During the late ’50s, Ross Bagdasarian discovered that speeding up a song recorded on a tape recorder makes the singer’s voice high-pitched and funny-sounding. Scoring a pre-Hot 100 #1 with “Witch Doctor” in 1958 taught Bagdasarian (who used the name “David Seville” professionally) that this goofy tape effect could be parlayed into a hugely successful [...]
Archive for the ‘1958’ Category
8) David Seville and The Chipmunks – “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)”
Posted in 05, 1958, 1959, tagged christmas songs, ross bagdasarian, the chipmunks on December 15, 2008 | 1 Comment »
7) The Teddy Bears – “To Know Him is to Love Him”
Posted in 08, 1958, tagged phil spector, the teddy bears on December 12, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Even before the murder trial of Lana Clarkson (now in retrial phase), Phil Spector has long been one of the legendary eccentrics in pop. But despite bizarre tales of threatening wife Ronnie Spector with a gold-plated casket in the basement of their house and forcing Leonard Cohen to record Death of a Ladies’ Man at gunpoint, Spector’s reputation [...]
6) The Kingston Trio – “Tom Dooley”
Posted in 06, 1958, tagged the kingston trio on December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
”Tom Dooley” is in every folk guitar book in the world, or at least in all the ones I’ve come across. The song consists of only two chords, and it’s meant to introduce new students to switching from the I to the V minor while keeping the beat. But once that technique is grasped, old [...]
5) Conway Twitty – “It’s Only Make Believe”
Posted in 06, 1958, tagged conway twitty on December 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
My knowledge of Conway Twitty stems from two incidents as a young child. The first was a lengthy and frequent commercial for a Twitty hits compilation released soon after his 1993 death, featuring brief clips of songs like “Slow Hand” and his duet with Loretta Lynn, “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” (the fact that Loretta was from Butcher Holler, Kentucky, not [...]
4) Tommy Edwards – “It’s All in the Game”
Posted in 04, 1958, tagged tommy edwards on December 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Tommy Edwards had a #18 hit with a pre-rock version of “It’s All in the Game” seven years before this rerecording topped the charts. The 1958 version makes a few concessions to rock ‘n’ roll, adding a thudding drumbeat and ”duh doo, duh doo” backing vocals. Still, these are minor enhancements, far from The Elegants‘ embrace of rock [...]
3) The Elegants – “Little Star”
Posted in 07, 1958, tagged the elegants on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Given my love for ’60s girl groups, I guess it’s a little strange that I have no real use for doo wop. Structually, they’re pretty much the same – (mostly) anonymous groups of urban teenagers who relied entirely on their vocals to carry their adolescent love songs, even using “ooohs” and “lalalas” and “oh-whoa-whoas” to [...]
2) Domenico Modugno – “Nel Blu Dipinto di Blu (Volare)”
Posted in 05, 1958, tagged domenico modugno on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
“Volare” is surely one of the strangest tracks to top the U.S. pop charts – not the song itself, which is typical ’50s easy listening, but the unlikely circumstances behind its success. Not only did the song debut at the 1958 Eurovision Song Contest, which Americans neither participated in nor watched, but Domenico Modugno’s performance [...]
1) Ricky Nelson – “Poor Little Fool”
Posted in 06, 1958, tagged ricky nelson on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Ricky Nelson may have been the guy for whom the term “teen idol” was invented, but this track is relatively rocking for a 1958 #1. Rather than a schmaltzy Pat Boone knock-off, “Poor Little Fool” is a credible country-pop-rock hybrid in the vein of The Everly Brothers’ “All I Have to Do is Dream.” Nelson’s vocals are mournful [...]
