Your Hit Parade
Encyclopedia
Your Hit Parade, is an American radio
and television
music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike
cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. Many listeners and viewers casually referred to the show with the incorrect title The Hit Parade.
When the show debuted, there was no agreement as to what it should be called. The press referred to it in a variety of ways, with the most common being "Hit Parade," "The Hit Parade," and even "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade" (see for example "Lucky Strike Hit Parade is Popular," Laredo (Texas) Times, May 21, 1935, p 7). The program's title was not officially changed to "Your Hit Parade" until November 9, 1935 ("Al Goodman to Be Maestro on Radio Series," Oakland Tribune, November 9, 1935, p. 14.)
Each Saturday evening, the program offered the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. The earliest format involved a presentation of the top 15 songs. Later, a countdown with fanfares led to the top three finalists, with the number one song for the finale. Occasional performances of standards and other favorite songs from the past were known as "Lucky Strike Extras."
Listeners were informed that the "Your Hit Parade survey checks the best sellers on sheet music and phonograph records, the songs most heard on the air and most played on the automatic coin machines, an accurate, authentic tabulation of America's taste in popular music." However, the exact procedure of this "authentic tabulation" remained a secret. Some believe song choices were often arbitrary due to various performance and production factors. The show's ad agencies—initially Lord and Thomas and later Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne
—never revealed the specific sources or the methods that were used to determine top hits. They made a general statement that it was based mainly on "readings of radio requests, sheet music sales, dance-hall favorites and jukebox tabulations"; Radio Guide claimed "an endless popularity poll on a nationwide scale."
The origins of the format can be traced back to the Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra (aka Lucky Strike Orchestra), which aired on NBC from 1928 to 1932, sponsored by Lucky Strike
cigarettes. Led by Benjamin A. Rolfe, The Lucky Strike Dance Hour was heard on the NBC network for an hour at 10pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The program introduced the slogan, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." In a cross-promotion, Rolfe made recordings for Edison Records
as B.A. Rolfe and his Lucky Strike Orchestra. Jules Stein's Music Corporation of America was the exclusive supplier of bands for The Lucky Strike Dance Hour, which featured Jimmy Grier's band with news stories narrated by Walter Winchell
on Thursdays and George Olsen and His Orchestra with the comedy of Bert Lahr on Saturdays in the summer of 1932.
When Your Hit Parade began on NBC April 20, 1935, it was a 60-minute program with 15 songs played in a random format. Initially, the songs were more important than the singers, so a stable of vocalists went uncredited and were paid only $100 per episode. In 1936-37, it was carried on both NBC and CBS. Script continuity in the late 1930s and early 1940s was written by Alan Jay Lerner
before he found fame as a lyricist. The first number one song on the first episode was "Soon" by Bing Crosby. (Bruce C. Byrd, Your Hit Parade & American Top Ten Hits, 4th edition, 1994, p 15.)
Some years passed before the countdown format was introduced, with the number of songs varying from seven to 15. Vocalists in the 1930s included Buddy Clark, Lanny Ross
, Kay Thompson
and Bea Wain
(1939–44), who was married to the show's announcer, French-born André Baruch
. Frank Sinatra
joined the show in 1943, and was fired in the same year for messing up the No. 1 song, "Don't fence me In " by interjecting a mumble to the effect that the song had too many words and missing a cue. An AFRS transcription survives of this show. As he zoomed in popularity he was rehired and stayed until 1945, returning (1946–49) to co-star with Doris Day
.
Hugely popular on CBS through the WWII years, Your Hit Parade returned to NBC in 1947. The show's opening theme, from the musical revue George White's Scandals of 1926, was "This is Your Lucky Day," with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva, Stephen W. Ballantine and Lew Brown.
Orchestra leaders over the years included Al Goodman
, Lennie Hayton, Abe Lyman
, Leo Reisman, Harry Salter, Ray Sinatra, Harry Sosnik, Axel Stordahl
, Peter Van Steeden, Mark Warnow
and Raymond Scott
(1949–57). The chorus was led by musical director Lyn Murray
.
