What prompted this current submission was my recent trip down memory lane with Bill Dennis' recent "Ads From The Past", plus a few other memories that I happened upon on both RockinghamRemembered and RockinghamMemories. I collect memorabilia like this myself. I for one really enjoy the memories of "The Good Old Days!" The musical styles, prices, and headlines have changed as the decades have passed us by, but the one constant is they will forever engage a recall button in each of our minds every time we encounter them again!
Over the years, I've kept a record of the top pop hits from the '20's through the '70's. I have always loved Billboard Magazine. Billboard, per Wikipedia, "...is often considered to be one of the 'holy grails' of the entertainment industry, and the official trade publication of the music industry; it is typically regarded as one of the most relevant and unbiased sources of information on the music industry." Billboard was actually founded in Cincinnati, OH, in 1894, but it wasn't until the development of the juke box in the '30's that led Billboard to begin publishing the music charts for which it ultimately became famous. I loved the pop music, especially the Beach (Shag), Rock 'n Roll, R & B, and Doo-Wop, and Blues so much that I even subscribed to this publication when I was in Junior High School. Imagine, 1959-1960 and subscribing to 'Reader's Digest' (Mom's ideas), 'Boy's Life' (because of Scouts), and Billboard. I had to earn money delivering papers for The Journal to pay for my Billboard subscription.
On January 4, 1936 Billboard published its first music hit parade, and on July 20, 1940 the first Music Popularity Chart was calculated. Since 1958 the Hot 100 has been published, combining singles sales and radio airplay. Billboard currently puts out over 100 charts each week, the most popular ones being Hot 100, Billboard 200, and Hot 100 Airplay.
I chose to share the attached charts beginning with the music of the '50's simply because the first record I ever purchased with my own money was during this era. 'Rock Around The Clock' was the title of the 45. It was a 12 bar blues based song with the best known and most successful rendition being recorded by Bill Haley and The Comets in 1954 (I still have it to this day). It rose to become #1 on Billboard's song chart the following calendar year of 1955. Thus began my love for the styles of music mentioned above. I continued the compilation of these charts through the '60's because I graduated in '64. I also didn't want to leave out the music that was popular for the remainder of the '60's because many of my friends graduated then; therefore, Dr. David Hunneycutt, Joel Bailey, Bobby McDonald, all of my classmates and my little sister, Anne, these are for you, too. The charts compiled represent the Top 20 Songs for each individual year, 1950-1969, with no title having reached less than a #2 ranking on the Billboard Charts for that calendar year. A detail I found really interesting were the names of some of the artists that had multiple titles appearing on these charts during any given year in the mid '50's through the '60's. Elvis and The Beatles may not surprise you, but I assure you that some of the others will.
I've also included charts of "What Happened The Years Of 1950-1969." There are many really interesting facts that will jog your memory even further. Facts like in 1950 a gallon of gas cost $ .18, a brand new car was $1,510.00, and a new house was $5,450.00. Oh well, so much for inflation.
I hope these charts of song titles and the "What Happened That Year" posters will bring back some really fond memories for all of you. May your "...memories again become so thick that you will have to brush them away from your faces."
