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, 1949.

The tenth (!) year of my run through the history of pop music, 1950, is after the establishment of the Cold War. We get a top 30 songs again this year. Note that years that end in zero are sometimes thought of as the start of a decade and sometimes as the end of a decade. I’m choosing to view them as the end of decades because I started with 1941, so this is the last of my 1940’s charts!

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 1950 was Samson and Delilah ($9M), a Cecil B. DeMille film retelling the biblical story. Sunset Boulevard won the Best Picture Oscar for the year. The film, about an attempted comeback by a silent movie star, has been ranked among the best movies ever made. The Emmy for the Best Dramatic Show in 1950 was Pulitzer Prize Playhouse. Major US events in 1950 were: development of the H-Bomb started, McCarthy accused 205 state dept. officials of being communists, Einstein warned of mutually assured destruction, the world’s first Broken Arrow event, Disney released Cinderella, the Pulitzer Prize was awarded to an African American author for the first time (Gwendolyn Brooks for Annie Allen), US forces came to the aid of South Korea (beginning US involvement in the Korean War), Beetle Bailey was created, the first 500-mile NASCAR race was held, Peanuts was first published, the first jet-to-jet dogfight happened (over Korea), Shirley Temple retired, MacArthur threatened to use nukes in Korea (!), the first TV remote control was marketed, and the US sent its first military advisors to Vietnam.

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 1940a and 1950s, 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 1950 chart wasn’t really dominated by any one artist, with the Ames Brothers having 3 hits, five other artists with two hits, and 17 other artists with one hit each.
2. Black artists were part of two of the 23 artists on the 1950 charts, so 9%. When you go by tracks, Black folks are on two out of 30, so 7%. The expected rate for the 1940s and 1950s would be 10%, so Black artists are pretty close to representation this year. Compare that track percentage to 1941-47: 8, 5, 20, 28, 18, 8, 9, 5, and 3%. It looks like Black artists got a big boost during the war, returned to expected representation afterwards, and saw a dip below expected representation and are back to close to expected representation in 1950.
3. This year sees the first Native-identified artist on the charts, Kay Starr, who is listed as both a solo artist and in collaboration with a white artist. That puts Native artists on the same level as Black artists for 1950, with two artists and two tracks. Native folks were 0.2% of the people in the USA in 1950.
4. As has become a trend since the war ended, there are no Latinx artist(s) on the 1950 charts (0%), and Latinx folks were about 2% of the US at the time, so they’re underrepresented on the charts.
5. Women are in seven of the 23 named artists (30%), and 10 of the 30 tracks (33%). 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, and 27%. 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 1948-1950.
6. Notable songs include: 23. Ames Brothers – Rag Mop, 18. Patti Page – Tennessee Waltz, 15. Phil Harris – The Thing, and 11. Eileen Barton – If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked A Cake. My favorite is 3. Anton Karas – Third Man Theme. I gave 22 of 30 (73%) a <3 this year. Compare that to 37% in 1949, 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 highest <3 percent so far: I like 1950’s music, so maybe this is a trend? This year has several “throwback” tunes that may reflect a nostalgia for the pre-war period. It seems to be a lull in creativity between the swing era and the rock era, but I liked almost 3/4 of the songs, so maybe it’s a good fit for my taste?

The 1950 Charts:

