Best tunes since 1950
 

Me and a friend are doing a mix tape(s) for each other.

The idea is to include a track from each year, starting in 1950.

Then we'll swap and see how our tapes compare.

We have time on our hands evidently.

I'm thinking of starting with Shot Gun Boogie by Tennessee Ernie Ford. What would you start your's with?

miles davis-moon dreams

L'Hymne a L'Amour - Edith Piaf.

The internet really takes the fun out of these things, doesn't it?

(EDITED)

Miles Davis - "Darn That Dream" (the vocal track from the "Birth Of The Cool" Sessions).

1957 is going to be really really tough to decide. I could make a library of songs from 1957. Elvis, Buddy Holly, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Bo Diddley, Leonard Bernstein, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Sam Cooke....DAMN!!

flip a coin
otherwise its impossible

1985 - husker du

HOW bout SOME beatles MERSBOW and WOLVE'S EYES

thats what my choice is from too. "the birth of the cool" is so fucking.....cool.

thats actually probably where my interest in jazz begins. i mean, i like some of the 40s thelonious monk (but not as nearly as much as his later stuff, which is oozing with brilliance), some of charles mingus's early recordingsa with louis armstrong (but cmon, this doesnt even compare to what the guy would be doing to bass 15 years later), some dizzy gillepsie, some charlie parker, but the 'birth of the cool' really signified a new era of creativity and originality in jazz. it was now to be seen as a music with potential to be very unusual and sometimes strange, instead of something to snap your fingers too while having some drinks in a dim-lit bar. the importance of miles's early recordings can not be denied.

I should have said that the idea is to look at the development of ROCK music.

Fair do's, but Miles did share his massive coke stash with the Stooges once....is that link tenuous enough to work?

haha, he was an h junkie too

miles influenced rock anyways, hendrix, sly and the family stone, parliament funkadelic, shit loads others. you can argue and say funk aint rock n roll, but to me its just rock thats better to dance to.

One for each year I cannot muster (I still left plenty out), and I didn't limit selections to rock music. Wiki sez "Good Rockin' Tonight" appeared in '47, and the first version of "Rock Around The Clock" in 1952 was a blues song originally. Of course Bill Haley & The Comets' version in 1954 did much to popularize the genre and the term "rock 'n' roll."

So these are not my top rock songs from 1950 onwards,
these are my top fifty individual recordings from the fifties.

1950 Muddy Waters - Rollin' Stone
1950 Gene Autry - Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer
1951 Elmore James - Dust My Broom
1951 John Lee Hooker - I'm In The Mood
1951 Nat King Cole - Unforgettable
1952 John Cage - 4'33"
1953 Les Paul & Mary Ford - Vaya Con Dios
1953 Hank Williams - Your Cheatin' Heart
1953 Percy Faith - Song From Moulin Rouge
1954 Bill Haley & The Comets - Rock Around the Clock
1954 Muddy Waters - Hoochie Coochie Man
1954 Elvis Presley - That's All Right (Mama)
1955 Elvis Presley - Mystery Train
1955 Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
1955 Muddy Waters - Mannish Boy
1955 Chuck Berry - Maybellene
1955 Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons
1956 Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins - Brilliant Corners
1956 James Brown & The Famous Flames - Please, Please, Please
1956 Fats Domino - Blueberry Hill
1956 Chuck Berry - Roll Over Beethoven
1956 Chuck Berry - You Can't Catch Me
1956 Gene Vincent - Be-Bop-A-Lula
1956 Little Richard - Long Tall Sally
1956 Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line
1957 John Coltrane - Blue Train
1957 Ken Nordine - Flibberty Jib
1957 Henri Chopin - Peche de Nuit
1957 Miles Davis - Moon Dreams
1957 Miles Davis - My Funny Valentine
1957 Muddy Waters - Got My Mojo Working
1957 Chuck Berry - Rock and Roll Music
1957 Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
1958 Buddy Holly - Words Of Love
1958 Ritchie Valens - La Bamba
1958 The Big Bopper - Chantilly Lace
1958 Chuck Berry - Sweet Little Sixteen
1958 Chuck Berry - Carol
1958 Chuck Berry - Johnny B. Goode
1958 Link Wray - Rumble
1958 James Brown & The Famous Flames - Try Me
1958 The Everly Brothers - All I Have To Do Is Dream
1958 John Coltrane - Lush Life
1958 Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - Moanin'
1958 Bud Powell - The Scene Changes
1958 Eddie Cochran - Summertime Blues
1959 Chuck Berry - Little Queenie
1959 The Isley Brothers - Shout!
1959 Ornette Coleman - Chronology
1959 Phil Phillips - Sea of Love

Oh yeah, and there were major developments in world news today, but I won't go into it.
You probably apathetically don't really care and besides, I wrote about it like a year ago.

1961: Del Shannon - Runaway

1980 - bauhaus - stigmata martyr and/or dark entries

that's hard to decide between. Dark Entries has the extremely low bass vocals, while Stigmata Martyr has that awesome harmonics part.

erm...

1961
Roy Orbison - Runnin' Scared
Roy Orbison - Crying
Ben E. King - Stand By Me
Patsy Cline - Crazy
Patsy Cline - I Fall to Pieces
Patsy Cline - Walkin' After Midnight
The Tokens - The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Etta James - At Last
Dion - Runaround Sue

---

1961
John Coltrane (Quintet) (with a 15-piece brass section which included Freddie Hubbard & Eric Dolphy)
Africa
Song of the Underground Railroad

You'd have to put Dion over Del Shannon.

i think i'm going to go with dark entries

Some great suggestions from Atari for the 1950s and 1961. Thanks.

And definitely Dion over Del Shannon.

My tape has stalled a bit because I'm thinking about it too much. But I'm definitely going with Shotgun Boogie for 1950.

Now it's 1951.

yes!

So far it's:

1950: Tennesse Ernie Ford - The Shot Gun Boogie
1951: Wayne Raney - I Ain't Nothin' But A Tom Cat's Kitten
1952: Bill Haley & The Saddlemen - Rock The Joint
1953: Willie Mae 'Big Mama' Thornton - Hound Dog
1954: Big Joe Turner - Shake, Rattle & Roll
1955: Charlie Feathers - Peepin' Eyes
1956: Wanda Jackson - Hot Dog! That Made Him Mad
1957: Richard Berry - Louie Louie
1958: Larry Williams - Slow Down
1959: Hank Ballard & The Midnighters - The Twist

I would have a hard time covering the 50s. My collection's pretty thin on that end.

The beatle's "A Day In The Life"

And honorable mentions have to go to:
Eddie Cochran, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Elvis. All could be included but this is based just on my own favourite tracks.

My initial draft for the sixties:
1960: Hank Ballard - Broadway
1961: ?
1962: ?
1963: ?
1964: ?
1965: The Who- The Kids Are Alright
1966: Lee Hazlewood - My Autumn's Done Come
1967: Little Richard - Get Down With It
1968: Rufus Lumley - Stronger Than Me
1969: The Upsetters - Return of Django

I'm stretching the "rock" element a bit so I might have to have a rethink.

Suggestions for 61-64?

vintage pookie

The Beatles - She Said She Said (1966)