My first real music writing of any note (if not distinction) was a series of top-hundred lists for each decade of the twentieth century. While I still pretty much like everything on them, I don’t stand behind any of them (well, maybe the 1900-1919 one) as serious guides to the music of the era; they were all just a bunch of songs I wanted to write about, encourage people to hear, or give a vote of confidence to. The earliest ones — by which I mean the ones I wrote earliest — are the worst, to the extent that I barely recognize the guy who compiled that 70s list (BTO? really?), but for some reason the failings of the 50s list have been haunting me most. I called it a list of rock & roll songs (which, as a descriptor of every song included, I stand behind), but my understanding of the music of the era was by my current standards terribly inadequate. So over the past three years I’ve been slowly collecting alternates; every time I hear something that I think should have been on that list but because of my ignorance or inferior taste wasn’t, I’ve added it to a mental playlist. And now that I’ve amassed a CD’s worth of them, that mental playlist is a real playlist. There’s still rock & roll here — though the only thing under that title is really a big-band jump blues with bop solos — but there’s also honky-tonk, zydeco, cabaret music, cool jazz, Memphis blues, Mardi Gras music, faux-Italian pop, faux-Latin pop, faux-Turkish pop, and one legendary dirty joke. This is the 50s at their most sophisticated and at their most gutbucket; but it’s mostly not the 50s that we recognize our own reflected image in — this music is of its time in the best sense, aloof from the slow descent (or singular apotheosis) which began with the wiggle of young Presley’s hips, lost behind the iron curtain of history, unrecoverable today except as pastiche or camp. Except in the obvious sense that you can still listen to it, still deliver yourself to these strange and ineffectual transmissions from an alien era. If I go on any longer I’ll start writing notes for each song and none of us wants that. Here you go. Download. » Cadillacs And Furs June Christy “Something Cool” James Wayne “Junco Partner” Johnny Horton “Honky Tonk Man” Tony Bennett “Blue Velvet” Roy Hawkins “The Thrill Is Gone” Johnnie Ray “Cry” Georgia Gibbs “Kiss Of Fire” Dean Martin “Sway” B. B. King “Woke Up This Morning (My Baby’s Gone)” Sarah Vaughan “Broken-Hearted Melody” Don Gibson “I Can’t Stop Loving You” Julie London “Cry Me A River” Elmore James “Dust My Broom” Chet Baker “Let’s Get Lost” Faron Young “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young” Anita O’Day “Rock ‘N’ Roll Blues” Boozoo Chavis “Paper In My Shoe” Rosemary Clooney “Come On-A My House” Carl Smith “Loose Talk” Blossom Dearie “The Riviera” Patti Page “The Tennessee Waltz” The Four Lads “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” Bull Moose Jackson “Big Ten Inch Record” Dinah Washington “Mad About The Boy” Patsy Cline “Three Cigarettes In The Ashtray” Doris Day “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Será, Será)” Hank Snow “I’m Movin’ On” Sugar Boy Crawford “Jock-A-Mo” Peggy Lee “Lover”
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My first real music writing of any note (if not distinction) was a series of top-hundred lists for each decade of the twentieth century. While I still pretty much like everything on them, I don’t stand behind any of them (well, maybe the 1900-1919 one) as serious guides to the music of the era; they were all just a bunch of songs I wanted to write about, encourage people to hear, or give a vote of confidence to. The earliest ones — by which I mean the ones I wrote earliest — are the worst, to the extent that I barely recognize the guy who compiled that 70s list (BTO? really?), but for some reason the failings of the 50s list have been haunting me most.

I called it a list of rock & roll songs (which, as a descriptor of every song included, I stand behind), but my understanding of the music of the era was by my current standards terribly inadequate. So over the past three years I’ve been slowly collecting alternates; every time I hear something that I think should have been on that list but because of my ignorance or inferior taste wasn’t, I’ve added it to a mental playlist.

And now that I’ve amassed a CD’s worth of them, that mental playlist is a real playlist. There’s still rock & roll here — though the only thing under that title is really a big-band jump blues with bop solos — but there’s also honky-tonk, zydeco, cabaret music, cool jazz, Memphis blues, Mardi Gras music, faux-Italian pop, faux-Latin pop, faux-Turkish pop, and one legendary dirty joke. This is the 50s at their most sophisticated and at their most gutbucket; but it’s mostly not the 50s that we recognize our own reflected image in — this music is of its time in the best sense, aloof from the slow descent (or singular apotheosis) which began with the wiggle of young Presley’s hips, lost behind the iron curtain of history, unrecoverable today except as pastiche or camp. Except in the obvious sense that you can still listen to it, still deliver yourself to these strange and ineffectual transmissions from an alien era.

If I go on any longer I’ll start writing notes for each song and none of us wants that. Here you go.

Download. »

Cadillacs And Furs

  1. June Christy “Something Cool”
  2. James Wayne “Junco Partner”
  3. Johnny Horton “Honky Tonk Man”
  4. Tony Bennett “Blue Velvet”
  5. Roy Hawkins “The Thrill Is Gone”
  6. Johnnie Ray “Cry”
  7. Georgia Gibbs “Kiss Of Fire”
  8. Dean Martin “Sway”
  9. B. B. King “Woke Up This Morning (My Baby’s Gone)”
  10. Sarah Vaughan “Broken-Hearted Melody”
  11. Don Gibson “I Can’t Stop Loving You”
  12. Julie London “Cry Me A River”
  13. Elmore James “Dust My Broom”
  14. Chet Baker “Let’s Get Lost”
  15. Faron Young “Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young”
  16. Anita O’Day “Rock ‘N’ Roll Blues”
  17. Boozoo Chavis “Paper In My Shoe”
  18. Rosemary Clooney “Come On-A My House”
  19. Carl Smith “Loose Talk”
  20. Blossom Dearie “The Riviera”
  21. Patti Page “The Tennessee Waltz”
  22. The Four Lads “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)”
  23. Bull Moose Jackson “Big Ten Inch Record”
  24. Dinah Washington “Mad About The Boy”
  25. Patsy Cline “Three Cigarettes In The Ashtray”
  26. Doris Day “Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Será, Será)”
  27. Hank Snow “I’m Movin’ On”
  28. Sugar Boy Crawford “Jock-A-Mo”
  29. Peggy Lee “Lover”

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