Just about every time I go to the library I head back to the cd section. Of course I’m looking for music that I know I’ll like, but often I’ll grab something that I know almost nothing about, just to see what it’s like.
Recently I grabbed a CD for the historical value. I feel like I have a pretty good handle on what people liked during World War 2, but not what they liked after the war. Did it change much? Were the artists different? So I picked up Billboard Pop Memories: 1945-1949.
Here’s a quick playlist:
- Riders In The Sky (A Cowboy Legend) – Vaughn Monroe & His Orchestra
- Manana (Is Soon Enough For Me) – Peggy Lee
- Heartaches – Ted Weems & His Orchestra
- The Old Lamp-Lighter – Swing & Sway W. Sammy Kaye
- My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time – Les Brown & His Orchestra
- The Gypsy – Ink Spots
- Buttons And Bows – Dinah Shore And Her Happy Valley Boys
- Rumors Are Flying – Frankie Carle & His Orchestra
- Cruising Down The River – Russ Morgan & His Orchestra
- Sentimental Journey – Les Brown & His Orchestra
I only knew 2 of those songs previous to this CD, the first and the last. This list doesn’t show it, but some famous people sang on here as well. Doris Day did Sentimental Journey and My Dreams Are Getting Better All The Time and some other folks sang on the others. I’m assuming they were famous at the time.
I quite enjoyed the album. I really liked The Old Lamp-Lighter. The folks that listened to this had parents and grandparents that remembered when there were lamp lighters, and I think that’s cool. I think it’s interesting that just a few years later in the 1950’s Rock was born, and this style of music was never really popular again.
The Rolling Stones formed in 1962, just 13 years after the end of this collection, and had dramatically different music. Not only that, they’re still making music.
The style of music on this CD is enduring, but the fact that music made by a group that formed just 13 years later is still popular is impressive to me.
