Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings

1872 Pages·2013·31.59 MB·English

by  Steve Sullivan

Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song
Recordings
Steve Sullivan
Volume 1
THE SCARECROW PRESS, INC.
Lanham • Toronto • Plymouth, UK
2013
Published by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham,
Maryland 20706
www.rowman.com
10 Thornbury Road, Plymouth PL6 7PP,
United Kingdom
Copyright © 2013 by Scarecrow Press, Inc.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical
means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher,
except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-
Publication Data Sullivan, Steve, 1954– Encyclopedia of great popular song recordings / Steve Sullivan.
volumes cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8108-8295-9 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-8108-8296-6 (ebook) 1. Popular music—
Discography. 2. Popular music—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML156.4.P6S87 2013
016.78164026'6—dc23 2012041837
™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard
for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Contents
Abbreviations
Criteria for Song Selection
Introduction
Playlist 1: Crazy Blues, 1906–2004
Playlist 2: Down Home Rag, 1897–2005
Playlist 3: Sitting on Top of the World, 1890–2011
Playlist 4: Good Rockin’ Tonight, 1904–2005
Playlist 5: Jazznocracy, 1897–2010
Playlist 6: Hot Time in the Old Town, 1893–2008
Playlist 7: Fascinating Rhythm, 1891–2008
Playlist 8: Let the Good Times Roll, 1895–2011
Playlist 9: Wasn’t That a Time? 1895–2006
Playlist 10: Memories of You, 1889–2012
Bibliography
Abbreviations
Acclaimed Music (acclaimedmusic.net), “The All-Time Top 3,000
ACC
Songs” (Nov. 2011)
American Film Institute’s 100 Greatest Songs (2004), and 25 greatest
AFI
movie orchestral themes
American Hit Radio: A History of Popular Singles from 1955 to the
AHR
Present, Thomas Ryan (1996)
Allen Lowe, American Pop from Minstrel to Mojo: On Record 1893–
AL
1956 (1997)
APS Included on the Smithsonian’s American Popular Song boxed set
ARM ARM = Included in American Roots Music boxed set
ASCAP Top 25 Songs of the Century (Dec. 1999)
BBC BBC Radio 2 “Top 100 Songs of the 20th Century”
BB/DJ Combined Billboard disc jockey all-time favorite polls, 1949–1961
Combined Billboard jukebox operators’ polls on all-time favorite records,
BB Juke
1949–1961
BBJ Included on Smithsonian’s Big Band Jazz
BHF Record inducted into Blues Hall of Fame
BILLB Billboard’s biggest chart hits, 1955–2011
BL Blender magazine’s Greatest Songs, 1980–2005
Author’s calculation of all-time blues classics, based on numerous
Blues
sources
BMI Top 100 Songs of the Century (Dec. 1999)
Author’s calculation of all-time country/bluegrass classics, based on
C&W
numerous sources, including those cited here and many others
DEL Delta Blues: “100 Essential Blues Performances,” Ted Gioia (2008)
Details magazine, “The 40 Records That Changed the World” (Nov.
