One More Time Down 1950s Record Memory Lane

 

I have spilled plenty of cyber-ink in this space going back to the now classic age of rock and roll (Elvis, Bo, Chuck, Bo, Jerry Lee, Buddy, Wanda, et. al for shorthand) that formed my musical tastes back in the 1950s when I came of age, musical age anyway. Came of teenage age and all that meant of angst and alienation. Lately though I have going back to various commercially-produced  compilations put out by demographically savvy media companies to cull out the better songs, some which I have had on the tip of my tongue almost continuously since then (the Dubs Could This Be Magic and the Teen Queens Eddie My Love are two examples that quickly come to mind). Others like Johnny Ace’s Pledging My Love or The Crows Oh-Gee I needed some coaxing by the compilations to remember.

But I have now found a sure-fire method to aid in that coaxing. Just go back in memory’s mind and picture scenes from teenage days and figure the songs that went with such scenes (this is not confined to 1950s aficionados anybody can imagine their youth times and play). But even there I am cheating a little, harmlessly cheating but still cheating. When you look at the artwork on most of the better 1950s CD compilations you will find excellent artwork that highlights various institutions back then. You know the infamous drive-in movies where you gathered about six people (hopefully three couples but six anyway) and paid for two the other four either on the back seat floor or in the trunk. They always played music at intermission when we gathered at the refreshment stand to grab inedible hot dogs, stale popcorn, or fizzled out sods, although who cared, especially if that three couples thing was in play, and that scene is always associated in my mind with Frankie Lyman and the Teenager’s Why Do Fools Fall In Love.

So that is how the game is played. Two (or more) can play so I will just set the scenes and you can fill in your own musical selection. Here goes: the first stirrings of interest in the opposite sex at Doc’s Drugstore with his soda fountain AND jukebox; the drive-in restaurant with you and yours in the car, yours or father borrowed for an end of the night bout with cardboard hamburgers, ultra-greasy french fries and diluted soda; the Spring Frolic Dance (or name your seasonal dance) your hands all sweaty, trying to disappear into the wall, waiting, waiting to perdition for that last dance so that you could ask that he or she that you had been eyeing all evening to dance that slow one  all dreamy; down at the beach on day one of out of school for the summer checking out the scene between the two boat clubs where all the guys and gals who counted hung out; the night before Thanksgiving football rally where he or she said they would be, how about you; on poverty nights sitting up in your bedroom listening to edgy WMEX on your transistor radio away from prying adult eyes; another poverty night you and your boys, girls, boys and girls sitting in the family room spinning platters; that first sixth grade “petting” party (no more explanation needed right); cruising Main Street with your boys or girls looking for, well, you figure it out listening to the radio in that “boss” Chevy, hopefully; and, sitting in the balcony “watching” the double feature at the Strand Theater on Saturday afternoon when younger and at night when older. Okay, I have given enough cues. Fill in the dots, oops, songs and add scenes too.