Record of the Year for 1958

 Most of the first-ever batch of nominees for Record of the Year fit very comfortably in the category of Easy Listening or Adult Contemporary or the Great American Songbook or whatever we’re calling it these days. The one exception, sadly, is a song that keeps getting revived on an annual basis and just won’t seem to go away. By the way, only one of the five nominees was certified gold even though all of them sold more than enough copies over the years to qualify. 

“Catch a Falling Star” by Perry Como

“Catch a Falling Star” was Perry Como’s last #1 hit on the Billboard charts, having reached the top position on the “Most Played by Jockeys” chart. (It would be a few more months after the record’s release before what we now know as the Hot 100 would be created.) Como was famed for his smooth singing style, and this record is a particularly calming one, what with its tale of planning for a potential romantic future. It’s sort of the musical equivalent of comfort food (a nice bowl of hot soup on a cold day) or a comfortable sweater when there’s a chill in the air. You enjoy listening to it; it’s very relaxing and familiar. Interestingly, “Catch a Falling Star” was the first-ever single to be certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having earned more than $1 million in sales. It also won Como a Grammy that first year for Best Male Vocal Performance. Backed here by the Ray Charles Singers, Como turns “Catch a Falling Star” into a well-liked standard. 

“The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” by David Seville

Ugh. That David Seville’s “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was nominated for Record of the Year is a clear indicator of what would become a Grammy predilection for giving undue attention to novelty songs. Often ascribed to a non-existent act, Alvin and the Chipmunks, this perennial Christmas favorite tracks Seville’s attempt to get three chipmunks to sing a song about what they want for Christmas, having the most difficulty with Alvin due to his short attention span. “David Seville” is the stage name of Ross Bagdasarian Sr., who also penned the novelty hit “Witch Doctor.” It’s tough to fathom nowadays, but this record won three (!) Grammy Awards: Best Comedy Performance, Best Children’s Recording, and Best Engineered Record (Non-Classical). I will begrudgingly admit that this song does have a place in music history. It was the only Christmas single to reach #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 until Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas” reached the top in 2019 sixty-one years later. So popular was it initially that not only did it spend four weeks atop the Hot 100, it charted again in 1959, 1960, 1961, and 1962, making the Top 40 in three of those years. Of course, I also love that when it was played as a part of American Bandstand’s Rate-a-Record, it (deservedly) received the lowest possible rating (35). It doesn’t have a particularly good beat, and you certainly can’t dance to it with any ease or grace. I suppose it’s a blessing that it only reemerges once a year. And I still don’t care if that chipmunk gets a hula hoop or not. 

 

“Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” by Domenico Modugno

The title “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue (Volare)” translates, somewhat literally, into “in the blue, painted blue (to fly).” That more roughly translates into something like “to fly in the painted blue sky,” but given that the original lyrics are in Italian, the meaning gets a bit lost. It’s sort of about someone feeling high from being in love, looking into the blue eyes of their lover and feeling as if they are flying through the blue sky—or something like that. A lovely sentiment certainly, but that might have been lost on the millions of listeners who bought a copy of the record in 1958. They were probably responding to the emotional performance of Domenico Modugno, one of the song’s co-writers. Still, another Grammy trend begins with this victory: choosing the most popular record of the year rather than what is necessarily the best. Before it became a running joke from its having been sung by countless lounge singers, “Volare” spent five (non-consecutive) weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 and was Billboard’s Top Song of the Year. Then it was rerecorded by dozens of performers, including a great half-English/half-Italian version by Dean Martin, but too many of whom have chosen a rather bombastic style of delivery. “Volare” is the only record in a language other than English to win the Grammy for Record of the Year, and it was also chosen as the first Song of the Year. And, for you trivia fans, it’s also the only Eurovision Song Contest entry to receive a Grammy; it placed third in the 1958 contest. 

 

“Fever” by Peggy Lee

“Fever” was first recorded by Little Willie John and peaked at #24 on the Hot 100. His version is a bit more rhythm and blues than the more famous rendition by Peggy Lee, but those finger snaps? They’re already in John’s version. Lee’s recording reached #8 on the charts and became her signature song. Others have since recorded their own (lesser) versions and tried to make it a hit again—I’m thinking of you, Madonna—but no one has done better than Lee. Her performance highlights a sultry lower-register vocal and gives depth and emphasis to the risqué lyrics (certainly, they were risqué for the time) about how someone you’re attracted to can really raise your temperature—makes you hot, in other words. Apparently, Lee herself added the verses about Romeo and Juliet and about Captain Smith and Pocahontas although she’s never credited as one of the songwriters. Interesting side note: Lee’s “Fever” is the only one of the five original nominees for Record of the Year to be inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Perhaps that’s a recognition of just how iconic it became compared to the other choices. “What a lovely way to burn,” indeed. 

