Songs of the Week

Each week I select songs of the week from the 50s & 60s and also a goofy or silly song that is not heard much anymore. One characteristic of these songs is that they were not number one songs. In fact they may not have made the Top 40 but these songs were still a big part of our baby boomer era. Some songs that are selected you may be hearing for the first time. Enjoy this special page.

My 1950s pick of this week . . .

comes to us from a New Jersey Rock band that formed in 1956 consisting of Bob Gaudio, who later will be part of The Four Seasons, on the piano, Tom Austin, Billy Dalton and Billy Crandall.  Gaudio and Austin were driving up Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey in Tom Austin's red and white 1957 Ford Fairlane 500, trying to figure out what to call the latest song they had written for their Rock and Roll band.  Just then, two girls came strutting out of Luhmann's (the local teenage sweet shop) wearing cutoff jeans that were cut so short they were almost illegal. At that point, the song "Short Shorts" was born.  Here are the Royal Teens with their #3 hit from 1958, "Short Shorts."

My 1960s pick this week. . .

is from a singer that was raised in Arkansas, a son of rural cotton farmers.  He will reach his fame in the 70s with two major hits that were at the top of the charts on both country and pop.  But in 1965 he had a #21 Billboard hit on October 16, 1965.  Here is Charlie Rich singing "Mohair Sam."

  My Goofy song pick of the week...

made this singer a star at the age of 13. A big hit which I enjoy but a little on the goofy side.  It reached #3 on the Billboard Charts in 1958. In 1972 she started appearing and recording with Sergio Mendes and Brasil '77.  Here is Dodie Stevens singing "Pink Shoe Laces." 

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