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It's great to see your faves in those PBS reunion shows
of TheColumnists.com
I'm a sucker for
those nostalgic PBS fund-raising shows featuring rock, doo-wop
and R&B soloists from the ‘50s and early ‘60s and
the folk singers from the ‘60s. I can even sit through the
interminable PBS intermissions to see and listen to the original
singers, even though some of them have lost their edge. I’ve
seen all of those shows a number of times.
One recent PBS fund-raiser even featured The Crew Cuts singing
“Sh-Boom,” although there were only three members of
the group instead of the original four.
My favorite singer is the late Roy Orbison, and I must have seen
the 1988 special starring him at least a half-dozen times. It’s
called “Roy Orbison & Friends: A Black and White Night.”
Some top singers of that time came together to help honor the
man who inspired them--Jackson Browne, T-Bone Burnett, Elvis
Costello, k.d. lang, Bonnie Raitt, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits
and Jennifer Warnes.
The highlight of a “Black and White Night”--it was
filmed in black and white for its original telecast on the Cinemax
premiumcable network--was Orbison’s great “Oh Pretty
Woman.” Younger folks might remember it as the theme song
of the 1990 movie, “Pretty Woman,” which catapulted
Julia Roberts to fame and fortune.
It seemed Orbison might be making a comeback, but he died the
next year.
For reference, here are some songs I remember from each of my
teen years, starting in 1949 when I turned 13 and ending in 1956
when I turned 20. It’s a short but memorable list of songs
and singers of that really short period of life that seems at
the time to take forever to pass.
1949: Frankie Laine, “Mule Train”
1950: Nat “King” Cole, “Mona Lisa”
1951: Patti Page, “Tennessee Waltz”
1952: Johnnie Ray, “Cry”
1953: Joni James, “Why Don’t You Believe Me?”
1954: The Crew Cuts, “Sh-Boom”
1955: Al Hibbler, “Unchained Melody”
1956: The Platters, “The Great Pretender”
If you're unfamiliar with some of them or are so young that you've never even heard of them, give 'em a listen. They show the diversity of what some pundits now refer to as bubble gum music. You might find that you like some of the sounds of music before rock 'n' roll took over the charts.
You can even listen to some of the music
on-line. To listen to about 100 on-line songs that pre-date rock,
go to: http://dapatchy.com/smoothies/
To hear more than 300 rock and doo-wop oldies, try this web site:
http://dapatchy.com/oldies/
And for over 150 songs that span the spectrum of late '40s to
early '60s music, go to the Kearney High (San Diego, Calif.)
Class of 1953's web site
at: http://www.kearny53.com/music50s.htm
Kearney has posted such songs as "Sixty-Minute Man"
and the equally risqué
"Honey Love" and "Work With Me, Henry," The
Chords' version of "Sh-Boom,"
and The Platters' "The Great Pretender."
Finally, if you want to find out--in music--what happened to
those Fifties grads, give a listen to the Statler Brothers hit,
"The Class of '57 Had Its Dreams," at:
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/singingman777/CO57.htm
For some even earlier Statler Brothers memories -- "Do You
Remember
These?" -- go to: http://mywebpages.comcast.net/singingman777/DYR.htm
©2006 by Len Klempnauer. The Johnnie
Ray "16 Most Requested Songs" CD (pictured) is available
from Amazon.com and other online music stores. This column first
posted April 3, 2006.
You
can comment on this column online. Please address your message
to either "The Editors" or Len Klempnauer. To send
an email, click here and don't forget to mention Len's name:
talkback@thecolumnists.com
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