Today’s Throwback Weekend selection falls on my wife’s birthday, so I had to chuckle when the title turned out to be ‘The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane’ by the Ames Brothers.
This track sat at #3 the week of December 28, 1954, behind repeat Songs of the Day ‘Mister Sandman’ by The Chordettes and ‘Let Me Go Lover’ by Joan Weber.
Throwing back to the week of December 14, 1954, we find The Chordettes’ ‘Mister Sandman’ still dominating the charts. But in second place, on its way to a four-week stint at #1, was Joan Weber’s ‘Let Me Go, Lover.’
The song became popular after it was featured on a television show called Studio One, in an episode about a murder mystery involving a disc jockey. The producers took advantage of the show’s reach to push the song into stores and radio stations, one of the earliest examples of that sort of cross-promotion.
Throwing back to the week of November 30, 1954, we find The Chordettes atop the Billboard chart with ‘Mister Sandman,’ followed by two more repeats: Eddie Fisher’s ‘I Need You Now‘ and Rosemary Clooney’s ‘This Ole House.’
In the fourth spot, on the way to a peak at #2, was ‘Teach Me Tonight’ by The DeCastro Sisters, a trio of Cuban-born siblings. This was the fifth version of the song to land on a Billboard chart between 1954 and 1955, and the one that made it the farthest.
Throwing back to the week of Nov. 16, 1954, Eddie Fisher tops the Billboard hits chart with ‘I Need You Now.’ This was the song’s third straight week at #1, and its last, because it was about to be overtaken by the song at #2.
That was ‘Mr. Sandman’ by The Chordettes. This song would go on to spend seven weeks at #1, giving the vocal quartet their biggest hit (followed closely by ‘Lollipop’ four years later).
Throwing back to the week of Nov. 2, 1954, we find a familiar trio hanging on at the top three of Billboard’s singles chart: Eddie Fisher’s ‘I Need You Now‘ and two Rosemary Clooney tracks, ‘Hey There‘ and ‘This Ole House.’
At #4 that week was Perry Como’s ‘Papa Loves Mambo,’ a tune that capitalized on a nationwide interest in the Cuban dance music style.
Meet Me In Montauk 