Tygarts Valley High School Class of 1964: April 2014

Wednesday, April 30, 2014

DAY 101 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

Good Morning, Class of '64

After the Prom - Norman Rockwell

First Love

John Clare

I ne’er was struck before that hour
With love so sudden and so sweet,
Her face it bloomed like a sweet flower
And stole my heart away complete.
My face turned pale as deadly pale,
My legs refused to walk away,
And when she looked, what could I ail?
My life and all seemed turned to clay.
And then my blood rushed to my face
And took my eyesight quite away,
The trees and bushes round the place
Seemed midnight at noonday.
I could not see a single thing,
Words from my eyes did start—
They spoke as chords do from the string,
And blood burnt round my heart.
Are flowers the winter’s choice?
Is love’s bed always snow?
She seemed to hear my silent voice,
Not love's appeals to know.
I never saw so sweet a face
As that I stood before.
My heart has left its dwelling-place
And can return no more.

Scholarly Pace - Norman Rockwell

“No, this trick won't work...

How on earth are you ever going to

explain in terms of chemistry and physics

so important a biological phenomenon

as first love? ”
Albert Einstein

“Falling in love is very real,

but I used to shake my head when

people talked about soul mates,

poor deluded individuals grasping at

some supernatural ideal not intended for

mortals but sounded pretty in a poetry book.

Then, we met, and everything changed,

the cynic has become the converted,

the sceptic, an ardent zealot.”
E.A. Bucchianeri

Brushstrokes of a Gadfly

At the Soda Fountain - Norman Rockwell

Always there are firsts and lasts.

Good fortune has shone lovingly on you

if the first deserves to be the last.

Often, you are alerted by the first to

qualities you seek in the last, because

the first did not have them.

All hearts dream of and desire

a last that will become first.

“In the darkest hour of winter,

when the starlings

had all flown away,

Gretel Samuelson fell in love.

It happened the way things are never

supposed to happen in real life,

like a sledgehammer,

like a bolt from out of the blue.

One minute she was a seventeen year-old

senior in high school waiting for a

Sicilian pizza to go;

the next one she was someone whose

whole world had exploded,

leaving her adrift in the Milky Way,

so far from earth she was walking on stars.”
Alice Hoffman
Local Girls

Bobby Sox to Stockings
Charted at #8
Frankie Avalon appeared on television
playing his trumpet by the time he was 11.
1980 film The Idolmaker, was a thinly-disguised
biography of Avalon as well as 1950s
teenage star Fabian Forte,

along with songwriter/producer Bob Marcucci.
Fabian sued, Frankie denied...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankie_Avalon

Frankie Avalon - 1959

“Something about first love defies duplication.
Before it, your heart is blank. Unwritten.
After, the walls are left inscribed and graffitied.
When it ends, no amount of scrubbing
will purge the scrawled oaths and
sketched images, but sooner or later,
you find that there’s space for someone else,
between the words and in the margins.”
Tammara Webber
Where You Are

Venus in Blue Jeans
Peaked at #7 on the Billboard charts.

Jimmy Clanton's records charted in the

U.S. Top 40 seven times.

He wrote many of the songs that he recorded.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_in_Blue_Jeans
Jimmy Clanton - 1962

“That first love.
And the first one who breaks your heart.
For me, they just happen to be
the same person.”
Sarah Dessen
Along for the Ride

Hats off to Larry

Peaked at #5 (Billboard) and #2 on Cashbox

Del Shannon learned ukulele and guitar and

Listened to country and western music,

Hank Williams, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell.

Shannon was inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Shannon

Del Shannon - 1961

“One's first love is always perfect
until one meets one's second love.”
Elizabeth Aston
The Exploits & Adventures of Miss Alethea Darcy

Lipstick on Your Collar

Became the first uptempo Connie Francis

single to reach the US Top Ten,

peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100.

"Frankie", the flip side,

also became a Top Ten hit

with a #9 peak making the

"Lipstick on Your Collar"/ "Frankie" single

the most successful double-sided

hit of Francis' career.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipstick_on_Your_Collar_%28song%29

Connie Francis - 1959

“My first love.
He was my first favorite mistake.”
Lauren Blakely,
Caught Up in Us

Buttercup - Norman Rockwell

“Did I think he was “the one?”
Iʼll never know.
At sixteen, everyone is “the one.”
K.A. Tucker
Ten Tiny Breaths

“I trust the red sun setting,
the leafless November trees.
On Monday morning I look foward
fearlessly to Friday’s eve.
But humans are not as reliable
as nature, as trees.
I wonder if you’ll come back;
I trust only that you leave.”
Ellen Wittlinger

Hard Love

Flowers in Tender Bloom - Norman Rockwell

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

DAY 102 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

Rockabilly Teenagers - Doris Zinkeisen

Upon Julia's Clothes

Robert Herrick

When as in silks my Julia goes,
Then, then (methinks) how sweetly flows
That liquefaction of her clothes.

