EVERY Billboard #1 country hit discussion thread 1955-1959

This unnecessarily over-lush rerecording has none of the charm of Eddy's original, which was pure and honest.

 

Does seem to point to his future direction, dunnit?

 

Now for the last song of 1955 to top all three charts in the same year:
"Love, Love, Love" by Webb Pierce
(#1 on MPJB for 9 non-consecutive weeks - November 5-December 24, 1955 and January 7, 1956; on BSR for 8 weeks - October 22-December 10, 1955; and on DJ for 13 non-consecutive weeks - October 29-December 31, 1955 and January 14, February 4 and February 25, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry

 

One of Webb's better up-tempo numbers, and a lot of fun.

Here's a live rendition from the Gannaway films in which the tempo is goosed up just a little bit, to good effect:

 

I seem to remember his re-do for The Webb Pierce Story double-LP was considerably shorter.

 

You're right. I checked on my Webb Pierce Story and it clocks in at 2:02.

 

Now for this biggie which crossed over to (and topped) the pop charts - and over here, was the last #1 of the year 1955 on two charts, and the first for 1956 on th'uther . . .
"Sixteen Tons" by "Tennessee" Ernie Ford
(#1 on MPJB for 7 non-consecutive weeks - December 31, 1955 and January 14-February 18, 1956; on BSR for 10 weeks - December 17, 1955-February 18, 1956; and on DJ for 3 non-consecutive weeks - January 7 and January 21-28, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry

 

Now, for 1956 . . .
"Why Baby Why" by Red Sovine and Webb Pierce
(#1 on DJ for 4 non-consecutive weeks - February 11-18 and March 3-10, 1956; on MPJB for 1 week - February 25, 1956; and on BSR for 1 week - March 10, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry - Mr. Sovine's first topper. And it wouldn't be the last time we'd be hearing from its writer, either.

 

Tennessee Ernie's "Sixteen Tons" deserves its place in history as a great song with a great arrangement. However, it's also quite effective in a simpler version done by its composer, the great Merle Travis.

"Why Baby Why" is a wonderful song, but I don't have a lot of use for the Sovine/Pierce version. George Jones' original is infinitely better. Unlike the entire rest of the universe, George's Starday recordings constitute my favorite era of his career. I used to haunt garage sales and junk stores trying to snap up every possible cheesy Starday Jones LP I could get my hands on (and there were a LOT of them!), attempting to build as complete a collection as possible.

I recently sprung for the Bear Family box set of the complete Starday recordings, which set me back a pretty penny. But I just had to.

 

For those more preferable towards the future "Possum's" version . . .

 

Interesting in that most versions of George's "Why Baby Why" that appeared on Starday albums were edited — cutting out the initial piano and steel solo and going (rather awkwardly) directly into the fiddle solo. They also faded out quickly after the last vocal, as opposed to going all the way to the end with a cold ending. I've only heard this original single version in more recent years.

I think either most of them were sped up, or this particular YouTube video is playing at a slower speed — it sounds like it drags a bit to my ears.

 

Now for the first of several toppers from a dude known at this remove as "The Hillbilly Cat":
"I Forgot To Remember To Forget" by Elvis Presley (with Scotty and Bill)
(#1 on MPJB for 5 weeks - March 3-31, 1956; and on BSR for 2 weeks - February 25-March 3, 1956)

As this came out on two labels - this was his last on Sun, and then picked up for national distribution by RCA Victor (which also hooked Elvis up for life) - they will be shown by order of label, with 78 RPM labels first and 45 RPM labels afterwards.

Sun:


RCA Victor:


Wikipedia entry

 

Now for this first (and only) topper for a duo of siblings . . .
"I Don't Believe You've Met My Baby" by The Louvin Brothers
(#1 on DJ for 2 weeks - March 17-24, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Sadly, no Wikipedia entry for this.