Dozens of singers appeared on the radio program, including "Wee" Bonnie Baker
, Dorothy Collins
, Beryl Davis
, Gogo DeLys, Joan Edwards
(1941–46), Georgia Gibbs
, Dick Haymes
, Snooky Lanson
, Gisèle MacKenzie
, Johnny Mercer
, Andy Russell
, Dinah Shore
, Ginny Simms
, Lawrence Tibbett
, Martha Tilton
, Eileen Wilson
, Barry Wood
, and occasional guest vocalists. The show featured two tobacco auctioneers, L.A. "Speed" Riggs of Goldsboro, North Carolina
and F.E. Boone of Lexington, Kentucky
. The radio series continued until January 16, 1953.
The success of the show spawned a spin-off series, Your All-Time Hit Parade, sponsored by Lucky Strike and devoted to all-time favorites and standards mixed with some current hits. The program began on NBC February 12, 1943, airing Fridays at 8:30pm until June 2, 1944, and then Sundays at 7pm as a summer replacement for Jack Benny, continuing until September 24, 1944. The regular vocalists were Marie Green, Ethel Smith
, Martha Stewart, Bea Wain and Jerry Wayne. Lyn Murray led the chorus, and the orchestra was conducted by Mark Warnow
.
On December 6, 1948, Lucky Strike introduced yet another musical series, the daytime Your Lucky Strike, aka The Don Ameche Show, since the host was Don Ameche
. This 30-minute show, airing weekdays at 3:30pm(et) on CBS, was a talent competition with little-known and unknown professional vocalists, backed by Al De Crescent on organ or Bill Wardell on piano. The performers were judged by a trio of random housewives casting votes via long distance phone calls. Winners were booked into the Mocambo, Earl Carroll's or other night clubs. Produced by Bernard Schubert and directed by Harlan Dunning, this show also featured auctioneer Riggs. It went off the air March 4, 1949.
and Clark Jones (nominated for a 1955 Emmy Award
) directed with associate director Bill Colleran. Tony Charmoli
won a 1956 Emmy for his choreography, and the show's other dance directors were Tom Hansen (1957-58), Peter Gennaro (1958–59) and Ernie Flatt (uncredited). Paul Barnes won an Emmy in 1957 for his art direction. In 1953, the show won a Peabody Award "for consistent good taste, technical perfection and unerring choice of performers."
The seven top-rated songs of the week were presented in elaborate TV production numbers requiring constant set and costume changes. However, because the top songs sometimes stayed on the charts for many weeks, it was necessary to continually find ways of devising a new and different production number of the same song week after week. Beginning in September 1956, the top songs were reduced to five, while "extras" were increased.
On the TV series, vocalists Dorothy Collins
(1950–59), Russell Arms
(1952–57), Snooky Lanson
(1950–57) and Gisèle MacKenzie
(1953–57) were top-billed during the show's peak years. During this time, MacKenzie had her own hit record in 1955 with "Hard to Get" which climbed to the #5 ranking in June 1955 and stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. She also starred in her own NBC variety program, The Gisele MacKenzie Show
from 1957–1958, a series produced by her mentor, Jack Benny
. Russell Arms also enjoyed a hit record during his stint on the show - "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)" (# 22 / 1957)
The line-up of the show's other singers included Eileen Wilson
(1950–52), Sue Bennett
(1951–52), June Valli
(1952–53), Alan Copeland (1957–58), Jill Corey
(1957–58), Johnny Desmond
(1958–59), Virginia Gibson (1957–58), and Tommy Leonetti
(1957–58). All were performers of standards, show tunes or big band
numbers. Featured prominently were the Hit Parade dancers and the Hit Paraders, the program's choral singers, who sang the opening commercial jingle (composed by Raymond Scott
):
During the 1950-1951 season Bob Fosse
appeared as a guest dancer on several episodes, with partner Mary Ann Niles. From 1950 until 1957, the orchestra was led by well-known bandleader and musician Raymond Scott
(who married Dorothy Collins
in 1952); the show's other music supervisors were Dick Jacobs
(1957-58) and Harry Sosnik (1958–59). During the 1957-58 season, sponsor American Tobacco pitched Hit Parade filter cigarettes instead of Lucky Strikes. Alternate sponsors included Avco Manufacturing's Crosley
division (1951-54), Richard Hudnut
hair care products (1954-57), and The Toni Company (1957-58).
