Featured song: Jerry Lee Lewis – Great Balls Of Fire
This is a series of articles looking at pop music from 1955 when in my opinion proper pop music began up to 1999 when they stopped making it. One article for each year.
I am only going to select one featured song for each article, which makes it hard. I am going to try and select a different artist for each year.
For many people, and I include myself, you tend to still like the tunes you heard during childhood, which your parents often played. So rather than just pick the top 10 hits of each year, I shall let you know what they were, but also the tunes of that year not necessarily in the top 10 or so, what were in my view classics. I also add a couple of events in history for that year, it helps bring back memories, and hopefully happy ones.
Not everyone will like my choices of course, and you may remember some from each particular year that you feel should have been included, so do please post a link to the song.
So on we go with memories from 1958: (Thank you Wiki)
What was I doing in this year? – I was 2, so probably toddling around.
Prime Minister – Harold Macmillan (Conservative)
6 January – Chancellor of the Exchequer Peter Thorneycroft resigns over opposition to spending cuts, an event dismissed the following day by the Prime Minister as “little local difficulties
6 February – the Manchester United F.C. team plane flying back from a European Cup tie in Belgrade crashes on take-off after refuelling at Munich Airport in West Germany. 21 of the 44 people on board are killed. Seven of them are Manchester United players: captain and left-back Roger Byrne (aged 28), centre-half Mark Jones (aged 24), right-half Eddie Colman (aged 21), centre-forward Tommy Taylor (aged 26), full-back Geoff Bent (aged 25), left-winger David Pegg (aged 22), and inside-forward Billy Whelan (aged 22). Eight of the nine sports journalists travelling on the plane are also killed, including the former Manchester City and England national football team goalkeeper Frank Swift. Among the survivors are 10 United players and manager Matt Busby, who is reported to be seriously injured. Outside-right Johnny Berry and left-half Duncan Edwards are also reported to be in a serious condition. Duncan sadly died on the 21st Feb.
24 March – work on the M1, Britain’s first full length motorway, begins. The first stretch of the motorway, due to open next year, will run from London to the Warwickshire-Northamptonshire border. During the 1960s, the remainder of the motorway will be built to give London an unbroken motorway link with Leeds some 200 miles away.
22 April – the Hancock’s Half Hour episode “Sunday Afternoon at Home” is first broadcast on BBC radio.
3 May – Bolton Wanderers win the FA Cup for the fourth time in their history with a 2–0 win over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. Both goals are scored by centre-forward Nat Lofthouse
9 June – the Queen officially reopens Gatwick Airport, which has been expanded at a cost of more than £7,000,000
10 July – first parking meters installed in the UK
1 August – Ian Fraser, Baron Fraser of Lonsdale becomes the first life peer.
1 August – Premiere of Carry on Sergeant, the first Carry On film.
30 August – Notting Hill race riots in London
16 September – relaxation of restrictions on hire purchase. – The start of the “never-never”
16 October – first broadcast of the long-running BBC Television children’s programme Blue Peter
28 October – the State Opening of Parliament is broadcast on television for the first time
24 November – exhibition of computers held at Earl’s Court, London; the first of its kind in the world
5 December – The Preston Bypass, the UK’s first motorway, is opened by Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.
5 December – Subscriber Trunk Dialling (STD) is inaugurated by The Queen when she dials a call from Bristol to Edinburgh and speaks to Lord Provost.
The Top 10 Singles with a You Tube hyperlink on the title:
| Top Hits of 1958 | ||
| 1 | The Everly Brothers | All I Have To Do Is Dream |
| 2 | Connie Francis | Who’s Sorry Now |
| 3 | Perry Como | Magic Moments |
| 4 | Connie Francis | Stupid Cupid |
| 5 | Lord Rockingham’s XI | Hoots Mon |
| 6 | Max Bygraves | Tulips From Amsterdam |
| 7 | The Kalin Twins | When |
| 8 | Pat Boone | It’s Too Soon To Know |
| 9 | Conway Twitty | It’s Only Make Believe |
| 10 | The Everly Brothers | Bird Dog |
Great Balls Of Fire sold one million copies in its first 10 days of release in the United States and sold over five million copies, making it both one of the best-selling singles in the United States, as well as one of the world’s best-selling singles of all time.
Jerry Lee Lewis (born September 29, 1935) is an American rock and roll and country music singer and pianist. An early pioneer of rock and roll music, Lewis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. Lewis was born to the poor family of Elmo and Mamie Lewis in Ferriday in Concordia Parish in eastern Louisiana, and began playing piano in his youth with his two cousins, Mickey Gilley and Jimmy Swaggart. Lewis would often kick the piano bench out of the way to play standing, rake his hands up and down the keyboard for dramatic accent, sit down on the keyboard and even stand on top of the instrument.
More writings on this song here: More on Great_Balls_of_Fire
In my view the best songs of the year, after the featured track are:
Danny & The Juniors. At The Hop
Everly Brothers- All I Have To Do Is Dream
Elvis Presley – Jailhouse Rock
Conway Twitty – It’s Only Make Believe
Hat tips to:
http://www.uk-charts.top-source.info/ These give the top 100 selling charts for each year
http://www.everyhit.com/chart1.html These give the top 10 songs for each year
https://www.youtube.com/ You know them.
Next time, 1959.
© Phil the test manager 2018
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