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1955 and what was hot


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This months issue of True West magazine has an interesting article which brought back memories. Did you know there were 3 top number 1 recordings that were in that position week after week after week? They were the "Yellow Rose of Texas" by Mitch Miller, "Sixteen Tons" by Tennessee Ernie Ford, and "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" by numerous artist, each one reaching #1, unheard of today. Can you imagine today the same song hitting the #1 spot, everytime its played, by a different singer? MT

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For me it was Tonka trucks (I was 5) and a song by the Four Seasons call Sherry Baby. I was in love with Sherry. :wub: But I doo remember all of those songs you mentioned an how popular they were. Those were some fun days.

 

Roy

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check this out and see if you remember. One interesting footnote is that the Fess Parker version on 45 also had his "Farewell" song on it from the last WD Davy Crockett, "At the Alamo". It was never, nor since been released. MT

http://oldfortyfives.com/1955.htm

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Well MT, since they got rid of Payola...it's hard to accomplish. :)

As some know, I'm either a collector, or junkman (as BlueJeans says), I had a Juke Box which I restored and operating again, along with about several hundred 45s from the 50s and early 60s. I sold em all for 200.00, now I wish I had em all after seeing a segment on PBS on how much these jukeboxes are going for. All the lights worked and flashed as they played the records. OH well, I still had it working were you had to put a nickle into it to play, maybe it will nickle the buyer to death. MT

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As some know, I'm either a collector, or junkman (as BlueJeans says), I had a Juke Box which I restored and operating again, along with about several hundred 45s from the 50s and early 60s. I sold em all for 200.00, now I wish I had em all after seeing a segment on PBS on how much these jukeboxes are going for. All the lights worked and flashed as they played the records. OH well, I still had it working were you had to put a nickle into it to play, maybe it will nickle the buyer to death. MT

 

 

That would be so much fun, listening to the old stuff. I like a lot a variety of music, going back to Frank, lol. The music was romantic and the big band era was pretty hard to beat. But then the 50's and its rock and roll has some great hits too. Then there is country music that tells a story to your heart. To pick one favorite would be hard, but I do listen to country the most because of the pick up trucks, trains, and rain... lol

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check this out and see if you remember. One interesting footnote is that the Fess Parker version on 45 also had his "Farewell" song on it from the last WD Davy Crockett, "At the Alamo". It was never, nor since been released. MT

http://oldfortyfives.com/1955.htm

 

Whether you like them or not, you could...if you wanted to...sing along with any of those. They didn't assault your ears with noise and usually you could understand all the words. The majority of the artists looked like people you knew instead of freaks.

 

I miss those days.

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That would be so much fun, listening to the old stuff. I like a lot a variety of music, going back to Frank, lol. The music was romantic and the big band era was pretty hard to beat. But then the 50's and its rock and roll has some great hits too. Then there is country music that tells a story to your heart. To pick one favorite would be hard, but I do listen to country the most because of the pick up trucks, trains, and rain... lol

Yes, but them early songs were great, some also told stories even though they weren't country. Whats amazing is that they were top 40s for the teens. Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Tennessee Ernie ford, were on American Bandstand singing Sink the Bismark, North to Alaska, Big Iron, El Paso, Sixteen Tons, etc. before we labeled them country. Nowadays its hard to discern Country from the type of music we had in the 50s and sixty's. Back then true country didn't need, nor had big bands as backdrops. MT

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Whether you like them or not, you could...if you wanted to...sing along with any of those. They didn't assault your ears with noise and usually you could understand all the words. The majority of the artists looked like people you knew instead of freaks.

 

To the older folk of the time they looked like freaks, just a lot more tame than the ones we think are freaks today.

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I was 2, milk and a clean diaper were my most pressing priorities... :lol:

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I was 10, and I had the whole Davy Crockett outfit with a flintlock cap pistol and a not period correct Daisy lever action BB gun. I also had a Superman t-shirt, that I wore under my school clothes. Bubble gum was a penny, candy was a nickel, and comic books were a dime.

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Junior in High School. Drove a '41 Chey 2dr sedan that

I paid $40 for.

Worked Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon

at a Roller Rink for $2 an hour. Some of the best times

of my life. The best Boss I ever had.

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Has it really changed much for you? ;):lol:

 

Nope, clean drawers and a Cokie Cola, not much.... :lol:

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I was 10, and I had the whole Davy Crockett outfit with a flintlock cap pistol and a not period correct Daisy lever action BB gun. I also had a Superman t-shirt, that I wore under my school clothes. Bubble gum was a penny, candy was a nickel, and comic books were a dime.

I was 10 also.. I didn't have the outfit but I was consumed with learning all the verses to the ballad of Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier...

http://www.goahead.org/Data/Ballad%20of%20Davy%20Crockett.htm

 

and of course... my Brooklyn Dodgers

http://i496.photobucket.com/albums/rr325/Ziggady_Zag/1955Brooklyn.jpg

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That would be so much fun, listening to the old stuff. I like a lot a variety of music, going back to Frank, lol. The music was romantic and the big band era was pretty hard to beat. But then the 50's and its rock and roll has some great hits too. Then there is country music that tells a story to your heart. To pick one favorite would be hard, but I do listen to country the most because of the pick up trucks, trains, and rain... lol

 

 

 

Hey Deja,

 

Sounds like a song in der somewhars !

