Yesteryear

On Sundays, Mr. Peter Tibbles is the guest contributor at “Time Goes By.” He offers samples of many different genres of music. Today’s theme was music of 1952.

As I played through his list, I knew the lyrics of all the songs but two. Of the songs I didn’t know, one was an early rock ‘n’ roll song by Lloyd Price and the other song was by Hank Williams. When I was a teen I was a fan of Mr. Price’s music, but in 1952 rock ‘n’ roll wasn’t mainstream so I didn’t hear much of the early stuff. Even though my mother listened to country music (we called it hillbilly music) I didn’t care for it and didn’t pay much attention to it.

In 1952 I was a 7 year old second grader. I wondered why I knew the lyrics of the songs. By then we had a television and we didn’t listen to the radio much any longer. Then it hit me—“Your Hit Parade.”

“Your Hit Parade” came on Saturday nights and counted down the top seven (I think) songs of the week plus two “extras.” We would always guess which song would be No. 1 and who would sing it.

I suppose I learned the lyrics from Dorothy, Gisele, Russell, and Snooky. I found this site (http://www.archive.org/details/Your_Hit_Parade_Complete_Episode) with a kinoscope of a whole show. It brought back memories of my dad, mother, and my older brother as well as some great music. Take a peek if you’re into nostalgia.

(It’s no wonder I smoked. Those Lucky Strike commercials were very seductive. LS/MFT. And I wonder if Snooky Lanson was the model for the Howdy Doody puppet.)