I’m a paleontologist listening to all the Billboard top 100s so I can learn something about popular music and history. Here are my previous years : 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944.

The fifth year of my run through the history of pop music, 1945, is after the recovery from the musicians strike that ran from August 1942 to 1944. We get a top 80 songs this year. Some of my reading suggests we’ll get our first taste of BeBop in 1945. 1945 was, of course, the year we ended WW2 with the Atom Bomb, so that may make its way into the charts this year, but I expect more in 1946. The top grossing movie in 1945 was The Bells of St. Mary’s ($8M) and the Best Picture Oscar went to Going My Way. Both movies starred Bing Crosby playing the same character: a charismatic, singing Catholic priest. FDR passed away and Truman took over as President; it was his call to drop the bomb.

As I go through the songs each year, I note the race and gender of the artists, so I can track how representation changes over the years. You might expect 50% of tunes to be performed by women if they were a random sample of the population (although that was not the case in 1941-1944). Based on the racial mix of the USA in the 1940s, you would expect about eight of the top 80 tunes to be by a Black artist or artists and maybe one or two by another non-White racial group. Similarly, you would expect one or two songs by Latinx artists.

As before, I’m going to go through the songs in reverse order so I can count down to the big hits.

TL;DR notes:

1. The 1945 chart was dominated by Frank Sinatra, with seven of the 80 tunes, followed by Bing Crosby and Dick Haymes with five, and Perry Como with four. Bing shares a credit for three other tunes. There were 38 artists with only one tune in the top 80, so it’s more even this year.
2. Black artists were 13 of the 53 artists on the 1945 charts, so 25%. When you go by tracks, Black folks are on 14 out of 80, so 18%. The expected rate for the 1940s would be 10%, so Black artists are overrepresented again. It will be interesting to see whether this holds true or whether there is a backlash in the postwar period. I hope not, but this is America, after all.
3. There are 6 Latinx artists on the 1944 charts (11%), and Latinx folks were about 1.5% of the US at the time, so they’re overrepresented on the charts. Latinx folks were on 6 out of the 80 tracks, so 8%.
4. Women are in 12 of the 53 named artists (23%), and 14 of the 80 tracks (18%). You would, of course, expect them to be in half of the groups on average (maybe more: no reason you couldn’t have all the groups have men and women, after all), so women are underrepresented. This is a drop from 1944, returning to levels more like 1943 and before.
5. Notable songs include: #80 “Salt Peanuts”, #44 “Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well”, #17 “Caledonia”, #8 “Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive”. My favorite is #1 “Rum and Coca Cola”, but it’s a bit controversial in the modern context. I gave 52 (65%) tracks a heart this year. Compare that to 24/40 (60%) in 1944, 25/40 (63%) in 1943, 45/100 in 1942, and 33/80 (41%) in 1941. Overall my appreciation of this music is trending upwards. It could be that it’s moving towards my ideal, or it could be that I’m getting accustomed to it.

The 1945 Charts:

1. Dizzy Gillespie – Salt Peanuts – Rolling on the hi-hat leads into trumpets playing a fast jazz tune. It’s sparsely instrumented, but catchy, with bass, piano, trumpet, and drums. Every now and then the trumpet drops out so someone can say “Salt peanuts salt peanuts!”. It’s, maybe, avant garde? Could it be Bebop? Wikipedia suggests it could be. I’ve discovered a new genre of music! I look forward to hearing my first Doo-Wop tune, and Rock n’ Roll, etc. This is fun. I like this tune, so it gets a heart. Black male artist.
2. Gilberto Alves – Prece a Lua – YouTube to the rescue. A sad clarinet starts us out. Then we get singing in Portuguese? It feels like a sad song, at the beginning, but it has a pretty typical Big Band slow song sound, except not in English. It’s not the sort of song that’s my favorite, but it’s good. Latino male artist.
3. Betty Grable – I Can’t Begin to Tell You – Sad strings to begin, then straight into Betty’s vocals. No long intro here. It’s not exciting: it’s mostly a way to feature Betty’s velvety vocals. In the second half we get a wah-wah muted trumpet playing the melody. White female artist.
