70 Years Ago This Season
April 4 – In the Hague Tribunal, Israel demands reparations worth $3 billion from Germany.
April 7 – The American Research Bureau reports that the
I Love Lucy episode "The Marriage License" was the first TV show in history to be seen in around 10,000,000 homes, the evening the episode aired.
April 8 – Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer: The U.S. Supreme Court limits the power of the President to seize private business, after President Harry S. Truman nationalizes all steel mills in the United States, just before the 1952 steel strike begins.
April 11 – Battle of Nanri Island: The Republic of China seizes the island from the People's Republic of China.
April 15 – The United States B-52 Stratofortress flies for the first time.
April 18 – West Germany and Japan form diplomatic relations.
April 25 – In Charles M. Schulz'
Peanuts Charlie Brown tries to fly a kite, but fails. This will become a running gag in the series.
April 26 –
United States Navy aircraft carrier Wasp collides with destroyer Hobson while on exercises in the Atlantic Ocean, killing 175 men.
April 28 – The Treaty of San Francisco goes into effect, formally ending the war between Japan and the Allies, and simultaneously ending the occupation of the four main Japanese islands by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
April 29 – Lever House officially opens at 390 Park Avenue in New York City, heralding a new age of commercial architecture in the United States. Designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, it is the first International Style skyscraper.
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Also in April, "Goin' Home" by Fats Domino, released in March, charts (#1 R&B)...
...and "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" by Lloyd Price (also featuring Fats) is released (#1 R&B):
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May 1 – East Germany threatens to form its own army.
May 2 – The first passenger jet flight route opens between London and Johannesburg.
May 3 – U.S. lieutenant colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict land a plane at the geographic North Pole.
May 6 – Farouk of Egypt has himself announced as a descendant of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad.
May 13 – Pandit Nehru forms his first government in India.
May 15 – Diplomatic relations are established between Israel and Japan at the level of legations.
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On May 17,
"Blue Tango" by Leroy Anderson tops the
Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart.
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May 18 – Ann Davison becomes the first woman to single-handedly sail the Atlantic Ocean.
May 27 – In Charles M. Schulz'
Peanuts Snoopy starts expressing himself in thought balloons, the first phase of his gradual anthropomorphism.
June 1
- The Roman Catholic Church bans the books of André Gide.
- Navigation opens on the Volga–Don Canal, connecting the Caspian Sea basin with that of the Black Sea.
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On June 7,
"Here in My Heart" by Al Martino tops the
Billboard Best Sellers in Stores chart (tied with "Blue Tango").
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June 13 – "Catalina affair": Soviet MiG-15 fighter planes shoot down a Swedish military Douglas C-47 Skytrain, carrying out signals intelligence gathering operations over the Baltic Sea, killing all 8 crew; three days later they shoot down a Catalina flying boat, searching for possible survivors.
June 14 –
The keel is laid for the U.S. nuclear submarine USS Nautilus.
June 15 – Anne Frank's
The Diary of a Young Girl is published in English-language translation.
June 19 – The Special Forces (United States Army) are created.
June 28 – The First Miss Universe pageant is held. Armi Kuusela from Finland wins the title of Miss Universe 1952.
June 30 – the soap opera
The Guiding Light (1952–2009) debuts on CBS, which began on radio in 1937, becoming the longest-running regularly scheduled drama in television history.
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Timeline entries are quoted from the Wiki pages for the year, as well as the year in film, music, television, and comics. Sections separated from timeline entries are mine.
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The chorus melodies are so clearly similar that it would come down solely to who had the earliest copyright date. I think I trad that the Drifters’ song was released in 1962, though that’s not necessarily the copyright date.
1960.
Now; I wonder if Shapiro/Mohol would claim they never heard Tears before composing their song. I also wonder how two songs by two different sets of writers could have come up with same nonsense lyrics (na na na and la la la), and put them in the same place in both songs. Wouldn’t matter in court, but it would in terms of their reputations as songwriters.
"I Count the Tears" charted substantially on both sides of the pond (#17 US, #6 R&B, #28 UK), so it's likely that the Rokes at least had heard it; the Italian composer might have more plausible deniability. FWIW, according to the Wiki page for "Let's Live for Today," Grass Roots producer P. F. Sloan specifically liked the chorus's similarity to "Tears" (so he must not have been the one to be worried about copyright concerns at that point).
Interestingly, I have "I Count the Tears" in my collection, though I'd forgotten it and can't recall if I'd previously noticed the similarity to "Let's Live for Today". Having become reacquainted with it, I'm finding it to be quite the earworm in its own right.
To give his weapons officer a chance to get out? Or something else?
Maybe he was an anti-chuter.
"Jesus saves, but Bobby scores."
You're talking to somebody from Touchdown Jesus territory...
Someday I might even get around to that acclaimed album...
I don't remember this and I shall immediately set about forgetting it.
Aw, I think the King is in good royal form here. I included this one in my playlists despite its low Hot 100 peak because it was on the
2nd to None compilation...apparently because it (oddly) did so much better in the UK.
How can you not love a song called "Troglodyte?"
Odd but funky.
Fun fact: At around the same time, Bertha Butt, who is mentioned in this song, had her own song, in which the Troglodyte makes an appearance. Offhand, I don't know if there was further character continuity in the songs of Jimmy Castor Band.
And it looks like I've got that one, too.
