Song 54 – Love for Sale

SONG: Love For Sale ARTIST: Billie Holiday YEAR: 1954 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Love for Sale caused a bit of a hullabaloo when it was introduced to the world by Kathryn Crawford in 1930.  Cole Porter had written the song for the musical The New Yorkers and was written from the point ofContinue reading “Song 54 – Love for Sale”

Song 53 – Riot in Cell Block 9

SONG: Riot in Cell Block 9 ARTIST: The Robins YEAR: 1954 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: “Riot in Cell Block #9” was written in 1954 by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and was recorded by The Robins that same year. It’s important partially because it was the first R&B hit to use a stop-timeContinue reading “Song 53 – Riot in Cell Block 9”

Album 6 – Ellington at Newport

ALBUM TITLE: Ellington at Newport ‘56 ARTIST NAME: Duke Ellington YEAR OF RELEASE: 1956 Favourite Song: Holly: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue Kelly: Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue ALBUM HISTORY: Ellington at Newport was recorded on July 7th 1956 and released later that year, and featured Duke Ellington and his band’s live performance at theContinue reading “Album 6 – Ellington at Newport”

Song 52 – Crying In the Chapel

SONG: Crying in the Chapel ARTIST: The Orioles YEAR: 1953 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Crying in the Chapel was written as a country song by Artie Glenn in 1953 for his son Darrell. Darrell recorded it in that same year but at first did not gain a lot of traction in his recording.Continue reading “Song 52 – Crying In the Chapel”

Song 51 – Please Love Me

SONG: Please Love Me ARTIST: B.B. King YEAR: 1953 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Not much has been written about this specific song, King’s influences in writing it, or how it came about to be recorded. It has what has become a standard instrumentation for a blues band, plus a trumpet, and the guitarContinue reading “Song 51 – Please Love Me”

Song 50 – Just Walkin’ In the Rain

SONG: Just Walkin’ in the Rain ARTIST: The Prisonaires YEAR: 1953 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Just Walkin’ in the Rain was written by Johnny Bragg and Robert Riley in 1952, after walking across the courtyard of the prison where both men were jailed.  Riley told Bragg that that would be a great lineContinue reading “Song 50 – Just Walkin’ In the Rain”

Song 49 – Singin’ In the Rain

SONG: Singin’ in the Rain ARTIST: Gene Kelly YEAR: 1952 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: This song, surprisingly enough, has a long history before it appeared in the Gene Kelly movie of the same name. I had assumed that the song was written for the movie, but it was actually written by Nacio HerbContinue reading “Song 49 – Singin’ In the Rain”

Song 48 – Le Gorille

SONG: Le Gorille ARTIST: Georges Brassens YEAR: 1952 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Le gorille was written by iconoclast Georges Brassens in 1952.  He started writing it while in a German work camp during the War but by the time the war ended the only part Brassens kept was “beware the gorilla!” (a shotContinue reading “Song 48 – Le Gorille”

Song 47- Foi Deus

SONG: Foi Deus ARTIST: Amalia Rodrigues YEAR: 1952 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: Well, I could find practically no information on this piece in English. Pretty much everything I found was in Portuguese, but I assume that like me, many of our readers are not very well in the loop with the genre ofContinue reading “Song 47- Foi Deus”

Song 46 – Dust My Broom

SONG: Dust My Broom ARTIST: Elmore James YEAR: 1952 Listen to it here:  THE SONG: While there is no solid origin story of where Dust My Broom came from, it was originally recorded by blues king Robert Johnson in 1936.  While Johnson’s version employed the use of repeating triplets for a boogie pattern, Elmore JamesContinue reading “Song 46 – Dust My Broom”