4. Johnny Long – My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time – YouTube to the rescue. It starts out with a kind of tootly sound on the clarinets, backed by muted trumpets and trombones. I think I recognize this song from another cover of it. We have a long, 45 second intro, then into the vocalist, who sounds very thin and old-fashioned. I get the feeling that in 1945 there was a battle between newer, jazzier stuff and the stodgy older stuff from the swing era. Near the end we have a woman vocalist singing the main line, with a male chorus. Now we’re getting call-and-response between the male and female leads. White male artist.
5. Hal McIntyre & his Orchestra – Sentimental Journey – YouTube to the rescue again. This one starts out with sassy woodwinds, punctuated by muted trumpets. It’s growing in volume and complexity, adding sections to the band. Now we’re 1:20 in and still no vocals. Will it be an instrumental? It’s just not exciting. How did this chart above Salt Peanuts? White male artist.
6. Woody Herman – Caledonia – Starts big, fast, and loud. It’s got the whole Big Band involved, but the clarinet is the lead, BeBopping through the song. I’ve heard other versions of this song as a Blues tune, but this is a fast, Jazz version. Wikipedia has a bunch about it in its Woody Herman bio. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
7. Carmen Cavallaro – Chopin’s Polonaise – Piano starts us out. I think this is just a straight up classical music piece that charted in 1945. It has an orchestra with the piano. It’s really good (Chopin is good, you know), but I’m surprised. I don’t think classical music ever charts on the pop charts nowadays. I’ll give it a heart. Latino male artist.
8. Harry James and Kitty Kallen – I’ll Buy That Dream – YouTube to the Rescue. Starts big with the trumpet. Then into a swinging, slow tune with the trumpet as the featured instrument (hardly surprising given that Harry James is a trumpet player). It swings along for some time. Then we get Kitty Kallen singing: her voice is great, and from YouTube we can see that she’s credited on the album, so I’ll add her here. Her voice makes the tune. I would give it a heart if it were on Spotify. White male and female artists.
9. Perry Como – Dig You Later (A-hubba Hubba Hubba) – Big, trumpety intro, leads into a male chorus starting the tune out, then a female vocalist call-and-response with Perry Como. The song seems to be about the firebombing of Tokyo: it’s a very happy, light song for such a somber subject. I can understand why they would have that attitude in 1945, but the song hasn’t aged well. It has a good beat and I like it from a musical perspective, but I don’t think I can have it in my Spotify playlist, because it’s just too shocking. White male artist.
10. Dick Haymes – Till The End of Time – Strings swoop along to introduce a crooning male singer who sings about how he’s not aloooone in the niiiiiight because he remembers you. It’s really not for me. White male artist.
11. Guy Lombardo – Bell Bottom Trousers – Starts out with a nautical theme, and I think I can see where this one is going. The trumpets are bright and carry the tune into the vocals that start at 30 seconds. It’s about a woman who is in love with a sailor who wears bell bottom trousers, which were the standard uniform for sailors back in the day. I think it was to make it easier to kick off their boots if they fell in the drink. This song is cute, simple, and has a happy bright sound, so I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
12. Phil Moore Four – My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time – YouTube to the rescue again. This is the second cover of this tune, and I didn’t like the first… This one starts out more jazzy and gets to the vocalist soon. It’s a better version. It’s got a fast walking beat and it’s really not a crooner song: the singing is precise and doesn’t dwell on the vowels. I detect some electric guitar in the sparse intstumentals. I would give it a heart if it were on Spotify. Black male artists.
13. Frank Sinatra – You’ll Never Walk Alone – Is this a response to the 1944 Dinah Shore hit I’ll Walk Alone? It has tinkly piano to start, then into very soft Sinatra vocals… I just realized that this is the song that Eddie the Shipboard Computer sings in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy when he thinks the Heart of Gold will be destroyed. It’s strange what we have a memory for: I remember this song from the written page, not from hearing it sung. It was used ironically there, and I do not have any love for it, despite this bit of pop cultural connection. White male artist.
