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The Legends of the Rocking Dutchman - episode 31

The Rhythm & Blues Chart

Number ones, 1948-1949

Today, the years 1948 and 1949 of the Race Music list, that became the Rhytm & Blues chart starting June, 1949. I continue where I left the list last time, that is in the fall of 1948, and I do exactly one year of number ones today - I couldn't extend the hour further than the number one of October, 1949.

These were the key years of Rhythm & Blues and the development of that new craze that would sweep the nation in the fifties, Rock 'n Roll; its stylistic base was laid in the Rhythm & Blues of the late forties. Today again brings us a few of the real R&R forerunners, classics in itself, like the number one dance craze song, the Huclebuck, that even didn't start as a song - it was an instrumental.

Transcript

Playlist

The date indicates when the record was listed number one for the first time.

  1. Dinah Washington - Am I Asking Too Much (October 9, 1948)
  2. Peewee Crayton - Blues After Hours (November 6)
  3. The Orioles - It's Too Soon To Know (November 27)
  4. Amos Milburn - Chicken Shack Boogie (December 4) *
  5. The Red Miller Trio - Bewildered (December 4) **
  6. Roy Brown - Long About Midnight (December 18)
  7. Amos Milburn - Bewildered (December 25)
  8. John Lee Hooker - Boogie Chillen (February 19, 1949) *
  9. Big Jay McNeely - Deacon's Hop (February 19) **
  10. Paul Williams - The Hucklebuck (May 5)
  11. Charles Brown - Trouble Blues (June 4)
  12. Jimmy Witherspoon - Ain't Nobody's Business (August 20)
  13. Amos Milburn - Roomin' House Boogie (September 10)
  14. Wynonie Harris - All She Wants To Do Is Rock (September 17) *
  15. The Orioles - Tell Me So (September 17) **
  16. Dinah Washington - Baby Get Lost (September 24)
  17. Louis Jordan & The Tympany Five - Beans and Cornbread (October 8)

*) Most played in jukeboxes; **) Most sold in retail. See notes of episode 25

Outtro:

  • Wild Bill Moore Sextette - Bongo Bounce
The following music served as background music during the spoken parts:
  • Kirk Kirkland - The Saxaphone Rag
  • James Von Streeter & his Wig Poppers - Landslide
  • Johnny Otis - Head hunter
  • Sonny Thompson - Backyard Affair
  • Sonny Thompson - Dreaming Again