Next, when I cast mine eyes, and see
That brave vibration each way free,
O how that glittering taketh me!

“It is ever so much easier to be good

if your clothes are fashionable.”
L.M. Montgomery

Anne of Green Gables

“Clothes make the man.

Naked people have little or no influence on society.”
Mark Twain

Sock Hop Studebakers - http://www.ssqq.com/newsletter/news200706jun.htm

In our preteen and teen years, a half century ago, we probably did a lot of primping. We cared what we looked like to others and wanted to make the best impression we could. Clothes and how we looked in them mattered as much, or more, than any test on Friday.

The songs we listened to often mentioned articles of clothing or a specific part of a piece of garb. Clothes can make the man (or woman) or the song.

What would Blue Suede Shoes have been as Blue Head Scarf?

Well, it's one for the money,
Two for the show,
Three to get ready,
Now go, cat, go.
But don't you tie on
my blue head scarf.
You can do anything but lay off
of my blue head scarf.

Oh, yes, straight to the top of the charts it would have gone!

Would A White Sport Coat have made it as White Sport Socks?

White sport socks
And Dr. Scholl's powder
I'm all dressed up for the game

No doubt it would have been number one on all the charts!

Would Pink Shoelaces have gotten any attention as Pink Necktie?

He wears tan shoes and a pink necktie
a polka dot vest and man, oh, man
Tan shoes and a pink necktie
A gold tie clip
With his own monogram

Another chart topper, for sure!

(That churning and rumbling you might be feeling and hearing is Dick Clark trying to turn over.)

Catherine - http://deepcoveflowers.blogspot.com/2012_08_01_archive.html

Blue Suede Shoes

The first song to hit the US Pop, Country,
and R&B charts at the same time.

No. 1 on Billboard magazine's country music charts

(the only No. 1 success he would have)

No. 2 on Billboard's Best Sellers

popular music chart.

Perkins became the first country artist

to score No. 3 on the rhythm & blues charts.

Carl Perkins was called

"the King of Rockabilly"

He was inducted into the

Rock and Roll,

the Rockabilly,

and the

Nashville Songwriters Halls of Fame;

and was a

Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipient.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Perkins
http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1141

Carl Perkins - 1956


A White sport Coat and a Pink Carnation - Caron -Dann - http://carondann.com/2013/03/

A White Sport Coat

Words and music written

by Marty Robbins

Reached number one on

the U.S. country chart

(his third number one)

Reached number two on

the Billboard pop chart

Marty Robbins - 1957

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_White_Sport_Coat

Pink Shoelaces

Made Dodie Stevens a star when
she was only 13 years old.

Reached #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart,

and it sold over one million copies,

awarded a gold disc
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodie_Stevens
Dodie Stevens - 1959

“I can spot a polka dot dress

from hundreds of circles away. ”
Jarod Kintz

The Merits of Marthaism,

and How Being Named Susan Can Benefit You

"If men can run the world,

why can't they stop wearing neckties?

How intelligent is it to start the day

by tying a little noose around your neck?"

Linda Ellerbee

"Stretch pants - the garment that made

skiing a spectator sport."

Author Unknown

Monday, April 28, 2014

DAY 103 - COUNTING DOWN TO THE 50TH

GOOD MORNING, CLASS OF '64

The Flower Sellers - Abbott Fuller Graves

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine.”
William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream

"I will be the gladdest thing under the sun!
I will touch a hundred flowers and not pick one."
Edna St. Vincent Millay

“I must have flowers, always, and always.”
Claude Monet

“This is the spot where I will lie
When life has had enough of me,
These are the grasses that will blow
Above me like a living sea.

These gay old lilies will not shrink
To draw their life from death of mine,
And I will give my body's fire
To make blue flowers on this vine.

"O Soul," I said, "have you no tears?
Was not the body dear to you?"
I heard my soul say carelessly,
"The myrtle flowers will grow more blue.”
Sara Teasdale

“But how nice it would be to know that some good Yankee woman - And there must be SOME good Yankee women. I don’t care what people say, they can’t all be bad! How nice it would be to know that they pulled weeds off our men’s graves and brought flowers to them, even if they were enemies. If Charlie were dead in the North it would comfort me to know that someone - And I don’t care what you ladies think of me,” her voice broke again, “I will withdraw from both clubs and I’ll — I’ll pull up every weed off every Yankee’s grave I can find and I’ll plant flowers, too — and — I just dare anyone to stop me!”
Melanie from
"Gone With The Wind”
Margaret Mitchell

Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1964

ONE HIT WONDERS OF 1959

The English and the French captured our listening ears with their instrumentals in 1959 (and some Americans, too). Though they didn't hit it big on the charts again, they had other good music to offer. A YouTube search will find them. It was a good year for instrumental One Hit Wonders, a good year to be twelve years old.