14. Cyro Monteiro – Boogie-Woogie na Favela – YouTube to the rescue. It has a great boogie woogie beat from the outset, but who’s surprised? Also, it’s in Portugese, but that’s not surprising. It has scat-jazz and BeBop elements, but it sounds clearly Bossa Nova. I like it and would give it a heart were it on Spotify. Latino artist.
15. Coleman Hawkins – Rifftide – YouTube to the rescue. This is another fast jazz tune, and probably BeBop. It’s great, and I wish it were on Spotify. It’s got great work between the trumpet, sax, and piano. I would give it a heart. Black male artist.
16. Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters – Along the Navajo Trail – Raunchy sax to start, then straight into Bing Crosby’s vocals. It’s technically a Western song, but it’s really a big band arrangement and performance here. The Andrews Sisters are great, too. It has a real Western feel overprinted on the big band sound, with the horse-walking da-dum da-dum beat. I’ll give it a heart. White male and female artists.
17. Eddie Heywood – Begin the Beguine – We played this in High School band, but I have no memory of the tune besides the title. Bright trumpets to start us, with piano trading off and taking the lead. It’s great, complex, and has wonderful, technical play by the musicians. It’s mostly a the piano and trumpets, in the end. I’ll give it a heart. Black male artist.
18. Spike Jones – Holiday for strings – Will this be a joke song? Spike Jones is notorious for his humorous compositions. It starts out with stabby trumpets and segues into plinky harp. Now it has someone playing the cowbells, quite jarring. And wah-wah trombone, and it’s definitely a joke song. It’s catchy. It has cranks, gunshots, all the percussion. Honking horns now, and jangly bells. I like it. Now it has a clucking chicken! Then on to laughing voices taking the melody. It’s getting surreal. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
19. Dick Haymes – The More I See You – Piano starts, then straight into male vocalist, crooning along. It’s a love song about how happy he is to see you. Now the sentimental strings come in, but the focus is really on the vocals. It’s not for me. White male artist.
20. The Mills Brothers – I Wish – Spare guitar then straight into four-part harmony. It’s a beautiful, spare sound, as the main singer wishes that you were the shadow who walks with him in the park, and lots of other similes. It picks up in the second section, to a fast walking beat. It’s going back through the same lyrics but at 1.5 the time from the first section, as seems to be typical of these sorts of four-part harmony tunes. Now in the third section, they sing the lyrics in harmony across all the voices, then come back to one voice just before the full harmony for the finale. I’ll give it a heart. Black male artists.
21. Frank Sinatra – I Dream of You – Sentimental strings to start us out, suggesting a maudlin song. Frank comes in pretty soon. He dreams of you more than you dream he does. It’s really a crooning song, and while Frank is a great vocalist, its just not for me. White male artist.
22. Jo Stafford – That’s for Me – Sentimental strings for this one, too. It sounds slightly brighter. Then Jo comes in, and she’s good, but a bit square. White female artist.
23. Anjos do Inferno – Bolinha de Papel – Sounds very Bossa Nova right from the start. The notes chosen, the tonality of the voices and the guitar, all sound Latin. It’s in Portugese, so I don’t know what it’s about, but it’s catchy, so I’ll give it a heart. Latino male artists.
24. Joe Liggins – The Honeydripper (Parts 1 & 2) – Some nice, rock-n-roll sounding piano and saxophone to start us out. If I didn’t know it was from 1945, I would think this was a rock tune. It’s got a fast, syncopated beat, and I like it. It sounds like a saxophone trio with a piano, maybe. I’ll give it a heart. We get vocals after 1:30, basically halfway through. The vocals are really like another instrument, not a lead. I think this must be BeBop. Black male artist.
25. Peggy Lee – Waitin’ for the Train to Come In – Starts out with woodwinds and brushes on the snares to create a picture of a train. Then Peggy Lee gets going after only 15 seconds. She has a great voice. She’s waiting for her man to come home. It’s an “I’m so sad you’re gone” song. It has a slow-walking pace, and is building to the third section, I think. I think she may be co-dependent, because she says her life won’t begin until the train comes in. Now we get a big instrumental break in the middle, that leads to a guitar solo, then on to a trumpet solo. It’s a good song, slower than I usually like, but it’s very musically interesting, so I’ll happily give it a heart. White female artist.
