The world, which began in 1950, was a nice enough place, consisting of rugs, drapes and the undersides of chairs. Shortly after that windows were invented along with ways to get up high enough to look out of them.
Several years later, but not too many, the greatest invention of mankind was created when the first music was recorded and played over the radio. Radios had previously been big boxes that stood in the corner and did nothing. Now this glorious sound came out of them, the sound of grownup sophistication.
First up, Tennessee Ernie Ford. "Your Uncle Ernie". I believed he was my uncle. I did have an uncle named Ernie and so it was plausible that maybe I had two. Here Ernie sings about the terrible exploitation of the workers by the capitalist masters.
I took all of these songs literally, fully believing that the singers were experiencing whatever they sang about. When the Four Lads sang this next one it was easy to picture them, loitering around the candy store, whistling at girls and being a nuisance to the candy store owner. But they sounded so clean cut that I'm sure there was no "trouble".
Perry Como was the smoothest of the smooth. His music was once described as "The sound of somebody sleeping". I've chosen the tune I remember the best. I'm not sure if I knew what kind of wheel he meant. Probably any wheel would do.
Gogi Grant was so old when she recorded this that it was beyond my counting ability. How was I going to get to 31? She could have been my mother! And, in fact, she had the kind of voice that made me feel like everything was ok. Even though her boyfriend had to leave, due to his hearing the wind, I knew she'd be fine.
Another crooner of the day was Vic Damone, who later married Diahann Carroll. This one seemed all atmospheric to me way back when, almost rococco.
These two girls were pretty young, 11 and 14, when they recorded this gem. Still, they seemed like grownups to me. Typical of most music careers, they were pretty much done, as far as hits go, by the time they reached 12 and 15.
And then there was something else happening, starting to enter my young brain. Here Bill Haley and his Comets rhyme vague units of time with reptiles. That seemed like enough of an idea to me then for a song and it still does today.
Now here was a mystery! What was behind that green door? Ok, the song is about a speakeasy or after-hours joint but to a kid who knows? Birthday cake, maybe? Love the piano sound!
In the course of reading a little about these folks I just found out something that made me chuckle. This was another Mitch Miller production and when Miller met this singer he decided a new name was in order, saying "My name is Mitchell and you seem like a nice guy, so we'll call you Guy Mitchell". Who knows if it's true? Anyway, this is one of two songs I like by Mitchell, the other being "Heartaches by the Number".
And then there's this. It fits in here with the rest of these but it shows there's a big change ahead. In real life that change had already happened but in my little world this was really the beginning.
All of these mattered greatly to me when I was a kid and led directly to next Tuesday's installment.
