Anyone Else Into Pop Vocal Music (non-rock) of the '40s & '50s?

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

frigilux

frigilux

Well-known member
Platinum Member
Joined
Mar 3, 2007
Messages
12,661
Location
The Minnesota Prairie
Although rock music is my daily driver entertainment-wise, I love the pop vocal hits of the '40s and '50s. I used to have quite a collection of 78 rpm. records and would play them all the time, especially on Sundays, when I seemed to enjoy hearing those great old songs.

I went a little berserk at iTunes & Amazon this morning and ordered a ton of great old music: Margaret Whiting, Dick Haymes, Bing Crosby, Patti Page, Dinah Washington, Dean Martin, Billie Holiday, Doris Day, Brook Benton, Ella Fitzgerald, Helen Forrest, Jo Stafford, Kay Starr, Nat King Cole, Perry Como, Sarah Vaughan, Frank Sinatra, Georgia Gibbs and the weirdly incomparable Yma Sumac.

I also made my first E-bay purchase (yes, I was an E-bay virgin): Italian crooner Domenico Modugno's 1958 album Nel Blu Dipiniti di Blu (otherwise known as Volare). My mom was from Italy and someone bought that album for her when it first came out. I grew up listening to it at least once a week. Feeling nostalgic, I went on a search for it. It turned up on the 'Bay, so I bought it.

And finally, one of my 78 rpm albums was a recording of The Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Dimitri Mitropolous doing Rachmaninoff's 2nd Symphony in e-minor. It's my favorite symphony, and while I have several other recordings, the scratchy old MSO version was my favorite. Managed to find a used CD of it on Amazon. I'm over the moon! I got rid of all my 78's (yes, I seemed to have a pattern of getting rid of irreplaceable possessions) in The Great Purge of '88. Now I have much of the stuff back again, scratch-free in MP3 and CD form. Life is good, people---although my smoldering credit card is now cooling its jets on a wire rack in the kitchen, LOL.

Most all of my purchases came from iTunes. I was amazed at how much old stuff they had.
 
Love it.......

Eugene, I got my love of music from my mother. I wore out her albums and 45's. Doris Day was especially a great love of mine. There was one album my mom had....I bet I could recite the words to every song on that album....."Tunnel of love", "Don't eat the daisies", "Teachers Pet", "Bewitched,Beguiled and Bewildered", All time fav...."Do not Disturb" And of course on 45's - The Crew Cuts, Bill Hailey and the comets, Nat King Cole, and on and on. Most all of them I have downloaded. <p> I need to go over to mom's and peruse her albums again.....she probably has 100.
 
my parents...

Were born in 1923(mom) and 1928(dad) so they were in their teens/20's during the big band era.
I grew up listening to the big bands(Glen Miller, Benney Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Lawrence Welk...ect)

My mom especially loved the big bands, and has trophies and ribbons and such from dance contests she'd won back in the 40's..
She's seen Benny Goodman and Harry James perform live.

My mom grew up in a small town in Central Illinois called Princeton. She and her sister and some friends were in Chicago every weekend to see a band and dance. From the stories they tell, they had a blast!
My dad used to say nobody could dance a jitterbug like mom did...
Once I did get to see them dance one, at my sister's wedding in 1986.
That kind of dance is a lost art for sure!

I need to check out I-tunes as well. Can you get the big bands and such from there?
 
That music really rocks - kinda!

Eugene:

I am a HUGE fan of 40's and early 50's music! Yma Sumac...could that gal hit a high note or what!!!! How about Frankie Lane and Vaughn Monroe? Remember the "Hut Hut" song!!

Even though I have some great albums, I really enjoy XM Satellite channel 801 for great 40's hits! This stuff is a polar opposite of heavy metal rock. It launches you to a totally different mindset!
 
Jeff-- There's quite a bit of big band music at iTunes. I searched "iTunes Essentials" and found a collection called "1940s Pop" which had a good selection of artists, including Big Bands. Or just search by name---Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, etc. There are also collections from the 1920s, 1930s and 1950s. You can buy the 'starter set' (about a dozen songs) or graduate up to the 'complete set' which have about 75 songs from their representative decade on them. But you have to search "iTunes Essentials" to find those collections. If you type in "1940s Pop", for example, it comes up blank.

Venus-- We had a compilation album from the Mercury label called "Galaxy Of Golden Hits" which had Frankie Lane's song Mule Train. Loved it! I forgot all about Vaughn Monroe. I'll have to go searching for some of his stuff, too. Yma Sumac is sort of an acquired taste---people seem to either love her or be compelled to poke their own eyes out with knitting needles when they hear her.