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ME! I was 1 year old in the Mojave Desert.I still have a jukebox too,1940 model 800,first bubbler made,plays 78s :)

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Yes, but them early songs were great, some also told stories even though they weren't country. Whats amazing is that they were top 40s for the teens. Johnny Horton, Marty Robbins, Tennessee Ernie ford, were on American Bandstand singing Sink the Bismark, North to Alaska, Big Iron, El Paso, Sixteen Tons, etc. before we labeled them country. Nowadays its hard to discern Country from the type of music we had in the 50s and sixty's. Back then true country didn't need, nor had big bands as backdrops. MT

Marty Robbins was one of my favorites... Devil Woman.. was such a great song. Oh, gosh, yes the Bismark, and the Battle of New Orleans too.. in 1814 took a little trip.. I still know the words.. lol. The songs were fun, lively, or sweet and common I guess. Anyone could relate to them. I can not relate to a night out doing cocaine, never done it, or a night out hurting people like the banger kinda songs. The old stuff suits me just fine. Very cool that you and your wife share so much!!!!!!!!!! Gosh, I love this board cuz you meet the best kinda people.

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Hey Deja,

 

Sounds like a song in der somewhars !

Yeah, the perfect country music song, huh? lol Train, Trucks, Rain, Grandmother.. lol

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1955

 

I knew the song Davy Crockett by heart and sung it often while wearing my coonskin hat and carryin' my cap firing long rifle. For some reason, I named the rifle "Ol' Betsy." All my buddies likewise at the time wore coonskin hats and had cap firing long rifles named "Ol' Betsy."

 

I still name many of my guns today. Let's see, I've got Jewel, Predition, Big Ugly, Dead and Buried, Hellfire and Brimstone, Last Chance, Mountain Gun, Buffalo Gun, and Blunderbuss.

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What waz HOT, well, My 53 Buick rag top n all the girls , blankets n hay fields, Holbrook lake on a hot summer nite, Coors beer, makin 2.00$ an hour job.. ah those were tha days, my my my..

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Not only did we have names for our firearms, but does anyone remember people having names for their cars? My best friend who was way older then me, and kinda took me under his arm, teaching me car repairs, had "Blue Moon" painted on his car. Back then, guys wore belts to hold their pants up, they had plenty of other things to do with their hands. There weren't fancy stereos, or air condioning (seemed that the front air scoop more then cooled the car down, along with the side vent window), but fender skirts, wheel spinners, and a pair of dice hanging from the rear view mirror, and of course AM radio blasting the top 40 hits count down each day. MT

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House: $22,000

Average income: $4,137

Ford car: $1606-$2944

Milk: $.92

Gas: $.23

Bread $.18

Postage stamp: $.03

Sirloin chops: $ .69 lb.

Pot Roast: $.43 lb.

Eggs, doz.: $.61

Coffee: $.93 lb.

Milk, ½ gal. $.43

Potatoes, 10 lb. bag: $.53

Starkist Tuna, 6 ½ oz. can: $.25 lb.

Oreo cookies, 11¾ .oz pkg: $.39

Potato Salad, pint: $.29

Cracker Jack, 24 pac: $1.49

Apple cider,½ gal.: $.49

Gum Drops, 1½ lb. pkg: $.29

Ivory Soap, 2 bars: $.29

Mickey Mouse lunchbox: $.88

Slinky: $.88

Nylons, pair: $1.00

Home permanent: $1.50

Baseball Glove: $9.95

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1955, leaning against the wall in the hall at high school. About a year before I had the nerve to ask one of the women of mystery out.

 

Forgot about the roller rink. At least once a week for 2-3 years. I was pretty salty on my own pair of shoe skates. We loosened the journals to the point that the skates rattled, but it allowed a lot of tricky stuff that could not be done on tight skates.

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1955, was 6 years old.... my, my, the memories that flood the mind...

 

...was in 1st grade at Jefferson elementary school in Sapulpa, Creek Nation, Indian Territory...

 

...My Granddad had bought his first new car:http://www.tomstrongman.com/ClassicCars/RobBallard/Index.htm

 

...Rock around the clock & Earth Angel were my songs that I seem to have retained from way back then...

 

...life savers were a nickel with those 5 delicious flavors...

 

...my mom and dad bought their first television, I still remember the $64,000 question and the Mighty Mouse Playhouse cartoons....

 

...not a bad year...

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I was 12 and what was hot to me back then was this little girl name Cathy. 8 years later I married her.

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I was 8, heavy into Davy Crockett, coonskin cap, flintlock pistol, powder horn that you blew into and it sounded like a trumpet, fringe jacket. Davy Crockett song on a 45 record with Nelly belle on the flip side!!:blink: I was also into all the cowboy stuff. Had a double criss cross rig with two ivory handled pistols (plastic ivory) and a cool hat with a stampede string. I was the coolest cowboy on my block!B)

Now I get to play with REAL cowboy guns and relive my youth, I love it!

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1955, on Sunday the only thing open was the movie theatre and church. Our town still didn't have traffic lights. There were 3 types of jobs available outside of farming. Work at a gas station, grocery store, or for most gals, as a waitress or carhop, (grade schoolers, paperboy). Most stores stayed open late Fridays, closed early saturday night, non opened on Sunday, though a few gas station did stay open till noon on Sundays. Banks were closed on Wednsdays as were the courthouses. Listened to the Cubs or White Sox on radion, then 3PM was when the top 40s countdown began. Since school let out at 3:15 sometimes missed the #40 to #35 hits. There were about 525 students in our High School, then there were the 2 grade schools and Catholic school. There were only 5 buses which picked up and carried home the country kids, everyone else walked, biked. There were very few parents that picked their kids up, walking was good excercise.

I sure miss them days, carefree, what with Ike as our President, and the evening news was only 15 minutes long, now the news is on all day long to confuse and rattle its listeners with crisis after crisis in the world. MT

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