Record of the Year 1955: Crew Cuts - Earth Angel

Originally I decided that as a rule when picking my record of the year, I would not pick the same artist twice. However, there isn't another record I know from 1955 that's anywhere near as good as "Earth Angel" and at the same time, I can't think of a record anywhere near as good as "Sh Boom" in 1954.

I first heard "Earth Angel" when I watched the Temptations movie. It was early on in the film when it was covering Otis Williams and a singing group in his school days, who were singing it a cappella in the street.

The original was by the Penguins, but this was the only version which charted in the UK. It reached number 4 and remained in the charts for 20 weeks.

So both of the Crew Cuts hit singles make my record of the year. Not bad.

UK Singles Chart: 1955

So now we have the first Rock n Roll single in the charts, surely now is the time for Rock n Roll to dominate the charts. Well again, not quite.

The second week of 1955 saw Bill Haley & the Comets - Rock Around the Clock enter the charts, but would only reach number 17 before falling out of the charts 2 weeks later. Shake Rattle and Roll on the other hand proved to be more successful, reaching number 4 and remaining in the charts until March. In April, Bill Haley & the Comets released Mambo Rock which reached number 14 and fell out the charts 2 weeks later. That would be it for Rock n Roll's presence in the charts for a while.

The second week of the year saw the Stargazers score their third number one, collaborating with Dickie Valentine on Finger of Suspicion which would see them tie with Frankie Laine for most number ones. Frankie Laine maintained his record of total number of hits with 19 by the end of the year, but had no further number ones.

We were still in an era where several artists would record the same songs and nothing illustrated this better than the song Stranger in Paradise where there was 6 different versions of this song which charted this year. They were recorded by Four Aces featuring Al Alberts, Eddie Calvert, Bing Crosby, Don Cornell, Tony Martin and Tony Bennett whose version reached number one. Another notable song of the year was Unchained Melody, which had 4 different versions. They were recorded by Liberace, Les Baxter, Al Hibbler and Jimmy Young whose version reached number one.

There were 3 new nationalities in the charts this year, there was the De Castro Sisters and Perez 'Prez' Prado who were from Cuba, Eve Boswell from Hungary and Caterina Valente from France. In addition to the De Castro Sisters there were four more groups charting for the first time, Ames Brothers, McGuire Sisters, Ink Spots and Five Smith Brothers.

In October after several months of the usual traditional pop music dominating the charts, Rock Around the Clock would re enter the charts. This time proved to be more successful reaching number one at the end of November and remaining in the charts well into 1956. Also in November we saw the first Rock n Roll song by a different artist with Pat Boones cover of Ain't That a Shame by Fats Domino, somebody yet to have a hit in the UK at this point. Then in December we had Boyd Bennett & His Rockets - Seventeen and another Bill Haley & the Comets tune, Rock-A-Beatin' Boogie. These two were the only songs of the year which were performed by the songwriter. We would have no further hits from Boyd Bennett & His Rockets, but it wouldn't be the last we would hear of Bill Haley & His Comets.

So will we have the Rock n Roll explosion we've all been waiting for in 1956? We'll see in a couple of weeks.

Mark Summers - Summers Magic

One topic that's often been debated across internet forums over the years was an article from Mixmag in 1992 titled "Did Charly Kill Rave?"

The article was basically saying that when The Prodigy released Charly in August 1991, it opened up the door for other rave tunes which sampled children's programming such as Sesame's Treet and A Trip to Trumpton, therefore alienating the original ravers whilst everyone else started to see rave music as a bit of a joke.

However, in January of 1991 some 7 months before Charly was released, Mark Summers released Summers Magic which sampled the Magic Roundabout. Whilst not as commercially successful as Charly (it reached number 27 whereas Charly reached number 3) this was really the tune which got the ball rolling for what Mixmag would call Toytown Techno. According to Wikipedia, when Charly was being played at raves prior to it's release, people actually thought it was a Mark Summers tune.

Although this was the only Mark Summers top 40 hit, he did have further chart success in 1996 with Inferno under the alias of Souvlaki and with Just Playin as part of JT Playaz. These days though, instead of sampling tunes he replays the samples, something he has done for several other artists such as replaying Boney M's Gotta Go Home for Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand.

Its now been 25 years since Summers Magic was in the charts and whilst it may be low on the credibility scale, its a lot of fun to listen to.

Record of the Year 1954: Crew Cuts - Sh Boom

My record of the year for 1954 is the Crew Cuts - Sh Boom. This was originally recorded by the Chords the same year but did not chart in the UK. There was another cover of this song which charted in 1954 but Stan Freberg, but this was a comedy version so this is why I've picked the Crew Cuts version.