Tom-- I love those Doris Day songs, too. I picked up a 'best of' at iTunes that has almost every one of the Day songs you mentioned. She was great, wasn't she? I also bought a box set by The Nat King Cole Trio called "The Complete Capitol Transcription Sessions" which is excellent. I used to call it Department Store Jazz, but now I love it!
 
Jeff---One more thing; Do you have an iPod? The music at iTunes is available for download only. Come to think of it, even if you don't have an iPod, you can just store the music on your computer and burn CDs of the stuff for yourself.

Just wanted you to know that they don't sell CDs. If you already know all this, please excuse my stating the obvious, LOL.
 
yes I have an IPOD...

30 GB I think...

I've got all my CD's on it and still have tons of room...

I can listen at work, so I am always looking for something new to add to it.
 
All good stuff. My musical taste runs the gamut but jazz and classical are my favorites.
A good CD I dug out the other day and well worth getting is
Sarah Vaughan & Billy Eckstine singing the Irving Berlin songbook.. lots of good old chestnuts and the sound is superb
It's on EmArcy/Polygram. Not a bad or boring song on it.
 
Jeff--- My face has gone all red with embarrassment. Anyway, everything you're looking for is at iTunes; have at it!

Pete-- I'm a huge fan of both Sarah Vaughan (even her early 60's string-drenched pop period on the Mercury label) and Irving Berlin. I'll definitely look for that disc. Thanks for the tip.
 
frigi...

no worries man, I am most appreciative, I love that old music, so I am going shopping on Itunes when I get home!
 
While very partial to the early 60's, I do enjoy the 50's rock & roll as well as the "pop standards of the 50's. Sinatra, Jerry Vale, Jimmy Rosselli and the incomparable Sarah Vaughan.

My parents did not prohibit us from listening to anything we wanted, but rather insisted that we listen to many different kinds of music, including opera.

A particular favorite CD which is well worth searching for is Sarah Vaughan's "Sarah Sings Broadway" - I think that is the name, but I will check and repost if necessary. Lots of great songs - of course as with any CD, I don't like every song. But then neither did Sarah. I understand that during the Mercury years, the deal was that she would record whatever they wanted her to on one side and whatever she wanted to on the other side. This was my mother's favorite and often I would come home to hear at the ironing board or in the kitchen singing away to those songs.

I agree that the combination of Sarah and Billy Eckstine was a powerhouse. If you have never heard their duet "Passing Strangers", you are missing a real treat. Both of them are at full power and range.

Some felt that her signature vibrato and eight octave range made her seem unnecessarily extravagant. But her talent was such that only someone like her could play with notes and not seem "wasteful" or silly. The difference with her was that she was actually a musician also, so she understood both sides.

Those rich musical arrangements were exactly what her voice needed.
 
I listen to what ever.. Rock is my biggest daily driver.. But i too grew up with big band and such as i was raised by grams and gramps..
 
I think I get my music appreciation from my dad. He loved jazz, classics, opera, you name it. And he played it loud. There wasn't any genre he didn't like but like everyone had his favorites. I get annoyed sort of when I hear people say things like "oh I can't stand classical, or country, or whatever" My other half is like that.. likes his country music and some pop and that's it.. won't give anything else a chance.
I don't by many opera records but rather highlites of them. I also love operetta's because they're usually light and lively.
 
I love the big bands, my fav being Artie Shaw but i like the pop music also. Lena Horne, Cab Calloway, The Inkspots, and I actually got to see the Platters in person. And although country I also think that Patsy Cline fits into this catagory.
 
I keep my DirecTV tuned to channel 801 - the 40's (XM radio) - when I'm not watching TV. So relaxing in the evenings and while I'm sleeping. Interesting story - DirecTV switched from their music stations to XM radio about 1am one night a year or so ago. I went to bed listening to Big Band and woke up from a nightmare with "The Boneyard" station at 2:30am. I especially like Glenn Miller. Outside the house, I have my car stereo set on rock or metal.
 
John, that is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE Sarah Vaughan song. It was on the Mercury 'Galaxy of Golden Hits' compilation we had when I was a kid. "Broken Hearted Melody" and Dinah Washington's "What A Difference A Day Made" were my two favorites on the album. Once the album couldn't be played anymore, I immediately sought out those two songs on CDs. I've been listening to them since I was a toddler.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top