1950s Tracks Poll Campaigning Thread (youtube, etc.) (Pollin' Tracks Spo-Dee-O-Dee! ILM does the 1950s)

Johnny, would you mind if I started a 50s poll campaigning thread?

― Submlime (_Rudipherous_), Sunday, June 5, 2011 11:46 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I wouldn't mind a bit.

― Johnny Fever, Sunday, June 5, 2011 2:21 PM (30 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

My comments on my picks:

Nat King Cole – Unforgettable
Ella Fitzgerald - Anything Goes
Abbey Lincoln - Afro Blue
Johnny Mathis – Misty

These are already familiar enough (at least in style, in case of the Abbey Lincoln, if not as a specific track) to all of you, and I have nothing new to say about them.

Abdel Halim Hafez – Awwel Marrah

I have this on a cassette a bought many years back, but this is the first time I’ve pinned down the name. (It looks like this is an Abdel Wahab song, but I’m not 100% sure of it.) Abdel Halim’s voice is gorgeous here.

Benny More – Como Fue
Benny More y Pedro Vargas – Obsesion

Whether you realize it or not, Benny More is simply huge in Cuban music, and this is one of his signature songs. I think he has one of the more amazing voices in Latin music. I didn’t like this, or even him, initially, but I’ve given in to the charms of this great song.

Obsession is another great bolero, this time in a duo between Benny More and Mexican Pedro Vargas.

Billie Holiday - Easy to Love (1952)
Billie Holiday – What’s New? (1955)

I can’t find these 1950’s Verve versions on youtube, which could be the new criterion for “obscure,” but they are the ones I’m most familiar with. One thing these tracks both have in common is the subtle electric guitar accompaniment, and ample space. They are both characteristically direct and intimate without being so raw emotionally that they are painful to listen to. I recommend searching for these on mediafire in a day or two.

Cortijo y su Combo - Negro Bembon

Ismael Rivera’s flow, starting at 1:19, is fantastic. (Please don’t call this Afro-Cuban, it’s Afro-Boricua or Afro-Rican.)

Fayza Ahmad - Sit El Habayib

This is apparently Fayza Ahamd’s biggest hit, a tribute to her mother, or to mothers in general. I like it primarily for the great hook that runs through it. It is a little on the long side, I suppose, but I still like it. Music by Mohammed Abdel Wahab.

Farid el Atrache - Ana Wel Bahebou
Farid el Atrache - Wehyat Eineiki

Ana Wel Bahebou is a somewhat kitschy marriage of tango and more traditional Arab elements, pretty typical of Farid’s compositions. His vocals provide the anchor. (Check mediafire in a bit.)

I prefer the live version of Wehyat Eineiki, but have been unable to confirm the date for that. On the studio/film version up on youtube, the real vocal acrobatics don’t come in until the eight minute mark.

Hibari Misora – Kuramaya-san

My interest in this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Tokyo Jihen covered it—no, absolutely not. (And yes, that live performance clip is cheating, especially since it’s from 1961, but I will try to track down the original again and maybe throw it up on the internets.)

Jimmy Reed - Honest I Do

I discovered this song by chance while turning up and down the radio dial one night. I liked all the space in the music and the very minimal touches of guitar. I’m not sure I can say more beyond that, however. Since I don’t like all that much music which sounds anything like this, maybe it just caught me at an opportune time.

Joao Gilberto - A Felicidade

So just how many songs were nominated from Black Orpheus? I have nothing to say about this.

Fok La Niña de los Peines (Pastora Pavón) - A la Sierra de Armenia

This singer is admitedly a new discovery for me, and I’m excited because I would love to find an entree into flamenco. Her singing is not harsh to me ears the way much flamenco is, yet she is considered one of the masters.

Mukesh – Awara Hoon

I first heard this song about two decades ago, in a 3 Mustaphas 3 cover (which still sounds great to me now, incidentally). If youtube comments are to be believed, this was a historically important song which helped put Bollywood on the map. It’s an amazingly well-constructed song.