26. Tony Pastor & his Orchestra – Bell Bottom Trousers – The second of three covers of this tune in 1945. Starts big, like a BIG BAND tune and it’s going to let you know it has all the instruments. Get a female vocalist after 30 seconds, singing the song about the lady who likes the sailor. This is a very Big Band version, which is starting to sound old in 1945. I like it. In the second half, we get a male vocalist echoing the female, and then a male chorus. I give it a heart. White male artist.
27. Jo Stafford – Symphony – Weepy strings start us out. It’s going to be a maudlin song (which is typical for Jo Stafford, I find). She’s singing about a symphony of love, apparently. It’s very saccharine. It’s technically good, but just not for me. White female artist.
28. Tex Ritter – You Will Have to Pay – Two in a row by Tex Ritter. I hope he’s OK. Steel guitar. It’s clear this a Country & Western song, and then the vocalist is a basso! It’s an archetypal country song, about how you’ll have to pay for the sins you have committed and you’ll have to pay when I’m gone. It has an oom-pah walking horse beat. Could this be the sound of Country Music becoming mainstream? It’s actually pretty good; I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
29. Tex Ritter – You Two Timed Me Once Too Often – Starts with honky-horn guitar and backed up by rhythm guitar and accordion!? This is a song I’ve heard as a traditional piece, I think, but as an instrumental. It’s used in cartoons to set the scene as a Western pastoral. It has a rocking-back-and-forth beat, maybe a slow horse walk. Now we’re getting a steel guitar solo! I love it! I’m giving this one a heart, too. White male artist.
30. Frankie Carle – A Little On The Lonely Side – YouTube to the rescue. Starts with the big band building to a crescendo, then into some tinkly piano setting the musical theme. Backed by muted trumpets. It’s pretty jazzy, with a Big Band feel. Looks like it’s one of the long-intro type songs, as we’re over a minute in without any singing. Instead, it’s built with sections of the band until it falls back to the piano. We get a male vocalist after 1:40. He’s singing in a way that’s tighter than the true crooners, so I can put this in the “Big Band” category. It’s a medium walking pace song, and the lyrics are typical love song, so it’s not notable, but I would give it a heart if it were on Spotify. I’m reminded by Wikipedia that Carle was a pianist, so that explains the dominance of the piano in this tune. White male artist.
31. Dick Thomas – Sioux City Sue – YouTube to the rescue. Fast paced, and bouncy. It has trumpets and clarinets setting the tone, with an accordion. It’s a Western song, but it has a Big Band sound, not a C&W sound. I like it, and I would heart it if I could. If more C&W sounded like this, I would be a fan. White male artist.
32. Charlie Parker – Billie’s Bounce – Piano starts us out, then adding saxophones and brushes on the snare. It’s got a good, fast pace, and it has a jazzy sound. I think this must be more BeBop: it sounds much more modern than the rest of the music from this era. It would fit in a “late 60’s” scenario in a movie. I’ll gladly give it a heart. Black male artist.
33. Russ Morgan – There Goes That Song Again – Whiny clarinets start us out, dropping to a quiet place and then having a melody picked up by muted trumpets. It’s trading off the melody between sections, leading to the male vocalist after 40 seconds. It’s not a crooning vocal: it’s crisp and doesn’t hold the vowels. It’s a song about lost love, and how you get back to feelings by hearing an old song. White male artist.
