Popular '58

Seven out of thirteen – a lot better than 1967!

Good to see the love for Connie Francis.

I would have given Jerry Lee a 10, and Elvis and Lord Rockingham would have got a 7 or so each.

Those Italian number ones in full:

Renato Carosone – Torero
Rosemary Clooney – A Fine Romance
Johnny Dorelli – My Funny Valentine
Domenico Modugno – Volare
Paul Anka – Diana
Renato Carosone – Caravan Petrol
Tony Dallara – Ti Diro
Mario Riva – Domenica e sempre Domenica
The Champs – Tequila
David Terry – Colonel Bogey (theme from Bridge On The River Kwai)
Perez Prado – Patricia
Edith Piaf – Hymne a l’amour
Les Paul & Mary Ford – Vaya Con Dios

No Elvis – he only reached no.4 with Don’t and King Creole, no.5 with Jailhouse Rock.

Even odder that Concetta Rosa Maria Franconero, or Connie francis, never scored a hit in Italy until 1960; she made up for lost time with three number ones (Mama, Where The Boys Are, Jealous Of You), none of which made no.1 in the UK or US.

Vaya Con Dios was a top 5 hit in the UK in 1953!

I don’t know how interested people will be in these – but I guess you never know until you try.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ1Vj4JAGJM&feature=related

I remember these (The Rock n Roll Years) from being shown on the BBC when I was little. I found them fascinating then – and having found a load of them on Youtube, I thought linking off to them from the year end polls might be good, or at least inspire some discussion when we don’t have a new Popular entry to mull over. I don’t want to spam the site with these though – so maybe I’ll just do it every so often.

This isn’t the first programme – the 1956 version is up on Youtube – but this is the earliest year I could find with a Popular Year Poll.

I was happy to find that I still think these shows are pretty good to be honest – OK, they’re just old news footage with songs from the relevant year over the top of them – but I think this vanilla approach is good.

These only go up to about 1988/89 I think – at least that’s all I’ve really been able to find on Youtube and some of them are not complete episodes either. I guess there might be some Del Amitri on the later episodes. I’ve not watched them yet.

Highlights for me from the 1958 one:

Chuck Berry – I don’t know who shot that but the video looks fantastic; the shots of Chuck in profile with the light on his face are beautiful.

Danny and the Juniors – it would be amusing to see an X Factor Boy Band do something as basic as the choreography that they put in towards the end of “At The Hop”.

The Kalin Twins – everyone seems to be enjoying “When” very much and the twins themselves get into it, in front of a curiously space age themed background. Contrast with The Everley Brothers, who (admittedly) are doing something more down tempo.

The massive tank like thing that Edmund Hillary used to cross the Antarctic. I didn’t even know he’d been there after Everest. Shows what I know (i.e. nothing much).

The lady in her fur coat railing against Prince Rainier was pretty amusing.

The litter act bit was a bit of an eye opener too.

Cheers Weej – I will bear that in mind.

On doing some further investigation on Hillary’s Antarctic Expedition – “massive tank like thing” = converted tractor apparently.