1950 to1955 - Music, Music, Music Quiz

Answer: the nickelodeon

"Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon
All I want is lovin' you and music! Music! Music!"

The song, written by Stephan Weiss and Bernie Baum, was also recorded by The Ames Brothers, Carmen Cavallaro and Freddy Martin among others with Teresa's version the biggest hit recording.

Teresa started in the entertainment business as a two year old and won several talent contests as a child. Subsequent to this, her first, she churned out a steady stream of charting hits until 1961 when she temporarily retired to raise her family. She began recording and entertaining again in 1972 but changed her focus from pop to jazz - her new husband was Bob Thiele, a record producer well connected to the jazz scene. She remained fairly active until her last recording in 1991. As of 2005 and fully retired, she resides in NYC.

Answer: Come On-a My House

"Come On-a My House" was Clooney's hit, the other titles were songs recorded by Doris Day during the late 40s - early 50s. Here's a sample of the lyric:

"Come on-a my house my house, I'm gonna give you candy
Come on-a my house, my house, I'm gonna give a you
Apple a plum and apricot-a too, eh
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house a come on
Come on-a my house, my house I'm gonna give a you
Figs and dates and grapes and cakes, eh"

Those compelling words were written by William Saroyan, Pulitzer Award winning author in 1940 for "The Time Of Your Life". Also receiving song-writing credits is Saroyan's cousin, Ross Bagdasarian who later achieved fame under the pseudonym David Seville, creator of the recording "Alvin and the Chipmunks".

Answer: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

"Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" peaked at #4 in 1952. Here's a slice of the lyric:

"There's a pawnshop on a corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
And I've just gotta get five or ten (five or ten)
From the pawn shop on a corner in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Gotta be with my angel again"

Most of Mitchell's releases in the early 1950s were similar in style. A mixed chorus who embellished the percussion and tempo of the song with rhythmic clapping would back him. His songs were always fun and energetic. It should come as no surprise that almost all of his hits were produced by Mitch "follow the bouncing ball" Miller who later incorporated the same technique into his own successful TV show! Ultimately, Mitchell would have two monster #1 hits, "Singing The Blues" in 1956 and "Heartaches By The Number" in 1959. But, like for so many other 1950 crooners, the 1960s were unkind to him - the record buying public was into rock & roll and he wasn't capable of the transition. He acted in several movies and did TV work until the nostalgia music tours in the 1970s and 1980s revived his career somewhat. He passed away, at the age of 72, in 1999 due to complications during surgery.

Answer: She wants a companion for her beau while she's away

The first verse after the chorus reveals all -
"I must take a trip to California
And leave my poor sweetheart alone
If he has a dog, he won't be lonesome
And the doggie will have a good home"

Patti was the premiere female vocalist of the 1950s scoring four number one hits altogether. She was among the first to utilize over-dubbing of her own voice on her recordings to create a lush sound and was a mainstay on the pop charts for twenty years, from 1948 to 1968. Although her recording career essentially ended in 1968, she continued to perform well into the 1990s.

To my memory, this is the very first song I can actually remember hearing on the radio when I was five years old!

Answer: Three Coins In The Fountain

The song, written by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne, was featured in the movie with the same title starring Clifton Webb, Dorothy McGuire, Jean Peters, Rossano Brazzi, and Louis Jourdan. The song, as sung by Sinatra, won the Academy Award that year. The fountain, of course, is the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome where the movie was filmed.

Answer: (I'd've Baked A Cake)

This was Eileen's only big hit although she did have four other songs to chart in the top thirty in the early 1950s.

She was a child performer during the 1930s and 1940s and often appeared on radio programs hosted by the likes of Milton Berle and Rudy Vallee. The advent of the rock and roll era signaled the death knell of her career and search as I might, she seems to have faded entirely from view in the entertainment industry.

Bob Merrill, an extremely prolific songwriter of the era, wrote this song. He also wrote "Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania" and "The Doggie In The Window", earlier subjects in this quiz. He wrote a number of Guy Mitchell's hits and was responsible for Barbra Streisand's classic "People". Almost unbelievably, he could neither read nor write music! He did his compositions on a cheap toy xylophone with numbered keys that were used to transcribe the melodies! Tired of enduring a long illness, he took his own life in 1998.

Answer: High Noon

The movie - "High Noon", the song - "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)".

The song won the academy award in 1952 for composers Ned Washington and Dmitri Tiomkin as sung by Tex Ritter. His version peaked at #12 but was eclipsed by a competing version sung by Frankie Laine. It peaked at number five.

Answer: Les Paul and Mary Ford

Together, they would have several huge hits in the early 1950s including "How High The Moon", a number one for nine weeks in 1951. They started recording together in the late 1940s, married in 1949 and continued to entertain as a couple until their divorce in 1963.

They truly capitalized on Paul's genius as a recording engineer, he being among the very first to experiment with multi track layering of his guitar work and Ford's vocalizations. Together they made beautiful music... in the professional sense, of course!

Answer: Oh! My Pa-pa

Originally entitled "O Mein Papa", this would prove to be the biggest hit of Fisher's career. Perhaps now better known as the father of Carrie Fisher, his child with Debbie Reynolds, he was a genuine idol to the "bobby soxers" of the early 1950s and had an impressive run of big hits during the "no era" era. Yet another casualty of rock and roll, he mostly cut albums of standards during the 1960s, his last charting single coming in 1967 and only peaking at #97.