34. Frank Sinatra – Saturday Night (Is the Loneliest Night) – I gave it a heart in the 1944 charts. White male artist.
35. Stan Kenton – Tampico – Big, bright trumpets to start us out. I recognize this song, because Spotify has been bringing it into my rotation because of these 1940s songs I’ve been listening to. It’s pretty good, and it has an interesting message about how Mexico is not as exotic as everyone assumes but is instead just like more of the USA. Maybe there’s some cultural appropriation there, but it seems more like: folks are the same everywhere, stop exotifying our neighbors to the south. It has a great female vocalist and a male chorus and it’s catchy and fast. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
36. Dorival Caymmi – Peguei Um Ita no Norte – Starts out with a full band, but the recording quality is low so it’s hard to tell what all instruments are there. It has a Latin sound and goes into a male vocalist singing after only about 25 seconds. It’s very classic Latin music: it’s not Bossa Nova, but sounds more like what I would expect to hear from a Mariachi band, but with less guitar. This interpretation may reflect my lack of experience with Latin music. Dorival Caymmi is Brazilian, so this is probably in Portugese. I like it and I’ll give it a heart. Latino male artist.
37. Lucky Millinder – Who Threw the Whiskey in the Well – Starts slow, but transitions into a swing beat and it’s clear this is a Big Band swing tune. The male vocalst comes in just after only a short time. It’s now become a Gospel-style tune, but it’s a parody, because the Deacon is mad at the congregation for throwing the whiskey in the well. I think the idea is that you can’t drink the well water because you’ll get drunk from the whiskey… It has a great call-and-response for “Who threw the whiskey in the well.” I’ll gladly give it a heart. Black male artist.
38. Dick Haymes – Laura – Starts out with dreamy flutes and sets a stage for a sappy love song. Then we get a crooner singing about “Laura” who, I guess, he loves in a floaty, indistinct way. It’s not a song for me. White male artist.
39. Louis Prima – Bell Bottom Trousers – Oh, good, another cover of a tune I like. This is a later cover from Spotify, but I’ll still listen to it, because it’s the only Louis Prima version. It’s got a good beat and it makes me happy, but it’s not clearly different from the other versions. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
40. Frank Sinatra – Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue) – Twinkly flutes get us in the mood for another fluffy love song. Now Sinatra is crooning, alas. I’m not happy with this song, but I’m sure someone out there must like it. White male artist.
41. Bing Crosby – You Belong To My Heart – Sometimes I like Bing, when he’s not too croony. I don’t think this will be one of those times. This song has a Latin beat, but the vocals don’t really match. It’s a bit jarring, really, to have the chaka-chak of the maracas under Bing’s square crooning. White male artist.
42. Perry Como – I’m Gonna Love That Gal – Bright trumpets set us up for a swinging tune. The vocals come in just after the short intro. It’s got a good, jazzy sound, and Como isn’t crooning; he’s singing this without dwelling on the vowels. It’s OK, but not my favorite. White male artist.
43. Dizzy Gillespie – Groovin’ High – Starts out with fast, jazzy saxophones, running through the melody. It sounds like another BeBop song, with fast runs and a light, improvisational air. I like it. The saxophone seems to be the main voice in the song. Dizzy comes in on the trumpet just about 1:35 into the tune, and he’s carrying it now. His trumpet sounds great. Then it trades off with an electric guitar before returning to the trumpet for the last phrase. I’ll give this a heart. Black male artist.
44. Dick Haymes – Love Letters – Maudlin strings waft us into what sounds like it will be sad. The vocals come in soon after, and it’s clear this is another crooning piece. I think it’s the dwelling on the vowels that I really dislike in crooooooning. White male artist.
45. Frank Sinatra – Try a Little Tenderness – Sad violins to start us out. It’s a slow tune, which is not how I’ve head this piece covered. Now Sinatra is singing with a piano and that sad violin backing him up. This is not the best cover of this song I’ve ever heard. Too slow and weepy. White male artist.
46. Big Maceo Merriweather – Chicago Breakdown – Rollicking piano starts this tune out, running up and down the chords to produce a happy, fast beat. It’s very catchy. I can’t tell if it’s one or two pianos. It’s really good, though, in a fast jazz or boogie-woogie style. No vocals, so far, so I think it’s an instrumental. I’ll gladly give it a heart. Big Maceo Merriweather is great, and one of my favorite artists I have found on this run through the charts. Black male artist.
47. Benny Goodman – Gotta Be This Or That – Big band sound from the outset. Saxophones are driving the melody for now. It’s pretty standard Big Band swing music. It has a female vocalist sing the tune in the first half, then switches to a male vocalist singing as the complement. It gets a heart. White male artist.
