ve mentioned Kay Starr’s “Rock and Roll Waltz” in passing; don’t get me started, it’ll turn into a rant) and it won’t be the last (ask my opinion on Van Morrison’s “Brown Eyed Girl” some time).

Rating: 2

*their duet on a rendition of Frankie Laine’s “I Believe” must be heard to be believed; both singers are in fine form.

SHG: Bill Doggett: "Honky Tonk"

Bill Doggett: “Honky Tonk (Parts 1 & 2)”
Entered the chart on: 8/25/1956
Peaked on: 10/6/1956
Weeks at #2: 3 weeks
Songs at #1: “Don’t Be Cruel” b/w “Hound Dog” by Elvis Presley

Why I prefer 1956 to 1955: diversity. Even that big chunk of female soloists we hit a couple of editions back had variety, from Cathy Carr’s traditional romantic ballad, Doris Day’s sprightly lullaby and Patti Page’s country-flavored mood piece. And now we have a second instrumental in a row, but I don’t expect it to be anything at all like “Canadian Sunset.” The reason? Keyboardist Bill Doggett was a jazz musician, sideman for Ella Fitzgerald and the like. And in two parts? I’m actually looking forward to this one! Don’t disappoint me, Bill!



I like how Bill gives a lot of space to his sidemen. His organ’s there, softly comping in the background, but the guitar plucks out that shuffle rhythm as the saxophones carry the head melody. Then the guitarist wails and we get a sax solo. Frustratingly, it fades out in the middle of it. “Parts 1 & 2” my ass! You’re ripping me off, King Records! I now need to seek out the extended album mix, as I’m sure Bill has an organ solo lurking there.

Crummy single edits aside, this is the closest thing to real rock & roll we’ve had since Carl Perkins’ tune. It’s structured like a jazz piece, though: head/solos/head. Only it fades out in the middle of the “solos” bit and we never get that head repeat. Which composer was it that would be irked if someone played an incomplete scale on the piano, and would need to get up from whatever he was doing, stroll over to the piano and finish it? Mendelssohn? Am I getting off topic now? In any case, the single edit reminds me of that.

All that aside, I enjoyed this immensely and would gladly listen to it again.

Rating: 4

SHG: Hugo Winterhalter (feat. Eddie Heywood): "Canadian Sunset"

Hugo Winterhalter: “Canadian Sunset”
Entered the chart on: 7/28/1956
Peaked on: 9/29/1956
Weeks at #2: 2 weeks
Song at #1: “Don’t Be Cruel” by Elvis Presley

Thus far, 1956 has been a vast improvement over 1955 on all fronts. Three superb female-sung tunes, an early rock & roll classic, and even the Four Lads tune was tolerable. I’m just waiting for someone to ruin it. This is an instrumental from RCA Victor’s musical director, written by pianist Eddie Heywood as a vehicle for a solo for himself, it looks like. Well, let’s see what we have here.



So...where in Canada is this? Banff? Algonquin Park? Mont-Tremblant? Canada’s a big place!

OK, I was expecting something a lot more unbearable, à la “Melody of Love,” but the softly swinging saxophones and the slight “cinematic” (more like “travelogue,” but it was the 50s) feel make this a lot more easy to take. The piano makes me think of Ferrante & Teicher (post-prepared piano period, alas) and the screeching strings that tend to be all over recordings like this threaten to ruin it.

I’m trying to put these dreamy, easy-listening instrumentals in some kind of context. I have this picture in my head of some grizzled Spanish-American War veteran hobbling over to the Wurlitzer, dropping a nickel in, selecting C1 on the hit parade, popping a Sen-Sen into his mouth, then holding out a hand to his beloved and asking her, “Care for a dance, m’dear?”

Can you think of a more plausible explanation?

Rating: 3

SHG: Patti Page: "Allegheny Moon"

Patti Page: “Allegheny Moon”
Entered the chart on: 6/16/1956
Peaked on: 8/25/1956
Weeks at #2: 2 weeks
Songs at #1: “My Prayer” by the Platters

Except for Freda Lipschitz, Joni James and [shudder] Margie, 1955 had been pretty much a sausagefest. And here we are in 1956, with three female soloists in a row. How do these things happen?

I’ve mentioned the former Clara Ann Fowler already in passing, as the most popular female soloist before rock & roll was on everyone’s mind, alongside the #1 male soloist, Perry Como. Why these two, you might ask? Simple, they both had prominent musical variety TV shows at the time.

If you know Ms. Page at all today, it’s probably for her 1950 smash hit “Tennessee Waltz.” Either that, or the noxious novelty hit “Doggie in the Window.” Hopefully for the former and not the latter. So, let’s check this one out.