The show faded with the rise of rock and roll
when the performance became more important than the song. It is said that big band singer Snooky Lanson's weekly attempts to perform Elvis Presley
's "Hound Dog
" hit in 1956 hastened the end of the series. The series went from NBC (where it became the first TV show to contain the living color peacock) to CBS
in 1958 and expired the following year. While Your Hit Parade was unable to deal with the rock revolution, the show's imaginative production concepts had an obvious influence on the wave of music video
s that began in the decade that followed.
CBS also brought it back for a brief summer revival in 1974. That version featured Kelly Garrett, Sheralee and Chuck Woolery
. The 1974 version of Your Hit Parade also featured hit songs from a designated week in the 1940s or 1950s. Milton DeLugg
conducted the orchestra and Chuck Barris
packaged this series.
The show's familiar closing theme was "So Long for A While":
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
music program that was broadcast from 1935 to 1955 on radio, and seen from 1950 to 1959 on television. It was sponsored by American Tobacco's Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes. During this 24-year run, the show had 19 orchestra leaders and 52 singers or groups. Many listeners and viewers casually referred to the show with the incorrect title The Hit Parade.
When the show debuted, there was no agreement as to what it should be called. The press referred to it in a variety of ways, with the most common being "Hit Parade," "The Hit Parade," and even "The Lucky Strike Hit Parade" (see for example "Lucky Strike Hit Parade is Popular," Laredo (Texas) Times, May 21, 1935, p 7). The program's title was not officially changed to "Your Hit Parade" until November 9, 1935 ("Al Goodman to Be Maestro on Radio Series," Oakland Tribune, November 9, 1935, p. 14.)
Each Saturday evening, the program offered the most popular and bestselling songs of the week. The earliest format involved a presentation of the top 15 songs. Later, a countdown with fanfares led to the top three finalists, with the number one song for the finale. Occasional performances of standards and other favorite songs from the past were known as "Lucky Strike Extras."
Listeners were informed that the "Your Hit Parade survey checks the best sellers on sheet music and phonograph records, the songs most heard on the air and most played on the automatic coin machines, an accurate, authentic tabulation of America's taste in popular music." However, the exact procedure of this "authentic tabulation" remained a secret. Some believe song choices were often arbitrary due to various performance and production factors. The show's ad agencies—initially Lord and Thomas and later Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborne
BBDO
BBDO is a worldwide advertising agency network, with its headquarters in New York City. The agency began in 1891 with George Batten's Batten Company, and later in 1928, through a merger of BDO and Batten Co. the agency became BBDO...
—never revealed the specific sources or the methods that were used to determine top hits. They made a general statement that it was based mainly on "readings of radio requests, sheet music sales, dance-hall favorites and jukebox tabulations"; Radio Guide claimed "an endless popularity poll on a nationwide scale."
Radio
Lucky Strike
Lucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
cigarettes. Led by Benjamin A. Rolfe, The Lucky Strike Dance Hour was heard on the NBC network for an hour at 10pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The program introduced the slogan, "Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet." In a cross-promotion, Rolfe made recordings for Edison Records
Edison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
as B.A. Rolfe and his Lucky Strike Orchestra. Jules Stein's Music Corporation of America was the exclusive supplier of bands for The Lucky Strike Dance Hour, which featured Jimmy Grier's band with news stories narrated by Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell
Walter Winchell was an American newspaper and radio gossip commentator.-Professional career:Born Walter Weinschel in New York City, he left school in the sixth grade and started performing in a vaudeville troupe known as Gus Edwards' "Newsboys Sextet."His career in journalism was begun by posting...
on Thursdays and George Olsen and His Orchestra with the comedy of Bert Lahr on Saturdays in the summer of 1932.