Oum Kalthoum – Ya Zalemni
Oum Kalthoum – Sahran Lewahdi
Oum Kalthoum – Zekrayat

These all happen to be love songs with a rather dark mood (in addition to all being composed by the genius Riad el Sounbatti), but if you are willing to listen to one, and only one, of the Oum Kalthoum songs, I would go with “Ya Zalemni.” The opening line of is one of the most vulnerable-sounding moments I’ve heard in Oum Kalthoum’s oeuvre. But within the first five minutes, the song already travels some distance, as she unleashes much more of her aggressive vocal power. (However, the balance of tension continues to shift very effectively throughout the piece, though to this day I don’t quite understand how one middle portion really fits, in terms of overall mood.) One reason this song is a good pick for someone who isn’t already a fan is that it doesn’t take a a long build up, as it sometimes does, to get to the pay-off. I love all three songs, but this is the most transcendent of the three.

The opening line of Sahran Lewahdi feel so heavy that Oum Kalthoum can barely get it out. Listen to the guttering ney (or other flute) at about the 11:40 mark. At the 25:00 minute mark: going up in flames; then, about twenty seconds in, returning to discourse (which is closes one movement and prepares way for another). One thing which perhaps keeps so many of Oum Kalthoum’s sad songs from being depressing is the fact that her expression of suffering is so assertive.

There is something almost stern about the opening vocals of Zekrayat. This might be a good moment to point out that, while these songs are obviously not groove-oriented, the percussion portion of the accompaniment is really brilliant. It took me a lot of listening to even really register how rhythmically interesting some of these songs were. Her phonemic-level attention to detail. Unexpected melodic developments well into the song.

Peruchin – Rumba Callejera

If any of my picks are here primarily for historical interest, it’s this instrumental one. When I first heard Peruchin on the radio—and I strongly suspect it was this particular track from 1954—I was struck, in particular, by his rather blatant monkisms. From everything I’ve seen about him, he’s considered a seminal figure in Latin music piano.

Sun Ra – Kingdom of Not

I admit the clapping hooks me in to this the most.

Tito Puente – Hong Kong Mambo

I’m still not all that familiar with Tito Puente, but Dance Mania is one of my favorite Puente recordings. Any cut from Dance Mania 1 or 2 could probably be justified. This one, featuring Tito Puente on vibes, happened to grab my attention this time around.

Tito Rodriguez – Sabroso Mambo
Tito Rodriguez – Tremendo Cumban

Call it challops if you wish, but from what I’ve heard I think I prefer Tito Rodriguez’s mambo recordings to Tito Puente’s. I definitely hear certain things here as strongs anticipations of the later salsa I would like so much. In particular, Rodriguez’s singing on “Tremendo Cumban” seems to be an ancestor of Ismael Quintana’s vocals with La Perfecta. Rodriguez still uses some of the instrumental harmonies that bother me in other mambo (and in a lot of big band music of the 40s and 50s generally), but somehow the overall effect is not as cloying to my ears as it is in Machito, or even often in T.P.

Oops, "Rumba Callejera" should've been "Guaguanco Callejero." (Mix and match Latin song title cliches.) Also, I realize a lot of these comments aren't comments at all and say nothing about the music, but this is the best I could do with the motivation I had. I figure this at least provides some further clues that could lead people to be interested or uninterested in hearing these songs.

Glad this thread turned out to be so popular!

Lucho Gatica - Historia de un Amor

So I like boleros.

The Three Cats - Yellow Cherries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsCAg6Yx40k

Pierre Schaeffer - Erotic (caution: rudeness inside)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0YKP1bff8U

Those are awesome, Emil.y! Also thoroughly endorse Rudi's Fayza Ahmad, and especially that incredible jump-cutting João Gilberto song.

Reluctant to officially nominate these for fear of vote-splitting, but while you are enjoying the previously nommed
Richard Berry - The Big Break and Johnny 'Guitar' Watson - Gangster of Love, you should also check out their equally excellent doppelgangers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP8tBT_Tf3I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xt02mubz868

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pWf-dZc9tw

This is Sinatra's crowning moment IMO and def one of the best songs of the entire 50s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZNIKZdoehE

I'm not a Sinatra fan, but that whole album is one I can deal with now and then. That's probably the most I can say about it. Oh, and dancing fox trot to it increases the enjoyment by quite a bit, but it's been years since I tried that and I never did get past the basics with fox trot.

