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, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948.

The ninth year of my run through the history of pop music, 1949, is after the establishment of the Cold War. We only get a top 30 songs this year.

As I wrote in 1946, the period between WW2 and the Doo-wop era of the 1950s gets very little coverage in US popular culture, so I’m interested in building my knowledge of both the music and the evolution of US politics and culture through this time. Here are some contextual details:

The top grossing movie in 1949 was Jolson Sings Again ($5M), the second part of the musical film biography of Al Jolson, focusing on his time entertaining troops in WW2. All the King’s Men won the Best Picture Oscar for the year. The noir film depicts the career of an idealistic politician who becomes as corrupt as those he started out fighting. The Emmy for the Most Popular Show in 1948 was Pantomime Quiz, and for 1949 it was Texaco Star Theater. Major US events in 1949 were: The first VW Beetle was imported; the first Emmy Awards; the first non-stop around-the-world airplane flight; NATO is formed; the Red Scare continued; the US sent a rhesus monkey into space; the first NASCAR race was held; Hopalong Cassidy premiered; the first US spree shooting happened; the Englewood race riot in Chicago happened; and this year is the first year on record that no Black American was lynched.

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, but I include the genders of all folks in the named artist on the track, so women could be on 100% of the tracks if all the named artists included both men and women. That hasn’t been the case at all so far: men dominate the charts. Based on the racial mix of the USA in the 1940s, you would expect about three of the top 30 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 1949 chart was dominated by Gordon Jenkins, Russ Morgan, and Vaughan Monroe, with three tracks each.
2. Black artists were part of 1 of the 20 artists on the 1949 charts, so 5%. When you go by tracks, Black folks are on 1 out of 30, so 3%. The expected rate for the 1940s would be 10%, so Black artists are under-represented this year. Compare that track percentage to 1941-47: 8, 5, 20, 28, 18, 8, 9, and 5%. It looks like Black artists got a big boost during the war, returned to expected representation afterwards, and now have seen a dip below expected representation. The backlash continues this year, but we have our first interracial collaboration to chart, with Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Shavers credited for their song, “The Hucklebuck”.
3. As has become a trend since the war ended, there are no Latinx artist(s) on the 1949 charts (0%), and Latinx folks were about 1.5% of the US at the time, so they’re underrepresented on the charts. This, combined with the last point reinforces a whitening of popular music in the post-war era.
4. Women are in 7 of the 20 named artists (35%), and 8 of the 30 tracks (27%). 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. Compare these numbers to 1941-47: 9, 12, 15, 38, 18, 21, 15, 30%. Women have a big bump in 1944, which could be because of the war, or it could be related to the musicians’ strike, then decline for 45-47, but they are back up in 1948 and 1949.
5. Notable songs include: #24 Baby, It’s Cold Outside, as well as both Evelyn Knight tunes (#23 Powder Your Face With Sunshine, #8 A Little Bird Told Me). My favorite is #29 The Hucklebuck (also the first interracial collaboration on the charts). I gave 11 of 30 (37%) a <3 this year. Compare that to 67% in 1948, 57% in 1947, 46% in 1946, 65% in 1945, 60% in 1944, 63% in 1943, 45% in 1942, and 41% in 1941. This is my least-favorite year yet. The lack of diversity seems to have translated into a bunch of cloying, crooning tunes that are not to my taste. Perhaps this is why American period dramas skip the post-WW2 era.

The 1949 Charts:

1. Gordon Jenkins – I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Any More – YouTube to the rescue, first thing! Weepy strings start us on a maudlin track. Then a sad-sounding male chorus singing the title to the song. This is an archetypal lost love sad song. I’m not a fan. White male artist.
2. Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Shavers – The Hucklebuck – Piano and bass set up a rollicking jazz tune. It has trumpets and saxophones playing the melody. Could it be an instrumental? It’s a good, old-fashioned Big Band tune and I <3 it. It does a good job of building complexity and adding instruments while keeping the theme. We get the male vocalist after 1:20. He’s singing about a dance: The Hucklebuck. He manages to rhyme “sacroiliac”, so this song only gets better. Also: this is the first song with an interracial named artist, with white Dorsey teaming with Black Shavers. Of course, it’s also the only song with a Black artist this year, and he shares billing with a white artist, so in some ways it supports the overall whitening of the charts for 1949. History is complicated.
3. Dick Haymes – Maybe It’s Because – Wow! Starts out with big harmony singing from a chorus. Also starts with singing the title. Then we get Dick Haymes singing, but not quite crooning. This song is OK, but it’s not my favorite. It’s a falling-in-love song. It feels very square. White male artist.
4. Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters – ‘A’ You’re Adorable – Maudlin strings start us out, setting up a sentimental song. Then we get Perry Como crooning. This is an alphabet song, where each letter is a complement to the girl. So sappy. As often happens, it starts to skip over letters late in the alphabet. White male and female artists.
5. Sammy Kaye – Careless Hands – YouTube to the rescue. This has “singing guitar” in the intro. Then a chorus sings the lyrics, it has a bit of a Western feel. It’s another “abused lover” song about someone who is mistreated by their lover. It’s not for me, alas. White male artist.
6. Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae – Whispering Hope – More maudlin strings. Is this a year of sappy songs? OMG it’s another song with male and female voices singing in unison. I can’t stand it! This song is about having hope to pass through troubling times, but I can hardly keep listening to it, it’s so saccharine. White male and female artists.
7. Johnny Mercer and Margaret Whiting – Baby, It’s Cold Outside – A lot has been written about this song lately. I’m not a fan, given it’s modern context, but the construction of the song is very good, from a musical perspective. If it weren’t for the consent issues, I would heart this song. White male and female artists.
8. Evelyn Knight – Powder Your Face With Sunshine – Hi-hat, then a wolf whistle and a male chorus asks her how she got that great look. She answers with the title. It’s a great, jazzy song, and I’ll ignore the street harassment opening because it’s in control by the lady singing it. It has a whistling bridge! <3. White female artist.
9. Russ Morgan – So Tired – Big trumpets to start us out. This will be a BIG SONG it seems to say. It doesn’t sound tired. He’s so tired of waiting for you, longing for you. Why are you making him wait? The song has gone from BIG to pretty sparse instrumentation, featuring Russ’s sound, which actually sounds more 1950s and less croon-y, 1930s. I can get into this song. <3. It does drag in the bridge, a bit. White male artist.
10. Vaughn Monroe – Red Roses For A Blue Lady – Chorus of male voices sings the title at the very beginning. Then we get into the single male vocalist: he’s trying to make up for his silly quarrel by bribing his lady with flowers. It’s a bit to sappy for me, but it’s starting to have a sound more like the vocals of the 1950s, I think. White male artist.
11. Bing Crosby – Galway Bay – Oboe sets up a nautical/Irish theme… Then we get Bing’s velvety crooning as he sings about an Irish pastoral scene. It’s really a crooning tune and I’m not interested. White male artist.
12. Dinah Shore – Buttons & Bows – I <3’d this tune when it charted at #21 in 1948. I’m glad it’s back.
13. Bing Crosby – Far Away Places – Oooh-oooh chorus sets up a dreamy scene. Bing’s voice is great, but I’m just not into the crooning (and I can almost tell that we’re done with it! I’m impatient!). This song may also be racist; I’m not sure because I’m not really listening anymore. White male artist.
14. Sammy Kaye – Room Full Of Roses – YouTube to the rescue. More “singing guitar”. It’s about like the last Sammy Kaye tune: chorus singing the lyrics, singing guitar, and no energy. Blah. I’m surprised, because in the early 40s, Kaye was a swinging Big Band artist. White male artist.