OK, thus far we’ve had three female-sung tunes in a row, and they’ve all been quite excellent. Patti was from Oklahoma, so it makes sense that her songs would have a country tinge. It’s definitely country-flavored, nobody would mistake this for Patsy Cline, for example. But her voice is rich! You could practically drown in it!

The “shine, shine, shine” hook grabs you and draws you into the loping waltz-time rhythm, but I think Vic Schoen, who orchestrated this, deserves a lot of credit. Patti gets some solid support from her male chorus, and there’s a haunting harmonica solo in the middle eight.

Like “Ivory Tower,” I liked this a lot more than I expected to! This one’s long on atmosphere, which I didn’t expect. I was all ready to dismiss Patti as a dated relic, but after listening to this, I kind of want to go back in time and kick my past self for being so dismissive.

I’m sighing with delight now. Very pretty song!

Rating: 4

SHG: Doris Day: "Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Qué será, será)"

Doris Day: “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Qué será, será)”
Entered the chart on: 7/7/1956
Peaked on: 8/11/1956
Weeks at #2: 3 weeks
Songs at #1: “I Almost Lost My Mind” by Pat Boone and “My Prayer” by the Platters

Hmmm...that Pat Boone song at #1 is making me want to listen to Ivory Joe Hunter. Come to think of it, most Pat Boone songs make me want to listen to something else.

I first knew Doris Day not as a singer, but as an actress, via her 60s romantic comedies like Pillow Talk, Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers. These films kind of get short-shrift these days but they deserve a bit of credit for presenting Doris as an independent, sexually active and successful working woman in the days before feminism. And there was a bit of witty dialogue there, not to mention good chemistry with her male leads, as long as we’re talking about Rock Hudson when we say “male leads” (Such films rather jumped the shark with the Rod Taylor co-starring The Glass Bottom Boat, and the less said about Caprice the better!).

Sure, they weren’t without their flaws (see the latter-day spoof Down With Love for a funny take-off of both their flaws and their charms), but they weren’t bad. But the point I’m trying to make is, I didn’t even know that Doris had a whole other career as a singer, and that said career was actually her first (somehow ignoring the fact that the theme song to Send Me No Flowers* was sung by her).



Actually, pity the case of poor Doris Day. She’d had a stellar career as a singer, starting with her classic lead vocal performance on Les Brown’s “Sentimental Journey,” yet it seems the only song people wanted her to sing was this one cutesy bilingual children’s song. It even wound up as the theme to her 1960s TV series (which at least gave Denver Pyle some work). Never mind the question as to why Doris Kappelhoff’s German immigrant mother should suddenly start spouting Spanish aphorisms.

It helps to listen to “Sentimental Journey” for comparison. For those baffled by Doris Day’s appeal, listen to that song, and think of what a revelation a knockout blonde with a lustrous voice murmuring sweet nothings into your ear must have been in 1945. Tastes by 1956, at least grown-up tastes, were a lot more sentimental.

It also helps to have context for this song. It was originally from a film, Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much, to be specific. Now, Hitch was no dummy. If he had an actress who could sing in his film, damn it, she was going to sing!

That said, he was also not the sort to put random, pointless musical numbers into his film. This is the lullaby Day’s character sings to her son (played by child actor Christopher Olsen, big brother of The Brady Bunch star Susan Olsen). Without giving away spoilers (in case you haven’t seen the movie yet), the song becomes a plot point. Chew on that for a while when you’re remembering Ned Flanders singing this tune on The Simpsons, or the many ironic uses since.

Maybe it’s that that’s having me sense that there’s a bit of subtext that belies Day’s sunny performance on the recorded version that cuts past the sparkly orchestration, led by that jaunty mandolin hook. Day knew how to insert subtext into her singing, just ask those who claim there’s a gay subtext to her performance of “Secret Love,” her hit from the musical Calamity Jane. It’s precisely her ability to insert subtext into a song that got her acting gigs in the first place.

By the way, this song won an Oscar. So there must be something to it, even if you think it’s corny.

But...yes, I prefer “Sentimental Journey.”

Rating: 4

*“Send Me No Flowers” was an early Burt Bacharach composition. He’d also written songs for a couple of other SHG alumni: Nat “King” Cole and Cathy Carr, as well as artists I’ll be covering later such as Brook Benton, Marty Robbins and, of course, his preferred male interpreter Gene Pitney.

