theDIHEDRAL Playlist

Each month this year, I’m creating a new climbing playlist for each decade going all the way back to the 1920’s.  A hundred years of music!  Not necessarily the best songs from each decade, but songs that I can envision on road trips, at the crag, at the gym, on training days, and on the send train. 

We kicked things off in January with the 1920’s.  February and March brought in hits from the 30’s and 40’s, and here we are in April representing the classics of the 1950’s.

Anyone who grew up in Detroit is familiar with the radio station Oldies 104.3 WOMC.  Unlike local classic rock stations, 104.3 would play pop music from the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s.  They’d play pretty much any “classic” but being in Detroit meant there was a strong partiality toward Motown.  It wasn’t until I moved away from Detroit that I learned that other cities don’t have Motown as the default preset in public forums.  I remember being at a Wal-Mart in Arizona and country music played over the loudspeakers.  WTF?  That was a rude awakening.  The point being, while I didn’t grow up in the 50’s I did grow up hearing and listening to 50’s hits.  So, for the first time in this project, I come in with a bias!  Prior to Motown’s abrupt entrance onto to the pop music scene in 1959, there were a LOT of catchy, cheesy, dancey, hits, and there was also Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife.  Big Band was going out, but Rock and Roll was coming in.  Record companies started trying to appeal to teens rather than parents, and there was a whole lot of shaking going on!

This was the hardest crag-list so far because I was exposed to so many of the songs from the 1950’s, but…

I’m only picking ten songs from each decade.  So, if you have an extra song or two that belongs on the playlist, let me know and I’ll add it!!!

The 1950’s (In no particular order.)

1. The Book of Love – The Monotones
2. Lonely Teardrops – Jackie Wilson
3. Yakety Yak – The Coasters
4. What’d I Say – Ray Charles
5. Smokestack Lightning – Howlin’ Wolf
6. Maybellene – Chuck Berry
7. Hound Dog – Big Mamma Thornton
8. Somewhere Beyond the Sea – Bobby Darin
9. Money (That’s What I Want) – Barrett Strong
10. You Send Me – Sam Cooke

The diversity of music in the 1950’s made this list much harder than I thought it would be.  I can understand arguments for and against every song on this list, except for What’d I Say, that song is an all-time great, I couldn’t imagine any list of top songs from the 1950’s not including Ray Charles destroying the keys on this industry changing classic.  Sam Cooke’s You Send Me also had to be on this list, how could you have a crag-list and not include a song about getting sends?

As noted, and as will continue to be noted, this project is impossible!  Music from the 1950’s is as fun as it is diverse, and while I selected Maybellene over Johnny B. Goode, I could have gone in the other direction with no problem at all. 

Despite much room for debate, if you want a refresher about some of the music that graced the airwaves in the 1950’s, then this list is for you!  Apologies to so many songs that didn’t make the cut, especially I Walk the Line – Johnny Cash, Tequila – The Champs, Day-O – Harry Belafonte, At The Hop – Danny and The Juniors, and Johnny B. Goode – By Chuck Berry.  I wish I could make the list longer, but rules are rules!

You can find the playlist HERE!