Word: tunes
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Tune Up for Carnival...
Everybody else was singing it before Americans even heard of it. It began 35 years ago as the Swiss Cradle Song, written by an Australian. Then a Maori woman who liked the tune made up some words to go with it, sang it at a Maori festival. The natives picked it up; so did white New Zealanders who mistakenly thought it an old Maori folksong...
Then England's Gracie Fields got hold of it. By now it had new lyrics and a new title: Now Is the Hour. Her brassy-voiced music-hall record of the catchy, draggy tune has been No. 1 on England's hit parade for 23 weeks. London Records decided that the song was just what they were looking for to crash the rich U.S. record market. Last week 24,000 records (weighing six tons) of Gracie Fields's version arrived in Manhattan, the biggest shipment of foreign records ever to hit the U.S. Gracie wouldn...
...Francis Craig's tinkling Near You, which skyrocketed a dime-a-dozen record company (Bullet) into the big money. Top-selling bands on records: Vaughn Monroe and Ted Weems. Among girl singers, Jo Stafford, for her mock hillbilly disc of Timtayshun, rated twice as high in hit-tune sales as Dinah Shore. Perry Como was easily the top record-seller among the crooners. Most surprising fadeout of the year: Frank Sinatra, who wasn't even listed among Billboard's eight top male singers...
Even Priddy is not beyond acknowledging the possibility that the Yardlings could rack up an undefeated campaign. Pre-season tune-up tilts resulted in fabulous 12 to 2 and 19 to 3 wins for his charges, and in the campaign's first three tilts, the skaters, though held to smaller scores, showed greatly improved teamwork...