Nerd Pride Radio

Winners so far

1957 - That'll Be the Day by Buddy Holly and the Crickets
1956 - Be-Bop-a-Lula by Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps

Best Record of 1957

During the lost month, having nowhere to wax about music, led me create a little blog for my Just Rewards project.
https://justrewarding.wordpress.com/
But now that this is back, I'll probably double post the same things here and there.

Here's a youtube music playlist I made with a good overview of potential nominees:


Here's some more songs that critics love and a spotify playlist via Acclaimed Music
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/year/1957s.htm

And here's an overview of songs popular in 1957 (warning: some may have actually been released years earlier)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1957_in_music

I've already added 3 songs into the nomination pool:
Jailhouse Rock
Peggy Sue
You Send Me

So tell me, what would YOU nominate for the best song of 1959?

I was not expecting much here, but that is a GREAT playlist. I'm going to put that on my Spotify and give it a whirl. I'm not a music guy, so it's hard for me to separate what's a good song vs what just trips my nostalgia.

Ah the Spotify one is from Acclaimed Music, which I only found out exists a week ago even though I've been building out my spreadsheet of nominees for a year now

Well, I was only looking at the YouTube list. I just assumed they were the same. Either way, I'm excited to take these for a spin again.

[cheers emoji]

Agree, originally my list was only about 10 songs, and then it kept growing because it's a really solid year and a good omen for this project, because maaaaybe every year is worthy of celebration.

Nominee #4:
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” is often more acclaimed by critics (and props to it’s use of apostrophes) but “Great Balls of Fire” is a better encapsulation of what made Jerry Lee Lewis a sensation. It’s tight and manic all at once, both technically impressive and exuding emotion. It either professes a love as bright as eternal stars and/or is perverted as all get out. Either way, it’s hot, silly, and essential.

Nominee #5
https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=AIoWE ... ture=share
A sensation that started her career and set the template for the female solo country artist. Her slow walk, mimicked in percussion, is romantic and sorrowful, self-pitying and resolute, weak and strong, all at once. It’s an all time country song that is also somehow a bit underrated too. That’s why it’s here.

This project is exciting! I take it you're going to work forward through these years?
It's a hard call - Patsy Cline is definitely top three somewhere, but I think if I had to pick a single Best it would be Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music. Simply iconic - something that sounds like it always existed, but it didn't exist until then.

Good pick! His Johnny B Goode would definitely be a finalist in 1958, which might be why I skipped on his song this year. Same deal with "Lucille" as I envision Little Richard doing well in 1955. But tough! Even picking the best West Side Story song is tough. And this is clearly the best year ever for the Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

TOUGH!!!

I think I will be going backwards in time. I originally wanted to an entirely different award each week in a podcast, but time and effort would be tough. Then when I was aiming at redoing the Grammys and started working on the best song of 1984, which I solicited options from y'all a year ago. But once I thought of 1957, my plan of action got a lot clearer... though still a bit murky. Still not 100% on how I'm going to narrow down to one song.

Put it up to a vote? Do it all myself? I imagined having a guest on a podcast and that person and I would veto a song at the time until we get to 1 song. Or maybe veto until 5 (or 8) and put those up to a vote. Maybe a group Zoom chat I can turn into a podcast? I dunno!

Well, I think it should be you deciding! But it would be fun to listen to somebody chatting about it with you, if you were doing it on the podcast! Is there already a podcast that I have missed?

There hasn't been a podcast. I did record one with my daughter, more of a radio show, but I never finished editing it and plus found out later that a few of the songs were from 56 and one was from 55. I've since tripple-checked the dates. I will probably record something, but not sure yet. I need a group to agree to a Zoom chat where we veto some songs until we get to 1.

If I could get guests to
1. listen to each song at least once, preferably at least 3 times
2. participate in a zoom chat that'll turn into a podcast-ish thing for an hour
Would guest prefer to listen to just 8 songs, 10 songs, or 16.

I'm kinda leaning to 16 total songs, 8 first-string nominees, and 8 second-string nominees. Dunno if they should fight each other to narrow to 8 before or during the zoom session.

I'm at 8 nominees so far:
https://justrewarding.wordpress.com/
America
Wake Up Little Susie
St. Thomas
Walkin After Midnight
Great Balls of Fire
You Send Me
Peggy Sue
Jailhouse Rock

I know there's at least 3 other songs people want me to nominate, including Rock and Roll Music.

