Rock Evolution – The History of Rock ’n’ Roll - Pop pre-1960 (pg 38)

[Saddleworth2]

Our favourite song is of course Blue Moon, sung by many including Frank Sinatra and Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.

Has to make the playlist.

 

[RobMCFC]

Our favourite song is of course Blue Moon, sung by many including Frank Sinatra and Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.

Has to make the playlist.

I just thought that the Doo-wop version from the 60s is the best so I didn't bother nominating any of the other versions!

 

[threespires]

Our favourite song is of course Blue Moon, sung by many including Frank Sinatra and Billy Eckstine and Mel Tormé.

Has to make the playlist.

Thank you! There are so many great versions. Feel free to suggest an alternative to my thought below.

I just thought that the Doo-wop version from the 60s is the best so I didn't bother nominating any of the other versions!

Can you imagine SS1 trying to do the Marcels version version!!

The issue is we sing it at a slower tempo than The Marcels but quicker than the likes of Mel Torme.

The band at my wedding were 'under instruction' to play it in the style of Billie Holiday's which caused a bit of a hoohaa as the band leader made it very clear the phrasing was a nightmare for her and wanted extra moolah to practice it, as she was either doing it properly or not all!

Bit left field but how about Al Bowly's version? It's said that had he not died in a Luftwaffe raid on London he'd have given Crosby a run for his money.

 

[TonyColemansbagofapples]

Wasn't Blue Moon by The Marcels number one fifty years prior to the day we won the FA Cup under Bobby Manc?

 

[threespires]

Wasn't Blue Moon by The Marcels number one fifty years prior to the day we won the FA Cup under Bobby Manc?

I didn't know that. Have just looked and it went to #1 on May 4th '61 but it stayed there for 2 weeks, so it was indeed!

 

[shemnel]

thank you @threespires , another enjoyable write up.

For me, 'pop' has always confused me as to whether it is a genre, the origins of which you nicely summarise, or a state of mind/audience/movement. I think Pop continues to confuse people to this day, the word reviles some as they instantly think of bubblegum offerings from Britney Spears or some such, but then is countered by the fact that many consider the Beach Boys to be classic Pop. (but arent they surf-rock?!)

I imagine music as a series of interconnected nodes, with weak & strong linkages between ever splintering genres, but the cross-genre-cum-philosophy of Pop will always act as a strange unknown force acting of its own free will, a dark matter of the music industry.

 

[threespires]

thank you @threespires , another enjoyable write up.

For me, 'pop' has always confused me as to whether it is a genre, the origins of which you nicely summarise, or a state of mind/audience/movement. I think Pop continues to confuse people to this day, the word reviles some as they instantly think of bubblegum offerings from Britney Spears or some such, but then is countered by the fact that many consider the Beach Boys to be classic Pop. (but arent they surf-rock?!)

I imagine music as a series of interconnected nodes, with weak & strong linkages between ever splintering genres, but the cross-genre-cum-philosophy of Pop will always act as a strange unknown force acting of its own free will, a dark matter of the music industry.

In doing the intro I must have looked at a dozen different 'definitions' of pop and tbh was none the wiser at the end of it! So I stuck with a very simplified genre world view but your dark matter analogy is probably as good a description as I've seen.

 

[mrbelfry]

In doing the intro I must have looked at a dozen different 'definitions' of pop and tbh was none the wiser at the end of it! So I stuck with a very simplified genre world view but your dark matter analogy is probably as good a description as I've seen.

One definition I saw that I didn't like is that pop music is designed to sell records as opposed to 'proper' music which is art. I also saw a definition that described pop as jazz without the 7th chords or simply as music that isn't jazz or classical.

 

[threespires]

One definition I saw that I didn't like is that pop music is designed to sell records as opposed to 'proper' music which is art. I also saw a definition that described pop as jazz without the 7th chords or simply as music that isn't jazz or classical.

I agree about the first definition, I think some artists are quite cynical but that shouldn't condemn the entire category and commerciality and artistic expression are hardly mutually exclusive.

The "anything that's not jazz or classical" was one of the descriptions that popped up a couple of times, I can see where it comes from but it's a bit too reductive I think.

 

[GoatersLeftShin]

Absolutely brilliant write up again, some fantastic thoughts and things to think about. This is a belting thread already.

I'm certainly no expert on this era but I've always felt that a lot of the great songs from the musicals from this era would be classed as pop. To some extent I agree that the music that's not Sinatra, not rock n roll and maybe not country is maybe the start of the much maligned genre of "easy listening". The superb Burt Bacharach had Magic Moments recorded by Perry Como and I think Bacharach is regarded as a great from that genre and era.

And of course, it's hard to imagine we would be discussing this without breakthroughs in technology from TV to radio and the studio.

I have a decent collection of transistor radios with some from the early 60s and there's something almost magical hearing a song from the early 60s on a Roberts radio. You are hearing the song how it sounded back then. I can't imagine how that would've sounded to someone in that era!