Yesterday Once More

27 Oct 2015

Revivals

Hi Listeners

For the next three weeks I’ll be doing the program on my own – Mossy is off overseas again on a cruise this time! During my research I’ve noticed that there are many songs which are revivals of old songs from twenty, thirty, forty and even more, years ago. These old songs were given a new treatment, often an uptempo facelift, and became hits all over again. Nat King Cole’s famous ballad ‘Mona Lisa’ was given a rock overhaul in the fifties by Conway Twitty and became a huge hit for him. As did Ketty Lester’s version of ‘Love Letters’, an old standard.

Both the Every Brothers (Temptation) and Bobby Rydell (That Old Black Magic) applied their own unique styles to these two old standards and made them popular again. Upsetting the purists Ricky Nelson adapted Gershwin’s iconic “Summertime’ into a rock song.For her first hit, Connie Francis chose an old favourite ‘Who’s Sorry Now?’ and sold a million records.

There were memorable revivals such as the Platters sublime rendition of ‘Smoke Gets In Your Eyes’ and one of my favourites, The Coasters version of the old classic ‘Zing Went The Strings Of My Heart’. Traditional songs such as our own ‘Waltzing Matilda’ were also ‘modernised’. Jimmie Rodgers ‘Americanisation’ of “Waltzing Matilda’ in the fifties was criticised at the time by offended Australians.

Col Joye even rocked up the old American folk song ‘Clementine’ and George Hamilton IV gave a straight performance of the old folk song ‘I Know Where I’m Goin’. Perhaps the most ambitious of all was Billy Thorpe’s recording the world’s most favourite song ‘Over The Rainbow’ and making it a big hit. Some groups such as The Bachelors (Diane) made it their ambition to re-create old standards.

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