April 14, 2016 (Thursday)
A radio program featuring the most popular songs at the time was very popular in 1935. It was called, “Your Hit Parade.” It later made it to television and was on the screen until 1955, when rock and roll became popular.
I found a re-broadcast of a program from December, 1954, on the web. One of the songs featured on that program was “Count Your Blessings,” sung by Gisele McKenzie, who had a fabulous voice.
Many orchestra leaders and soloists were featured through the 24 years of radio and television. Frank Sinatra was on for a while, but was fired for mumbling on the air that there were too many words in his song (“Don’t Fence Me In”). He was later hired back (wise move).
All the songs I had heard all my life were on the show at one time or another, and they were all performed perfectly by people with tremendous talent. Wanda and I had been married less than two years when the tv version went off the air. It had been a regular part of our Saturday evenings, and we missed it when it was gone. Fortunately, Lawrence Welk came along and took the nation by storm. His program was amazingly popular (and the re-broadcasts on public tv these days are very popular with my generation).
Music changed, and the entertainment industry changed with it. It took a little longer for the churches to be affected, but the changes finally came there, too, with the “praise and worship” type songs becoming very greatly desired by a new generation.
I like some of the new songs, both secular and religious, but I dearly love the old hymns and the romantic ballads that were featured on “Your Hit Parade” and “The Lawrence Welk Show.”
The old crooners like Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and others were popular as long as they lived, and new generations loved their music. The songs of Elvis Presley, like “Love Me Tender,” and the marvelous way he could handle hymns made him popular with people who didn’t like rock and roll but loved the way he could sing the music they did like.
Someone said something like, “The only constant is change.” Whoever that was, was right. Nevertheless, I think as long as the world turns, somebody will be singing “Autumn Leaves” and “Amazing Grace.”