Pete Peterson

I am saddened to read of the passing of Pete Peterson, eminent sociologist and scholar of country music. My library copy of his book Creating Country Music is full of yellow stickies with notes on them. In his writings on the cultural history of country music, he explores the intersections of business, technology, society, music, and culture in a way that both informs us about country music itself and provides a model for the study of any type of American music in the twentieth century. His voice will be sorely missed.

Another Cloudy Day

I couldn’t help it, I just had to run my Python word cloud script on the answers to one of the survey questions. No surprise that the word used most often to describe the Everly Brothers’ music is HARMONY.

I, IV, V and Beyond

Joe Burns’s analysis of one hundred rock and roll songs from 1955 to 1959 shows that forty-nine percent of the songs in his sample relied on the tonic, subdominant, and dominant chords (I, IV, V).[1] Burns’s study focuses on progressions and their frequency of occurrence. He includes all list of the songs in the study and the distinct progressions or each (for example, I-IV-V or I-ii-V-I). Using his data, I calculated that the average number of chords in the songs in this repertoire is 3.55; narrowing it to the years that coincide with the Everly Brothers (1957-1959) yields an average of 3.63. Richard J. Ripani analyzed twenty-five of the top R&B singles for 1950 to 1959. He calculated the average number of chords in use to be 4.68.[2] The average number of chords used in the Everly Brothers’ songs is 4.65, more closely matching that of rhythm and blues than rock and roll. (A comparable study of country or pop music hits of the same period does not appear to exist so no comparison is readily available.) Nine of their singles rely on the standard I-IV-V progression: “Maybe Tomorrow,” “Should We Tell Him,” “When Will I Be Loved,” “Problems,” “This Little Girl of Mine,” “Claudette,” “Be Bop A Lula,” “Leave My Woman Alone,” “I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail.” The Everlys wrote the first three, “Problems” was written by the Bryants, and the rest were written by others. “(‘Til) I Kissed You” is a three-chord song, but it uses I, V⁷, and vi, the vi acting as a tonic substitute. The nine I-IV-V singles represent about thirty-five percent of their singles; using Burns’s data and calculating a comparable percentage for the years 1957-1959 shows that approximately forty-four percent of the rock and roll songs in his study relied on this set of chords (Table 7‑6).

Year	# songs with I, IV, and V only	# songs total	percentage with I, IV, and V only
1955	6	9	67%
1956	11	19	58%
1957	11	20	55%
1958	11	25	44%
1959	10	27	37%
1955-1957	49	100	49%
1957-1959	32	72	44%

Early Rock and Roll Chord Analysis

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[1] Joe Burns, “The Music Matters: An Analysis of Early Rock and Roll,” Soundscapes – Journal on Media Culture 6 (April, 2003).

[2] Richard J. Ripani, The New Blue Music: Changes in Rhythm & Blues, 1950-1999 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2006).

Charlie Louvin

Charlie Louvin was still touring as of last spring. Read this interview by Wade Tatangelo in the St. Petersburg (FL) Times.

Word Cloud

I created a word cloud of the words used in the Everly Brothers’ singles released by Cadence plus “Cathy’s Clown.” Almost 800 individual words are used in these 26 songs. Most occur only once. The most common word is “I” which is not surprising since most of the songs are first person narratives.

The program to build the dictionary of words and count frequencies was written in Python. The lyrics that were fed into the program do not account for the repetition of choruses or sections, but I plan to do that soon.

The dictionary is divided into five levels, from smallest to largest. Each set is supposed to appear as a different font size. I am also trying to make it use different colors for each set, but I have encountered some CSS issues. I’ll work on those later, but really…I’m supposed to be writing a dissertation, not writing code! But boy, was it fun!

Updated list for #1 country hits in 1950s

I updated the list of #1 hits in country music to include 1958 to 1960; it now spans 1955 to 1960. I also added YouTube playlists for those years.

• 1955
• 1956
• 1957
• 1958
• 1959
• 1960

Survey says…

Many thanks to the nearly 90 people who have filled out my survey to date. Your recollections, opinions, and feedback are helping me to shape my work and refine my ideas. Please feel free to pass the link to other fans and friends.

For those of you who like statistics, meaningful or otherwise, of the 89 respondents so far, 51.7% are between the ages of 61 and 70 and 31.5% between 51 and 60, meaning that for the most part the internet fan base for the Everly Brothers is younger than Don and Phil themselves. 73% are male and 27% are female, but I suspect that selection bias is skewing that number from the generalized fan base. (For a fascinating report on gendered usage of computers and the internet, see “How Men and Women Use the Internet” at the Pew Internet and American Life Project.)

The big news of 1957

I was reading through the Boston Globe newspaper for fall, 1957, looking for any mention of the banning of “Wake Up Little, Susie,” an oft-told Everly Brothers anecdote. I was struck by several news items from this period (aside from my delight at the Yankees losing the World Series that year).

