The Top Hits Of 1956 Trivia Quiz

Answer: Love Me Tender

Of the songs listed, "Love Me Tender" was the ballad and it indeed was adapted from an old folk song written by George R. Poulton and W. W. Fosdick. Perhaps coincidently, the song was introduced in the movie "Love Me Tender" which was set during the Civil War.

"Love Me Tender" spent four weeks at number one, 14 weeks in the top ten, 19 weeks in the top 40 and 23 weeks in the top 100. According to their rating, this song accumulated 1720.46 points, good for number 14 for 1956.

Answer: Whatever Will Be, Will Be

Also known as "Que Sera, Sera", the song won an Academy Award that year. Perhaps that was the purpose of the movie, merely to serve as a vehicle for Day to warble the song as often as possible throughout it. Good song, weak movie!

Although it never topped the charts, it did peak at number two for three weeks and spent 15, 22 and 27 weeks in the top 10, 40 and 100 respectively to total 1743.67 points.

Answer: Canadian Sunset

This recording was Winterhalter's only entry on the Billboard top 40 charts during the rock era. However, he did have over two dozen charting hits from 1949 to 1954. During the 1940s, he was the arranger for several big bands: Count Basie, Tom and Jimmy Dorsey and Claude Thornhill among them. He also arranged and conducted the orchestra behind such recording luminaries as Eddie Fisher, Perry Como and Billy Eckstine.

Heywood suffered from a mysterious paralysis of his hands for extended periods over his career as a jazz pianist. When unable to play, he resorted to composing, arranging and conducting, this melody a product of one of those periods of disability.

Despite only peaking at number two for two weeks, this version of "Canadian Sunset" accumulated 1751.57 points largely due to its 31 weeks on the Top 100 chart. Williams' version rated number 44 for 1956.

Answer: Just Walking In The Rain

All these songs were Johnnie Ray hits but the other three pre-dated the rock era in 1951 or 1952. Almost totally deaf, Ray was notorious for his on-stage histrionics that, for some reason, made him an idol to a legion of female fans. With the ongoing rock and roll revolution, Ray's schtick lost its cachet and he would only have two more top 20 hits in 1957 before disappearing from the charts altogether in 1959. "Just Walking In The Rain" was another song that peaked at number two on the Billboard charts but altogether, it sat in the top 10 for four months, hence its high ranking.

Answer: Rock And Roll Waltz

Number one for four weeks on the Top 100 chart, it accumulated a total of 1862.33 points. The other songs listed also were highly ranked songs for 1956. "Allegheny Moon" by Patti Page was number 20, "Tonight You Belong To Me" by Patience and Prudence was number 30 and "A Sweet Old Fashioned Girl" by Teresa Brewer ranked number 53.

Answer: Memories Are Made Of This

"Memories Are Made Of This" was Dean Martin's biggest hit of the rock era. His first hit, "That Certain Party", was a comedy recording he cut with Jerry Lewis, his old movie cohort in 1948. Although he had a few other charting hits during the early 1950s, most notably "That's Amore", he was more focussed on his movie career and it was only after his association with Lewis ceased in 1956, that he returned to recording studio more regularly.

He suffered a decline in chart fortunes in the early 1960s but made an astounding comeback with "Everybody Loves Somebody" in 1964 and remained a steady influence on the charts until 1969.

He continued to perform on TV and in Vegas until about 1987 when his son Dino (of Dino, Desi and Billy fame) was killed in a plane crash.

He never really recovered from that tragedy and spent his last years in seclusion and golfing with his close buddies. He died on Christmas Day in 1995 at the age of 78.

Answer: My Prayer

The song was performed by The Platters, the first black group to have a number one hit in the rock era with "The Great Pretender" in 1955. The group formed in the early 1950s but only when they hooked up with Buck Ram as their manager did they make an impact on the music scene. Not only did Ram manage them astutely, he also wrote many of the enchanting songs they recorded and had hits with, this one included. The Platters continued as an entity until the late 1960s with several personnel changes. Most of the original members of the group have been dead for many years but their various replacements over the years have splintered into many "Platters" groups that continued to perform right into the new millennium... at last count, at least 125 sanctioned versions of the group are now performing on the oldies circuit!

"My Prayer" accumulated 1879.10 points on this ranking system, primarily due to the five weeks it sat at number one on the Top 100 chart.

