Welcome!

Hi friends – welcome to my blog!

Hopefully you’ve taken a moment to read a little bit about myself in the “About Me” section of my site, as that will give you some details about who I am and what my blog will set out to do.

As you’ve read, my blog is going to be about some of the great artists of the 1950s, and to get us started, I would like to begin by painting a picture of what the 50s looked like.

The 50s was a decade full of new and exciting innovations for America. Coming out of World War II the United States was the wealthiest country in the world, which meant wages were up and middle-class America had more money to spend than ever before, and what a better way to spend that money than at the record store!

Now, you might be wondering who the top selling music artists during this period were. Well, when most people think about the 50s, they usually think of Rock and Roll, you know - Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, and Little Richard. Yeah… I’m not here to talk about them. They’ve had enough coverage over the years.

If you’re not sure who these artists are, click on each of their names and it’ll direct you to a YouTube clip of them singing one of their great hits, giving you a sense of their music style – which is vastly different than the artists I’ll be talking about.

So, now you may be thinking, “Well, who are you going to teach us about then, Steven?” Good question!

You see, in the 50s there were 2 types of music that occurred on the popular charts. One being Rock and Roll, which didn’t really occur, or start to have a major impact on the public until the mid-50s, and the other type of music being what’s called “Traditional Popular music,” or “Retrospective Popular music.” Some may even classify this nowadays as “Easy Listening” or “Adult Contemporary” music.

A few artists in this field, and the artists I’ll be focusing on throughout this blog include - Perry Como, Jo Stafford, Patti Page, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Kay Starr, and many, many more!

Some of you may recognize these artists names, most likely from Christmas time which would make sense seeming how those classic holiday tunes you hear on the radio were recorded during the era of 50s Pop, and that’s the only time their voices occur on the radio in our modern day. For those of you who have no idea who these artists are, no worries! That’s what I’m here for, and I look forward to telling you their stories and showing you some of the great music they had to offer.

Now, you may also be asking yourself how I became associated with a genre of music far older than myself. Well, as you read in my “About” section, you can give a big thanks to my American-Italian Grandmother. From the age of 4 years old she raised me on the music of Dean Martin (her personal favorite.) I can see the two of us together now, dancing in her living room to one of Dean Martins hit songs, “Sway!” She also used to regularly sing to me in the car after she picked me up from pre-school, usually the tune of Teresa Brewer’s 1950 smash hit, “Music! Music! Music!” “Put another nickel in - in the nickelodeon” she’d sing, and I’d sing back “All I want is having you and music, music, music!” Another one she used to sing to me was Louis Armstrong’s “Hello Dolly,” but instead of “Dolly” she’d sing Steven, singing “Hello Steven - This is Grammy! - It's so nice to have you back where you belong!” And last but not least, she loved singing Rosemary Clooney’s song “Beautiful Brown Eyes” to me, when she knew damn well my eyes are blue!

All these years later, she’d never thought I’d still be carrying those songs with me, but unlike many kids who couldn’t stand listening to the songs of their grandparent’s generation, I was the opposite. The music was clean, pure, and came from the heart, not to mention catchy!

As I’ve said, through this blog I’m going to walk you through many of these artists lives and their music, but I’m also going to be explaining how to collect a lot of this music, because I can tell you right now, Spotify isn’t the kindest to those of us who prefer music that isn’t the “latest and greatest.”

That's all for today folks! Be sure to follow my Twitter @SnappinSteve for regular updates!

As always, thanks for reading and until next time, this is your 50s music fanatic, Steven B. - signing off!