The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

Menu

Navigation

You are here: Home / Forum / Ain’t No Cure For….the Afterword Almanac 1958

Ain’t No Cure For….the Afterword Almanac 1958

by 53 Comments

So here we are, four weeks in. Seems to be going quite well so far, though it will be interesting to see what effect our first quantum jump has on the thread. I’m planning on a week’s pause to allow the flux capacitor to recharge, and then we’ll see where the controls land us. This week we bid, as mooted last time, farewell to the rock and roll era as Elvis heads for military service. Terry Dene, the subject of a story beneath, was hit with the same call-up for National Service in 1958 too. Did Cliff, Billy Fury or any of the other early Brit rock and rollers have to turn up at Catterick or Salisbury for a short back and sides? There’s a definite feel of ‘second wavers’ to the rock and roll scene, headed over here by Cliff and over there by Eddie Cochran. As ever, we open with some of the best stories from the NME Rock and Roll Years tome, and open the Almanac to receive entries of any hue from 1958.

Stereo. the coming thing?
The New York R and B label, Atlantic, have purchased new equipment which will put them in the forefront of recording technology. Their new 8-track console allows eight separate tracks to be recorded independently, thus allowing the instrumentation to be laid down on dindividual tracks and the vocals to be added and balanced later.
Until now, Atlantic have relied either on live studio trackers or on building up a number by dubbing rom one machine to another. Though they will still be issuing most of their records in mono, they are building up a library of ‘stereophonic’ recordings for future release.
RCA have this month begun issuing stereophonic albums – even though relatively few listereners possess layers capable of reproducing the three-dimensional sound they deliver. Like Atlantic, the company is convinced that within a few years all recordings will be stereo.

Latest hit to employ speeded-up vocals is ‘Purple People Eater’ by Sheb Woolley, an actor who played a baddy anxious to shoot Gary Cooper in High Noon.

Dene In The Dumps
Terry Dene is seeing a psychiatrist this week, reports his manager Paul Lincoln.’He will then receive treatment and will not recommence work until both he and the doctors are satisfied he is better.’
This follows an incident in Gloucester, England, where Dene with charged with being drunk and disorderly and causing wilful damage. Local magistrates fined him £155. Marty Wilde and Colin Hicks have been fulfilling his contracted dates.

First release on the new Pyle International label is ‘Come On Lets Go’ – the US hit by Californian Richie Valens.

Summertime Blues is a wintertime hit for Eddie!
He was first seen last year, singing up a storm in the Jayne Mansfield movie The Girl Can’T Help It – and you may have caught him again in the Mamie Van Doreen movie Untamed Youth – but this month marks Eddie Cochran’s chart debut in Britain.
His previous releases, ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and ‘Sittin In the Balcony’ made little impact sales wise, but ‘Summertime Blues’ is a sure-fire rock n roll classic – written incidentally by the man himself.
Only five weeks out of his teens, Eddie was born in Oklahoma but moved to Los Angeles as a schoolboy. A proficient guitarists, he soon attracted the attraction of songwriter Jerry Capehart, who became his writing partner and producer.
A contract with Liberty Records followed, and Eddie was on his way…even though he still can’t find a cure for those Summertime Blues!

Oh Boy! Newcomer
Cliff Richard – a new British teenage singer whose debut disc ‘Schoolboy Crush’, is release at the end of the month, has already been snapped up by producer Jack Good for the first programme of the commercial TV series, Oh Boy!
Cliff, who is 17, records with his own group, The Drifters.
Reviewer Keith Fordyce writes; ‘Cliff is an expert proponent of rock n roll. To a steady beat, he puts over a lyric that has plenty of meaning to the younger listener. The B-side, ‘Move It’, is an exciting number with a throbbing beat. If you’re an addict of the big beat, then this is a must for your collection.’
Oh Boy! Which begins its run on September 13, is in the same Saturday time slot as BBC-TV’s Six-Five Speical, will also feature chart star Marty Wilde.

Elivs Posted to Europe!
The possibility of Elvis Presley performing in Britian has taken a decided step forward with the announcement that he must report to New York on September 20 prior to embarkation for Europe.
As a member of the Third American Armoured division, Presley will be stationed near Frankfurt, Germany – a mere hop from the stages of Britain. Meanwhile, his fans will have to be content with the screen Elivs, currently doing the rounds in King Creole, and the vinyl Elvis, singing songs from the soundtrack. Presley has recently been promoted to Private Second Class, which means a rise in salary to almost 86 dollars a month.

1

Comments

  1. And perhaps the dominant figure of the post-Elvis/pre-Beatles era, Phil Spector had his first US number one with his first vocal group. The Teddy Bears were the only group that had Phil as a member. Wikipedia also tells us it is in 12/8.