DET
1998)
Dave Marsh, The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1,001 Greatest Singles Ever
DM
Made (1989/1999)
Dave’s Music Database, three separate online lists created as a consensus
DMDB of many other all-time lists: Top 1,000 of the 20th century; top 100 of
1954–1999; and top 100 of 2000–2011
Edward Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Top hits,
EG
1900–1940 (2000)
What Was the First Rock & Roll Record? Jim Dawson and Steve Propes
FIR
(1992)
Included on Folk Music in America (15-LP Library of Congress
FMA
compilation)
Folk Author’s calculation of all-time folk classics, based on numerous sources
GHF* Grammy Hall of Fame
Author’s calculation of all-time gospel/religious song classics, based on
GOSP
many sources
GR Grammy Awards
Heartaches By the Number: Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles, David
HBN
Cantwell and Bill Friskics-Warren (2003)
HP Your Hit Parade Top 100 hits 1935–1955
Included on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk Music
HS
(1953/1997)
Jazz Author’s calculation of all-time jazz classics, based on numerous sources
JS Included on Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology (2010)
Amusement and Music Operators’ Association ranking of all-time top 40
Juke
jukebox hits
MEM 100 biggest pop hits, 1890–1954, Pop Memories, Joel Whitburn (1986)
MTV 100 Greatest Pop Songs, MTV and Rolling Stone (Dec. 2000)
NME New Musical Express ranking of all-time top songs
National Public Radio (“Most Important American Musical Works of
NPR*
20th Century”)
1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die, edited by Robert Dimery
1001
(2010)
PIT The Pitchford 500
PW Paul Williams: Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles (1993)
Author’s calculation of all-time classic R&B songs, based on numerous
R&B
sources
RH Included on Rhino compilation The R&B Box
RHF* Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s “500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll”
RIA* Recording Industry of America (“Songs of the Century”)
RR* National Recording Registry (of the Library of Congress)
RS Rolling Stone “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” (2010)
Included on The Blues: A Smithsonian Collection of Classic Blues
SB
Singers
SBB Included on Smithsonian boxed set Big Band Jazz
SC Included on The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Country Music
SJ Included on The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz
SS Included on the Smithsonian’s Singers and Soloists of the Swing Bands
STM Included on Stomp and Swerve CD, Archeophone
TC Toby Creswell, 1,001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time (2006)
TCHF Song selected for Traditional Country Hall of Fame
Ted Gioia, The History of Jazz: 270 all-time recommended song
TG
performances (1997)
Time Time Magazine: “All-Time Top 100 Songs” (1923–2011)
TM Tom Moon, 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die (2008)
TO Time Out: 1,000 Songs to Change Your Life (2008)
Author’s calculation of all-time traditional pop classics, based on
Trad
numerous sources
Top 100 songs of 2000–2010 (calculation from multiple sources, Dave’s
2000s
Music Database)
100 biggest chart hits in United Kingdom, 1950–2011 (Billboard chart
UK
data)
VIL Village Voice critics’ polls (1974–2011)
VH1 100 Greatest Rock Songs (2000)
VH2 VH1’s 10 Greatest Songs of the Past 25 Years (2003)
Ranking of combined Washington, D.C., radio station listener all-time
WASH favorite polls, 1973–2004, including eight annual WASH-FM polls from
1973–1980, and eleven annual WBIG-FM polls from 1994–2004
Author’s calculation of all-time ethnic/world music classics, based on
World
numerous sources
* = The most heavily weighted honors.
Criteria for Song Selection
The selection of records in the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings
was based on a wide range of criteria, including the following, in rough order of
importance. The extent to which an all-time song honor covers all musical
genres (pop, rock, soul, country, jazz, blues, gospel, world music, etc.) and all
time periods (from the 1890s to the present), along with the quality of its
selections, helps determine the weight it is given.
1. Grammy Hall of Fame: First in importance because it covers all musical
genres and time periods, with a generally high quality of inductees. New
selections have been made every year since 1974. A Top 200 ranking was
compiled based on when a record was inducted, with priority given to the
earliest selections, and records inducted in their first, second, or third year
of eligibility.
2. National Recording Registry: Even though the Library of Congress
launched the Registry relatively recently (in 2002), it immediately achieved
great prominence because it embodies the same three key characteristics.
Also, unlike the Grammy Hall (which only honors recordings made at least
twenty-five years earlier), the Registry pays tribute to more recent works in
addition to vintage classics, with twenty-five new inductees per year.
3. National Public Radio: 300 of the “most important American musical
works of the twentieth century” (late 1999). As one of the most thoughtful
and wide-ranging lists, extra weight is given to NPR’s top 100 choices.
4. Rock & Roll Hall of Fame: “The 500 Songs That Shaped Rock & Roll”
(1995). A generally excellent list (although by its nature it largely excludes
numerous genres such as jazz and traditional pop), with one big flaw: no
additional records have been inducted since 1995.
5. Recording Industry of America: “Songs of the Century” (365 songs or
records selected in 2001). A strong list for the most part, although it
includes one or two dozen rather eccentric choices; also, although its Top
Ten is impeccable, the rankings themselves can’t be taken too seriously
beyond the top twenty.
6. Rolling Stone: 500 Greatest Songs of All Time (December 2004/2010
update). The magazine has compiled many all-time lists over the years, and
this is the best. As with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, its one major
shortcoming is that it leaves out musical genres not associated with rock.
7. Dave Marsh: The Heart of Rock & Soul: The 1001 Greatest Singles Ever
Made (1989, with brief additions to the list made for the 1999 edition).