As for Billie Holiday, I guess this one would need to be in there:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNgy5zDtW-s

Geir, you should put it on the nominations thread if you want it nommed.

You should also check out some of the boleros I nominated (Como Fue, Historia de un Amor, especially); plus the three mambo tracks all have plenty going for them melodically.

oh cool, I didn't realize this thread existed until now

x-post:

Actually wait that Tito Puente track has way to much improvisation to keep you happy, what am I thinking?

Sinatra's slightly out of time crooning is just about the perfect amount of improvisation, thank you. :)

I would like to put in a word for Santo & Johnny's instrumental, "Sleep Walk." I'm pretty sure I've only gotten to like this (and maybe only heard it at all) since moving to Albuquerque, as this song gets a lot of play on oldies stations around here (or on whatever subscription oldies station(s) Frontier plays). I could be wrong though; maybe it's something I first heard in a Tarantino film. I don't know what to say about it, but it definitely has hooked itself into my brain.

Kind of look like a new wave duo here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogxTQXAgY3Q

Maybe I'm just living under the false impression that everyone else adores Sleep Walk as much as me, but I was of the mind that it would easily drift into the poll's top 10.

Could be. Maybe I just discovered it late.

We ought to have a separate poll for songs we thought were probably from the 1950s but which turned out to be from the late 40s or early 60s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=956Jx8oc-OQ
Olavi Virta ja Harmony sisters - Sinitaivas
Spooky finnish tango. Apparently argentinian tangos became quite popular in poland and finland after the second world war and eventually they began crafting their own blend of the genre, which was naturally bleaker and more somber than it's south american counterpart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=attCtETJuFA
Desi Arnaz - Babalu
This is more badass than any rock song released in the era.

The Treniers - Poontang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OiQwV-b6a4

I'll try not to pimp all of my choices, but a few of them are kinda under the radar so

Varetta Dillard - Mercy Mr. Percy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Umh1cUkMc8

Geir, you should put it on the nominations thread if you want it nommed.

― _Rudipherous_, Friday, June 24, 2011 11:33 AM (4 hours ago)

So he goes over to that thread, nominates some other stuff, but not the Sinatra song as far as I can tell. wtf

Actually, it had already been nominated.

It's a great poll, partly because I suspect I'm going to be voting for very few of my nominations - really looking forward to classical, musical, jazz, pop and rnr shaking it up together. There are a couple of things that I would be really pleased to see.

1) The Night is So Lonely - Gene Vincent. I'm not sure there's anything that quite shows the core of vicious coldness to his voice quite as well as this song. Cat Man and Bee Bop A Lula, Race With the Devil (oh yes!), but this one seems to totally encompass how threatening and unpleasant his sweet sweet voice could be. One of my all time favourite songs - it seems to take place in the void. A seductive resentment at the necessity of desire. If I was being prolix chiz chiz. I prefer his voice to Elvis, perversely perhaps.

2) Race With the Devil - Gene Vincent. What again? Yes again. Brittle and uncertain chin-up confrontation with evil, quavering excited and furious voice plus great guitar - I will win the battle in a godless world cos I've got a faster car. Also he hides from the Devil. Which is a great, almost H Bosch vision.

3) Lost John - Lonnie Donegan. Sometimes wonder whether LD is seen as a sort of Shakin Stevens - a poor version of an American idea, but goddam he did great versions of great songs. This is my favourite. He showed UK wot's o'clock it was.

4) The Girl Around the Corner - Lee Andrews and the Hearts. utterly metnal, is it allowed to say it feels almost proggy in its treatment of sound? Prolly not. But it is exceeding strange and wonderful. For some reason I find the song difficult to comprehend if I'm not on top form. A good sign.

