Rock and Roll Music
Rock and roll music evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s from gospel, blues, jazz, boogie woogie, rhythm and blues and country music. Many maintain that the first rock and roll single was Rocket 88, written by Ike Turner, sung...
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How Much is that Doggie in the Window?
How Much is that Doggie in the Window, written by the novelty tune specialist Bob Merrill and sung by Patti Paige, reached No. 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1953, and sold over two million copies.
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Vaya con Dios
Vaya con Dios (Go with God) was written by Larry Russell, Inez James, and Buddy Pepper, and first recorded by Anita O'Day in December 1952. The most-popular version of the song was recorded by the popular husband-and-wife musical duo Les Paul and Mary Ford and...
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The Weavers Wimoweh
https://youtu.be/77VUYPVMtWY Wimoweh - 1952 The Weavers were an American folk quartet from Greenwich Village in New York City who sang traditional folk songs from around the world, as well as blues, gospel music, children's songs,...
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Roy Rogers Show
The Roy Rogers Show was broadcast on NBC from December 1951 to June 1957. Before changing his name, Rogers used his given name Leonard Franklin Slye to co-found the Sons of the Pioneers. https://youtu.be/s3FclAQDCxU IMDb Set in the fictional town...
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Amahl and the Night Visitors
https://youtu.be/VUKvrNeNgk8 Amahl and the Night Visitors was a one-act production by Gian Carlo Menotti that was the first opera specifically composed for television in America. The story: One night in Judea, a disabled shepherd...
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Your Hit Parade
Your Hit Parade's first radio broadcast was in 1935. It continued on TV from 1950 to 1959. The show's sponsor was the American Tobacco Company Lucky Strike Cigarette. Wikimedia Commons https://youtu.be/-2lhHs3UtnA https://youtu.be/6QZ-c6Lxfiw...
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Aaron Copland Clarinet Concerto
Commissioned by jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman, Aaron Copland composed his Symphony No. 3 - Concerto for clarinet, strings and harp. It was first performed by Benny Goodman on a radio broadcast with the NBC Symphony Orchestra in November 1950. Copland wrote: "The...
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Al Jolson
https://youtu.be/KD_YRnuuKyY Al Jolson, born Asa Yoelson, was an American singer, comedian, and actor who lived from 1886-1950. In the 1920s, Jolson was immensely popular as America's highest-paid entertainer. In 1927 Jolson starred in The Jazz Singer, the...
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Aegukka ~ Korean Anthem
https://youtu.be/DvRe2g-_n_A Aegukka (lit. "Patriotism Song") is the national anthem of Korea. Originally adopted by the Korean exile government (1919–1945) in Shanghai, China as their national anthem Aegukkga was sung to the tune of Auld Lang Syne. The...
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Miles Davis
Miles Davis explored the trumpet’s middle register, experimenting with harmonies and rhythms and varying the phrasing of his improvisations.
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Arirang
This lovely, traditional Korean song is >600 years old. The refrain Ariyang... is apparently nonsensical. There are many versions of the lyrics reflecting love, loss, resistance and patriotism. Arirang, Arirang, Arariyo...Crossing over Arirang Pass.The one who...
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Fats Domino
https://youtu.be/7eU90nf7xJg Antoine "Fats" Domino's 1950 song "The Fat Man" is widely regarded as the first million-selling Rock 'n Roll record. One of the pioneers of rock and roll music, Domino sold more than 65 million records. LISTEN Fats Domino: 12 Essential...
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God Bless America
Kate Smith' s version of Irving Berlin's song God Bless America has been part of American sports tradition for decades. https://youtu.be/-BIoN9bWTMo However, a recent revelation that she also recorded two songs with racist content in the 1930s (That's Why Darkies Were...
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R.I.P. Doris Day
https://youtu.be/D0MtzQDltr0 Doris Day, the freckle-faced movie actress whose irrepressible personality and golden voice made her America’s top box-office star in the early 1960s, died on Monday at her home in Carmel Valley, Calif. She was 97. ~ NY Times May 13, 2019...
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Popular Music
https://youtu.be/Oi6oSjmDV4U https://youtu.be/j11rwc6Sf4o
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People’s Republic of China
Song of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army (PVA) Forward! Forward! Forward!Our army faces towards the sun,Over the ground of our Motherland,Carrying the hope of our nation, We are an invincible power!We are the sons of peasantry,We are the arms of the people! Always...
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SO LONESOME I COULD CRY
Hear that lonesome whippoorwill He sounds too blue to flyThat means he's lost the will to live I'm so lonesome I could cryDid you ever see a night so slow As time goes draggin' byThe moon just went behind the cloudsTo hide its face and cryThe silence of...
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45 RPM RECORDS
https://youtu.be/jKlIwvKYIzI In March 1949, RCA Victor released 7- inch 45 revolutions per minute (RPM) records as smaller, higher-fidelity replacements for the 78 rpm shellac discs. The first 45 rpms were monaural and recorded on both sides. Almost all 45 rpms were...
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Top Songs of 1948
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izaQaJSR-_Y Here is a list of the top 100 songs of 1948
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Brigadoon
Brigadoon, a musical by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, premiered on Broadway in 1947 and ran for 581 performances. A 1954 film version starred Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, and a 1966 television version starred Robert Goulet and Peter Falk. In the show,...
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Voice of America Calls USSR
Established in 1942 for Allied propaganda broadcasts during WWII, the Voice of America (VOA) continued broadcasts after the war aimed mostly at Western Europe. In September 1947, VOA began broadcasts aimed at the Soviet Union with: “Hello! This is New...
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Muddy Waters
Growing up in Mississippi, McKinley Morganfield (1913 – 1983) played Delta blues in the style of Son House and Robert Johnson. Later, performing as Muddy Waters, he was recognized as one of the original modern Chicago...
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Annie Get Your Gun
Annie Get Your Gun, a 1946 Broadway show with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by the brother-sister team of Dorothy and Herbert Fields, was a fictionalized account of the life of Annie Oakley, a 19th and early 20th-century sharpshooter who starred in...
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Dunkirk
After seeing the new movie DUNKIRK directed by Christopher Nolan last night, I wanted to recommend it to you readers. Like the top film critics, I found this film technically flawless and emotionally extremely powerful. The film's soundtrack by Hans Zimmer kept...
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