First there was an Asian flu epidemic. Schools were reporting record numbers of students absent. High school sports events were being cancelled regularly because there were not enough players. Even the professional baseball teams were concerned about having enough players. I encountered this at the height of our own H1N1 scare, but the numbers of absences across the state in 1957 was probably well above our current numbers.

Second was that in the three-week period I examined, there were at least three deaths of teenage drivers reported–each week. I know the teenager in my house chafes at the strictures and extensive instruction required, but it looks like it works.

The fall of 1957 was also when the Soviets had launched Sputnik. Most of the reports I read called it the “Red Moon.” The tone varied from fear and concern to a spectator’s guide to tracking it.

My favorite article, though, was the one shown below. I was both appalled and greatly amused, but mostly I was grateful that tall women are no longer pitied and treated to bizarre medical “corrections.”

Pop Hits 1955-1957

Below are the number one singles for the years 1955-1957 in chronological order. I am slowly putting the YouTube video playlist together. Stay tuned.

1955

1. Let Me Go Lover – Joan Weber
2. Hearts of Stone – The Fontane Sisters
3. Sincerely – The McGuire Sisters
4. The Ballad of Davy Crockett – Bill Hayes
5. Cherry pink and Apple Blossom White – Perez Prado
6. Dance with Me Henry (Wallflower) – Georgia Gibbs
7. Unchained Melody – Les Baxter
8. (We’re Gonna) Rock around the Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets
9. Learnin’ the Blues – Frank Sinatra
10. The Yellow Rose of Texas – Mitch Miller
11. Ain’t That a Shame – Pat Boone
12. Love Is a Many Splendored Thing – Four Aces
13. Autumn Leaves – Roger Williams
14. Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford

1956

1. Memories Are Made of This – Dean Martin
2. Rock and Roll Waltz – Kay Starr
3. The Great Pretender – The Platters
4. Lisbon Antigua – Nelson Riddle
5. The Poor People of Paris – Les Baxter
6. Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley
7. Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom) – Perry Como
8. Moonglow and Theme from ”Picnic” – Morris Stoloff
9. The Wayward Wind – Gogi Grant
10. I Almost Lost My Mind – Pat Boone
11. I Want you, I need You, I Love – Elvis Presley
12. My Prayer – The Platters
13. Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
14. Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
15. Love Me Tender – Elvis Presley
16. The Green Door – Jim Lower
17. Singing the Blues – Guy Mitchell

1957

1. Too Much – Elvis Presley
2. Don’t Forbid Me – Pat Boone
3. You Love – Sonny James
4. Young Love – Tab Hunter
5. Butterfly – Andy Williams
6. Party Doll – Buddy Knox and the Rhyhm Orchids
7. Round and Round – Perry Como
8. All Shook Up – Elvis Presley
9. Butterfly – Charlie Gracie
10. Love Letters in the Sand – Pat Boone
11. (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley
12. Tammy – Debbie Reynolds
13. Diana – Paul Anka
14. Honeycomb – Jimmie Rodgers
15. That’ll Be the Day – The Crickets
16. Wake Up Little Susie – The Everly Brothers
17. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
18. Chances Are – Johnny Mathis
19. You Send Me – Sam Cooke
20. April Love – Pat Boone

Country Hits of 1955-1957

Below are the top country hits for the years 1955-1957. If you click on years, you will be taken to a YouTube playlist of the hits for that year. Some of the videos are fan tributes (song plays while photos of artist are shown) and some are from television performance from that era.

1955

1. Loose Talk – Carl Smith
2. Let Me Go, Lover – Hank Snow
3. In the Jailhouse Now – Webb Pierce
4. Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young – Faron Young
5. A Satisfied Mind – Porter Wagoner
6. I Don’t Care – Webb Pierce
7. The Cattle Call – Eddy Arnold
8. Love, Love, Love – Webb Pierce
9. That Do Make It Nice – Eddy Arnold
10. Sixteen Tons – Tennessee Ernie Ford

1956

1. Why Baby Why – Red Sovine and Webb Pierce
2. I Forgot to Remember to Forget – Elvis Presley
3. Heartbreak Hotel – Elvis Presley
4. I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby – Louvin Brothers
5. Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins
6. Crazy Arms – Ray Price
7. I  Want You, I Need, I Love You – Elvis Presley
8. I Walk the Line – Johnny Cash
9. Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley
10. Hound Dog – Elvis Presley
11. Singing the Blues – Marty Robbins

1957

1. Young Love – Sonny James
2. There You Go – Johnny Cash
3. Gone – Ferlin Husky
4. All Shook Up – Elvis Presley
5. White Sport Coast (And a Pink Carnation) – Marty Robbins
6. Honky Tonk Song – Webb Pierce
7. Four Walls – Jim Reeves
8. Bye Bye Love – Everly Brothers
9. Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear – Elvis Presley
10. Whole Lotta Shakin’ – Jerry Lee Lewis
11. Fraulein – Bobby Helms
12. My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You – Ray Price
13. Wake Up Little Susie – Everly Brothers
14. Jailhouse Rock – Elvis Presley
15. My Special Angel – Bobby Helms