5) Bertha Lou - Clint Miller. Despite nominating Peter Gunn by Dwayne Eddie earlier today probably my favourite of the unrelentless Peter Gunn style tracks. 'You tickle me from head to my athlete-ah feet'.

6) Cryin' at Daybreak - Howlin' Wolf. Ok, I know everyone's likely to go for Smokestack Lightnin' but this is sparse, hard and brilliant. I first heard it on a promo LP that i bought that also had the excellent Everybody's Movin' on it, but this is still my favourite song, and also my favourite Howlin' Wolf howl. Such deft violence.

I'm not sure any of those will make it, but, as I say, I'd be delighted if they did.

Definitely will be voting this one high. Hope other people do too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KVotWLF6GQ

lol, if you keep playing it once an hour in the Listening Room and I may leave it off my ballot altogether

(j/k)

ha! I've only played it two times. you just happened to be there for both.

I've been caning it on the reg since you posted it in the noms poll, so it's definitely going high on mine.

*noms thread. I might still be drunk.

By the way, anyone who doesn't vote for Raymond Scott is no longer my friend.

The Coasters - Young Blood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgX3a6ApQbs

Basically, anything that Rudipherous speaks up for, I'm down with. It's all amazing as far as I can tell (except Oum Kalthoum, who's not doing it for me).

I think I said already somewhere, but if you're looking for ideas Johnny, an all-time Caribbean poll would be something to see.

4'33" is going to be very, very high on my ballot.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7kzsZreG0o

Frank Loesser - Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat

I love this track so much! I don't know many musicals, I pick them up occasionally through the missus' influence. They're a wonderful trove of great songwriting, basically. Frank Loesser seems to me to be right at the top of the tree - I'd wanted another of his - 'Baby It's Cold Outside' - but it's slightly too early so it'll have to await the 1940s poll.

'Sit Down, You're Rocking The Boat' is from Guys And Dolls and you probably all know it already. But I first heard it only a couple of years back when we went along to see Patrick Swayze (alas, ill on the night) in the west end. This tune's only sung by a minor character, but good lord the actor who did it was amazing! He was all tics and nervous energy, and combined with the force of the song the effect was extraordinary. He got an impromptu standing ovation, which I'm not sure I've ever seen where there's no ulterior context. Quite brilliant.

Anyway I've never found another performance quite as good as that, but they're all pretty great imo. This is from the film with Brando and Sinatra, though they're barely involved here. As a song it's a fantastic piece of writing anyway, but its transcendence is all about the chorus backing vocal, it's absolutely euphoric.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yRdDnrB5kM&feature=related

just his hair on the first piano solo....

and i'll keep campaigning for jimmy wages

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGcs8Q_AOA4

so you treat me like a mad man, run from me all the time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3ALiWYKG8o

By the way, anyone who doesn't vote for Raymond Scott is no longer my friend.

― emil.y, Sunday, June 26, 2011 12:55 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i'll vote for raymond scott if you'll vote for jimmy wages or elvis emil.y

that 'sleep walk' track up thread is hugely lovely

bad motorcycle!!!!

what do they sing after 'bad motorcycle'? is it 'vroom vroom vroom'?

I need to listen to "Bad Motorcycle," since I think it has the potential to grow on me more. I already like it.

bud'n bud'n bud'n!

Okay, four essential 'novelty' songs, in roughly descending order of how great they are (bearing in mind that the last one is still amazing):

Nervous Norvus - Transfusion. Why anyone wouldn't vote for this is beyond me. A cautionary tale of dangerous driving, replete with sound effects and more ways to receive a blood transfusion than there are to leave your lover. "Pass the claret to me, Barrett."

Bob McFadden & Dor - I'm a Mummy. You may know this from the Fall cover. A melancholy saga of loneliness, record collecting and acceptance. Possibly. (Also, it's apparently just called 'The Mummy' but damn it, everyone would know it by this.)

The Five Blobs - The Blob. Theme tune from the Steve McQueen film. Why Burt Bacharach decided a tropical ditty about the eponymous monster was the best idea for a horror movie theme I have no idea, but I'm very glad he did. "Beware of the Blob! It creeps and leaps and glides and slides across the floor, right through the door and all around the wall, a splotch, a blotch, be careful of the Blob!"

