Popular Songs and Television

In the 1920s radio, records and ‘talkies’ (talking movies) brought music to tens of millions. In the 1930s electric guitars and microphones changed the name of the game. In the late 1940s long play and ’45’s were invented. In the 1950s TV became popular and changed everything forever.

NBC and CBS started out in the 1920s as radio networks, and then slowly morphed into TV. NBC was forced to split and thus ABC was formed from the “Blue Network”. There was another TV player called “Dumont” that didn’t have a radio network and was innovative, but eventually had to close down. Conversely there was a major radio network (Mutual Broadcasting System) that never made the successful transition into TV.

The Lone Ranger was a radio program that morphed into TV (there were many others). The music? The William Tell Overture. At least the world could sing one classical music composition!

https://www.imdb.com/video/vi2007088921?

From primarily from the 1960s onward, several famous singers had their own TV shows (e.g., Dean Martin, Perry Como, Carol Burnett, Smothers Brothers, Andy William). Advertisements were even more ‘in your face’ than now. They were often part and parcel of the show!

Frank Sinatra hosted by Dean Martin

An entire Dean Martin show with Jackie Mason at (36:30)

from 3:52 Chesterfield ad and “Tenderly”

The advent of TV brought a new dimension for popularizing up-and-coming singers and songs. Perhaps the most popular pop music show was “American Bandstand”. But there were others such as Hootenanny, Shin-Dig that were big in the day.

Joni Anderson (soon to be Joni Mitchell) on Hootenanny!

Dick Clark was the host of American Bandstand from 1956 until 1988. He was originally a DJ.

From Wikipedia: The show gave many new music artists their first exposure to national audiences, including Iggy Pop,  Madonna, Ike and Tina Turner, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Beach Boys, Stevie Wonder, Prince, Simon and Garfunkel, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Sam Cooke, Fats Domino and Chubby Checker. Jackson 5, Sonny and Cher, Aerosmith, —all of whom made their American TV debuts on the show.

Episodes he hosted were among the first in which blacks and whites performed on the same stage, and likewise among the first in which the live studio audience sat without racial segregation. Singer Paul Anka claimed that Bandstand was responsible for creating a “youth culture”. Due to his perennial youthful appearance and his largely teenaged audience of American Bandstand, Clark was often referred to as “America’s oldest teenager” or “the world’s oldest teenager”

Paul Anka first on American Bandstand, below on the Ed Sullivan show

Paul Anka on Ed Sullivan show

The Rate-A-Record (about 6:00)

Freddy Cannon appeared over 100 times (go figure)

From Matthew F. Delmont: 

“The program featured a number of singers, signed to local record labels, who sounded very much alike. Bobby Rydell and Charlie Gracie on Cameo-Parkway, Fabian and Frankie Avalon on Chancellor, and Freddie Cannon on Swan all appeared regularly on American Bandstand and had hit records in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition to these Philadelphia label stars, Paul Anka (ABC-Paramount), Bobby Darin (Atlantic), and Johnny Tillotson (Cadence) also scored hit records with tame rock and roll songs in a crooning style.[xvii]”

Ed_Sullivan was sixty-two years old when the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show! He had been a newpaper reporter and moved to hosting a TV show in 1948 which eventually became the Ed Sullivan Show. The show was a variety show and aired every Sunday evening. Ed was very particular about who appeared on his show. How they sung. And what they sung.

The Ed Sullivan Show introduced musicians such as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Supremes, The Dave Clark Five, The Animals, The Beach Boys, The Jackson 5, Stevie Wonder, Janis Joplin, The Rolling Stones, The Mamas & the Papas, The Lovin’ Spoonful, Herman’s Hermits, The Doors and The Band. 

Here is a more extensive list:

Frankie Lymon, The Supremes, Marian Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Pearl Bailey, LaVern Baker, Harry Belafonte, Brook Benton, James Brown (and The Famous Flames),^[42] Cab Calloway, Godfrey Cambridge, Diahann Carroll, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, Bill Cosby, Count Basie, Dick Dale, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis, Jr., Bo Diddley, Duke Ellington, Lola Falana, The 5th Dimension, Ella Fitzgerald, The Four Tops, Dick Gregory, W. C. Handy, Lena Horne, The Jackson 5, Mahalia Jackson, Louis Jordan, Bill Kenny, B. B. King, George Kirby, Eartha Kitt, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Moms Mabley, Johnny Mathis, The Miracles, Melba Moore, The Platters, Leontyne Price, Richard Pryor, Lou Rawls, Della Reese, Nipsey Russell, Nina Simone, Sly and the Family Stone, The Temptations, Martha and the Vandellas, Ike & Tina Turner, Leslie Uggams, Sarah Vaughan, William Warfield, Dionne Warwick, Dinah Washington, Ethel Waters, Flip Wilson, Jackie Wilson, Nancy Wilson, and Stevie Wonder.

The Rolling Stones – Let’s Spend “Some Time Together”

Television – The Ed Sullivan Show

THE DOORS “Light My Fire” on The Ed Sullivan Show

More on the Doors

There were many more Ed Sullivan moments…scroll down

The Smothers Brothers had a cooler and more ‘dangerous’ television show for a couple of years. Here are THE WHO destroying their set.

And, finally, let’s not forget the amazing story of the Monkees (from 1966 onwards) a television program about an imaginary band that ended up becoming a real one.

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I’m a Believer – The Monkees

And just to mention that some of the theme songs of beloved tv programs are still very much with us.

Love and Marriage (originally introduced in 1955), you know it from Married….With Children

Straight from our class…..

Go with him….