    • Never having paid that close attention, I didn’t realise the first Carry On film was made as late as 1958. Looking at the list it’s hard to see how there could have been much quality control when they were churning them out at the rate they did – although there is a purple patch in the mid sixties.

      • The first one is pretty crap. The only really good bit involves Charles Hawtrey and his “Cup Final Ticket”. Aficionados will remember it.

        Also features Bob Monkhouse, Doctor Who (the real one) and Compo.

  4. I’ve only a couple from 1958 in my small collection of 78s. This one, despite being a 10″ disc that plays at 78rpm is in fact made of vinyl rather than shellac, so of course requires a stylus rather than a needle.

    It’s Pet Clark’s former boyf Joe “Piano” Henderson, with ”Trudie’. It reached no. 14 in July.

  5. That year – the mighty Best of Sellers. A 10-inch vinly (steady mini!) featuring Auntie Rotter, A Drop of the Hard Stuff and Balham – Gateway to the South. Brilliantly produced for Parlophone by a young fellow called George Martin.*

    https://youtu.be/YulLBVnIXsA

    *Rather appropriate – this is the Rubber Soul of British comedy albums.

  7. September 1958 was when I first donned my cap and blazer and went off to the grammar school. Because I had chosen to go to the same school where my father taught (because the other school played rugger and I wanted to play football, and it was where all my mates were going), I had a rather hard time of it. I got a going-over from a couple of 5th formers with DAs and winklepickers, I remember. My dad’s name was Archie, and I was known, not very affectionately, as Young Arch.

    But I soon cheered up when this happened.

    • In the world of jazz,
      Ahmad Jamal’s “But Not For Me”, from Live at The Pershing.

      In pop, purple was the colour. A whole slew of songs on purple subjects were issued for a while. This is a particularly good one. Note the unusual backing refrain of “boom wobble wobble wobble” on the verse and “whip weird a whip whip weird” on the chorus.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gUqmVolGR8
      (Thurston Harris & The Masters – Purple Stew)

      Don Gibson was in the US charts with “Oh, Lonesome Me”. Some great guitar playing on this.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3q7lDCvcSMg

      Nina Simone’s Bethlehem album was released. “Little Girl Blue” was on it.

      • Indeed. Nina Simone released her debut album, one of my all-time favourites. Here’s the tracklist:

        “Mood Indigo” – (Duke Ellington, Barney Bigard, Irving Mills)
        “Don’t Smoke in Bed” – (Willard Robison)
        “He Needs Me” – (Arthur Hamilton)
        “Little Girl Blue” – (Richard Rodgers, Lorenz Hart)
        “Love Me or Leave Me” – (Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn)
        “My Baby Just Cares for Me” – (Walter Donaldson, Gus Kahn)
        “Good Bait” (instrumental) – (Count Basie, Tadd Dameron)
        “Plain Gold Ring” – (George Stone (aka Earl Burroughs))
        “You’ll Never Walk Alone” (instrumental) – (Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II)
        “I Loves You, Porgy” – (DuBose Heyward, George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin)
        “Central Park Blues” (instrumental) – (Nina Simone)

        Love Me Or Leave Me

        http://youtu.be/6dDBrpCL5Qk

        Isn’t that just perfect?

      • Also from ’58: Somethin’ Else.

        Miles takes time off from honing the greatest sextet in jazz history (OOAA) to play sideman to Cannonball. A copper-bottomed Blue Note classic results.

        Miles also did Milestones that year over at CBS – which has to be marked as the turning point for Coltrane in terms of going from being interesting to being, er, a bit special.

        (see Tiggmeister below)

  9. Some notable movies from 1958:
    Vertigo.
    The Fly.
    Touch Of Evil.
    The Big Country.
    Cat On a Hot Tin Roof.
    The Blob.
    Dracula.
    Gigi.
    Separate Tables.
    The Vikings.
    Ascenseur Pour L’Échafaud/Lift To the Scaffold/Elevator To the Gallows. (score written and played by Miles Davis)
    A Night To Remember.
    South Pacific.
    The Quiet American.
    The Inn Of the Sixth Happiness.
    The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad.
    Attack Of the 50ft Woman.
    The Hunters.
    King Creole.

    On UK television, on November 30, during the live broadcast of the Armchair Theatre play “Underground” on the ITV network, actor Gareth Jones suffered a fatal heart attack between two of his scenes while in make-up.

    • Reads like a “Songtitle Inspiration List” for Bonio.
      He’s already done Vertigo and The Fly, and the Gaelic translation of Cat On a Hot Tin Roof is An Cat Dubh (isn’t it?).
      So … expect the remainder of that list to be dropping into your iTunes in the next 12 months
      (whether you want it or not)

    • Vertigo is a fantastic film. When we had a family holiday in California a few years back Mrs BB and I took great delight in finding locations around San Francisco, including under the Golden Gate Bridge where Kim Novak throws herself in the sea, and the mission at San Juan Bautista where the final scenes take place. Our kids were bemused but tolerant…

    • A staple item in all suburban households for the next 20 years. More so than the film, it would arguably lead to Richard Baker performing somersaults on Christmas TV screens many years later.