Phoebe wrote: ↑Mon Nov 30, 2020 12:48 pm Chuck Berry's Rock and Roll Music. Simply iconic - something that sounds like it always existed, but it didn't exist until then.

I wrote out a huge idea of narrowing down to 16 songs and each one pick an opponent, but I'm instead now thinking I'm going narrow down to 24 songs.

The additional 16, including picks from others, including "Rock and Roll Music" will face off in a one-on-one. The victor goes onto the next round.

That'll cut the number from 24 to 16 songs, which I think would be a good amount to debate. If not, I can continue the fight to get to 12 songs. Actually that might be the best option.

Here's my draft of the competition round:
All Shook Up vs. Young Blood (Elvis vs. song written by the Jailhouse Rock team)
Everyday vs. That'll Be the Day (Buddy vs. Buddy)
Rock n Roll Music vs. Lucille (founding Rockers fight)
Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On vs. Reet Petite (hyperactive singers)
Got My Mojo Working vs Suzie Q (blues match)
Round Midnight vs. Love is Here to Stay (jazz match)
I'm Walkin' vs. Bye Bye Love (energetic little classics)
Chances Are vs. Diana (crooner competition)

Thanks for reading my insane ramblings

Cutting the list to 24, here are some that were hard to eliminate:

I’m A King Bee by Slim Harpo – dirty swampy blues. Lots of fun.
At the Hop by Danny & The Juniors – everything that makes up this song is perfectly ok. It sounds like they got 30 minutes of studio time and this was take 2. That it works so well, such a big ball of energy, is impressive.
Fine and Mellow (live) by Billy Holiday – a solid live performance, but I always felt a distance to it.
Gone by Ferlin Husky – I found this song a silly at first, but when it shows up in the playlist, I rarely skip it. It’s grown on me a lot.
Not Fade Away by Buddy Holly and the Crickets – there’s 3 Buddy Holly songs in the final 24. That’s more than enough representation. Great song tho.
Every Other Song on West Side Story – It was hard to pick one highlight amongst them all, then it was hard to pick more. So I’m going to stick with “America” as the lead choice, for now.
Maybe by The Chantels – a groundbreaking song that sets the girl-group template for the next generation. But as a song, I don’t feel it lives up to its successors. Tough one!

Put the matches up as polls on Twitter. We'll see if I can parlay some votes.

https://twitter.com/justrewarding/statu ... 0349382657

20 votes in and Rock and Roll Music is falling behind
https://mobile.twitter.com/justrewardin ... 9778023424

So is Reet Petite too and my fav Louis and Ella collab, the punishment for bringing this to the masses

In a disappointment to my family (especially my daughter) and two friends on Facebook, “Everyday,” was ousted in the first Twitter poll, with 62% going to "That'll be the Day." In good news, losing means it can still be considered an underrated gem, Holly’s most twee song, the nicest rollercoaster, led by xylophone and acoustic guitar, about his favorite topic… true love.

Next up: Young Blood vs All Shook Up.
https://mobile.twitter.com/justrewardin ... 5874307075
Elvis is leading, which may lead to the second disappointing result in a row. Poll ends mid-afternoon tomorrow.

Rock and Roll Music taken down by Lucille. Tough competition, maybe unfair but I want the competitions to be interesting. Anyways I eulogize it here https://justrewarding.wordpress.com/

So my goal of getting votes, thanks to generous retweets from an album competititon tweeter, has succeded and my project is clearer than ever. I think the format I stumbled into might be what I will go with from now on. This will be blog posts, youtube playlists, and twitter polls. Fun!

I'm not going to complain about Lucille being the victor in any competition, lol! Lucille is a mighty slayer, as we know from Pathfinder.

Down to 16 songs. Vote here:

https://mobile.twitter.com/justrewardin ... 3200512002

Fun fact, I agreed with like two of the eight matches in round one. Oye

I do not have tweeting or I would vote. I feel safe from stumbling across DJT tweets this way unless I should care to expressly hunt them up from a news article. Best to have others monitor it. I can't express myself in tiny bursts; no mental discipline.

Anyway, Lucille was good enough for me still. Are you going to 1956? How does this work next?

Hehe-- well looks like Lucille is beating out "America" too -- I'm okay with that, America is still getting an alright number of votes, and was my biggest swing, so glad some approve.