When Your Hit Parade began on NBC April 20, 1935, it was a 60-minute program with 15 songs played in a random format. Initially, the songs were more important than the singers, so a stable of vocalists went uncredited and were paid only $100 per episode. In 1936-37, it was carried on both NBC and CBS. Script continuity in the late 1930s and early 1940s was written by Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner
Alan Jay Lerner was an American lyricist and librettist. In collaboration with Frederick Loewe, he created some of the world's most popular and enduring works of musical theatre for both the stage and on film...
before he found fame as a lyricist. The first number one song on the first episode was "Soon" by Bing Crosby. (Bruce C. Byrd, Your Hit Parade & American Top Ten Hits, 4th edition, 1994, p 15.)
Some years passed before the countdown format was introduced, with the number of songs varying from seven to 15. Vocalists in the 1930s included Buddy Clark, Lanny Ross
Lanny Ross
Lanny Ross was an American singer, pianist and songwriter.-Biography:Lancelot Patrick Ross was born in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from Yale University in 1928, where he was a member of Zeta Psi and Skull and Bones. He later studied classical vocal technique at the Juilliard School of...
, Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson
Kay Thompson was an American author, composer, musician, actress and singer. She is best known as the creator of the Eloise children's books.-Background:Catherine Louise Fink was born in St...
and Bea Wain
Bea Wain
Bea Wain was an American Big Band-era vocalist born in New York City, New York. On a 1937 recording with Artie Shaw, she was credited as "Beatrice Wayne", which led some to assume that was her real name. On record labels, her name was shortened to "Bea" by the record company, ostensibly for space...
(1939–44), who was married to the show's announcer, French-born André Baruch
André Baruch
André Baruch was a familiar voice as a film narrator and on radio as an announcer, news commentator, talk show host, disc jockey and sportscaster....
. Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
joined the show in 1943, and was fired in the same year for messing up the No. 1 song, "Don't fence me In " by interjecting a mumble to the effect that the song had too many words and missing a cue. An AFRS transcription survives of this show. As he zoomed in popularity he was rehired and stayed until 1945, returning (1946–49) to co-star with Doris Day
Doris Day
Doris Day is an American actress, singer and, since her retirement from show business, an animal rights activist. With an entertainment career that spanned through almost 50 years, Day started her career as a big band singer in 1939, but only began to be noticed after her first hit recording,...
.
Orchestra leaders over the years included Al Goodman
Al Goodman
Al Goodman was a conductor, songwriter, stage composer, musical director, arranger, and pianist....
, Lennie Hayton, Abe Lyman
Abe Lyman
Abe Lyman was a popular bandleader from the 1920s to the 1940s. He made recordings, appeared in films and provided the music for numerous radio shows, including Your Hit Parade....
, Leo Reisman, Harry Salter, Ray Sinatra, Harry Sosnik, Axel Stordahl
Axel Stordahl
Axel Stordahl was an arranger who was active from the late 1930s through the 1950s. He is perhaps best known for his work with Frank Sinatra in the 1940s at Columbia Records...
, Peter Van Steeden, Mark Warnow
Mark Warnow
Mark Warnow was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on radio in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the older brother of composer/bandleader Raymond Scott Mark Warnow (April 10, 1900 - October 17, 1949) was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on...
and Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
(1949–57). The chorus was led by musical director Lyn Murray
Lyn Murray
Lyn Murray was a composer, conductor, and arranger of music for radio, film and television.Born as Lionel Breeze in London, he arrived on American shores to found the Lyn Murray Singers, who became known throughout the United States as the featured group on CBS Radio’s Your Hit Parade...
.
Dozens of singers appeared on the radio program, including "Wee" Bonnie Baker
Bonnie Baker (singer)
Bonnie Baker was an American jazz and popular music singer, often credited as Wee Bonnie Baker. Her biggest hit was "Oh Johnny, Oh!" which she recorded with the Orrin Tucker Orchestra in 1939....
, Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins was a Canadian/American singer, actress, and recording artist. She was born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and adopted her stage name in her mid-teens.-Radio and TV:...
, Beryl Davis
Beryl Davis
Beryl Davis was a British big band singer. Her sister is Lisa Davis Waltz, a teen actress in the 1950s and 1960s....
, Gogo DeLys, Joan Edwards
The Joan Edwards Show
The Joan Edwards Show is a short-lived American television show broadcast on the now-defunct DuMont Television Network.-Broadcast History:...
(1941–46), Georgia Gibbs
Georgia Gibbs
Georgia Gibbs was an American popular singer and vocal entertainer rooted in jazz. Already singing publicly in her early teens, Gibbs first achieved acclaim in the mid-1950s interpreting songs originating with the black rhythm and blues community and later as a featured vocalist on a long list of...
, Dick Haymes
Dick Haymes
Richard Benjamin "Dick" Haymes was an Argentine actor and one of the most popular male vocalists of the 1940s and early 1950s. He was the older brother of Bob Haymes, who was an actor, television host, and songwriter....
, Snooky Lanson
Snooky Lanson
Roy Landman , better known as Snooky Lanson, was an American singer known for co-starring on the NBC television series Your Hit Parade....
, Gisèle MacKenzie
Gisele MacKenzie
Gisèle MacKenzie was a Canadian-American singer, most famous for her performances on the popular television program Your Hit Parade.-Biography:...
, Johnny Mercer
Johnny Mercer
John Herndon "Johnny" Mercer was an American lyricist, songwriter and singer. He is best known as a lyricist, but he also composed music. He was also a popular singer who recorded his own songs as well as those written by others...
, Andy Russell
Andy Russell (singer)
Andy Russell was an American popular vocalist, specializing in traditional pop and Latin music.He was born Andrés Rabago Pérez in the Boyle Heights area of East Los Angeles. He was one of ten children born to parents who were Mexican immigrants of Spanish descent...
, Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore
Dinah Shore was an American singer, actress, and television personality...
, Ginny Simms
Ginny Simms
Ginny Simms was an American Popular Singer and film actress. She labeled with Dinah Shore, Peggy Lee, Ella Fitzgerald, Jo Stafford and others. Born in San Antonio, Texas, she sang with big bands and worked as MGM contract player film actress.She appeared in 11 movies from 1939 to 1951, when she...
, Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Tibbett
Lawrence Mervil Tibbett was a great American opera singer and recording artist who also performed as a film actor and radio personality. A baritone, he sang with the New York Metropolitan Opera company more than 600 times from 1923 to 1950...
, Martha Tilton
Martha Tilton
Martha Tilton was an American popular singer, best-known for her 1939 recording of "And the Angels Sing" with Benny Goodman. She was sometimes introduced as The Liltin' Miss Tilton.Tilton and her family lived in Texas and Kansas, relocating to Los Angeles when she was seven years old...
, Eileen Wilson
Eileen Wilson
Eileen Wilson was one of the original stars of the television show Your Hit Parade, on NBC. She starred on the show from 1950 until 1952.Prior to joining the Hit Parade TV show, she had starred on the show's radio version. For part of the time she sang on the radio show, her co-star was Frank...
, Barry Wood
Barry Wood (singer)
Barry Wood was an American singer and television producer. He is best known for being Frank Sinatra's immediate predecessor as the lead male vocalist on the long running NBC radio program Your Hit Parade....
, and occasional guest vocalists. The show featured two tobacco auctioneers, L.A. "Speed" Riggs of Goldsboro, North Carolina
Goldsboro, North Carolina
Goldsboro is a city in Wayne County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 37,597 at the 2008 census estimate. It is the principal city of and is included in the Goldsboro, North Carolina Metropolitan Statistical Area. The nearby town of Waynesboro was founded in 1787 and Goldsboro was...
and F.E. Boone of Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is the second-largest city in Kentucky and the 63rd largest in the US. Known as the "Thoroughbred City" and the "Horse Capital of the World", it is located in the heart of Kentucky's Bluegrass region...