15. Gordon Jenkins – Don’t Cry, Joe – YouTube to the rescue. Male chorus starts out singing the title… Female chorus sings “let her go…” I think this is a song about letting go of someone if you love them. It’s not my style, though: slow and maudlin. White male artist.
16. Perry Como – Forever & Ever – Bouncing, happy strings lead us into Como crooning the title phrase. It’s really just a classic crooning song, about waiting for your love. Not for me, I’m afraid. White male artist.
17. Russ Morgan – Forever & Ever – This sounds very similar to the Como version. It has a chorus singing at the onset, though. It’s not any better. White male artist.
18. Gordon Jenkins – Again – YouTube to the rescue. Building strings lead us into a slow, lyrical tune. I can already tell it’s not my cup of tea: too slow and maudlin. We have a bunch of those in a row this year. Too bad for me. It goes on like this for some time, then we get a male crooning voice with a lot of reverb: he sounds like he’s at the bottom of a well. White male artist.
19. Vaughn Monroe – Someday – Chorus sings along with Monroe, singing that someday you’ll want him to be true when he’s in love with someone else. I’m not sure what the point of the song is, unless it’s a “you’re making a mistake rejecting me” thing. It’s also straight crooning. White male artist.
20. The Blue Barron – Cruising Down The River – YouTube to the rescue. Oom-pah-pah band backing up a big chorus. It’s all very quaint sounding. It feels more 1910s and less 1950s. It has a whistling bridge… White male artist.
21. Al Morgan – Jealous Heart – YouTube to the rescue. Piano and guitar, with some strings backing them up. It’s slightly better than the other recent tunes, but not enough that I want to hear it again. White male artist.
22. Frankie Laine – Mule Train – A VERY Western song. It has a horse (mule) trotting beat, and the lyrics actually sing “clippity-clop” to invoke the sense of the mule train. There are cracking whip sound effects and everything. Points for difference. I’ll <3 it because it’s so fresh compared to everything else I’ve heard recently on this chart. It actually has some Doo-wop tones to it. White male artist.
23. Evelyn Knight – A Little Bird Told Me – Oooh-ooh chorus starts us out. Then we get rocking piano and claps. It’s actually a rocking little tune. I like Knight’s vocals, and the band has a proto-rock sound. <3
24. Russ Morgan – Cruising Down the River – Oom-pah pah. It’s the same as the Blue Barron tune, above at #11. It’s slightly better in its orchestration and execution, so I’ll <3 it. White male artist.
25. The Andrews Sisters and Gordon Jenkins – I Can Dream, Can’t I – Finally, Andrews Sisters! It starts out with a chorus singing “Dream of” and it reminds me of the rock tune “Dream, Dream, Dream”. This one is a solid little ditty with the Andrews Sisters sounding as good as usual. <3 White male and female artists.
26. Jimmy Wakely and Margaret Whiting – Slipping Around – Piano picks out the intro in a very rag-time sound, then we get a classic Country song, complete with steel guitar. I like it, and it’s got a much more modern sound than many of the other songs on this chart. It’s really like the modern C&W sound appeared fully on this tune. <3. White male artist.
27. Perry Como – Some Enchanted Evening – Of course, I love this song because of the moment when Harrison Ford sings it in American Graffiti. That movie is set in 1962, so 13 years in the future from this chart. It’s a classic song, and I’ll <3 it despite its crooning nature. In the end, some crooning songs make it to the heart level. White male artist.
28. Vic Damone – You’re Breaking My Heart – Squeaky strings set an ethereal tone, and we get high-pitched angel chorus. Damone seems to be singing a real crooner here. I’m having a hard time not LOLing at this tune. It’s not my style. White male artist.
29. Frankie Laine – That Lucky Old Sun – Spare guitar starts us out. The vocals are spare, too, but have a rock and roll quality to the way they are recorded: more Elvis, less Bing. Not to say that this is a good song, though. It’s not to my taste. White male artist.
30. Vaughn Monroe – Riders In The Sky – Another Western. I’ve heard this tune covered by other artists. Johnny Cash, in particular. It’s structurally a good song, and this version is good despite the crooning approach of Monroe. If I didn’t know this was older than the Cash version, I would assume this was a lesser imitation. <3. White male artist.