Top 40 radio of the late 1950s and early 1960s mixed styles of music. Up until that time, most radio stations had block programming; a hour of this style, followed by two hours of another style, along with radio dramas and comedies during the infancy of television. Naturally, the more popular styles of music received the most hours of airplay.

Smiley Lewis, an unknown, was played on white radio and was in the national charts. He was topped by a white female (Gale Storm) who was widely known due to her highly successful TV show (top ten, if not number one) and having been a movie actress. There would be little difference today: imagine the publicity the successful white female would receive on the entertainment and talk shows versus the unknown black male.

In the 1950s, the white female sang in the popular style of the time. Back then, as today, several styles of music were popular at the same time and these styles changed gradually over years. Smiley Lewis was not the kind of sound that was popular with the masses.

There were people who would not listen to “race” music (R&B) some of which was suggestive for the time, but at the same time listened to many black artists who were in style: Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Dinah Washington, Ella Fitzgerald, The Mills Brothers, and the list goes on and on and on.

Hope this gives you an understanding of music radio prior to the 1960s and 1970s. Perhaps you will not perpetuate the bias of the poor, black artists who could not get their song played because of the nasty racists.

This is such an inherently cool song that like “Locomotion” any well performed cover should sound decent. I think Wynonna’s version is okay and it would be nice if it got her back on Top 40 country radio. Since AirHead country radio ignored a killer single like “Flies In The Butter” (horrible title!) I really don’t know if they’ll give this a spin.

PS – The original Australian version of “Kath & Kim” (aired here on The Sundance Channel for awhile) was a fantastic show and the NBC Americanized version sucks in comparison.

And good review overall. I guess I am in the minority when I say that I like a lot of Wynonna’s more recent work. I happen to enjoy her recording of “I Want to Know What Love Is” and some of the other tracks on her What the World Needs album.