 

A wonderful and very clever song that shows off both brothers to good advantage. There are a couple of videos on YouTube that show them doing this song live, and they're great.

One is from the color-filmed Gannaway sessions, and represents their only appearance on this series. I recall reading that Ira smarted off to someone on the set, and they were never invited back.

I'm glad this hit #1, but I've always wished one of The Louvin Brothers' more substantial songs had got that honor…in particular the sublime "I Wish It Had Been a Dream."

Songwriter Autry Inman had an interesting career in both rockabilly and country. His "Ballad of Two Brothers" actually got some airplay on AM Top 40 stations in 1968, and reached #48 on the Hot 100.

 

My access to Youtube seems to have gone to hell, but I will say I used to play my older brother's EP 45s in the early 60s and I Forgot to Remember to Forget You is one of my favorites.

 

Now for the only number from the future "King of Rock 'n' Roll" to hit the top of all three charts . . .
"Heartbreak Hotel" by Elvis Presley
(#1 on MPJB for 13 non-consecutive weeks - April 7 and April 28-July 14, 1956; on BSR for 17 weeks - March 17-July 7, 1956; and on DJ for 12 weeks - March 31-June 16, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry - it was within this song's run at #1 that, on June 30, the respective charts became known as Most Played C&W in Juke Boxes, C&W Best Sellers in Stores and Most Played C&W By Jockeys.

 

My own preferred version of this, though, is . . .

 

The Sun Records material will always be the acme of Elvis Presley's achievements, but he certainly did some very good records in the years that immediately followed.

This one has much to recommend it; in particular, the musical backing is restrained and entirely appropriate for the subject matter. This is, of course, far from the sort of thing that typically made the country charts of this era, but Elvis was in these early days simply and unstoppable phenomenon.

 

Before you posted, I was asking myself, how it could have been country.

 

And here's the reason why, on one chart, "Heartbreak Hotel's" run was non-consecutive:
"Blue Suede Shoes" by Carl Perkins
(#1 on MPJB for 3 weeks - April 7-21, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry

 

Much is made of the terrible threat the rise of rock 'n' roll posed to country music when it first came to prominence. But the last two posts show that there was at least a short period of time when the genres co-existed relatively peacefully, with much crossover. And in truth, you can find uptempo country boogie songs from several years previous that aren't very far removed from rock 'n' roll at all.

"Blue Suede Shoes" has a somewhat firmer claim to country legitimacy than many songs. It's a classic, of course, and I never rated Elvis's cover of it nearly as highly as the original.

It will always be a great unknown what might have happened with Carl's career if he hadn't been involved in that serious car accident on the way to appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show. He had loads of talent, though he was hurting in the looks department as far as any hope of becoming a teen idol. So it's an open question.

In any case, though he didn't have more big hits, his songs have endured down through the decades. I've been performing many of them myself for well over 40 years.

 

Way down the road (when we get to the near the end 1960's #1 thread), Mr. Perkins would be the lead guitarist on another country #1. Both as a solo artist and as a glorified sideman, he had flashes of chart greatness.

 

Now we look at another across-the-board biggie - and the first topper for this individual . . .
"Crazy Arms" by Ray Price
(#1 on DJ for 18 weeks - June 23-October 20, 1956; on MPJB for 1 week - July 28, 1956; and on BSR for 11 non-consecutive weeks - July 28-September 22 and November 3-10, 1956)

78 RPM release:

45 RPM issue:

Wikipedia entry

 

I must see if I can still get in that pair of Blue Suede Hush Puppies I bought about 20 years ago.

 

One of the truly great songs and performances in the history of country music! Hugely influential, and a classic to this day. I can't begin to count the number of times I've performed it, and I never get tired of it.

In my early days of country fandom, I always assumed that Ray simply double-tracked the harmony part on the chorus of this and the other honky-tonk classics that followed in its wake. But then I came to learn that in fact it's Van Howard singing those high harmony parts.