Among all the books of this nature, Marsh’s is easily the finest. Only
drawbacks, understandable given the author’s intentions: limited to singles
only (no album-only cuts), nothing before 1952, and very limited coverage
of non-rock-related genres.
8. David Cantwell & Bill Friskics-Warren: Heartaches By the Number:
Country Music’s 500 Greatest Singles (2003). Beautifully done, it has a
somewhat wider scope than the title might imply, since it includes some
blues, soul, and rock performances deemed to have country elements; also
laudable for good coverage back to the 1920s.
9. Paul Williams: Rock and Roll: The 100 Best Singles (1993). A first-rate
work which, as with most of the above, by its nature leaves out musical
genres far afield from rock.
10. 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die (2010, edited by Robert
Dimery). Primarily from the 1950s on, but to its credit it does include some
jazz, world music, etc.
There are numerous others taken into consideration (Toby Creswell’s 1001
Songs: The Great Songs of All Time, Time Magazine’s “All-Time Top 100
Songs” covering 1923–2011, Thomas Ryan’s American Hit Radio, the
American Film Institute’s “100 Years, 100 Songs,” Tom Moon’s 1,000
Recordings to Hear Before You Die), etc. Both Dave’s Music Database and
Acclaimed Music (acclaimedmusic.net) are themselves compilations taken
from dozens of different lists, and both are periodically updated. In the
category of hit records, I took into consideration a ranking of the 300
biggest Billboard hits from 1955 onward, the top 100 hits of 1890–1954 in
Pop Memories, the top 100 hits of 1900–1940 as reflected in Edward
Gardner’s Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century, the top 100 in the
history of the “Hit Parade” (1935–1955), the top 100 hits in British chart
history (1949 onward), and the all-time lists compiled by ASCAP and BMI.
In light of the fact that only a few of the above lists give serious
consideration to the pre-rock era and to genres other than pop/rock, I
compiled all-time lists (generally a Top 200 to 300) for each of these to
give them a fair chance, based on the views of many authors:
1. Acoustic recording era (1889–1925) and other early popular music: All-
time classics from the above categories, plus the views of various authors
(Brooks, Crawford, Ewen, Fuld, Gracyk, Haase, Hamm, Jasen, Lowe,
Spaeth, Tawa, Wald, Walsh, Wondrich).
2. Blues: As above, plus key authors (including Charters, Evans, Gioia,
Herzhaft, Oliver, Palmer, Santelli, Titon, Wardlow), records included on
the Smithsonian’s blues boxed set, and records selected for the Traditional
Blues Hall of Fame.
3. Country and Bluegrass: Above categories, plus key authors (Cantwell,
Collins, Horstman, Malone, McCloud, Russell, Rosenberg, Spottswood,
Wolfe), records included on the Smithsonian’s country boxed set and
Sony’s bluegrass history, and selected all-time country song lists.
4. Folk music: As above, plus selected authors (Cantwell, Cohen, the
Lomaxes), and inclusion on Harry Smith’s Anthology of American Folk
Music, the Library of Congress 1970s fifteen-volume set, and the
Smithsonian’s folk boxed set.
5. Gospel: As above, plus selected authors (Boyer, Broughton, Carpenter,
Darden, Heilbut, Reagon), and gospel boxed sets “Goodbye Babylon” and
Rhino’s “Testify!”
6. Jazz: As above, plus key authors (Balliett, Bamberger, Berendt, Blesh,
Collier, DeVeaux, Giddins, Gioia, Gitler, Hadlock, Morgenstern, Schuller,
Shipton, Simon, Sudhalter, Williams); also records included on the
Smithsonian’s multiple jazz boxed sets.
7. Rhythm & Blues: As above, plus key authors (Bowman, George,
Guralnick, Hirshey, Shaw, Suzanne Smith, Werner), plus records included
on Rhino’s boxed sets for R&B and Doo-Wop.
8. Traditional Pop: As above, plus the views of Will Friedwald (A
Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers, among other
books), Alec Wilder (American Popular Song: The Great Innovators,
1900–1950), and records included on Smithsonian boxed sets such as
American Popular Song.
9. World and ethnic music: Above categories, plus selected authors
(Brasseaux, Castro, Davis, Graham, Greene, Hill, Leymarie, McGowan,
Morales, Pena, Roberts, Sapoznik, Savoy, Spottswood).