So begins the third greatest song of the entire decade and one of the best rock ‘n’ roll tracks ever. It took a claymation video to finally shoot ‘Reet Petite’ to the top of the UK charts at the end of 1986, at that point setting a record for longest gap between release and hitting No.1. A simple blues-rockabilly shake-down which was enlivened by sprawling axe work from future guitar legend James Burton. This article is about the US number-one songs chart from 1950–1958.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XxGUIbYjmY. A 12-bar blues jaunt that was unlike no other. It was Diddley’s first ever recording and from day one established the Bo Diddley Beat, a frenetic pattering rhythm that underscored a career and set Buddy Holly and The Rolling Stones on their own rhythmic adventures. The biggest hits of the 1950s according to Billboard Magazine. Originally written for the 1934 film Dames, before being covered by Peggy Lee, the definitive version of this track was by the vocal harmony group The Flamingos. But that’s not his fault. Rock-n-Roll emerged in the mid-50s as the teen music of choice with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Frances, Johnny Mathis, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exp… Beyond the fact that I wasn't born until well after the end of that decade, the 50s pose quite a few other listmaking challenges. But then everything changed. Sessions musicians were on standby just in case Vincent’s pals the Blue Caps couldn’t hack it in the studio but together Vincent and band pulled off the rockabilly riot in style. $(document).ready(function(){$("#tabs-menu a").click(function(){$("#nav").slideToggle("200")})}); Top songs of the 1950's is updated by the minute by, The Hawaiian Wedding Song (Ke Kali Nei Au). Easily one of the most recognisable cuts in the entire list, Valens’ adaption of a Mexican folk song is jam-packed with infectious refrains, classic guitar lines and monster drumming. Yes, the UK had its very own Elvis, for a time at least, and sent his debut single straight to No.2. The smooth, daytime jazz waltz became one of his trademark tracks. Cole Porter had written the track back in the 1930s but it was covered by Sinatra for his ‘Songs For Swingin’ Lovers’ album in 1956 . Best 1950s Music is a list of the most popular songs of the 1950s to hit the charts and become hits in American culture. New Orleans pianist Antoine ‘Fats’ Domino was a profound influence on later pop idols Elvis Presley and John Lennon, bringing swing to rock’n’roll’s baby steps. A cover of a Doris Day standard, Nat King Cole’s version was a creamy confection of dream-like music covered in swathes of layered strings, over which Cole’s velvet voice floated. Penned by legendary songwriting duo Leiber and Stroller, this bit of teenage harrumphing and door slamming was given to vocal harmony group The Coasters and, rather confusingly, played out like “a white kid’s view of a black person’s conception of white society,” according to Leiber. Top songs of the 1950's is updated by the minute by Gigbuilder - The world's most popular … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twQNeIBGntg. Bob Dylan’s favourite intrumental has been pilfered by Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Rodriguez (Roadracers), Spongebob and the Sopranos. Clarence earned his nickname from an uncanny ability to sing like a frog – as he boasts on ‘Ain’t Got No Home’, “I can sing like a bird/ And I can sing like a frog”. Miles Davis’s ‘A Kind Of Blue’ has stuck around as an all-time great jazz album and one of the more accessible examples in its field, with ‘Blue In Green’ one of a couple of ballads revealing Davis’s more subtle, feet-up playing. One of the earliest records to explore distortion and feedback it’s also the song that invented the power chord, ensuring Townshend and Blackmore are forever in his debt. A cover of the bluesy Big Mama Thornton track, Elvis changed the track into hip-swiveling pound of rolling drums and grinding guitars that set teenage girls alight and made parents blush. The following lists the number one singles on the Australian Singles Chart during the 1950s. It's very hard to accurately track down dates for a lot of worthy 50's era music. This was the second song Robert Johnson ever recorded, but its creation has also been attributed to Elmore James. Inspired in part by a guy’s precious love for his suede shoes over the girl he was dancing with, Perkins’ big hit went on to sell a million records in the first three months (no mean feat in ’55) and climb the country, rhythm and blues, and pop charts simultaneously. Jailhouse Rock - Elvis Presley 3. It sounded like a puffy white cloud floating in the sky. For Ray, ‘Cry’ was the start of a long, successful career in music and film. It took a couple of years to break into the UK charts, but is now woven into the very fabric of pop’s zoot suit and remains the signature tune for the still-going Quartet. This was the first version, and inspired no less than six covers within a month of its release. Celebrate events from the 1950s. © 2021 NME is a member of the media division of BandLab Technologies. Let us know what your favorite acoustic guitar song is! Take a look below, and you'll probably be shocked by more than a few of the banned songs from the '50s and '60s. Now most famous for the combination of Ray Charles sample and Jamie Foxx impression that cooked up the gold dust for Kanye West’s stupendous ‘Gold Digger’ in 2005, ‘I Got A Woman’ itself takes inspiration from gospel song ‘It Must Be Jesus’, in the process marking out the territory for what would become soul music. Various versions have surfaced in the movies and on TV, sh-booming through Johnny Depp’s Cry-Baby and Patrick Swayze’s Roadhouse as well as appearing in Dennis Potter’s 50s pastiche Lipstick On Your Collar for the BBC. Where’s it coming from? Holly was inspired to write the track after his cinematic hero John Wayne repeatedly used the phrase in a film and it ended up a chart-topper on both sides of the pond. The Greatest of All-Time Billboard Hot 100 Songs and Artists rankings are based on weekly performance on the Hot 100 (from its inception on Aug. 4, 1958, through July 21, 2018). Nice woodblocks too. An early work of rock genius. }); Find album reviews, stream songs, credits and award information for 100 Greatest 50s & … Elvis may have the more popular version but nobody delivers ‘Hound Dog’ like the Mama; altering her inflections on every line she delivers by far the most captivating rendition. Dad of cult funk artist Shuggie, Johnny Otis was a bandleader and multi-instrumentalist who spent as much time discovering and nurturing new talent – Etta James for one – as making his own records. It’s also been covered by constipated ersatz soul bellower Michael Bolton, so is clearly indestructible. Played live since his Delta blues days in the ‘30s and honed for two decades before its release in ’56, it sees harmonica, train references and a repeated E major chord collide to mesmerising effect. The world's defining voice in music and pop culture since 1952. I don't doubt that a few songs from the late 40s or early 60s have accidentally slipped onto this list. Although it was wholesome crooner Pat Boone who took ‘Ain’t That A Shame’ to the top in the States, the song was Domino’s entry to the mainstream, paving the way for ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Blueberry Hill’. Turner eventually disputed and won. Weepy Johnnie Ray found his signature tune here, swamping Churchill Kohlman’s song with his sobbing tones and topping the Billboard chart too. The 1950s marked the birth of rock’n’roll. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEl3UUl1Fmw. An early doo-wop success, The Chords’ stray cat strut through ‘Sh-Boom’ would end up being their only hit, albeit a sturdy one, reaching the Billboard top 10. ‘I Hear You Knocking’ was another Dave Bartholomew composition (with Pearl King), adorned by Lewis’s rich soulful croon and the kind of barrelling piano that Domino would make his own, sadly stealing all of Lewis’s thunder. Making influenza catchy since ’57. The filthiest thing to be released in all of 1956. As introductions go, this was hard to beat. Already decades old before this version was recorded, ‘What A Diff’rence A Day Makes’ never tingled so much as when Washington gave it some of that Grammy-winning magic. 0-8230-7646-6 This list is odd. An air of otherworldly mystery hangs about this bluesy stomp. By everyone from the Beatles to Fleetwood Mac air of otherworldly mystery hangs about this bluesy.. 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