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1958:
"It is idiotic to like only one thing, one way.   People should listen to all types of music. They should be concerned with whether the song is any good, not with what type of music it is."
-- Don Gibson
NATIONAL AWARDS

"Time" Man of the Year: Charles De Gaulle

Oscar for Best Picture: "Gigi"

Oscar for Best Actor: David Niven -- "Separate Tables"
Oscar for Best Song: "Gigi" Emmy for Best Actor in a Continuing Series: Robert Young -- "Father Knows Best" Emmy for Best Actress in a Continuing Series: Jane Wyatt -- "Father Knows Best"
Grammy for Best Record: "Volare (Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu)" Oscar for Best Actress: Susan Hayward -- "I Want to Live" Best Seller -- Fiction: "Dr. Zhivago" by Boris Pasternak
BEST SONG:
"Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry's opening guitar is enough to sell you on this song. It just reached the top ten, peaking at #8 in the spring of 1958, but it has stood the test of time, becoming a signature song for Chuck Berry. When "Rolling Stone" published the 500 best songs of all time, it was ranked #7. Some believe the song to be autobiographical, but it is also reported that it was based on Berry's piano player, Johnnie Johnson.
BEST DANCE SONG:
"Rockin' Robin" by Bobby Day
"Tweet tweet, tweetily deet" -- it's a refrain everybody's heard. In 1958 Chuck Berry proclaimed that "all the cats wanna dance with Sweet Little Sixteen." And that could have been the best dance song, but that summer Bobby Day told about a bird that "rocks in the treetops all the day long" and that really brought the kids out on the dance floor. It still does today and is often a choice at many a wedding dance. Although "Rockin' Robin" was Bobby Day's only top 40 hit (all the way to #2), he does have other top forty credits such as "Buzz-Buzz-Buzz" with the Hollywood Flames earlier in 1958 (#11) and song writing credits for "Little Bitty Pretty One" (Thurston Harris #6 in '57) and "Over and Over" (Dave Clark Five #1 in '65).
BEST SLOW SONG:
"It's All in the Game" by Tommy Edwards
"And he'll kiss your lips and caress your waiting fingertips, And your hearts will fly away" -- slow dancing at its best in 1958. Tommy Edwards made "It's All in the Game" a number one hit in September of 1958. The music was actually written much earlier in 1912 by Charles Gate Dawes who would later become Vice President under Calvin Coolidge. The lyrics were added by Carl Sigmund in 1951 and it was recorded by a number of artists, including Tommy Edwards (#18). More success did not quickly follow and with rock and roll dominating the charts in 1958 the, indeed "the future's looking grim" for Tommy. MGM was ready to drop Edwards, so, in a last ditch effort, "It's All in the Game" was re-released. There would be a few more top forty recordings, but none would do as well. Today you can still listen and "your hearts will fly away."
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CLASSIC ROCK:
"Summertime Blues" by Eddie Cochran
While Eddie Cochran's singing and song-writing career was cut short by a fatal car accident in England in 1960, he left behind one of the great rock and roll songs, "Summertime Blues." In the summer of 1958 it became Eddie's only top ten hit (#8). Punctuated by the low answering parts, "you can't use the car 'cause you didn't work a lick," Cochran's recording is still the classic. but it was a top forty hit for Blue Cheer in 1968 (#14) and The Who in 1970 (#27).
HIDDEN NUGGET:
"King Creole" by Elvis Presley
Amazingly enough, the title track from Elvis' 1958 movie, "King Creole" was never released as a single. The biggest hit from the movie was "Hard Headed Woman" which was #1 in July just after the movie's release. "King Creole" therefore isn't on any "best of Elvis" or "best of 1958" collections. But it would be on mine. For me, "King Creole" is Elvis at his best with a great intro (Jordannaires backing vocal), a hard driving beat, and a low, guttural vocal that soars to a shout: "he bends that string and that's all she wrote," and an excellent guitar riff.
UNDER RATED:
"I Wonder Why" by Dion & The Belmonts
It was the first top forty record for Dion and The Belmonts and maybe that's why it only made it to #22. In 1959, "A Teenager in Love" would make #5 and "I Wonder Why" is at least as good as that. It's an epitome of doo-wop with all the background "da da dum dum da dah" and the punctuated "wop, wop, wop-wop-wop." The up-tempo song was a very good fit and when Dion went solo in 1960, he would follow that vein rather than the slower efforts with songs such as "Where or When" that the Laurie label issued most of 1960 until the group split.
BEST COUNTRY CROSS-OVER:
"Oh Lonesome Me" by Don Gibson
"Oh Lonesome Me" was a #1 Country song that crossed over to the pop chart and rose to #7 in the summer of 1958. It swept all the country music awards in 1958 and Don Gibson became a regular on the Grand Ole Opry. He would have pop success again in 1961 with "Sea of Heartbreak" and he would write "I Can't Stop Loving You" which Ray Charles would take to #1 in 1962.
Awards
1956
1957
1958
1959
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1963
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