Edd 'Kookie' Byrnes & Connie Stevens - Kookie Kookie (Lend Me Your Comb). The mummy only came back to life to find a copy of this groovy little number. An irresistible youth culture pastiche. It's the ginchiest.

i'll vote for raymond scott if you'll vote for jimmy wages or elvis emil.y

― whatever, Monday, June 27, 2011 11:18 PM (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I don't have anything against Elvis but I'm not sure that I like any of the tracks enough for them to make it. I like the sound of those Jimmy Wages songs, though, will give them a few more listens and see if I can make room.

"Pass the claret to me, Barrett."

Also he says 'red corpsuckles'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbHcg3aMx5s

I heart Professor Longhair.

Really like Lonnie Donegan. Had forgotten how mental Cumberland Gap is.

Also, the lyrics 'some day the wind will blow, the sun will shine' and 'nothing shakin but the leaves on the trees' in Eddie Fontaine's Nothing Shaking seem to take a more or less conventional song to something weird and sinister. Not that conventional's bad, I'm just not sure I would have marked this song were it not for those two details. I say it's just those two lyrics, but it's also because the rest of the lyrics are so conventional, and because the tune is so jittery.

I heart Professor Longhair.

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, June 29, 2011 3:22 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark

i am almost sure i will vote for Transfusion and The Blob. and raymond scott

and im really glad you nommed them because i would have forgotten all three and then been pissed when i realized

I wish I could have voted for more Gene Vincent tracks. In the end the only track in my ballot that made it was 'cat man'. It blows my mind that this song was composed almost 10 years before the Stooges debut and yet it's still more vicious and sexually aggressive than any song in there.

I agree that Cat Man is his outstanding track, out of these nominees anyway. Someone recently posted a hilarious clip of him hamming up Be Bop A Lula on tour in Brussels - I was disappointed to hear the recorded version, again there's the timid playing and arrangement I've been complaining about. I hear these things and I wonder how rock & roll ever managed to cause such excitement.

do you feel the same way listening to the Little Richard & Chuck Berry & Bo Diddly songs, Ismael? LR seems to bristle with energy, Chuck Berry has such easy characterful swing in his voice and really flies with the guitar. Bo Diddly, I dunno, summed up by lines like 'Tombstone hair and a graveyard mind, just 22 and I don't mind dying.' + the mad inventive guitar. All of them still sound tremendously exciting and still unique to me. Unfettered.

Also it can be difficult to hear now how different the now canonical material sounded at the time, even if I'm making allowances I think.

Don't suppose anyone wants to check to see if Cookie and the Cupcakes - Got You On My Mind was nominated? I can't be bothered to get out of bed and check. No? Thought not. I see the Miller Sisters version is there, but I'll be annoyed with myself if this version isn't cos it's top 20 material for me.

cat man is mental for real. but both Race With the Devil and The Night is So Lonely are the ones for me - polar examples of hard-nosed existential bleakness. RwtD so threatening and jittery.

No, it's not universal - on my master list I've got Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Burnette in particular noted for exactly that energy, plus Big Mama Thornton, Howlin' Wolf and a few others whom I have in mind as mostly blues but are basically rock & roll really.

It's primarily the first white imitators I'm talking about. They must have been animated by precisely the same energy, but with someone like Buddy Holly I'm just not hearing it, other than what's in the voice. How did they let themselves be watered down so much? Why was rock & roll first sold without its defining characteristic? I was putting it down to recording technology at first (surely Johnny Burnette has been remastered?), but obviously that can't be right.