1. Frankie Laine – Cry Of The Wild Goose – “Aah-ahh” chorus starts us out, with a fast-paced train beat. It sounds like a Western song, but with some jazzy overtones. The wild goose cry is a metaphor for untamed love, I think. It’s an OK song, and I like the fast pace. It really sounds like the 1950s. <3. White male artist.
2. Bing Crosby – Dear Hearts And Gentle People – Banjo, and down-home back up band sound. Then Bing sings his velvety tones over the band and it’s a bit jarring. It’s a song about the goodness of rural people, but Bing doesn’t have the tonality to make a Country song sound correct. White male artist.
3. Billy Eckstine – My Foolish Heart – This one starts out very lyrical, almost classical. Then Billy Eckstine comes in crooning about his fooooolish heaaaart. It’s one of the better crooning tunes I’ve heard, and crosses over into the ballad style of the 50s, so I’ll <3 it. Black male artist.
4. Ames Brothers – Can Anyone Explain? – Swelling strings set a maudlin mood. The Ames brothers sing in harmony, asking whether anyone can explain the thrill of a kiss. They answer: No, no, no. They play with rhymes between “know” and “no”. It’s slow, shapeless, and uninspiring. White male artists.
5. Gordon Jenkins – Bewitched – YouTube to the rescue. It seems to be an instrumental. It’s got very little going for it, in terms of tune or organization. It would be at home as elevator music. Wow! A female vocalist comes in after the halfway point, singing in a way that is still uninspiring, but I had been convinced it would be an instrumental. It’s not great. White male artist.
6. Perry Como – Hoop-Dee-Doo – Bright horns to start us out, then an accordion! It’s a polka meta-song, as Perry sings about how polka music makes him happy. It’s a simple, bright song, but it makes me want to hear it again, so I’ll <3 it. White male artist.
7. Bill Snyder – Bewitched – Another cover of this track. It was uninspiring before, on the Gordon Jenkins version…. But this one is actually musically good. Something about the way the piano is working with the orchestra is making me pay attention this time. This version is really an instrumental, and it’s quality. <3. White male artist.
8. Ames Brothers – Rag Mop – I love this tune, just because it’s so silly. It’s a “spelling” song, where they spell “rag mop”, but they spell it “r-a-g-g m-o-p-p”. I could listen to this one on repeat. <3. Also: it’s got the beginning of that “sock hop” sound that’s typical of the early 50s in my experience. White male artists.
9. Gordon Jenkins – My Foolish Heart – YouTube to the rescue. This one sounds a lot like the previous Jenkins tune: uninspired piano, “aah-aah” chorus, and lackadaisical orchestra. It’s just not for me. It seems to be building to something? Maybe vocals? Yes, male vocals come in, halfway through. This old style of long instrumental introductions is becoming rare. The vocals are as uninspiring as the rest of this tune. White male artist.
10. Patti Page – All My Love – Trumpet fanfare to start, then whimsical flutes and guitar. Where is this song going? Patti has a great voice, and she seems to begiving you all her love, even if the skies fall. The guitar gives this a bit of Latin flavor, but the words and the rest of the tune don’t have any. It’s really not a song for me, but I will note that it has what I would think of as an “early 50s” sound. Now she’s singing a bunch of Spanish words, but it doesn’t convince me that it’s a Latin song. Please try harder. White female artist.
11. Tennessee Ernie Ford and Kay Starr – I’ll Never Be Free – Slow song, with a Western sound, but also a distinct “early rock” vibe. If I heard this song from a new artist, I would classify it as “rockabilly”. I like it. It has an interesting mix of vocals, piano, and steel guitar, backed by brushes on the snares. <3 White male and native female artists. Interestingly, Kay Starr was born on a reservation to a white mother and Iroquois father. She is the first native artist I’ve found on these charts.
12. Andrews Sisters and Gordon Jenkins – I Can Dream, Can’t I – No instrumental intro, it just starts out with the backup singers and goes right into the vocalist singing the melody. It still has a “older” jazzy sound. It’s a slow love song. I like it (I like most AS tunes). <3. White male and female artists.
13. Patti Page – Tennessee Waltz – In my days in the Tennessee marching band, this was the tune we used to end many halftime shows, and an upbeat version was part of the pregame show. So I already know and love this tune. At any rate, it starts out with some jazzy trumpet setting the melody. Then we get Patti singing in harmony with another woman singing this old familiar tune about losing love. This song always gives me goosebumps, and it can often make me cry. It’s the combination of the sentiments in the song, the musicality of it, and the nostalgia I feel to those late teen/early twenties years. 1995 is a long time ago now, and this song takes me back to that feeling of standing on the football field with 100,000+ fans singing along to the Tennessee Waltz. Goosebumps. <3. White female artist.
14. Andrews Sisters and Gordon Jenkins – I Wanna Be Loved – Starts out with “ooh-ooh” chorus and emotional strings. Then we get into AS vocals, and it’s just great. It has that jazz standard sound. I don’t usually like slow love songs, but the Andrews Sisters get past the things that make me dislike slow love songs. <3. White female and male artists.
15. Ames Brothers – Sentimental Me – Sentimental strings start us out, and set a very maudlin scene. It’s a crooning piece. Not at all like “Rag Mop” I’m afraid. The sound is fuller because there are four of them singing the crooning part, and that seems to have made it better. Honestly, the musicality here is better than many of the crooning songs in the 1940s. OK. I’ll <3 this song. What is becoming of me? White male artists.
