nostos-music.blogspot: 1954 IN MUSIC

Events

January 14 - First documented use of the abbreviated term "Rock 'n' Roll" to promote Alan Freed's Rock 'n' Roll Jubillee, held at St. Nicholas Arena in New York, New York. Previously the genre term was just called "Rock and Roll"
February 1 - Johnny "Guitar" Watson records "Space Guitar" pioneering reverb and feedback techniques on guitar
March 12 - Arnold Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron has its first performance in Hamburg (it is given a staged première on June 6 in Zurich).
March 15 - The Chords record "Sh-Boom" for Atlantic Records' Cat subsidiary.
March 25 - At the 26th Academy Awards, Frank Sinatra wins the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in From Here to Eternity, resuscitating his singing career in the process. At the same ceremony, Bing Crosby is nominated for Best Actor for his role in The Country Girl.
April 12 - Bill Haley and His Comets record "Rock Around the Clock" in New York City for Decca Records.
May 5 – The seventeenth Maggio Musicale Fiorentino opens with a performance of Gaspare Spontini's last opera, Agnese di Hohenstaufen, and continues until 20 June, featuring operas by Weber, Adriano Lualdi, Puccini, and Tchaikovsky, as well as the world premiere of Valentino Bucchi's Il contrabasso.
May 20 - "Rock Around the Clock" is released as the B-side of "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)". The song is only a moderate success until it is featured in the film Blackboard Jungle the following year.
July 5 - Elvis Presley has his first commercial recording session at Sun Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He sang That's All Right (Mama) and Blue Moon of Kentucky.
October 16 - Elvis Presley makes his first appearance on a radio program in Shreveport, Louisiana called the Louisiana Hayride.
Fall - A cover version of Big Joe Turner's "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by Bill Haley and His Comets becomes the first internationally popular rock and roll recording.
Record companies deliver 7 inch 45 rpm record singles to radio stations instead of 78s.
Lyric Opera of Chicago is founded.
Pat Boone begins his recording career at Republic Records.
Les Paul commissions Ampex to build the first eight track tape recorder, at his own expense.
The Drifters form.
The Isley Brothers make their first recordings, featuring only the three eldest brothers, O'Kelly Jr., Rudolph and Ronald.
The Newport Jazz Festival is established by George Wein.
São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra is founded.

[edit]Albums released

Al Haig Trio (Esoteric) - Al Haig
And I Thought About You - Patti Page
Bags' Groove - Miles Davis
Bing: A Musical Autobiography - Bing Crosby
Blue Haze - Miles Davis
The Chordettes Sing Your Requests - The Chordettes
Clap Yo' Hands - The Four Lads
Crew Cut Capers - The Crew Cuts
Dinah Jams - Dinah Washington
Favorite Songs - The Ames Brothers
Grand Jacques - Jacques Brel
Guy Mitchell Sings - Guy Mitchell
Irving Berlin Favorites - Eddie Fisher
Irving Berlin's White Christmas - Rosemary Clooney
It Must Be True - The Ames Brothers
Louis Armstrong and the Mills Brothers - Louis Armstrong & The Mills Brothers
Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy - Louis Armstrong and His All Stars
The Man That Got Away - Georgia Gibbs
Meet The Mills Brothers - The Mills Brothers
Mr. Rhythm - Frankie Laine
My Heart's In The Highland - Jo Stafford
A Night at Birdland Vol. 1 - The Art Blakey Quintet
A Night at Birdland Vol. 2 - The Art Blakey Quintet
Old Masters - Bing Crosby
RCA Thesaurus - John Serry, Sr.
Red Garters - Rosemary Clooney
Selections from Irving Berlin's White Christmas - Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Trudy Stevens, Peggy Lee
Some Fine Old Chestnuts - Bing Crosby
Something Cool - June Christy
Song Souvenirs - Patti Page
Songs For Young Lovers - Frank Sinatra
Songs in a Mellow Mood - Ella Fitzgerald
Souvenir Album - The Mills Brothers
Swing Easy - Frank Sinatra
Till I Waltz Again with You - Teresa Brewer
The Tin Angel - Odetta & Larry
Toshiko at Mocambo - Toshiko Akiyoshi
Toshiko's Piano - Toshiko Akiyoshi
Walkin' - Miles Davis
Young at Heart - Doris Day & Frank Sinatra

[edit]Biggest hit singles

The following singles achieved the highest chart positions in the set of charts available for 1954.

#	Artist	Title	Year	Chart Entries
1	Doris Day	Secret Love	1954	UK 1 - Apr 1954, US 1940s 1 - Jan 1954, US 1 for 3 weeks Feb 1954, Oscar in 1953, US BB 11 of 1954, POP 11 of 1954, RYM 12 of 1953, Italy 54 of 1954
2	Rosemary Clooney	Hey There	1954	US 1940s 1 - Jul 1954, US 1 for 6 weeks Sep 1954, Australia 1 for 4 weeks May 1956, UK 4 - Sep 1955, US BB 18 of 1954, POP 21 of 1954, RYM 34 of 1954, DDD 66 of 1954
3	The Chordettes	Mr Sandman	1954	US 1 for 4 weeks Dec 1954, Peel list 1 of 1953, US BB 5 of 1954, POP 7 of 1954, RYM 9 of 1954, UK 11 - Dec 1954, DDD 45 of 1954, RIAA 252, Acclaimed 1006
4	Rosemary Clooney	This Ole House	1954	UK 1 - Oct 1954, US 1940s 1 - Aug 1954, US 1 for 1 weeks Nov 1954, US BB 12 of 1954, POP 12 of 1954, RYM 34 of 1954
5	Kitty Kallen	Little Things Mean a Lot	1954	UK 1 - Jul 1954, US 1940s 1 - Apr 1954, US 1 for 9 weeks Jun 1954, US BB 15 of 1954, POP 15 of 1954, RYM 145 of 1954

[edit]US No. 1 hit singles

These singles reached the top of US Billboard magazine's charts in 1954.

First week	Number of weeks	Title	Artist
January 2, 1954	8	"Oh! My Pa-Pa"	Eddie Fisher
February 27, 1954	2	"Secret Love"	Doris Day
March 13, 1954	1	"Make Love to Me"	Jo Stafford
March 20, 1954	1	"Secret Love"	Doris Day
March 27, 1954	2	"Make Love to Me"	Jo Stafford
April 10, 1954	8	"Wanted"	Perry Como
June 5, 1954	9	"Little Things Mean a Lot"	Kitty Kallen
August 7, 1954	7	"Sh-Boom"	Crew-Cuts
September 25, 1954	6	"Hey There"	Rosemary Clooney
November 6, 1954	1	"This Ole House"	Rosemary Clooney
November 13, 1954	3	"I Need You Now"	Eddie Fisher
December 4, 1954	7	"Mr. Sandman"	The Chordettes

[edit]Top hits on record

[edit]Top Rhythm & Blues and Country hits on record

"Bimbo" - Jim Reeves
"Goodnight Sweetheart Goodnight" - Spaniels
'Slowly"-(Webb Pierce)
"Hearts Of Stone" - Jewels
"I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" - Muddy Waters
"Mambo Baby" - Ruth Brown
"Oh What A Dream" - Ruth Brown
"Shake Rattle And Roll" - Big Joe Turner
"I Don't Hurt Anymore"-(Hank Snow)
"The Things That I Used To Do" - Guitar Slim
"Work With Me Annie" - Hank Ballard & the Midnighters

[edit]Published popular music

[edit]A-G

"All Of You" w.m. Cole Porter
"Annie Had a Baby" w.m. Henry Glover & Lois Mann
"A Blossom Fell" w.m. Howard Barnes, Harold Cornelius & Dominic John
"Cara Mia" w.m. Tulio Trapani & Lee Lange
"Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White" w. (Eng) Mack David (Fr) Jacques Larue m. Louiguy
"Count Your Blessings (Instead of Sheep)" w.m. Irving Berlin
"Cross Over The Bridge" w.m. Bennie Benjamin & George David Weiss
"Earth Angel" w.m. Jesse Belvin, Curtis Williams & Gaynel Hodge
"Ev'ry Day of My Life" w.m.Al Jacobs and Jimmie Crane.
"The Finger Of Suspicion Points At You" w.m. Paul Mann & Al Lewis
"From The Vine Came The Grape" w.m. Leonard Whitcup & Paul Cunningham
"Gilly, Gilly, Ossenfeffer, Katzenellen Bogen By The Sea" w.m. Al Hoffman & Dick Manning

[edit]H

"Hearts Of Stone" w. Eddy Ray m. Rudy Jackson
"Hernando's Hideaway" w.m. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
"He's A Tramp" Sonny Burke, Peggy Lee
"Hey There" w.m. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
"The High and the Mighty" w. Ned Washington m. Dimitri Tiomkin
"Honeycomb" w.m. Bob Merrill

[edit]I-L

"I Can't Tell A Waltz From A Tango" Al Hoffman, Dick Manning
"I Could Be Happy With You" w.m. Sandy Wilson
"I Don't Hurt Anymore" w. Jack Rollins m. Don Robertson
"I Got A Woman" w.m. Ray Charles & Renald Richard
"I Left My Heart In San Francisco" w. Douglas Cross m. George Cory
"If I Give My Heart to You" w.m. Jimmy Brewster, Jimmie Crane & Al Jacobs
"I'll Walk With God" w. Paul Francis Webster m. Nicholas Brodszky
"I'm Not At All In Love" w.m. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross. Introduced by Janis Paige in the musical The Pajama Game.
"In Other Words" (aka "Fly Me To The Moon") w.m. Bart Howard
"In Paris and in Love" w. Leo Robin m. Sigmund Romberg. Introduced by Jeanmaire and David Atkinson in the musical The Girl in the Pink Tights
"Let Me Go, Lover!" w.m. Jenny Lou Carson & Al Hill
"The Little Shoemaker" w.(Eng) John Turner & Geoffrey Parsons (Fr) Avril Lamarque m. Rudi Revil

[edit]M-P

"Mambo Italiano" w.m. Bob Merrill
"Mister Sandman" w.m. Pat Ballard
"Misty" w. Johnny Burke m. Errol Garner
"My Son, My Son" w. Bob Howard m. Melville Farley & Eddie Calvert
"The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane" w.m. Sid Tepper & Roy C. Bennett
"Only You (and You Alone)" w.m. Buck Ram & Ande Rand
"Open Up Your Heart (And Let the Sunshine In)" w.m. Stuart Hamblen
"Papa Loves Mambo" w.m. Al Hoffman, Dick Manning & Bix Reichner
"Pledging My Love" w.m. Ferdinand Washington & Don Robey
"The Poor People of Paris" w.(Eng) Jack Lawrence (Fr) Rene Rouzaud m. Marguerite Monnot "La Goulante du Pauvre Jean"

[edit]R-T

"Release Me" w.m. Eddie Miller & W. S. Stevenson
"River of No Return" w. Ken Darby m. Lionel Newman from the film River of No Return.
"Shake, Rattle And Roll" w.m. Charles Calhoun
"Sh-Boom" w.m. James Keyes, Claude & Carl Feaster, Floyd F. McRae & James Edwards
"Sincerely" w.m. Harvey Fuqua & Alan Freed
"Sisters" w.m. Irving Berlin
"Skokiaan" w. Tom Glazer m. August Musarurwa
"Smile" w. John Turner & Geoffrey Parsons m. Charles Chaplin
"Steam Heat" w.m. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross
"There Once Was a Man" w. m. Richard Adler & Jerry Ross. Introduced by John Raitt and Janis Paige in the musical The Pajama Game
"This Ole House" w.m. Stuart Hamblen
"Three Coins In The Fountain" w. Sammy Cahn m. Jule Styne
"Tweedle Dee" w.m. Winfield Scott

[edit]W-Y

"What a Dream" w.m. Chuck Willis
"Whither Thou Goest" w.m. Guy Singer
"Wonderful, Wonderful Day" w. Johnny Mercer m. Gene De Paul from the film Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
"Work With Me, Annie" w.m. Hank Ballard
"Young And Foolish" w. Arnold B. Horwitt m. Albert Hague from the 1955 musical Plain and Fancy

[edit]Other notable songs

"Le Déserteur" - Boris Vian
"V Put" by Vasili Solovyov-Sedoy & Mikhail Dudin

[edit]Classical music

Jean Barraqué - Sequence
Arnold Bax - Autumn Legend
Boris Blacher - Viola Concerto
Pierre Boulez - Le Marteau sans Maître
Havergal Brian - Symphony No. 10
Carlos Chávez – Symphony No. 3
George Crumb - String Quartet
Mario Davidovsky - Concertino for Percussion and String Orchestra
Ernő Dohnányi - American Rhapsody
Ross Lee Finney - Second Piano Trio
Gerald Finzi - Cello Concerto opus 40 in A minor
André Fleury - Messe pour la fête de tous les saints
Armstrong Gibbs - Dale and Fell
Howard Hanson - Symphony No. 5, Sinfonia Sacra
Andrew Imbrie - Violin Concerto
Alemdar Karamanov - Symphony No. 1
Aram Khachaturian - Spartacus, ballet
György Ligeti - String Quartet No. 1, Metamorphoses Nocturnes
Darius Milhaud - West Point Suite
Walter Piston - Symphony No. 5
Edmund Rubbra - Sixth Symphony, Op. 80 and Viola Concerto, Op. 75
Roger Sessions - Idyll of Theocritus
Robert Simpson (composer) - String Quartet No. 3
Igor Stravinsky - In Memoriam Dylan Thomas
Virgil Thomson - Concerto for Flute, Strings, Harp and Percussion
Ernst Toch - String Quartet No. 13, Op. 74
Henri Tomasi - Concerto for Horn
Eduard Tubin - Symphony No. 6
Edgard Varèse - Déserts (1950–54)
Ralph Vaughan Williams - Tuba Concerto in F minor
Stefan Wolpe - Symphony for 24 Instruments

[edit]Opera

Jack Beeson - Hello, Out There
Benjamin Britten - The Turn of the Screw (opera)
Valentino Bucchi – Il contrabasso (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 20 June)
Aaron Copland - The Tender Land
Paul Hindemith - Neues vom Tage (revision)
Bohuslav Martinů - Mirandolina
Jerome Moross - The Golden Apple
William Walton - Troilus and Cressida

[edit]Musical theater

After the Ball (Music, Lyrics and Book: Noël Coward) London production opened at the Globe Theatre on June 10 and ran for 188 performances
The Boy Friend Broadway production opened at the Royale Theatre on September 30 and ran for 485 performances
By the Beautiful Sea (Music: Arthur Schwartz Lyrics: Dorothy Fields) Broadway production opened at the Majestic Theatre on April 8 and transferred to the Imperial Theatre on October 2 for a total run of 268 performances. Starring Shirley Booth
Can-Can London production opened at the Coliseum on October 14 and ran for 394 performances
The Duenna ( Music: Julian Slade Lyrics & Book: Dorothy Reynolds) London production opened at the Westminster Theatre on July 28 and ran for 134 performances
Fanny Broadway production opened at the Majestic Theatre on November 4 and transferred to the Belasco Theatre on December 4, 1956 for a total run of 888 performances
The Girl in Pink Tights Broadway production opened at the Mark Hellinger Theatre on March 5 and ran for 115 performances
The Golden Apple Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on April 20 and ran for 125 performances
Happy Holiday (Music: George Posford Lyrics & Book: Eric Maschwitz and Arnold Ridley) London production opened at the Palace Theatre on December 22 and ran for 31 performances
House of Flowers Broadway production opened at the Alvin Theatre on December 30 and ran for 165 performances
On Your Toes Broadway revival opened at the 46th Street Theatre on October 11 and ran for 64 performances
The Pajama Game (Richard Adler and Jerry Ross) — Broadway production opened at the St. James Theatre on May 13 and transferred to the Shubert Theatre on November 24, 1956 for a total run of 1063 performances
Pal Joey (Music: Richard Rodgers Lyrics: Lorenz Hart Book: John O'Hara) London production opened at Princes Theatre on August 4 and ran for 245 performances
Peter Pan Broadway production opened at the Winter Garden Theatre on October 20 and ran for 152 performances
Salad Days (Music: Julian Slade Lyrics & Book: Dorothy Reynolds and Julian Slade) London production opened at the Vaudeville Theatre on August 5 and ran for 2283 performances
You'll Be Lucky London revue opened at the Adelphi Theatre on February 25. Starring Sally Barnes and Lauri Lupino Lane.
Zuleika — premiere in Cambridge, England