48. Louis Prima – Angelina – Starts with a very Italian sound, which is what Prima is known for. It’s a song about a waitress at the pizzeria. He’s in love with her in a very Italian-sounding reading of the lyrics. It’s actually a pretty good song, and Prima is Italian-American, so I guess it’s OK for him to play up the Italian-ness of this song. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
49. Bing Crosby – Amor, Amor – I didn’t like this song in 1944, and it’s not any better this time around. White male artist.
50. Nelson Goncalves – Maria Bethania – Swelling strings and Spanish (Portuguese?) guitar set the scene: a lonely evening outside the hacienda. It’s sung in Portuguese, and it has a great Latin sound. It’s a song that I think I wouldn’t like in English, but it has such a solid emotional core that I can’t help but give it a heart. Latino male artist.
51. Tommy Dorsey – Opus One – Fast notes from trumpets set us up and then it’s into a classic swing piece that I had no idea was named this or by Tommy Dorsey. It’s one of the pieces that’s used whenever they have to set the scene as the swing era. It just sounds so classic, and it does a great job using all the sections of the Big Band. I’ll give it a heart only because I can’t give it two. White male artist.
52. Perry Como – If I Loved You – Sets up a dreamy scene with strings and woodwinds in the opening. Perry Como has a smooth voice, but this is a crooooooning soooooong, so It’s lost me quickly. White male artist.
53. Helen Forrest & Dick Haymes – I’ll Buy That Dream – Swelling strings again to set a dreamy scene. Helen Forrest has a great voice, and this song isn’t crooning, so I’ll give it a longer listen. It’s pretty good, with a good mix of the vocals and the band. Now we get a male vocalist contrasting with her. It’s very different from the Harry James version, but I like it. I’ll give it a heart. White male and female artists.
54. Dick Haymes – It Might as Well Be Spring – Trumpets and woodwinds set us up for a sappy song, and then we get deep, crooning vocals. It’s interesting that it sounds like an Xmas song because so many of our Xmas songs come from this era; it’s not Xmasy at all: it’s about love and Spring Fever. It’s OK, though: despite my dislike of crooning, this one is well-constructed, so I’ll give it a heart. Listening carefully, it’s not hitting the vowels as hard as your typical crooning song, so that might be it. White male artist.
55. Woody Herman – Laura – The previous version was a crooner I didn’t like. This one starts with bright trumpets and sounds like a Big Band, swingy version. It has some jazzy saxophones taking over after the intro, but it’s still sounding good. Lots of bright sound, building to what I assume is a late vocal. I was right: at about one minute, we get the male vocalist. It’s a more jazzy version, but it’s still clearly a crooning song. I think the jazzy setting saves it, though, so I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
56. Frank Sinatra – A Friend of Yours – Strings set a dreamy stage. Frank is laying it on thick in this one. No vowel is untouched. Is this a cheating song? I’m not sure; it could be a lost love song. Ah, I see: it’s a hidden love song, “Just say that I’m a friend of yours that you happened to meet again”. White male artist.
57. Bing Crosby – A Friend of Yours – This song again? Let’s see how Bing’s version stacks up. YouTube to the rescue. This one is more sparsely instrumented and focuses more on Bing’s voice (which sounds better than Frank’s voice here). Still doesn’t get me excited. White male artist.
58. Billie Holiday – Lover Man (Oh, Where Can You Be?) – Big band with a saxophone emphasis, and then straight into Billie’s vocals, which are, as always, amazing. I feel like this song has gotten used a lot in modern contexts; I seem to recognize it. It’s a slow-dance jazz tune, and while I don’t usually go for slow tunes, this one has me paying attention. I’ll gladly give it a heart. Black female artist.
59. Spike Jones – Cocktails For Two – Spike Jones tunes are always hilarious, so I’m looking forward to this one. Dreamy piano, and an ooh-ooh chorus. It seems to be a song about the end of prohibition, or maybe the end of war rationing? It transitions after a minute into a silly Spike Jones song, with all kinds of sound effects. It sounds like a “happy that the war is over” song. I think this is the first one that has been clearly about that theme. I expect more in 1946, because of the way music trends go, and when the war ended in 1945. I’ll give this one a heart. White male artist.