Answer: Frank Sinatra

Sinatra and Riddle collaborated on some of the best albums produced in the 1950s and early 1960s for Capitol Records. In fact, many critics regard them as some of the best recordings of all time! Riddle didn't confine himself to Sinatra. He also did the arrangements for many in the stable of Capitol artists such as Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland and Dean Martin. Because Presley and Como recorded for RCA Victor and Boone for Dot Records, they never benefited from Riddle's expertise although it is dubious indeed that Presley and Riddle would have seen eye to eye on musical arrangements!

"Lisbon Antigua" garnered 1968.56 points based on its 17 week stay in the top 10 of the Top 100 chart, including six weeks at number one.

Answer: Green Door

Lowe never gets to join the party behind the "Green Door".

Little biographical data is available regarding Mr. Lowe. He was a 29 year old New York City DJ when he recorded the song and he did go on to have four more charting hits in 1957, two of which hit top 20, before he disappeared from view, at least on the pop charts. I suspect that he may have persisted as an entertainer in country music and because he's listed in Joel Whitburn's references as a composer as well, perhaps he devoted his energies in that area.

"The Green Door" was number one for three weeks, top 10 for 18 weeks, earning a total of 1988.07 points.

Answer: Paris

Like his colleague at Capitol Records, Nelson Riddle, Baxter initially served as a conductor/arranger, primarily for Nat King Cole, most notably on "Mona Lisa". Probably because Riddle was getting the plum artists, Baxter changed focus and began orchestrating a series of albums based on foreign exotic themes, the South Pacific for example. "Poor People Of Paris" actually was an early example of this exploration of "world music" and it does sound like something one might have heard wafting from a Parisian accordion player.

The recording was credited with 2075.35 points.

Answer: Heartbreak Hotel

This was Elvis' first charting hit, the first to chart number one and his first million selling Gold Record. Not a bad debut! Song writing credits are accorded to Presley, Tommy Durden and Mae B. Axton, the mother of Hoyt Axton who later became a country recording star and song writer himself. Among the back-up performers on the recording were Nashville legends Chet Atkins and Floyd Cramer.

Answer: The Wayward Wind

"The Wayward Wind" was number one on the Top 100 chart for seven weeks and stayed in the top 100 for close to seven months. Gogi Grant was the singer and this was her follow-up release to her 1955 debut hit "Suddenly There's A Valley" which peaked at number nine on the charts.

Despite having two charting hits so early in her career, she was never able to capitalize and by the early 1960s was primarily performing in nightclubs in L.A. Essentially, she retired from show business in 1967.

Answer: Don't Be Cruel

There were four different charting resources in those early days - the Juke Box (based on juke box play), Best Sellers (based on record sales), the Disk Jockey (based on air play) and the Hot 100 (Billboard's arbitrary ranking presumably based on some combination of the other charts). "Don't Be Cruel" charted number one for seven weeks on the Top 100 chart, the basis for these ratings, but on the Juke Box and Best Sellers charts, it was number one for 11 weeks. Joel Whitburn, the noted authority on chart history, generally accords a song the highest ranking from all these charts in his publications.

Hence, "Don't Be Cruel" is usually recognized as achieving number one status for eleven weeks as opposed to the seven noted in this answer.

Answer: Singing The Blues

Guy Mitchell was the singer and when this version broke out to be such a smash, Marty Robbins must have felt like his pocket was picked!

Robbins was the first to record this song written by Melvin Endsley. His somewhat countrified version was doing very well on the country charts and was starting to advance up the Top 100 pop chart as well. Mitchell, like Robbins, was under contract to Columbia Records but hadn't really had a big hit since 1952. Columbia execs thought that perhaps Mitchell could do something with the song, quickly recorded and released it, and voila, it became the biggest song of his career and the fourth rated song for the entire period between 1955 to 1959. Meanwhile, Robbins' version stalled at number 17. At least Robbins had the last laugh... he went on to a long, productive career. Mitchell's recording career ended in the early 1960s.

Answer: The Great Pretender

Another Platters hit, the lyric provides another example of Buck Ram's genius with words.

There were three versions of "Ivory Tower" that ranked in this sample of Top 100 hits from 1956. Cathy Carr's was ranked number 29, Gale Storm's was number 56 and Otis Williams' was number 59. "It Only Hurts For A Little While" was recorded by The Ames Brothers and it was ranked number 39 while The Four Lads hit "No, Not Much" was number 24 for the year.

I hope you enjoyed this style of quiz. Dependent on its reception, I might be able to conjure up a few more... I have the ranked data through to 1987!