Buddy Holly is someone I have a bit of a problem with for that reason - although I think it works with songs like Everyday, where you get a sort of teen geek outsider feeling. Works less well for me when there's more machismo, like Not Fade Away - I mean why would you listen to that over Bo Diddley? At the same time - investigation of the new phenomenon of the teenager in all its aspects includes small town sweetness, college dance, which meant perhaps sometimes it was deliberately less harsh than it might have been, have less of the punk energy that i guess some people, myself included, like to find in early rock n roll/rockabilly. I like that sweetness as well just not when it becomes cloying or its emotional content is anodyne.

just want to stan for one of my noms, emo mad intensity of Gloria by The Cadillacs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRBPnyrJCKA

Started trawling and assembling my list yesterday. Not too hard. basically I'm a simple man, and I like panicky rockabilly, ott doo-wop & novelty trash.

Realised that my major bollocks-up was failing to nominate Gonna Feed My Baby Poison by The Rocketeers, but I guess it was never likely to get a ton of votes anyway.

With a name like that I probably would have voted for it.

Btw guys, would just like to remind everyone to VOTE ELECTRONICS. Thanks.

have Gesang der Jünglinge as one of my novelty song picks if that counts

Buchanan and Goodman - The Flying Saucer (Parts 1 + 2)

Almost certainly the first use of sampling on a pop record and a goofy good time to boot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxx8WZZD0Q

^^^ On my list.

Ike Turner - She Made My Blood Run Cold Awesome slo-mo R+B about the unusual medical problems caused by a cold cold woman.

George Brassens - Le Gorille Politicised slapstick, summarised thus by Wikipedia: "tells, in a humorous fashion, of a gorilla with a large penis (and admired for this by ladies) who escapes his cage. Mistaking a robed judge for a woman, the beast forcefully sodomizes him. The song contrasts the wooden attitude that the judge had exhibited when sentencing a man to death by the guillotine with his cries for mercy when being assaulted by the gorilla."

Here are the twelve that were cut from my ballot late on, with snap reviews mostly as written at time of listening. I'm feelin' bad for them, if anyone has a slot to spare, go on and do one of these a favour:

Ella Fitzgerald - Anything Goes
the lyrics to this are so clever, it missed out because Ella's delivery is so precise that it doesn't leave a great deal in the way of character. Plus I voted for another of hers instead

Hank Williams - Ramblin' Man
haunting

Harry Belafonte - Day-O
day-o! day-ee-yay-yo!

Johnny Griffin - Mil Dew
ridiculously fast jazzy clarinet number

Julie London – Cry Me A River
a very lovely late-at-night smoky jazzy song, with a very odd vocal echo effect on the fadeout

Leonard Bernstein - America
a mini symphony, very witty and wordy

Little Richard - Tutti Frutti
astonishingly, this appears to have been 'Long Tall Sally's b-side, in the UK at least

Louis Jordan - Salt Pork, West Virginia
excellent big-time big band sound with an excellent narrative and an entertaining twangy guitar solo

Marilyn Monroe - Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend
iconic

Nat King Cole – Quizas, Quizas, Quizas
not actually on the nominations list, though it is on the spotify list and I enjoyed it immensely. More famous as 'Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps'

Olavi Virta ja Harmony sisters - Sinitaivas
is already upthread, I'll say no more except that it's lovely

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons
a deep low thing, bringing to mind judgement day

The Nat King Cole tune is apparently notable for the strength of his American accent. I mean, I can hear it, but it doesn't sound particularly strange to me - it just makes his diction very clear.

I'd love to know what it sounds like to a native speaker though. (moka?)

Huh, I do distinctly remember nominating that Nat King Cole song though? That's a drag. Evidence though that I haven't even started working on my shortlist...

That's a pity, I guess that's its chances scuppered then. I'm just grateful to have had cause to hear it though.

It's on the nominations thread. It looks like Johnny missed it.

oops!

Voted. Last few cuts were rather arbitrary.

uh maybe that should have been in the voting thread, oh well.

I feel like I should pimp for the track I took my handle from - Theophilus Beckford's "Easy Snappin'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veWRWeWlsOg

All pimped out.

