1949 Music – Pop Standards and Artists

1949 Pop Standards and Artists

Enzio Pinza
Some Enchanted Evening
South Pacific is one of Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s greatest shows. It remains both an entertaining show and a social commentary. The show won several Tony Awards in its premiere year of 1949. It is based on parts of James Michener’s Tales Of The South Pacific that was published in 1947.

Tales Of The South Pacific is a number of short stories that take place during WW II in The South Pacific. The show centers on two couples. Nellie Furbush, a nurse who falls in love with a French planter, Emile De Beque, on the island where she has been stationed. She finds out that he had been married before to an island native and has mixed-race children. The second couple that consists of Lt. Cable and a Tonkinese Girls whose name is Liat, he also has to overcome his prejudice. Both couples survive their issues but Lt Cable is killed when he and Debeque go to another island to spy on the Japanese.

There were many songs that would become known from South Pacific, I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair, Happy Talk and others. Some Enchanted Evening would shine and still does as a beautiful love song that describes a man’s feelings when first meeting the woman of his dreams.

One interesting fact about South Pacific is that Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s lives were threatened by The Ku Klux Klan during the Broadway run of the show. There is a song in the show titled “You Have To Be Carefully Taught.” The song’s message is that you must be taught prejudiced; it is not born in you. The Klan did not like the message and threatened the lives of the composer and lyricist if the song was not removed from the show. The song was not removed and nothing ever came from the threat.

Bing Crosby
Galway Bay
Music for and about the Irish seems to have had a grip on the U.S. in the 1940s. Galway Bay would be a song that would transcend the century and for Irish Catholics, would almost become a hymn as it is still is used in Mass around St. Patrick’s Day.
The song was written by Dr. Arthur Colahan in Leicester in 1947. Crosby revised some of the lyrics and the song became a huge hit with Irish Immigrants around the world.
Galway Bay is a real bay in Ireland and the song is a yearning to return home.

Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
It can be considered sad that some songs can get so attached to a holiday that we lose track of them for the rest of the year. Among those songs is Winter Wonderland, Frosty The Snowman and Suzy Snowflake. None of these even mentions Christmas and yet the songs are relegated to this category. Baby, It’s Cold Outside is one of these. The words and music for the song were written by Frank Loesser and was first publicly performed by the composer and his wife. In 1949, the film, Neptune’s Daughter was released and the song was sung twice in the film. The song won Loesser an Academy Award for that year.

Baby, It’s Cold Outside is a conversation between a man and a woman. The man is trying to convince the woman to stay at his house as it’s too cold and the snow too deep for her to go home. The song got a twist when it was sung by Kurt and Blaine in the 2010 Christmas episode of Glee.

Bing Crosby
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
The Song was written in 1949 with music by Sammy Fain and lyrics by Bob Hilliard. The song was based on words written on a scrap of paper that was found on the body of Steven Foster when his body was discovered in a New York City Hotel in 1864. The words were simply” Dear friends and gentle hearts.”

Dinah Shore
Lavender Blue
Originally a 17th century English nursery rhyme. In the 20th century, it crossed the sea and began to hit the charts in 1949. Though Dinah Shore made a hit of the song, it would be Burl Ives who would win an Academy Award for his performance of the song in the 1949 Disney film, So Dear To My Heart

Eddie (Piano) Miller
Around Her Neck She Wore A Yellow Ribbon
The yellow ribbon has been a sign of someone waiting for their loved one to come home since the time of the emperor Nero. She Wore A Yellow Ribbon is an example of this tradition. The version we are aware of today was written in 1907 as a marching song for the army. In1949, the song became the title of a film starring John Wayne. The lyrics were slightly altered for the film but the music stayed the same. The yellow ribbon would remain a symbol of homecoming throughout the years and in 1980 when the American captives were released from Iran the ribbon was put up all over the United States.

Frankie Laine
Mule Train
This song was written by Johnny Lange, Hy Heath, Doc Tommy Scott and Fred Glickman. The song is a Wild West song that relates the idea of a cowboy carrying mail and packages across the west to waiting customers. Though Frankie Laine introduced the song it would be recorded by many other artists. When Burl Ives recorded the song he would add the sound effects of snapping whips and yells.

Top Artists and Songs of 1949