JonMichael is Neither Jon nor Michael

Little Bitty Pretty One by Thurston Harris (#6 in 1957)

Another classic. Thurston Harris may be nothing more than a footnote in pop cultural history but I still hear this “Little Bitty Pretty One” over some movie trailers.  And why not?  It’s got a driving beat and great harmonies.  Early rock and roll at its most exuberant.  It is a little thin in the lyric department.  If it wasn’t for mmm’s and ah’s it’s last 13 seconds.  Of course its those that make this the raucous dance classic it is and also explains why Thurston may have troubled following it up.  He’s early disco before the rest was invented.

Bloglines 1/05

Top 50 RSS feeds of those over 5,000 subscribers on Bloglines
January 2005
1. Slashdot
2. Wired News
3. Boing Boing
4. Dilbert
5. Gizmodo
6. Google's Blog
7. The New York Times (Main Page)
8. Quote of the Day
9. Joel on Software
10. Engadget
11. CNet News
12. The Register
13. Scientific American
14. Salon
15. A List Apart
16. BBC News (World Edition)
17. Kuro5hin
18. Techdirt
19. BBC News (Technology)
20. The New York Times (Technology)
21. Snopes
22. PC Magazine (New Products)
23. Slate Magazine
24. Dictionary.com's Word of the Day
25. Cool Tools

Biggest Gainer: Engadget rose from #15 to #10
Biggest Faller: The Register fell from #9 to #12
Top Ten Trends: CNET and The Register fell off being replaced by Joel on Software and Engadget. This marks the seocnd straight month of The Register's decline.
Biggest Debut: #22 PC Magazine (New Products)

Some interesting things here. Sure two tech blogs surged passed two other tech blogs, but also of the four new entries only two are techies. Word of the Day and Slate are more for later adopters. Interesting, no?

You Send Me by Sam Cooke (#1 in 1957)

Simply put, there is no better and simpler statement of love than Sam Cooke’s first charting single “You Send Me.” It is so elegant (even perfect) that to try to describe would only fail. Sam Cooke never returned to the top of the charts again despite more than 20 worthy candidates among his singles. But maybe they just weren’t “You Send Me”.

Silhouettes by The Rays (#4 in 1957)

A great, great song.  In a time when black doo-wop group had the same shelf life as one of J-Lo’s love interests a couple of really great songs have really lasted.  The story is a timeless classic.  Guy sees his girl and another fellow in silhouette on the window and gets jealous and, at the same time appreciative of what he has.  He rings the bell and, oops, its not her house.  He then rushes to her arms and makes up for lost time. Which leaves one question, shouldn’t a guy this in love know where his sweetie lives?

Be-Bop Baby by Ricky Nelson (#3 in 1957)

Pre-”Poor Little Fool” Ricky Nelson is mostly boring (exception: “Stood Up”).  His songs are kind of lame cookie cutter tracks that really advance no ground.  I’m sure that Ricky must have felt pride in their success and it certainly paved the way for those later tracks.  So, three things about this one.  One: “Be-Bop Baby still in her ‘teens”?  I suppose so if she’s a baby.  Two:  I usually sing over the line after that one with “We don’t need your ghetto scenes.”  Three: I get so confused.  And the song is a lot more sock hop than be-bop.

Keep A-Knockin' by Little Richard (#9 in 1957)

Little Richard's last top ten is another of his spitters. He steadfastly affirms that you "keep a-kockin', but you can't come in." After the 15^th time, I believe him and admire his resolve. Again, Little Richard and Chuck Berry at this time were pushing the edges of rock and roll and having some success while Elvis was nudging them and having much, much more. More great piano built around the kind of freneticness that would make Taz dizzy. Little Richard was on to something, but it would another twenty years before it would reach its logical conclusion. Good song, though.

Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley (#1 in 1957)

Over the holiday weekend I watched two actual, actual movies (in addition to several episodes of other TV shows): Roger & Me and The Blues Brothers.  Both movies feature covers of this song, because both movies have scenes in jails.  There is no other jail song in popular music. Period. And this song is OK, preferred by John Sams while I am a stick-in-the-mud "All Shook Up" fan.  I would describe this song to you, but obviously you know it… if you've ever seen a movie with a jail in it.  "Find a parten wood chair."