    • A programme a couple of years back about the early motorways revealed that they were strewn with broken down cars as drivers discovered their vehicles were unable to withstand sustained driving at 70 m.p.h. The tow truck owners must have been rubbing their hands as each new stretch opened..

      • Ha ha! That reminds me of after the Berlin Wall came down. Many roads on the Bundesrepublik were for a short time dotted with burnt-out Trabants that hadn’t been made to travel that kind of distance.

          • Interesting site @tiggerlion. Clear that contemporary jazz was still a major album seller with a host of artists in the top 100: Monk, Blakey, Davis, Adderley – even Sun Ra! FF to 1963 and there are notably less artists in the list, though The Sidewinder (a favourite) is there along with Mingus, Bill Evans and Jimmy Smith. By 1968 there’s not a single contemporary jazz album in the top 100.

  16. Meanwhile, back in real music…….

    I remember actually owning this single, or, rather my parents did. OK it was in 1965, but still, I didn’t know it was 7 years old

  17. The Quarrymen make their record in Liverpool.
    Notting Hill riots in London.

    Modern jazz, rock ‘n’ roll, Chicago blues, Roger Mayne’s photography…..
    A proper, gritty, black and white film of “Absolute Beginners” is just screaming out to be done.

  19. In literature, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Grahame Greene’s Our Man In Havana, Alan Sillitoe’s Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and The first James Bond novel, Dr No, were all published.

    • “Lolita” published in the USA.
      “Borstal Boy” published in London. And banned in Ireland.
      Boris Pasternak awarded Nobel Prize For Literature. Decision is denounced in the Soviet Union and he is threatened with deportation.
      Rumours of a library ban on Enid Blyton’s books in New Zealand.
      Mervyn Peake beginning to develop Parkinson’s Disease.

  20. Buddy Holly was in his pomp. In 1958 he released his first solo album which included Everyday, Rave On, Peggy Sue and Words of Love. He toured widely internationally and did a major UK tour which influenced hundreds of budding young musicians. They played Liverpool Philharmonic Hall but contrary to urban myth and somewhat surprisingly given how much of an idol he was to them, none of the Fabs were there.

    Months later one of the great talents was cut cruelly short

    http://youtu.be/04E24MKU3yU

  21. And, let’s not forget, John Mclaughlin joined his first pro band, Big Pete Deuchar & His Professors of Ragtime and left the North-East for Manchester then London. I’ve just discovered they made a TV appearance on the Charlie Chester Show in 1960. Yet to confirm that McL was still in the line-up…

    • There are no recordings of the Professors, but here’s something similar – Big Pete on banjo with the London Jazzmen, on a Parlophone single from 1962. After this he formed Big Pete Deuchar’s Country Blues (an early bandwagon spotter) and bagged a 6-month residency at the Marquee.

  22. In 1957, one of the first bossa nova records was released. And in 1959, the Franco-Brazilian film Black Orpheus, the Greek myth retold in the favelas of Rio, was to win prizes worldwide and spread the new music craze throughouot the world.

    But in Brazil, 1958 was the year of bossa nova. Guitaist Joao Gilberto, arranger and song.wrtier Tom Jobim and poet Vinicius de Moraes released the first bossa records. Like this one:

    Chega de Saudade

    Here are a couple of articles about that year.

    https://songbook1.wordpress.com/fx/si/sw/songwriters-fr-1955/antonio-carlos-jobim/chega-de-saudade/

    Two great quotes from Jobim:

    “The authentic Negro samba in Brazil is very primitive. They use maybe ten percussion instruments and four or five singers. They shout and the music is very hot and wonderful.
    But bossa nova is cool and contained. It tells the story, trying to be simple and serious and lyrical. [João] and I felt that Brazilian music had been too much a storm on the sea, and we wanted to calm it down for the recording studio. You could call bossa nova a clean, washed samba, without
    loss of the momentum. We don’t want to lose important things. We have the problem of how to write and not lose the swing.”

    “Our affinity for jazz was part of the problem, and it has come to dominate many people’s thinking about our music. Instead of going into history as a branch of samba, which it is, bossa nova is viewed by the world as a branch of jazz…”

    http://www.npr.org/2008/06/02/91087907/the-birth-of-bossa-nova

  23. Blue Note hit peak cool for album covers with Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’, designed by Reid Miles, it features an original photograph by Francis Wolff of Alfred Lion’s wife, Ruth.

    I’d post it if I could!

Leave a Reply