. The radio series continued until January 16, 1953.
The success of the show spawned a spin-off series, Your All-Time Hit Parade, sponsored by Lucky Strike and devoted to all-time favorites and standards mixed with some current hits. The program began on NBC February 12, 1943, airing Fridays at 8:30pm until June 2, 1944, and then Sundays at 7pm as a summer replacement for Jack Benny, continuing until September 24, 1944. The regular vocalists were Marie Green, Ethel Smith
Ethel Smith
Ethel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith * Ethel Smith -See also:* Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragist Ethel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith (organist) (1910-1996)* Ethel Smith (athlete) (1907-1979)-See also:* Ethel Smyth, composer and suffragist Ethel Smith may refer to:* Ethel Smith (organist)...
, Martha Stewart, Bea Wain and Jerry Wayne. Lyn Murray led the chorus, and the orchestra was conducted by Mark Warnow
Mark Warnow
Mark Warnow was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on radio in the 1930s and 1940s. He was the older brother of composer/bandleader Raymond Scott Mark Warnow (April 10, 1900 - October 17, 1949) was a noted violinist and orchestra conductor, who performed widely on...
.
On December 6, 1948, Lucky Strike introduced yet another musical series, the daytime Your Lucky Strike, aka The Don Ameche Show, since the host was Don Ameche
Don Ameche
Don Ameche was an Academy Award winning American actor with a career spanning almost sixty years.-Personal life:...
. This 30-minute show, airing weekdays at 3:30pm(et) on CBS, was a talent competition with little-known and unknown professional vocalists, backed by Al De Crescent on organ or Bill Wardell on piano. The performers were judged by a trio of random housewives casting votes via long distance phone calls. Winners were booked into the Mocambo, Earl Carroll's or other night clubs. Produced by Bernard Schubert and directed by Harlan Dunning, this show also featured auctioneer Riggs. It went off the air March 4, 1949.
Television
André Baruch continued as the announcer when the program arrived on NBC television in 1950 (Del Sharbutt succeeded him in the 1957-58 season), written by William H. Nichols, and produced, in its first years, by both Dan Lounsbery and Ted Fetter. Norman JewisonNorman Jewison
Norman Frederick Jewison, CC, O.Ont is a Canadian film director, producer, actor and founder of the Canadian Film Centre. Highlights of his directing career include In the Heat of the Night , The Thomas Crown Affair , Fiddler on the Roof , Jesus Christ Superstar , Moonstruck , The Hurricane and The...
and Clark Jones (nominated for a 1955 Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
) directed with associate director Bill Colleran. Tony Charmoli
Tony Charmoli
Tony Charmoli , an American dancer, choreographer, and director, began dancing on Broadway in such shows as "Make Mine Manhattan" but soon began choreographing for television with "Stop the Music" in 1949. Charmoli then choreographed dance sequences for the popular "Your Hit Parade," winning his...
won a 1956 Emmy for his choreography, and the show's other dance directors were Tom Hansen (1957-58), Peter Gennaro (1958–59) and Ernie Flatt (uncredited). Paul Barnes won an Emmy in 1957 for his art direction. In 1953, the show won a Peabody Award "for consistent good taste, technical perfection and unerring choice of performers."
The seven top-rated songs of the week were presented in elaborate TV production numbers requiring constant set and costume changes. However, because the top songs sometimes stayed on the charts for many weeks, it was necessary to continually find ways of devising a new and different production number of the same song week after week. Beginning in September 1956, the top songs were reduced to five, while "extras" were increased.
On the TV series, vocalists Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins was a Canadian/American singer, actress, and recording artist. She was born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and adopted her stage name in her mid-teens.-Radio and TV:...
(1950–59), Russell Arms
Russell Arms
Russell Lee Arms is an American actor and singer.-Career:Arms began his career on radio, moving up to minor screen roles during World War II as a contract player with Warner Brothers and later as a freelance performer, mostly in Westerns...