 

“Witchcraft” by Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra did three studio recordings of “Witchcraft” during his long career, but the first version (actually captured in 1957) is the standard by which the others are often judged. The rest don’t capture Sinatra’s voice when it was at its peak. In my opinion, at least, he never sounded better than in his late-1950s to mid-1960s output. Sinatra’s record reached #6 on the “Most Played by Jockeys” charts and became one of his many, many standards. When someone attempts to record “Witchcraft” nowadays, they are inevitably going to be compared to Sinatra’s rendition… and come up short in the comparison. Sinatra makes the listener believe that he has no control over his emotional reaction to the subject of the song, “no nicer witch than you.” It’s not really witchcraft, of course; it’s just love, that universal feeling over which we seemingly have no control. And she’s not a witch either; she’s just the one who has captured your heart.

 

Grammy Winner: “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” by Domenico Modugno

My Choice: I’d give a slight edge to “Fever” by Peggy Lee over “Witchcraft” by Frank Sinatra. Lee’s recording still sounds as tempting as it did more than six decades ago.

Note: Four of the Record of the Year nominees were also nominated for Song of the Year (“Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare)” won that award as well. Modugno wrote his own hit song, and the other nominees were written by some famous names: Paul Vance and Lee Pockriss for “Catch a Falling Star,” John Davenport and Eddie Cooley for “Fever,” and Cy Coleman and Carolyn Leigh for “Witchcraft.” Thankfully, “The Chipmunk Song (Christmas Don’t Be Late)” was replaced by the title song to the Academy Award-winning film Gigi, written by the famed team of Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe. Several performers recorded “Theme from Gigi,” including Louis Jordan’s version for the film and Vic Damone’s single release the same year.

P.S. According to Billboard magazine, the top five best-selling records of 1958, in order, were “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu (Volare” by Domenico Modugno, “All I Have to Do Is Dream” by the Everly Brothers, “Don’t / I Beg of You” by Elvis Presley, “Witch Doctor” by David Seville, and “Patricia” by Perez Prado. Isn’t it interesting that only one of these songs made it to the Record of the Year category (or the Song of the Year category)? And it was the biggest-selling single of that year? No one ever accused the Grammy voters of not falling sway to popularity. The Everly Brothers demonstrated some of the sharpest harmonies in the history of recorded music, and “All I Have to Dream” is one of the finest examples of how in sync they were when they sang (and a deserving classic). It’s captivating from the moment that the strum of guitar strings begins the record. It was nominated for Best Country & Western Performance (against their own “Bird Dog”) and was later added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Elvis Presley was the King of Rock and Roll, yes, but he knew his way around a beautiful ballad. “Don’t” and “I Beg of You” was a double-sided hit released in the year that he left for his service in the U.S. Army; he had a lot of double-sided hits during his career. “I Beg of You” is more rock and roll than “Don’t,” but I prefer “Don’t” to “I Beg of You” even though both of them are masterfully constructed songs performed by Elvis at one of his vocal peaks. The less said about “Witch Doctor,” yet another novelty song by David Seville (the pseudonym of Ross Bagdasarian Sr.), the better. That he had two hits in the same year, and that one of them made the shortlist for Record of the Year, is just ridiculous. With lyrics like “Ooo eee ooo ah ah, ting tang / walla walla, bing bang,” how could this not be a hit? Ugh. Again, ugh. Perez Prado made Americans love the mambo with such hits as “Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White” and “Mambo No. 5” (the original version, not the Lou Bega song from 1999 that sampled the original). His 1958 version of “Patricia” has the historical distinction of being the last song to reach #1 on the Hot Billboard Jockeys and Top 100 charts before they were combined into the Hot 100 chart with which we are all more familiar. Prado’s record was nominated for Best Rhythm & Blues Performance, and the album on which it appears was nominated for Best Performance by a Dance Band.