16. Phil Harris – The Thing – Bright trumpets and we’re off: this is a big, expansive song. Male vocalist singing a story song. He found a thing in a crate in the bay, but they won’t say what it is. Whenever they would use a noun, they have percussion instead. What is it? I’m curious now. We’re on the third verse and it’s become an albatross for the narrator. Each verse changes key, adding stress. Even St. Peter won’t take it. We never find out what the thing is! <3. White male artist.
17. Tony Martin – There’s No Tomorrow – Frantic violins build to an operatic vocal, singing the title verse. It folds into a standard crooner tune. It’s all about a one-night stand, I think: “There’s no tomorrow, there’s just tonight.” It’s not really a tune for me. White male artist.
18. Gordon Jenkins and The Weavers – Tzena, Tzena, Tzena – Frantic pace, quickly into the vocals. They are going quickly. There is no waiting with this song. It seems to be about dancing in the city square in the old country. Or something; I can’t tell because it’s so frantic. I can dig it, though. <3. White male and female artists.
19. Kay Starr – Bonaparte’s Retreat – Sassy saxophone and muted trumpets set up a jazz standard sound. Kay Starr has such a great voice. It’s about a man who is romancing her while the fiddles play Bonaparte’s Retreat. In that way it’s a kind of meta song. I think. Who cares: it’s great Dixieland Jazz. <3. Native Female artist.
20. Eileen Barton – If I Knew You Were Coming I’d’ve Baked A Cake – This sounds a bit like a novelty song. It has a more 50s sound than the rest of these tunes. It’s catchy and it’s all about shaming someone for dropping in unplanned. Then it’s Dixieland Jazz. What’s not to love. <3.
21. Sammy Kaye and Don Cornell – It Isn’t Fair – Belting out the title lyric is an interesting way to start a song. It’s not really crooning; it’s all belted out. It actually sounds very 60s to my modern ear. It’s not really my kind of tune, though: too slow and sappy. White male artist.
22. Sammy Kaye – Harbor Lights – Steel guitar, very Hawaiian-sounding to my ear. Then we get a male and female voice singing about “harbor lights that once brought you to me…” It’s another slow, sappy song, so not really for me. White male artist.
23. Red Foley – Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy – Hambone and guitar to start us out. It’s got a good beat, a locomotive beat. I like this song: it’s about a shoe shine boy who has so much music and dance in him that he gets everyone else around him excited. With this song, I can hear the tranisiton from the “solid four” beat of the 40s to the rock beat of the 50s. <3 White male artist.
24. Guy Lombardo – Third Man Theme – This is a fully orchestrated version of the original, which seems to have charted higher. I love this tune; it was part of what got me excited about old movies when I first watched the Third Man with my parents back in the 1980s. I’ll <3 this version, but I like the original better. White male artist.
25. Teresa Brewer – Music, Music, Music – This song has a purposeful old-timey sound, with tinkly piano and a reference to a nickelodeon in the refrain. It’s got a strong beat and a happy feel, so I’ll give it a <3. White female artist.
26. Gary and Bing Crosby – Simple Melody – Starts out with jazzy trumpets and a fast beat. Then we get Bing’s voice, but it’s not a strict crooning song. I can get behind this song: it has a simple melody and a strong beat, and it harks back to ragtime. The last two songs have been this kind of throwback sound; it suggests a nostalgia feeling in 1950, which fits with this period being a lull in developing novelty in popular culture. <3 White male artists.
27. Gary and Bing Crosby – Sam’s Song – According to Spotify, this song has the subtitle “The Happy Tune”. That’s what Bing sings in his first line, after a 20 second introduction. It’s a pretty fast, jazzy tune. It’s a meta song, too, because the lyrics are all about how Sam’s Song is so catchy you can’t forget it… These factors make me <3 this song. In the third section they add a fast-paced spoken counterpoint to the main singing line, so it’s even better than it initially sounded! White male artists.
28. Anton Karas – Third Man Theme – As I mentioned above, this one is one of my favorite movie tunes of all time. I went crazy for it in the late 1980s when I saw the movie at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis, TN. It’s a catchy piece, played on the zither, which has a beautiful sound. According to Wikipedia, the popularity of this tune and the movie it came from resulted in a worldwide surge in zither sales. <3 White male artist.
29. Nat King Cole – Mona Lisa – I’ve already <3’d this song from when I’ve had it come up in Spotify rotation. Honestly, I could probably <3 every Nat King Cole song right now without listening: he’s so consistently wonderful. This song is very expansive, slow, and would be sappy in the hands of any other performer. With Nat King Cole, though, it’s a wonderful, warm, sentimental experience. Wikipedia indicates this song won an Oscar for best original song in 1950. Black male artist.
30. Gordon Jenkins and The Weavers – Goodnight Irene – Sad violins start us out, then the speed picks up and we get a big unison chorus singing us this traditional ballad. I’m most familiar with this song, honestly, from the videogame Bioshock: Infinite, where it’s sung by a crowd while they wait for you to show up and continue the story. The videogame crowd will sing the song on a loop until you finally show up, and it’s one of the many eerie moments designed into that game. This recording is a good one, and it is understandable why it would chart, but it’s not clear to me why it would be #1 for the year. I suppose it’s more of the throwback traditioinalism that led to Simple Melody and Music, Music, Music charting so high as well. I’ll <3 this cover. White male artists.