(1952–57), Snooky Lanson
Snooky Lanson
Roy Landman , better known as Snooky Lanson, was an American singer known for co-starring on the NBC television series Your Hit Parade....
(1950–57) and Gisèle MacKenzie
Gisele MacKenzie
Gisèle MacKenzie was a Canadian-American singer, most famous for her performances on the popular television program Your Hit Parade.-Biography:...
(1953–57) were top-billed during the show's peak years. During this time, MacKenzie had her own hit record in 1955 with "Hard to Get" which climbed to the #5 ranking in June 1955 and stayed on the charts for 16 weeks. She also starred in her own NBC variety program, The Gisele MacKenzie Show
The Gisele MacKenzie Show
The Gisele MacKenzie Show in an American variety show hosted by Gisele MacKenzie. The series aired live on NBC from September 28, 1957, to March 29, 1958. The Curfew Kids appeared on the program as semi-regulars....
from 1957–1958, a series produced by her mentor, Jack Benny
Jack Benny
Jack Benny was an American comedian, vaudevillian, and actor for radio, television, and film...
. Russell Arms also enjoyed a hit record during his stint on the show - "Cinco Robles (Five Oaks)" (# 22 / 1957)
The line-up of the show's other singers included Eileen Wilson
Eileen Wilson
Eileen Wilson was one of the original stars of the television show Your Hit Parade, on NBC. She starred on the show from 1950 until 1952.Prior to joining the Hit Parade TV show, she had starred on the show's radio version. For part of the time she sang on the radio show, her co-star was Frank...
(1950–52), Sue Bennett
Sue Bennett
Sue Bennett was a vocalist on various network shows during the live television era of the 1940s and 1950s.Bennett starred on the NBC quiz and variety show, Kay Kyser's College of Musical Knowledge in 1949-50, on the DuMont show Teen Time Tunes in 1949, and was featured on the popular Your Hit...
(1951–52), June Valli
June Valli
June Valli , the stage name of June Foglia, was an American singer and television personality.Born in the Bronx, Valli was one of the stars of the 1950s television shows Stop the Music and Your Hit Parade. She sang on the show during the show's 1952–1953 season...
(1952–53), Alan Copeland (1957–58), Jill Corey
Jill Corey
Jill Corey is a retired American traditional pop singer.Nee Norma Jean Speranza in Avonmore, Pennsylvania, about forty miles east of Pittsburgh, a coal mining community, Corey was the youngest of five children...
(1957–58), Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond
Johnny Desmond , born Giovanni Alfredo De Simone, was a popular American singer.-Early years:...
(1958–59), Virginia Gibson (1957–58), and Tommy Leonetti
Tommy Leonetti
Tommy Leonetti was an American pop singer-songwriter and actor of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. In Australia his most famous song was "My City of Sydney" and was used by the Australian TV channel ATN7 in Sydney for station identification into the 1980s...
(1957–58). All were performers of standards, show tunes or big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
numbers. Featured prominently were the Hit Parade dancers and the Hit Paraders, the program's choral singers, who sang the opening commercial jingle (composed by Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
):
- Be happy, go Lucky,
- Be happy, go Lucky Strike
- Be happy, go Lucky,
- Go Lucky Strike today!
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...
appeared as a guest dancer on several episodes, with partner Mary Ann Niles. From 1950 until 1957, the orchestra was led by well-known bandleader and musician Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott
Raymond Scott was an American composer, band leader, pianist, engineer, recording studio maverick, and electronic instrument inventor....
(who married Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins
Dorothy Collins was a Canadian/American singer, actress, and recording artist. She was born Marjorie Chandler in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and adopted her stage name in her mid-teens.-Radio and TV:...
in 1952); the show's other music supervisors were Dick Jacobs
Dick Jacobs
Dick Jacobs was an American musician, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, music director and an artists-and-repertoire director for several record labels who helped Jackie Wilson, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin and others form their careers in the late 1950s and early 1960s.-Life and career:He was born...