Petite Fleur (Little Flower)
(instrumental)
An English Jazz Band

An international hit as a clarinet solo by
Monty Sunshine with Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

Charted at #5

Chris Barber Jazz Band - 1959

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petite_Fleur

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Barber

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Sunshine

“I'm on the side of whatever
keeps the flowers growing.”
Marty Rubin

Petite Fleur
(with words and in French with

English subtitles - ummmm nice)

Known to have recorded the first

French rock and roll songs in 1957,

but he never ceased to claim that he

disliked Rock and Roll and even refused

to talk about it later on.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Salvador
Henri Salvador - 1959

Little flower

Should all the flowers
by the side of the roads
wither tomorrow,
I would keep in my heart

the one who
bloomed in your eyes
when I loved you so,
in the wonderland
of our sweet sixteen.
Little flower of love,
you will always bloom
for me.

When life
betrays me now and then
you remain my joy,
little flower.

After twenty years
I ponder for a while
and breathe in
this scent I loved so.

Within my heart
you will always bloom
in the great garden of love,
little flower...


The Little Flower Girl - Edward Lamson Henry

Lodged
"The rain to the wind said,
'You push and I'll pelt.'
They so smote the garden bed.
That the flowers actually knelt,
And lay lodged -- though not dead.
I know how the flowers felt.”
Robert Frost
The Poetry of Robert Frost

Little Girl With a Spray of Flowers - Renoir

“Certain girls deserve lots of flowers.
You are one of them.”
Dan Pearce
Single Dad Laughing

Manhattan Spiritual

(instrumental)
Reg Owen was an English conductor and arranger

who played both saxophone and piano.
Manhattan Spiritual was a Top 40 hit in the U.S.

Peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100
On the Billboard charts for 13 weeks.

His only release to hit the U.S. charts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reg_Owen
Reg Owen Orchestra - 1959

“People who want to make a million
borrow a million first.”
Sophie Kinsella
Shopaholic Takes Manhattan

Manhattan - Karen Tarlton

“Manhattan can act as a giant suction cup,
sucking you into its folds.
The city breeds no wimps and
makes no apologies.”
Kate Rockland
Falling Is Like This

Central Park South - Jason Gluskin

“Movement was the essence of Manhattan.
It had always been so,
and now its sense of flow, energy, openness,
elasticity as Charles Dickens had called it,
was headier than ever.
Half the city’s skill and aspirations seemed
to go into the propagation of motion.”
Jan Morris
Manhattan '45

Guitar Boogie Shuffle
Known as "Guitar Boogie"
First recorded in 1945
Frank Virtue and the Virtues
recorded it as "Guitar Boogie Shuffle".
Reached #5 on the Billboard Hot 100
and #27 on the Billboard R&B chart
Also became a sheet music smash,
selling well worldwide
"became one of the most popular
and influential instrumentals of its era".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Boogie_%28song%29
Frank Virtue and the Virtues

I don't do up.

Sit-ups.

Push-ups.

Pull-ups.

I do downs.

Sit down.

Lay down.

Blackjack, I'll double down.

Give me a cheeseburger, I'll wolf it down.

Put on a little music, I'll boogie down.
John Pinette

New Orleans Boogie -Diane Millsap

“Sleep my little baby-oh
Sleep until you waken
When you wake you'll see the world
If I'm not mistaken...

Kiss a lover
Dance a measure,
Find your name
And buried treasure...

Face your life
Its pain,
Its pleasure,
Leave no path untaken.”

Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book

Ch' Boogie - Connie Williams

“To be creative means to be in love with life.

You can be creative only if you love life

enough that you want to enhance its beauty,

you want to bring a little more music to it,

a little more poetry to it,

a little more dance to it.”
Osho

Cowboy Boogie - Connie Chadwell

“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world,
For I would ride with you upon the wind,
Run on the top of the disheveled tide,
And dance upon the mountains like a flame.”
W.B. Yeats

The Land of Heart's Desire

In the Mood
Peaked at #4 on the pop chart
and #7 on the R&B charts.

sold over a million copies
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Mood
Ernie Fields and his Orchestra - 1959

“You keep me going when I feel
like a flat tyre
you do my head right,
like a hair dryer
can I call you my mechanic since
you change my mood and get me
feeling like I have got a spare tyre.”
Mohlalefi J Motsima

Horse in Jolly Mood - Unknown

“I suspect that I’m not alone
when it comes to altering my
surroundings depending on how
I feel at any particular moment:
diving into a specific book,
immersing inside a particular movie,
devouring certain foods or
humming to just the right song.”
Barbara Brooke