Do I still like that BEP song? Wait and see :)

I aM AMAZED AT YOUR COMMENTS, WHEN YOU CONSIDER SOME OF THE TRASH THAT IS PUT ON THE RADIO NOW -(besides that rubbish BY BLACK EYED PEAS) Al Martino is still singing & recording. Go to his Web site and get uptodate before any comments. He is on tour in September in the UK (2008) go and see and then tell me what you think

Just like every chart since there are things lower down which are MUCH better.

Three appearances by Vera Lynn (all backed by what sounds like platoons of returning soldiers) aren’t among them but are a reminder of how much the war hangover must have still dominated everything. No jazz either, unless you include Louis Armstrong’s dire It Takes Two To Tango (he sounds embarrassed) or Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman’s daffy-but-ace Zing A Little Zong (with an arrangement that sounds like a prototype for Brook Benton and Dinah Washington, while Nelson Riddles away behind them). It catches the mythical American “post-war optimism” better than anything else on the list.

Three Bings and Nat King Cole’s brace of entries suggest a considerable appetite for non-belters. Johnnie Ray’s Walkin’ My Baby Back Home has a finger-snapping saunter, is super-catchy, and sounds the most like Modern Pop. Ray Martin’s Blue Tango is a chipper instrumental, something I remember my Gran singing along to with invented words worthy of Homer Simpson (”It’s the blue tango, I’ve got my woolly woofs on”).

Feet Up is the first of a bunch of rip-roaring Guy Mitchell singalong hits - slap that baby’s butt! - and won’t disappoint anyone who has a taste for She Wears Red Feathers. Jo Stafford’s You Belong To Me is soppy but, with a whiff of exotica, is more than respectable (it’s a darn sight more romantic than Matchbox’s revival in 1980). Sugarbush turns out to be Frankie Laine’s nickname for Doris Day, which must have sounded a little suggestive even in 1952.

A proper time capsule, then. For a bit of colour, Oscar nominations that year included Alec Guinness (Lavender Hill Mob), Richard Burton (My Cousin Rachel) and Gloria Grahame (The Bad And The Beautiful) while The Man In The White Suit was up for Best Screenplay: only Glo won. A foreigner scored the winning goal in the FA Cup final: Chilean George Robledo got the only goal for Newcastle against ten-man Arsenal. And Londoners should listen to it all bearing in mind this was lurking outside the window:

http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/education/secondary/students/smog.html

I was being flip with ” She Caught The Katy ” but it really is a song. An old blues one , covered by many but a gret version by Taj Mahal. Incidentally a ” katy ” is a type ofhorse drawn carriage. And , although not always used at weddings, it could have been. But as the title says , he ends up with the mule ( as opposed to the horse ) and she rides into the sunset.

I’m old enough, but I have no recollection of this song. That doesn’t mean I never heard it–I actually did hear most of these number ones (at least those by US singers) early in life, as there always seemed to be music on radio or television in our household. (It blocked out are ability to talk to each other, which was probably a good thing.) But if I actually have heard it, it must have made no impression on me.

But Elvis wasn’t Catholic and would never think along those lines.

2) I truly don’t know this song–but I know a variation on “Ticket to Ride” called “She’s Got a Chicken to Ride.” Probably not the same thing, though.

Or how about - ‘ She Caught The Katy & Left Me The Mule to Ride ?

But who knows? Maybe someone could be so relieved they would shed tears of joy about the whole matter…….

BTW : I’ll be in London on on Nov 10 for the Poptimism. Is it an open invite ? ( Can I come , can I come , huh , huh, can I ? )Look forward to meeting some of you then if all goes OK with the business side of my trip.

PS: I presume we should steer clear of commenting on other Fifties entries until they get linked to then?