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, EmileĀ 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

Al Morgan
Jealous Heart
Andrews Sisters and Danny Kaye
Put ’em in a Box Tie ’em With a Ribbon
Andrews Sisters
I Can Dream Can’t I?
Art Mooney
Hop-Scotch Polka
Bing Crosby
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Faraway Places
Galway Bay
Mule Train
Riders in the Sky
Some Enchanted Evening
Blue Barron Orchestra
Cruising Down the River
Buddy Clark
A Dreamer’s Holiday
It’s A Big, Wide, Wonderful World
You’re Breakin’ My Heart
Delmore Brothers
Blues Stay Away From Me
Dick Haymes
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Maybe Its Because
The Old Master Painter
Dinah Shore and Buddy Clark
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Dinah Shore
Dear Hearts and Gentle People
Lavender Blue
Doris Day
Again
Canadian Capers
Eddie ‘Piano’ Miller
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon
Eddy Arnold
Don’t Rob Another Man’s Castle
I’m Throwing Rice (At The Girl I Love)
Edith Piaf
La Vie En Rose
Elton Britt
Riders in the Sky
Ernest Tubb
Slippin’ Around
Evelyn Night
A Little Bird Told Me
Ezio Pinza
Some Enchanted Evening
Frank Sinatra
Some Enchanted Evening
Frankie Laine
Mule Train
That Lucky Old Sun (Just Rolls Around Heaven All day)
Freddy Martin
I’ve Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
Gordon Jenkins
Again
Don’t Cry Joe (Let Her Go)
Guy Lombardo
Hop-Scotch Polka
Hank Willaims
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Lovesick Blues
Ink Spots
You’re Breakin’ My Heart
Jack Teter Trio
Johnson Rag
Jimmy Witherspoon
Ain’t Nobody’s Business
Jo Stafford and Gordon MacRae
‘A’ You’re Adorable
My Darling My Darling
Joe Loss Orchestra
A Little Bird Told Me
Far Away Places
Say Something Sweet To Your Sweetheart
Larry Darnell
For You My Love
Larry Green
It’s a Big, Wide Wonderful World
Les Brown
I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm
Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five
Beans and Corn Bread
Saturday Night Fish Fry
Margaret Whiting and Jimmy Wakely
Slippin’ Around
Margaret Whiting and Johnny Mercer
Baby, It’s Cold Outside
Margaret Whiting
Far Away Places
Mel Torme
Careless Hands
Patty Andrews and Bob Crosby
The Pussy Cat Song (Nyot Nyow!)
Paul Williams and His Hucklebuckers
The Huckle-Buck
Perry Como
A Dreamer’s Holiday
Forever and Ever
Some Enchanted Evening
Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters
‘A’ You’re Adorable
A Dreamer’s Holiday
I Don’t See Me In Your Eyes Anymore
Ray Anthony
Harbor Lights
Richard Hayes
The Old Master Painter
Russ Morgan
Cruising Down The River
Forever and Ever
Sammy Kaye
Four Winds and the Seven Seas
Powder Your Face With Sunshine
Room Full of Roses
Sticks McGhee
Drinkin’ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee
Ted Heath Orchestra
Harlem Nocturne
Toni Arden
I Can Dream, Can’t I
Vaughn Monroe
Mule Train
Riders in the Sky
Someday (You’ll Want Me to Want You)
Vic Damone
Again
My Bolero
You’re Breakin’ My Heart
Wayne Raney
Why Don’t You Haul Off and Love Me?