Saturday Night at the Movies

The Drifters
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Music From The Movies

The movies
Saturday Night Fever Tammy and the Bachelor Endless Love Jailhouse Rock The Man Who Knew Too Much The Woman In Red High Society The Graduate

So many music memories have come from motion pictures.

It was obvious that rock and roll and the movies [...]

It might be an up-beat pop tune from the sixties, or a country music song — or both. It’s an old-fashioned love song. Listen to some for me.

Tommy Edwards’ most successful record topped the Hot 100 in 1958. It was a re-recording of a 1951 song, and it also has the distinction of being the only number one pop hit to have been written by a former Vice-President of the United States.

Remember the lessons from the 12 days of Christmas: believe, light a candle, ring a bell, laugh, and give the gift of love.

They came one-after-another in the early sixties: hit songs based on new dance fads: “The Twist”, “Pony Time”, “The Peppermint Twist”, “Mashed Potato Time”, “The Wah-Watusi”, The “Loco-Motion” just to name a few.

(And wouldn’t you know it?) The number 1 song on the Hot 100 on Halloween, 1962, was—what else—a dance fad?

For dog days music memories, I present some classic dog songs: Hound Dog, Puppy Love, and Old Shep from Elvis Presley and Paul Anka

Some early Rock and Roll music consisted of R&B songs that were “repackaged” to make them “suitable” for white America. Here’s a story about some of that music.

In 1981, two songs with the same title (written by different people and recorded by two different women: one a well known American Country Music artist, and one a relatively unknown Scot) topped the Billboard™ Hot 100.

To avoid confusion, the name of one of the songs was changed. Here’s the story.

It can be a battle for parents to send their reluctant young campers off to their first summer camp. (Just as it was in this #2 hit by Allan Sherman in August, 1963.) But as you will observe, in the end, this boy had a positive experience at Camp Granada.

What makes a song a summer song? Maybe it’s just the word “summer” in the song’s title. Or perhaps the tune evokes thoughts of islands, beaches, bikinis, and barbeques.