Darling, It's Wonderful: Music From The 1950's

     As I age, I've started to become wary of nostalgia - or, more accurately, over-indulging in nostalgia.  I'm not always as vigilant as I probably should be, but I try to remember that past eras are never as wonderful as we remember (or imagine them to have been).  Still, about a year ago, I watched the 1982 movie Diner for the first time in at least a decade.  It features an ensemble cast of male twentysomething friends and it's set in Baltimore during the last week of 1959.  It still holds up really well, and despite my aforementioned wariness about nostalgia, it kinda sent me off on a 50's nostalgia trip - well, at least musically speaking.  

      Since I've been listening to a lot of 50's music and since it's been ten years since I started this blog, I figured I should put together a really big compilation of 50's music.  It's got a lot of artists that are probably familiar to most people, but hopefully there are enough artists and songs that people haven't heard to keep it interesting.  Hope you like Volumes One and Two (with volumes 3-6 to follow over the next three months).

(Also, as long as I'm indulging my nostalgia jones,  I've re-upped my homages to early 1960s music)


Download Both Volumes

Volume One

Moanin' Lambert, Hendricks & Ross The Chill Is On Joe Turner Farther Up The Road Bobby "Blue" Bland Crazy Arms Ray Price Juke Joint Johnny Red Sovine Give Me a Pinto Pal Elton Britt Iku Koni Payin West African Rhythm Brothers Will Call  Joe Jones Wagon Stan Kenton Basin Street Blues Julie London My Prayer The Platters Yesterdays Cal Tjader Chega de Saudade Joao Gilberto Let's Get Lost Chet Baker Rabbits Don't Ever Get Married Hank Penny Red-Headed Woman Sonny Burgess Bad Penny Blues Humphrey Lyttelton Something's Got A Hold Of Me The Soul Singers Guitar Boogie Woogie T. Texas Tyler Too Much Monkey Business Chuck Berry Lost Mind Mose Allison Angel Of Love The Schoolboys Volume Two Pledging My Love Johnny Ace Just Walking in the Rain The Prisonaires Jumpin' The Blues Jimmy Witherspoon with Jay McShann  Birth of Ghana Lord Kitchener Gopher Mambo Yma Sumac Car Hoppin' Mama Hawkshaw Hawkins Train Of Love Johnny Cash Clickety Click Clack The Turbans Soon I'll Be Done with the Troubles of the World Five Blind Boys Of Mississippi Junco Partner James Wayne Eisenhower Blues J.B. Lenoir Finders Keepers The Miller Sisters Let Her Go, God Bless Her The Louvin Brothers Rave On Buddy Holly Rawhide Link Wray & The Wraymen Right Now! Jackie Wilson Tomorow Is The Question Ornette Coleman Take Out Some Insurance Jimmy Reed Nem As Paredes Confesso (I Don't Confess It, Even to the Walls) Amalia Rodrigues Darling, It's Wonderful The Lovers My Rifle, My Pony And Me Dean Martin Three Cigarettes In An Ashtray Patsy Cline