This is the sort of song I would imagine appealing to a younger audience much more than the traditional pop music which had dominated the charts to date. Generally speaking the music of the early 50s isn't really my cup of tea but this is a record I can definitely say is good.

It was a number one in both the USA and Australia but in the UK it reached number 12, but this was when the charts had expanded to the top 20. It also charted higher than the Stan Freberg version which got to number 15.

The Crew Cuts would carry on as a group until 1964, but they only had one further hit in the UK with Earth Angel the following year.

UK Singles Chart: 1954

So now we're into 1954, midway through the fifties so surely now is the time for the rock n roll music the decade is often remembered for? Well, not quite.

The charts were still dominated by solo artists doing traditional pop music like they had been the previous two years. We still had nobody outside of the UK, USA, Canada or Trinidad & Tobago have a UK hit.

However, it was starting to evolve a bit more, most notably in October when it expanded from a top 12 to a top 20. Notable chart debutants of the year included Frank Sinatra and Petula Clark, both of who were already established musicians. The year also saw debut hits for the Crew Cuts and the Four Knights, bringing Doo Wop music to the charts for the first time.

Frankie Laine was still the artist who had scored the most hits, having 14 to his name by the end of the year. However, he failed to add to his tally of 3 number ones, but nobody had multiple number ones this year and Frankie Laine would still hold the record of most number ones by the end of the year.

The Christmas number one was Winifred Atwell - Let's Have Another Party. Winifred Atwell is the only female instrumentalist to have a UK number one and this is the only instrumental Christmas number one at the time of writing this. Another interesting fact though is that at 5 minutes 23 seconds long, its only 27 seconds shorter than Bohemian Rhaspsody the song you often hear was deemed too long to be a success prior to its release. Let's Have Another Party is it's length because it's a ragtime medley but I would also argue that Bohemian Rhapsody is its length because its essentially five songs rolled into one.

We had the first posthumous uk hit in 1954, Glenn Miller Orchestra - Moonlight Serenade. Glenn Miller had died whilst fighting in the second world war in 1944. He had also written this composition himself therefore joining Winifred Atwell on the list of musicians who had a UK hit they wrote. Also joining that list this year were Ken Mackintosh who had a hit with The Creep and comedian Norman Wisdom who had a hit with Don't Laugh at Me.

In addition to the doo wop groups mentioned, there were three more groups making their chart debuts this year. They were the Four Aces who did a version of Three Coins in the Fountain which was a number one that year for Frank Sinatra. Then there was The Chordettes who had a hit with Mr Sandman, which was also a hit for Dickie Valentine that year. Finally, in the final week of 1954 we had the first UK hit from Bill Haley & His Comets with........

No, not that one. It was actually Shake Rattle and Roll, but this is the beginning of the music which would go on to define the decade, the question is will the UK charts reflect this? We'll see when we look at 1955 and beyond.

Massive Attack @ Brixton Academy

Back in 2009 I discovered Massive Attack had released a new album for the first time in several years and they were doing a tour to promote it just after the tour had finished. I was disappointed to have missed out, though didn't realise it would be another 7 years until I got another opportunity to go and see them play somewhere which is not a festival.

All three gigs they played at Brixton Academy sold out pretty quickly, I bought my tickets the same day they went on sale. With these dates being later on in the tour, I took a look at the setlist website to get an idea of what tunes to expect. One notable absence from the playlist was Unfinished Sympathy, arguably their biggest tune. But then Massive Attack are not known for sticking with the norm so it shouldn't be much of a surprise really.

The band didn't arrive on stage until 20 minutes later than their scheduled time, it really annoys me when bands do this. It was quite a low key entrance to the stage really and it was when they played the third track of the night, Rising Son when 3D and Daddy G came to the front of the stage when they grabbed the crowds attention.

What probably grabbed the crowds attention most though were the visuals in the background. It was mainly political messages with a lot of focus on Syria, with a lot of statistics being shown. It wasn't all serious though, some of the headlines appearing later on in the show was a lot of nonsensical celebrity news with the likes of Kanye West being mentioned a lot which was quite amusing.

Most of the music played throughout the night was either new music or from their most recent album Heligoland. Then later on, more familiar tunes like Teardrop, Angel and Safe From Harm were played. One thing I noticed during Angel was that 2 drum kits were being played, which isn't something I've seen before.

They played four tunes in the encore, three of which were new ones and two of those featured Young Fathers who were the support act for the night. They finished off with Splitting the Atom from their Heligoland album, by which point I had made my way towards the back of the venue and made a swift exit once they had finished.

The following day I discovered that they actually came out for another encore to play Unfinished Sympathy, annoying that I didn't get to see that especially as like many people, it was the tune that got me into Massive Attack in the first place. Still overall was a good gig and would definitely go to see them again.