(1957-58) and Harry Sosnik (1958–59). During the 1957-58 season, sponsor American Tobacco pitched Hit Parade filter cigarettes instead of Lucky Strikes. Alternate sponsors included Avco Manufacturing's Crosley
Crosley Broadcasting Corporation
The Crosley Broadcasting Corporation was a radio and television broadcaster founded by radio manufacturing pioneer Powel Crosley, Jr.. The company was an early operator of radio stations in the United States. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, Crosley's flagship station was WLW...
division (1951-54), Richard Hudnut
Richard hudnut
Richard Hudnut was an American businessman recognized as the first American to achieve international success in cosmetics manufacturing...
hair care products (1954-57), and The Toni Company (1957-58).
The show faded with the rise of rock and roll
Rock and roll
Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African American blues, country, jazz, and gospel music...
when the performance became more important than the song. It is said that big band singer Snooky Lanson's weekly attempts to perform Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
's "Hound Dog
Hound Dog (song)
"Hound Dog" is a twelve-bar blues written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller and originally recorded by Willie Mae "Big Mama" Thornton in 1952. Other early versions illustrate the differences among blues, country, and rock and roll in the mid-1950s. The 1956 remake by Elvis Presley is the best-known...
" hit in 1956 hastened the end of the series. The series went from NBC (where it became the first TV show to contain the living color peacock) to CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in 1958 and expired the following year. While Your Hit Parade was unable to deal with the rock revolution, the show's imaginative production concepts had an obvious influence on the wave of music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s that began in the decade that followed.
CBS also brought it back for a brief summer revival in 1974. That version featured Kelly Garrett, Sheralee and Chuck Woolery
Chuck Woolery
Charles Herbert "Chuck" Woolery is an American game show host. He has had long-running tenures hosting several different game shows. He was the original host of Wheel of Fortune from 1975–81, the original incarnation of Love Connection from 1983–94, and Scrabble from 1984–90...
. The 1974 version of Your Hit Parade also featured hit songs from a designated week in the 1940s or 1950s. Milton DeLugg
Milton DeLugg
Milton DeLugg is an American composer and arranger.-Biography:A talented accordionist, he appeared in short Soundies musicals and occasional movies . He quickly became a successful arranger and composer...
conducted the orchestra and Chuck Barris
Chuck Barris
Charles Hirsch "Chuck" Barris is an American game show producer, film director and presenter best known for hosting The Gong Show and creating The Dating Game. Barris, a survivor of lung cancer, is also an author and claims to have worked for the CIA.-Early career:Barris was born in Oakland, New...
packaged this series.
The show's familiar closing theme was "So Long for A While":
- So long for a while.
- That's all the songs for a while.
- So long to Your Hit Parade,
- And the songs that you picked to be played.
- So long!
Watch
- 1943 musical short with Frank Sinatra and the Hit Paraders: "Stardust"
- Kinescope of a 1952 episode at the Internet Archive
- Kinescope of a 1956 episode at the Internet Archive
Listen to
- Heritage Radio Theatre: Your Hit Parade (August 26, 1944)
- SPERDVAC Radio 14: Your All-Time Hit Parade (August 20, 1944)
- All Things Considered: "Looking Back at Your Hit Parade" (April 25, 2005)
Sources
- All in the FamilyAll in the FamilyAll in the Family is an American sitcom that was originally broadcast on the CBS television network from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. In September 1979, a new show, Archie Bunker's Place, picked up where All in the Family had ended...
theme song: "Boy, the way Glenn Miller played/Songs that made the Hit Parade." - Cox, JimJim Cox (radio)Jim Cox, a retired college professor living in Louisville, Kentucky, is a leading historian on the subject of radio programming in the 20th century...
. Music Radio: The Great Performers and Programs of the 1920s through Early 1960s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2005. ISBN 0-7864-2047-2 - Nachman, Gerald. Raised on Radio. University of California Press, 2000.
- Schnabel, Phil and Crowe, William H. "Big Band Database: Compilation of Your Hit Parade top tunes (1935-55)"(archive)
- Williams, John R. This Was Your Hit Parade. Camden, Maine, 1973.