1957 should finish up next week, with the 8 nominees facing off Friday to Monday, Final four over on Wednesday and the Champion crowned on Friday. Merrrrrry Christmas!

My plan is to do 1956 next, in a few weeks. Here's the playlist so far.
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list ... DiHsPWDAAZ
Going to Introduce the playlist and take nominations for the #1 song of that year for a week and then start nominating/matching in the new year.

Though I MAY switch it up as the Grammy nominations for 2020 are in, so I think I'll want to do a game for 2020 before the ceremony on Jan 31st.

Down to eight songs:

That'll Be the Day vs. Wake Up Little Susie (nerd fight)
All Shook Up vs. Walkin After Midnight (crossover hits)
Great Balls of Fire vs. Lucille (wild piano rockers swoon over you)
'Round Midnight vs. You Send Me (jazz vs. soul, or a guarantee that there won't be just four white guys left -- though I do think Patsy has a chance to upset the King)

https://twitter.com/justrewarding/statu ... 3089178624

Come on, Patsy! You should be dethroning that there King!

She needs some help to stay in this, but even if she fails I'm glad there's a few other twitter users who are pro-Patsy here

That'll Be the Day
Walkin After Midnight
Lucille
'Round Midnight vs. You Send Me - no preference

Do we need Twitter to vote? Ahhh I lack the Twitter. I know enough to know that Twitter is the wrong venue for me. Aphorisms or insults. It's the same reason I try not to go places where people can approach and breathe on me; I don't want to have a risky and expensive test of my theory about self-defense being permitted under those circumstances. Twitter is like, character flaws just waiting to grow.

Haha. Well Twitter you can mute certain people and certain phrases, and you can find groups, like these music groups I've found.

I forgot I abstained from the Jerry Lee Lewis / Little Richard match. I think Great Balls of Fire would be a solid pick to win it all but would also love to guarantee a diverse final. But, just for you, I cast my vote for Lucille. that said it still needs a few votes to catch up.

We have a tie! That'll Be the Day tied with Wake Up Little Susie. Told Twitter I'm letting a friend who refuses to join Twitter to pick the winner, so Phoebe, you're the tie breaker!

Go here to vote for the final four... or if you refuse to join Twitter tell me here.


WOAH! Twitter embeds!

That'll Be the Day vs. All Shook Up
Great Balls of Fire vs. You Send Me

Wow. Way to not pick any of the good songs, Twitter.

Haha
I did vote against all of these songs at some point, except You Send Me.

FYI I'm prepping 1956 and got it narrowed down to 56 songs. Here's my secret playlist...



Woah! Playlist embed!!!

Starting to figure out what I want to do differently.
I realized for 1957 picking only three songs out of 24 that were led or co-led by women was a mistake. I was going based on acclaim from best ofs and awards and such but we know those are biased institutions. For 1956 my goal is to up it to at least 1/3rd of songs by women. This though means more research on my part, but I'm fine with that. I did racial diversity well, but would like to do better next time too. My goal will less than half of the songs by white men.

To aid in this task, I'm going to allow only one song per artist on the list. In the 1957 poll there were three songs by Buddy Holly, two by Elvis, two by Jerry Lee Lewis, and two by the Everly Brothers. All white guys.

Given how huge Elvis and Little Richard were in 1956 I was planning on allowing three songs for them. Instead I'm going to run a pre-tourny poll to pick their songs. This will open it up.

Also for 1957 I picked eight songs that I thought were shoo-ins and got first-round byes.
Also, even though Gene Vincent's "Be bop a lula" and Carl Peekins' "Blue Suede Shoes" are so acclaimed I'd normally pick them as shoo-ins, I'm going instead have them fight it out in round one, with the winner facing Elvis in round 2. Rather have themed rounds than to have the final four all be rockers in the Sun Records sound (like 2/4 of the finalists for 1957).

Oh, you are so nice to let me vote - I really don't have a Twitter and fear it on a fundamental level, but if the voting remains tied, I like All Shook Up better, and You Send Me.

Both matches were tied this morning, but a nice person retweeted it and now nearing 40 votes each and Buddy and Sam have moved ahead. I still haven't put my vote for Great Balls vs You Send Me. I think Cooke did better and Jerry never improved on this. I think I'll vote at the last minute, for the underdog, as long as it makes no difference.