Despite that, he continued to perform into the 1990s.

Answer: Tennessee

Number one for 13 weeks, it was Patti Page's biggest hit of her career. Co-written by Redd Stewart and Pee Wee King, King would have a number one hit of his own in 1952 with "Slow Poke".

Answer: Jambalaya

Within six months, Williams would be dead but Jo Stafford would go on to have a long and successful career. To be more accurate, by 1952, she already had had a long and successful career!

As a teenager, she and her sisters were a popular radio act around their hometown of Fresno. Later, she would join the Pied Pipers and remained with the group during their stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in the early 1940s. When the group broke away from the Dorsey organization in 1943, Stafford chose to go solo herself and immediately began charting hits. She would ultimately have four number one hits during the late 1940s and early 1950s, her last top 40 hit charting in 1956. She went into semi-retirement during the mid 1960s and left the entertainment business entirely in 1975. As of 2005, she continued to live in retirement in California.

Answer: The Student Prince

Altogether, in fifteen years from 1944-1958, Lanza appeared in eight movies, starred in seven of them and his voice was featured in another, "The Student Prince". He only had a handful of entries on the musical charts, and just one number one hit - "Be My Love" in 1951. What was the fuss about? The voice! A voice that was comparable only to that of Caruso!

Regarding "The Student Prince", one story relates that because Lanza was berated for his acting technique by Curtis Bernhardt, the initial director of the movie, Lanza walked off the set. It was also speculated that Lanza was fired for a variety of reasons - he was dependent on drugs and alcohol and was becoming undependable; these addictions were affecting his performance; he was becoming moody and surly on the set; and, he had become lazy and fat, too fat to portray the leading role of a young prince on screen. Regardless, rather than reinforce his place among the "stars" of the era, he became a despondent recluse for a couple of years. While in seclusion he started to tackle his addiction issues then, disenchanted with America, moved to Rome where he resumed his acting career in 1958. He died of an apparent heart attack in 1959 at the age of 38. Later speculation suggests that he was actually "rubbed out" in a mafia hit after refusing to perform at Lucky Luciano's behest. Perhaps an offer he shouldn't have refused?

Answer: Little Bo Peep

The record begins -
"I have a message for you - a very sad message!
My subject for this evening will be Little Bo Peep.
It says here, 'Little Bo Peep, who was a little girl,
has lost her sheep'"
and later continues -
"They will come home a-waggin' their tails behind them.
Behind them?
Did we think they'd wag them in front of them?
Of course, they might have come home in reverse.
They could have done that, I really don't know.
But, none the less, it's in the book."

A sample from the second half of the song.
"Well, let's sing what's left of the last verse.
Let's have a happy time, everyone.
The last verse, al-l-l-l together.
Ev-v-v-very one!

Mm-m-m-m. Thank you kindly, kindly,
M-m-mrs. O'Malley, out in the valley,
Suffered from ulcers, I understand.
She swallowed a cake of grandma's lye soap,
Has the cleanest ulcers in the land."

The two parts of the song were essentially the flip sides of a disc but they weren't labeled as such. Hence, the song has an official playing time of well over seven minutes making it easily the longest number one song to that point in time.

I was able to gather very little biographical data on Standley. He was born in 1912 in Oklahoma and died in 1992 at the age of 79. He was with band leader Horace Hiedt's stage show in the 1950s and it was Heidt and His Musical Knights which provided the back-up instrumentation on the second half of this record. Both his mother and father were vaudevillians and it is very likely that he was drawn into this form of entertainment as a child performer. Perhaps, while traveling the circuit, he encountered this type of preacher and crafted the song to properly mock them. I do not know!

Answer: Wheel Of Fortune

Kay was born in Oklahoma in 1922, moved to Dallas as a child and after winning a talent contest, had her own 15 minute radio show while barely a teenager. Before she was 18 years old, she had stints with several orchestras including those led by Joe Venuti, Bob Crosby, Charlie Barnet and, for two weeks, Glenn Miller.

As the big band era was slowly coming to an end, most singers were focusing on solo careers and Kay was no exception. Prior to "Wheel Of Fortune", she had nine charting hits, six of which were top 10s, most notably "Bonaparte's Retreat". From the early 1960s on, Kay continued to entertain world wide in concerts and was among the first to establish a presence in casinos in Vegas and Reno.

She also changed her recording focus to albums featuring country music or soft jazz.

She continued to perform well into the 1990s but now appears to have retired from the business.

Answer: Mr. Sandman

"Mr. Sandman" was the first big hit for The Chordettes, staying at number one for the last seven weeks of 1954.

The Chordettes were originally formed in their hometown of Sheboygan, Wisconsin during the late 1940s and were initially dedicated to the "Barbershop Quartet" style of singing. From 1949 to 1953, they were regulars on the Arthur Godfrey radio and TV shows. Godfrey's musical director, Archie Bleyer, signed the group to his new record company, Cadence, and recommended that they do this song. Bleyer produced all their subsequent recordings on Cadence and several were rather significant hits - "Born To Be With You" (number 5 in 1956); "Lollipop" (number two in 1958); and, "Never On Sunday" (number 13 in 1961). The group disbanded in 1963 shortly after their lead singer retired.