1955-1959 selected standards and hits

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Special features within or overlapping the years 1955-1959:

My Foolish Heart: selected vocal harmony group recording, 1956-1966

White Christmas: selected vocal harmony group recordings 1948-1965

Vocal harmony group covers of standards, 1933-1966

Some early R&B vocal harmony group cross-over hits of the 1950s

Earth Angel to Good Timin’: doc’s pick of 12/8 and 6/8 time songs, 1954-1978
- 12/8 and 6/8 time songs: part 1, 1954-1959 – “Earth Angel” to “Put Your Head on My Shoulder”

Stormy Weather: selected vocal harmony group recordings, 1952-1965

Girl Group: selected recordings, 1955-1959

Burt Bacharach & Hal David: selected hit songs + Another Tear Falls, 1957-1962

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1955 selected standards:

Je t’appartiens / Let It Be Me
In Your Own Sweet Way
In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning
Unchained Melody
Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most
Only You (And You Alone) — w.m. Buck Ram

Only You (And You Alone) — recorded on 26 April 1955; issued in May (Wikipedia) or June (45cat.com) 1955 on Mercury 70633X45, b/w “Bark, Battle and Ball”

The Platters perform the song in the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock

1956 selected standards:

The Party’s Over
Somewhere
When Sunny Gets Blue
Just In Time
On the Street Where You Live

(above) The West Side Story Broadway production team in 1957: (l. to r.) lyricist Stephen Sondheim, scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, producers Hal Prince and (seated) Robert Griffith, composer Leonard Bernstein, and choreographer Jerome Robbins

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1957 selected standards:

Till There Was You
The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face
They Say It’s Spring
Wild is the Wind

Three Cool Cats (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller)

The Coasters — recorded on 17 March 1958; issued in January 1959 as the B-side to their hit “Charlie Brown”

1958 selected standards and hits

All I Have to Do is Dream
Tragedy
Donna
It’s Only Make Believe
Little Star
Nel blu dipinto di blu (Volare)
Since I Don’t Have You

It’s Only Make Believe (Jack Nance, Conway Twitty) — #1 pop single, US and UK

Donna (Ritchie Valens) — Ritchie Valens

The track was created from a May 1958 demo made during the audition of 17 year old high school student Richard Valenzuela at the home studio of Bob Keane, the owner and president of Del-Fi Records. It climbed to #2 on the Billboard pop singles chart. The other side of the double A-side single, La Bamba, reached #22.