Final match: That'll Be the Day vs. You Send Me


Not a bad final, IMO. And if I redid the 5 nominees based on this it'd be:
That'll be the day
You send me
All Shook Up
Great Balls of Fire
And then from the top 8, Wake Up Little Susie would be number 5 by votes but if up to me...
Walkin After Midnight

And we got a winner... now onto the Best Record of 1956!

Here's a playlist of songs from that year, that I shared above but here it is again.

So cool, love these embeds.

Let me know what's your favorite as it will sway my decision on who gets in!

In a few days going to start at least two, maybe three, possibly four play-in games.
One for Elvis. One for Little Richard. Maybe one for Chuck Berry. Possibly one for Ella Fitgerald, not sure yet though.

Nice, that's a pretty good ending regardless! Let me check this new list.

Okay here's what I've discovered so far:
The deck is kind of stacked because Mahalia Jackson is not human but divine, and there's not much anyone else can do about it, no matter how good their song might be as a song.

I also did not properly appreciate Little Richard - He's phenomenal! But it's difficult because I don't know which of those songs of his is the best song compared to the others. It's tricky to compare best artists versus best songs. Also difficult to compare those many jazz greats to the rock&roll hits of 1956.

Oooh, if your pick is Mahalia that's great. She was just outside a list I drew up, but had a hard time figuring out who'd she'd face. Like, there's nothing like her that was huge in 1956.

I started the Elvis play-in game, and currently Don't Be Cruel is running away from it. My mother-in-law will be happy, even though I personally prefer Heartbreak Hotel, though happy for love for another Otis Blackwell tune (he also wrote "All Shook Up" and "Great Balls of Fire" which both reached the 1957 semi-finals, and his "Fever" will probably also make this list for 1956 by Little Willie John and 1958 by Peggy Lee).

Oh I just saw this on the other thread. Yup, would agree with Don't Be Cruel. The other two are fine; Hound Dog like I say was done earlier and done better by Big Mama Thornton, so while Elvis popularized, he also diminished it. Boo.

Oh, I think Big Mama is going to be guaranteed a first-round-bye for 1953
http://www.acclaimedmusic.net/year/1953s.htm
Looking forward to years like this where the gender and racial diversity are already baked in. For all that I love about the explosion of Rock and Roll, it really turned these lists into a half-century long sausage party.

And we're onto the matches. I gave up narrowing to 24 songs so turned it into a true 32-match tourney.
Switching to 32 let me add some Mahalia Jackson and Clarence "Frogman" Henry too.

I thought I was being cruel to Be-Bop-A-Lula by having it face Don't Be Cruel in Round 1, but it's now in the lead!

Oh Lord yes Mahalia Jackson. It may not win because it's such an apples to oranges thing but I just love it, and there's no denying what a huge success it was at the time. So influential. Anyway it's a good list.

Mahalia lost by one vote I think.

Here's the next round. Once again Gene Vincent fans are skewing the vote, but what can I do? I need a lot more fans in order to overcome these activist judges

Oh gosh I love that Frankie Lymon song - he was like the Michael Jackson before there was a Michael Jackson. I feel sad for that man; what a tragic life.

Four songs remain, and Be Bop a Lula vs. I Put a Spell On You is within a vote or two of each other. I prefer I Put a Spell but if ya got Twitter, put in a vote...

So... 113 votes in the final round and... the rockabilly fans won by one vote. Be Bop A Lula beat out Bo Diddley's Who Do You Love. I wouldn't have personally picked those two for my 10 favs of that year but I wouldn't have included them if I didn't like them. Meh! The trade-off of crowd input. Live by it. Die by it. I'm fine. Also...

Onto 1955! No Gene Vincent here...

Here's my draft. I got a week to finalize it.



Some fun matches here, like Elvis' Mystery Train fighting Rock Island Line.
You see, they are train songs!

My goal of assuring a spot for women in the quarterfinals is stifled as I feel "Oh What a Beautiful Mornin" should be in here and probably best near What Lola Wants...

Cut it down to 24 songs and starting twitterness

Eight remain



The choices are pretty solid. Surprised Louis got so far. Happy Fats got so far.

There's a good chance the top 4 on acclaimed music / rate your music will move on (tutti, folsom, maybelene, and bo). But seems there's an even greater chance the only 4 remaining rock n roll songs will move on. Rooting for Julie London to sneak in to the top 4 tho...

Aw man I hope Mack the knife gets in there, haha!!