JANUARY 1957 - 50 YEARS AGO

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We kick off the New Year by taking a long glance back over our shoulders to the year 1957 - Fifty years ago, to be exact. In January of that year, a fight was taking place on the pop charts to determine which genre of music would dominate American culture. The main contenders were the ‘established’ order vs. the rock and roll upstarts. We all know how this story eventually played itself out, but in 1957, the outcome wasn’t quite so clear. If you judge it from the perspective of January 1957, it appears as though rock and roll might have been losing the battle. The centerpiece of today’s show features the work of producer/A&R svengali Mitch Miller, the mastermind at Columbia Records and the arch-enemy of rock and roll music. Both Guy Mitchell and Johnny Ray were ‘employed’ to fight Miller’s battle against rock and roll, with mixed results. The music he made with these singers may not have been raw, but they provide an accurate means for measuring the older generation’s idea of what youth music ought to be…and to tell the truth, they weren’t so horribly bad, either. For perspective, though, we also play the original (and superior) versions of these recordings.
The playlist for today’s show covers the top five recordings from the week of January 5, 1957, followed by a few songs that made their debut at this time. It’s a fairly accurate overview of what popular music sounded like in January 1957. We hope you enjoy the show. Here’s a list of songs covered in today’s program;

1) Singing the Blues – Guy Mitchell
2) Singing the Blues – Marty Robbins
3) The Green Door – Jim Lowe
4) Love Me Tender – Elvis Presley
5) True Love – Bing Crosby and Grace Kelly
6) Just Walking in the Rain – Johnny Ray
7) Just Walking in the Rain – The Prisonaires
8) Young Love – Sonny James
9) Blue Monday – Fats Domino
10) The Banana Boat Song – The Tarriers
11) The Banana Boat Song – Harry Belafonte
12) Ain’t Got No Home – Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry