Max Picks …songs from 1958

1958

Welcome to another edition of Max Picks. We will start it off with Ricky Nelson on a slow note but this song is so haunting to me. Nelson wasn’t always taken seriously because of his acting in his parent’s sitcom Ozzie and Harriet. That’s a shame because he released some top-grade rockabilly songs. Here he is with the ballad Lonesome Town.

As promised…here is more Buddy Holly, his window was short but strong. Buddy’s songs would influence everyone from The Stones, Hollies, Beatles, and more. He also could have unknowingly started the Power Pop genre. His jangly guitar and that voice with the hiccups. I went to the Buddy Holly Broadway show when it toured and stopped in Nashville. I can’t explain in words how a 3 piece band sounded so full with the music he wrote.

Now we have the one and only Chuck Berry weaving his lyrics about a guy who left his home to make it playing guitar. This song IS Rock and Roll and has been played by every self-respecting garage band ever since. It’s also covered by heavy metal, country, pop, and rock bands. I would lay money down that somewhere tonight in some bar somewhere…Johnny B. Goode will be heard.

Link Wray and his Ray Men gave us this instrumental Rumble in 1958. This instrumental was somewhat controversial because it implied gang violence – some radio stations refused to play it. It might be the only instrumental song ever banned on the radio. It was feared that the piece’s harsh sound glorified juvenile delinquency. Did the song cause juvenile delinquency? We can only hope.

Now we will end it with an artist that unfortunately is about to go in the Army at this time. He would never be the same again. Yes, we would get some great songs in his future but Elvis Presley became more of an all-around entertainer after this year. His rock and roll days were going to fall behind for a while when he started to make movies. This is a fantastic song.

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

46 thoughts on “Max Picks …songs from 1958”

  1. I can’t object to a list that includes Buddy Holly. But some other important songs from that year: “La Bamba” by Ritchie Valens – which not only made his career, but that of Los Lobos and Lou Diamond Phillips. Since we have two of the three from “The Day the Music Died”, 1958 was also when The Big Bopper released “Chantilly Lace”. I’ll forgive leaving out The Coasters with “Yakety Yak” if you put “Poison Ivy” in the 1959 list – no list of 1950s hits can be complete without Leiber & Stoller. Then there was the genre of songs of lost loves (car crashes, suicides), represented by “Endless Sleep” by Jody Reynolds. (I’m not saying any of that genre were great songs, but they were a cultural force.) And since we mentioned songs in movies, “Tequila” by The Champs made for the highlight of “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” in 1985. Along with Link Wray was the great Duane Eddy with “Rebel Rouser” – for my money, this was the instrumental guitar hit of 1958. How about “Get a Job” by The Silhouettes, which gave the revival group Sha-Na-Na their name? And no one would believe the diversity of Top 40 in those days, as 1958 also featured drummer Cozy Cole in Alan Hartwell’s big band with “Topsy”. (In that one year, among top hits, we have at least three languages, doo-wop by both Black and white groups, guitar and big band instrumentals, folk songs [The Kingston Trio with “Tom Dooley”], novelty songs, and the immortals like Buddy Holly and Chuck Berry.)

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    1. I have La Bamba coming up in 1959 AND Donna…both were released at the very end of 1958 so I put them on 59…because of the tragedy and that is when they charted.

      I limited myself to 5 songs so that makes it really hard to get everything…I could have filled in 10-20…but once 1961 or 62 rolled around…it got hard to find anything I liked…when you had Anita Bryant, Boone, Avalon, and others like that dominating the charts.
      I do have some instrumentals coming up in the future ones plus one today with Link Wray.

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      2. So far…you hit on the three that I have…I have up to 61 and half of 62…. written and all of those are covered. I appreciate it.

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    2. Yes he was…when the Crickets only had two others.
      I will say this about his music…hearing live like I did when I saw the play “Buddy” was incredible…it was so full with the trio they had.

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  4. Great selection as always Max. I haven’t listened to that Nelson tune in a long while. Of course you selected some fine songs and I never expected a list of every tune from 1958! Keep up the great work Max, I’m liking this theme.

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    1. Thanks Randy I appreciate it. I limited myself to 5 and that was hard as hell…BUT come 62 or so…it’s hard for me to find 5 songs! Pick between Anita Bryant, Avalon, Fabion, Boone and etc…not happening.

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      1. What a great time for radio…I left so many songs off because it was so many to pick from.

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  6. Rick Nelson and David Cassidy had some parallels in being sitcom teen idols who wanted and deserved to be taken more seriously as musicians. Link Wray’s song and the censorship story is so cool. And Chuck, Buddy and Elvis. This was quite a year.

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    1. They do resemble each other…they just weren’t taken as seriously.
      Link Wray’s song I had forgotten about…and I went back in and took something out to add it. I love it.

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  8. A good list and as the comments show, it was getting to an age where picking just 5 greats a year became a challenge. By the ’70s and ’80s I’d have trouble narrowing it down to 20 a year. Of course by the last decade, I’d have trouble picking just five… pretty much have to lower the bar to ‘ones that didn’t stink!’. As for your picks here, can’t argue with them but for my money, I’m with Half-fast and would pick ‘Rebel Rouser’ over ‘Rumble’, but both are solid and ‘Rumble’ has a great back story!

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    1. It’s hard through the fifties… but when 1960 – 1963… it was dead so it’s not as easy until the magic year of 1964… that is where I’ll have too many again lol

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      1. it’s an interesting idea. I might try to work up a list myself (not necessarily for the blog) of my favorite song & album for each year , at least when I was listening to and knowing most of the new music. As a nerdy kid, I actually made up weekly charts for several years , kind of based on combination of how much I was hearing them on radio or TV and my own bias. Wish I still had those lists to look back on!

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      2. That sounds like a lot of fun. It wouild be cool to see.
        It’s the best time I’ve had with a series in a long time because it’s only my opinion…not many facts just a quick brushover.

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  10. Ricky got a bad rap because he was a TV boy, but he did have some great tunes and a tight band behind him. Poor Chuck, he never learned to tune that guitar, and it’s not that hard to do. Love the Danelectro guitar Link Ray is playing on Slinky. That’s a tough year to follow with all the music coming out. The Devil’s music was gaining strength. That’s what my pastor always said, so his son joined a rock band just to piss him off.

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    1. I have two Danelectros but not the Long Horn like Link Wray has.
      Yea…that is what happens when you try to keep something away from a kid.

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  11. Watching the background crowd in ‘Johnny B. Goode’ shows just how timid those squares were. Only a brave few clapping along, the rest sitting rigid, hands firmly in laps. A different black and white world back then.
    PS; I trawled back to ’62, via a well thumbed paperback I have, and the only one that sounds real rock’n’roll is ‘Let’s Dance,’ Chris Montez.
    Man, there was some sad sorry dross clogging up the airwaves then. Heard Frank Ifield, ‘I remember Youhoowhoohoo?’ Or how about ‘Old River(sh)s’ anyone? No? Good.

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    1. There is not many to pick from…I found a few good ones and for 61 I had to go off the charts.
      Oh Frank Ifield…I read about him more than heard him. When I did…I was sad that I did heard him. Frank and Paul M were going with the same girl and The Beatles were going to jump him in a dressing room if he started something lol. They didn’t…because he didn’t say a word.

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  12. Nice picks, Max. That Link Wray track has an incredible guitar sound. It’s crazy an instrumental would get banned by some radio stations. Last but not least, as much as it pains me to say this about my childhood idol, yes, pre-army Elvis was much better than he was afterwards. Of course, much of it had to do with Elvis listening to Col. Parker and getting into the movie business big time. Most of these pictures were just terrible!

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    1. Yep…Elvis became an “all around entertainer” and lost his edge…it’s almost like the Army neutered him…he left danger behind for those dang movies.

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  15. Pingback: Max Picks …songs from 1958 – MobsterTiger

  16. All great songs. Two of my favorites from 1958 are “At the Hop” by Danny & the Juniors (it was released in fall of 1957, but spent the first 5 weeks of 1958 at #1), and “It’s All in the Game” by Tommy Edwards.

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