60. Bing Crosby – On the Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe – This reminds me of Chattanooga Choo-Choo, because it’s another train-travel song. It has a train chugging rhythm, driving it forward, but Bing’s vocals are so velvety that it feels pretty mellow. We get two more covers; this song seem to represent the 1945 feel. I like it, and I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
61. The Pied Pipers – Dream – Mellophone starts us out, then four part harmony vocals! It’s really mellow but musically interesting. It seems to be about daydreaming to take yourself away from daily drudgery. It gets a dreamy saxophone solo for the bridge. Does it presage some faster four-part harmony tunes from the 50s? I’ll give it a heart. White male and female artists.
62. Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters – Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive – Here’s another one my grandfather used to sing to me all the time. It starts out with a jazzy clarinet intro, then goes into Bing’s velvety vocals singing about how you have to have a positive mental attitude. Then we get the Andrews Sisters singing in juxtaposition to Bing. I love both Bing and the AS, plus this is a sentimental song for me, so this is great. I’ll give it a heart. White male and female artists.
63. Harry James – I’m Beginning to See The Light – Guitar starts us off, then leads into a big band sound with the trumpets and saxophones leading the charge. This seems to be a long intro song… After 1:20 we get Harry James on the trumpet, then at 1:30 we get a female vocalist. It’s a swing tune, and I like it. Harry James usually does a good job using the sections of his band and mixing the vocals with the instruments. This tune has a great, pushing beat, and the lyrics are about falling in love, so it fits thematically. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
64. Louis Jordan – Caledonia – This is the version I’m used to. It starts with rollicking piano and brushes on the snares. Then the saxophones come in. Louis Jordan is just sooooo goooood. The beat is fast, with some syncopation. The vocals are rapid fire and really bring home the lyrics, about hard-headed Caledonia, who he loves just the same. The bridge is saxophone-heavy, fitting with the blues-jazz sound. Then we have a spoken word section to introduce the final chorus. I’m happy to give it a heart. Black male artist.
65. Frank Sinatra – Nancy, With The Laughing Face – Dreamy strings and woodwinds to set us up. Then Frank starts crooning. It’s a co-dependence song, because he can’t go a day without seeing Nancy. She make his winter summer, blah blah. Interestingly, she’s a tomboy in lace: what does that mean? White male artist.
66. Bing Crosby & Les Paul – It’s Been a Long, Long Time – Lyrical guitar to start us out (no surprise, with Les Paul). This is a famous song, and Bing make it a wonderful listen. It’s about reuniting with your lover; so I suppose it could relate to the end of the war. I’ll give this song a heart, mostly for Les Paul. White male artists.
67. Ella Fitzgerald & The Ink Spots – I’m Beginning to See The Light – Ooh! Ella and TIS! I should just heart this one before listening to it. Rocking, jazzy piano sets the stage. Then male vocals by Bill Kenny and an ooh-ooh chorus. It’s so musically wonderful, even with such sparse instrumentation. Brilliant artists stand so far out from the rest. This is so much better than the Harry James version. Ella Comes in halfway through the tune, reflecting back the lyrics from the male vocalist, and she just elevates the tune. I was right to give it a heart. Black male and female artists.
68. Judy Garland – On the Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe – Bright trumpets set us up for a happy song, then into a chorus singing about the AT&SF. We get Judy’s vocals before 30 seconds in. It has the choo-choo rhythm of a train-travel song. This version is as good as the Bing Crosby/AS version. It’s slower, I think, but longer. Now at 1:20 the chorus is singing directly to Judy, asking for a second chorus! It’s a meta-song! I’ll give it a heart. White female artist.