SHG: Cathy Carr: "Ivory Tower"

Cathy Carr: “Ivory Tower”
Entered the chart on: 4/7/1956
Peaked on: 5/26/1956
Weeks at #2: 1 week
Song at #1: “Heartbreak Hotel” by Elvis Presley

I’m becoming a bit gun-shy regarding “whitewashing.” When I saw that R&B vocal group Otis Williams and His Charms sang a version of this, naturally I assumed theirs was the original. But no, theirs was a cover. This was composed by trombonist Jack Fulton with songwriter Lois Steele, and given to struggling ex-big band singer Cathy Carr to sing. Well, it’s new to me, so let’s see what we have here...



I take back what I said about Joni James. Here is the real precursor to Connie Francis. Cathy, too was an Italian-American, born in the Bronx. Unlike Joni James, Cathy has a sumptuous voice, rich with vibrato, with a real feeling of sorrow in there. Maybe I’m reading a bit into it, with the knowledge that Cathy didn’t have a happy life, probably as this was her only major hit.

More of that eighth-note vamping style of piano that was very in vogue at the time. Dan Belloc’s orchestration includes a prominent accordion hook. But really, it’s Cathy selling the song that makes this sweet, romantic ballad. It’s just a damn shame that someone who sings as well as this didn’t have more of a career, but them’s the breaks, I guess.

Oh! And I see that Gale Storm did a version of this as well! Nope, not gonna go there! I’ll just assume it sucks and move on! And look, My Little Margie also mangled “Dark Moon,” the beautiful country song originally by Bonnie Guitar! To what end? Bonnie Guitar was also on Dot Records! Did Gale Storm just have it out for the listening public, and sought out to ruin songs from every genre in a concentrated attempt to get people to hate music?

Oh well, rant over! At least this version of this song is good. Well done, Cathy!

Rating: 4

SHG: Carl Perkins: "Blue Suede Shoes"

Carl Perkins: “Blue Suede Shoes”
Entered the chart on: 3/10/1956
Peaked on: 4/7/1956
Weeks at #2: 4 weeks
Song at #1: “The Poor People of Paris” by Les Baxter

Hey! The first song I’ve actually heard before doing this! I’m excited to refresh my memory of this one, so let’s get started.



And yes, the first real rock & roll number. Though this is by a white artist, it does not qualify as “whitewashing.” For you see, the “sophisticates” objections to rock & roll weren’t only racial. There was an element of class snobbery there as well. Perkins hails from Tennessee, and can’t hide his rural Southern accent, nor does he attempt to. It seems disenfranchised folks of all races excelled at rock & roll.

This is, of course, a Sun Records production courtesy of the legendary Sam Phillips. He was the man responsible for giving Elvis Presley his start. Elvis, of course, was quick to cover this song and made it his own (indeed, I originally heard Elvis’ version and heavily associate the song with him). But while Elvis certainly does a credible (read: excellent) version of this, Carl just owns it! As he ought to, it’s his song! (Trivia time: that’s Perkins’ brothers Jay and Clayton on rhythm guitar and bass.)

Considering I just got done reviewing a Four Lads tune, I can only imagine how this raw, ragged, stripped-down thing (it’s just guitar, bass and drums) must have sounded in comparison. This was really something very, very different.

No wonder the old guard were scared.

Rating: 5

SHG: The Four Lads: "No, Not Much!"

The Four Lads: “No, Not Much!”
Entered the chart on: 1/28/1956
Peaked on: 3/3/1956
Weeks at #2: 4 weeks
Songs at #1: “Rock and Roll Waltz” by Kay Starr and “The Poor People of Paris” by Les Baxter

Another year, another Four Lads song. 1956 is shaping up to be a lot more interesting than 1955 was, so let’s get this out of the way tout de suite, shall we? (See what I did there? A little gratuitous French for the Canadian artist I’m covering. Can-con!)



Oh, I get it, the “No, Not Much!” is ironic. He’s saying that he really would like it if his beloved would do all these things. It’s like the 50s version of “I’m Not in Love” without the bitter aftertaste. “Like a ten-cent soda doesn’t really cost a dime” is a very period-specific reference, that’s for sure.

For whatever reason, this is working for me in a way “Moments to Remember” didn’t. Yes, the song is sentimental as hell, and their voices are whiter than bleached notebook paper, but it clicks for me. “Moments to Remember” sounded clunky to me with the wailing soprano and the silly narration. This flows along nicely, buoyed by Ray Ellis’ lush orchestration. That rousing orchestral intro definitely made me stand at attention, and I think that lured me into the song.

It may well be the key to this song being such a big hit. As much as the corny stuff from “Moments to Remember” felt embarrassing, it was attention-grabbing, too. And I see Ellis was responsible for the arrangement and conducting of that song, too. The man knows his stuff with regards to making a song memorable, I must give him that.

Rating: 3