Wow, I searched my shelf for any '50s proto-ska at all and found the boogie I loved was all '60/'61, but I instantly recognize that tune.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdO-KWjTgPA

if this isn't on your ballot, you're doing it wrong

ah, fuck, chopped-off video. here's a live take w intro discussion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdKvEiW7cWc

song proper starts abt 1 minute in

nuts room:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mriXncI96lw

The Nat King Cole tune is apparently notable for the strength of his American accent. I mean, I can hear it, but it doesn't sound particularly strange to me - it just makes his diction very clear.

I'd love to know what it sounds like to a native speaker though. (moka?)

― Ismael Klata

It's a great version (one of my favorites actually) if only for the strength in his voice and the harmonies that nat king cole packs when he sings but yes, his american accent is very noticeable, specially noticeable when he sings words ending in 'o' like say: 'estas perdiendO el tiempO'...

I've noticed that words which end in 'O' in spanish are particulary difficult and revealing for foreigners since there isn't any specifically similar sound in the language. In spanish the letter 'o' is like a dry grunt... it comes from the throat... whereas in english it has a sort of 'u/w' sound at the end which is produced inside the mouth instead of the throat... I suck at explaining pronounciation but i'll try: In the word 'tiempo', per example, he pronounces the syllable 'po' as 'poe' when the last 'o' should sound more similar to the 'o's found in a word like 'bone'.

Finally done! My favorite late discovery:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIVKaayaNaY

and can I just say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLXYK6n8PQ4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wioh5qUj7fM

Yuss! 'The Wind' is a beauty - scored good points from me too.

I'd just like to point out that Ligeti into Clarence 'Frogman' Henry is a highly underrated segue.

i just submitted my ballot, and i know it's too late to sway the few of you who haven't yet done so, but this is my graveyard: the best loved songs i wasn't, finally, able to make room for on my ballot. weep with me, won't you?

Bo Diddley - Who Do You Love?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iimWe37jE0
arguably the greatest rock & roll record of the 50s, certainly the most criminal omission from my ballot. so much life & swing, lyrics for the ages. "tombstone hand and a graveyard mind / just 22 and i don't mind dyin" shit yeah. maybe i've come to take it for granted. maybe bo diddley is bigger than any one song. i dunno. hope everyone else votes for it.

The Chordettes – Soft Sands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmVi2xZByj4
beautiful and dreamlike close harmony, unknown to me before this poll. the bright bridge (?) is a bit schmaltzy, but the gently swaying verses & chorus are gorgeous, so still that they're almost deathly.

The Diamonds - The Stroll
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IozDcLno1uo
sucker for this kind of late night, red light delinquency. "harlem nocturne" is maybe a purer example, but i love the way the ironically innocent & staid vocals contrast with (and underline) the utterly sleazy saxophone swing. "baby let's go strolling / by the candy store..."

Dorsey Burnette - Bertha Lou
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rGiukFR3fU
raw, drooling rockabilly primitivism in its purest and most potent form. swings like a mother, plus awesome hillbilly loverman lyrics: "you wear your hair in a poodle cut / you're walking down the street like a semi truck / ... hey hey bertha lou, i wanna conjugate with you"

Hank Williams - Kaw-Liga
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FY7RWJAtJQ
odd song, both moving and ridiculous. undoubtedly offensive by any reasonable, contemporary standard, but i've always loved it madly, especially the darker, slower "injun-themed" verses that treat elijah's pain with absurd seriousness.

Johnny Cash - Big River
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQBNrX-Tc8U
i might like this song better than "folsom prison blues" but cut it in favor of FPB cuz i didn't want to waste the vote. a babbling story song in cash's style, but i love the choogling electric guitar and poker-faced (mock) angst. "now i taught the weepin willow how to cry / and i showed the clouds how to cover up a clear blue sky / and the tears i cried for that woman are gonna flood you big river / and i'm gonna sit right here until i die"

Sun Ra – Kingdom of Not
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpcyrlR7bhM
a beautiful song by one of my favorite musicians and composers that wound up cut because, dammit, something had to go. unlike a lot of people, i often prefer the late 50s and early 60s sun ra to the full-blown arkestra madness of the late 60s and 70s, but as enjoyable as this is, it can't hold a candle to the mingus, miles, coltrane and bill evans songs on the list.