69. Duke Ellington – I’m Beginning to See The Light – Now we get a Duke Ellington version of this song? This keeps getting better! Piano starts us out, of course. It’s a slow, but pushing beat driven by the string bass and the brushes on the snares. We’re getting the melody from saxophones. It’s going to have the long intro like the Harry James version, unlilke TIS and Ella Fitzgerald. I think there’s some symbolism that there are so many covers of a song called “I’m beginning to see the light” in 1945 when the war was ending and ended. We get a great female vocalist here, Joya Sherrill according to Spotify. She does a great job with these lyrics, but her vocals are more straightforward and less provocative than Ella Fitzgerald. I’ll give this version a heart, too. Black male artist.
70. Johnny Mercer & Jo Stafford – Candy – Big trumpets set up a medium-pace, maudlin song. Then a chorus sings about how he calls his sugar “Candy” because he’s sweet on her. It’s a joke, I guess? It’s an OK song, but the vocals are a bit too syrupy for me. White male and female artists.
71. Vaughn Monroe – There! I’ve Said it Again – Mellophone starts us out, then into a big chorus with a big band, but the vocals are mixed in such a way that it’s hard to understand them. It’s got a kind of “wall-of-sound” feel, and I’m not to happy with it. White male artist.
72. Sammy Kaye – Chickery Chick – YouTube to the rescue. Starts with a male chorus, singing in a bawdy way. Then we get a female vocalist, Sylvia Dee. It’s an Irish-sounding song, I guess. It has lots of nonsense lyrics, and an Irish feel. It’s not great; it strikes me as a novelty song. White male artist.
73. Johnny Mercer – Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive – I think this is the version most folks have heard. It starts with a trumpet solo, then we get a male vocalist singing as though he’s a preacher calling the congregation to order. Now into the tune we know, and it’s just as good as before. I’ll give it a heart: I have to keep my positive mental attitude. White male artist.
74. Bing Crosby – I Can’t Begin to Tell You – Maybe this will be better than the Betty Grable version? Tinkly piano sets the stage. Now we get Bing’s velvety vocals. It sounds like it’s just going to be Bing and the piano. Oh, there’s also a string bass and brushes on the snare. It’s still a crooning song. White male artist.
75. Harry James – It’s Been a Long, Long Time – Starts us out with the full Big Band so we know this song will be musically full. This is the version that everyone is familiar with, with Harry James’ trumpet carrying the tune from the outset. He uses the trumpet like he’s the lead singer. It’s a great tune, and no wonder it’s one of the few that has stuck around from 1945. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
76. Johnny Mercer – On the Atchison, Topeka & the Santa Fe – Big Band sound, but with sound effects for the train: a hammer and anvil sound. It’s bopping along, smoothly and with urgency in a way the other versions didn’t have. It’s no wonder this one ranked so high: it’s the best version of this song. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
77. Les Brown – My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time – Third cover of this tune… Saxophones set the stage, and it has a very Big Band sound. It’s a slow song, but catchy. Muted trumpets are carrying the melody at first, then the saxes pick it up. I really like this version. We get a female vocalist after 1:15, and she sounds great. This is the best cover, so it deserves this spot at #4, in my opinion. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
78. Perry Como – Till The End of Time – Piano and strings build to start us out. Then we get Perry Como’s vocals. This song is familiar in some way. Is it using a musical motif from classical music? I see from Wikipedia that it is based on Chopin’s Polonaise in A flat Major. It’s really unremarkable otherwise. White male artist.
79. Les Brown – Sentimental Journey – Saxophones and the string bass, along with the old brushes on the snare set a slow walking pace and a kind of maudlin feel. It could be a slow-moving train or a sad walk at night. The sections of the band build up over time, but still sad and slow. It is archetypal Big Band stuff. The last cover was an instrumental, so this one may be, too. It’s better, though: Brown is using the sections well. Aha! We get smoky female vocals after about 1:40. She’s going to take a sentimental journey to renew old memories. Honestly, the vocals make this song. The internet indicates it’s Doris Day, and now it all makes sense. I’ll give it a heart. White male artist.
80. The Andrews Sisters – Rum & Coca-Cola – I really like this song, but it’s a guilty pleasure because the Andrews Sisters sing in a false Caribbean accent for the song, so it has some cultural appropriation. But it’s musically very good, so I’m conflicted. I’ll give it a heart. White female artists.