Before The Beatles

I honestly do not remember my introduction to music. Probably traditional nursery rhymes about monster eggs falling off walls or babies falling out of trees on a windy day. Simple stuff. However, I do know that I loved music of all kinds from an early age. I was born in 1956, long before The Beatles came along and changed the world forever. The number one record in England, on the day I was born, was the ballad, No Other Love by Ronnie Hilton. He was known as a housewive`s favorite. A very old term, thankfully, no longer in use. It describes a "safe" easy listening, middle-of-the-road, personality. In the USA, it was Poor Little Fool by Ricky Nelson. He starred in my favorite Western movie, Rio Bravo. Neither of those records left a lasting mark on me. However, I do recognize the Ricky Nelson one if it comes on a jukebox or radio somewhere. That`s not because I heard it on my birth day, of course. However, they are both very middle of the road, mildly pleasant, recordings, which were never going to change the world.
My abiding memory of those years probably comes at the start of the sixties. My nan and  granddad Aldridge had a large collection of 78 rpm records. They had a huge stereo-gram, a dinosaur of music playing equipment in both size and age. Mind you, we had more fun on the Decca portable record player, that we took there from our house.

As we waited for the thing to warm up and it started to quietly hum, I would get to choose which records we would put on. 6, 7, 8 at a time. These machines were made to take the punishment. A 10" 78 dropping onto the turntable and whizzing round at super-speed, is a wondrous sight to behold. They would be spinning round so much faster than the music seemed to indicate. It played ballads, waltzes, comedy and, very occasionally, a rock `n` roll record. We would make an evening of it, playing both sides of every record. Mostly, we didn`t know which one was the `a` side and we didn`t really care.
I remember the Sandy Powell comedy routines. The Marrow Song by Billy Cotton, which,  at the time, I did not know was kinda naughty.  Other tracks were by people like Brenda Lee, Tommy Steele. All the family friendly style rock `n` roll stuff. Then other older stuff by artists long dead, even then.

Later on, these evenings would be held at our house rather than at my grandparents`. I remember a couple of my Uncle John`s 78`s joined our collection. Be Bop A Lula by Gene Vincent was one of those. My sister, Jane, broke it, as I recall. He was not happy. That was always a worry with the very brittle 78`s. There was also Bird Dog by The Everly Brothers. Then there was a family favorite, The Donkey Serenade by Allan Jones. Father of Jack and star of a couple of Marx Brothers movies.
Eventually, of course, the 7" 45 rpm single started to make its way into our homes. Smaller, less breakable, it seemed like a huge leap in technology. At the start, for me at least, the music did not change much. No Elvis, no Little Richard, no Chuck Berry. I do remember Blueberry Hill by Fats Domino being in there somewhere. It is still one of my all time favorite recordings.
Little Christine by Dick Jordan got played a lot, because my cousin`s name was Christine, which

I thought was great. I was only 4 years old after all. It was 1960.
Dreamin` by Johnny Burnette is another one from that time, that I still get a kick out of hearing today. Then came Cathy`s Clown by the Everlys, not sounding like anything else that came out around then. It has an other-worldly feel to it and, of course, marvelous harmonies. It still sends shivers up my spine when I hear it. They wrote it themselves, which seems extraordinary in the pre-Beatles era.
Cliff Richard and The Shadows loomed large at this time. I still prefer that early Cliff stuff like Apron Strings, A Voice in the Wilderness, Please Don`t Tease. The Shadows guitar sound is, to me, the sound of the early sixties. Possibly the first two bits of music trivia I ever learned were that Cliff had changed his name from Harry Webb and that The Shadows were previously called The Drifters. The Shads changed their name to avoid clashing with the American vocal group.
However, possibly my favorite from those times would be from 1959. Running Bear by Johnny Preston. I had no idea, as a kid, that it was about native Americans. Nowadays, it would probably not get made. The sound takes me back all the way to my childhood. Again it`s partly how much it stood out from the other musical offerings that endeared me to it. And, of course it`s as catchy as hell.
There would be classical music around. Usually when I stayed with my Aunty Viv and Uncle Les. He seemed to know everything about all classical music. Although I don`t particularly remember most pieces from then, I know he introduced me to

The Sleigh Ride from Prokofiev`s Lieutenant Kije. Now he is no longer with us, I have his original copy of that beautiful piece of music. Same goes for The Karelia Suite by Sibelius. That was also familiar as the theme tune to a tv show called This Week. However, the most influential piece of music that he introduced me to, was The Ying Tong Song by The Goons. By that time I had not yet heard Spike Milligan`s masterpiece on the radio. Uncle Les`s 78 of that song and then the television version of the Goons changed my life forever. I also have his copy of the Telegoons theme tune. Priceless.
There was no music that I did not enjoy in those years. When you are a kid, you have no hang-ups over whether or not something is cool or schmaltzy. You either like it or you don`t.

I carried that lack of bias right into the seventies and my teenage years. But then, teenagers are a breed apart from the rest of humanity. The music I love the most is from when I was a teenager, but some of that stuff from the early 60`s and late 50`s still stays with me, even now.
My musical tastes are still ridiculously broad and I will listen to anything.
Then those other guys arrived on the scene. At first, Love Me Do barely made an impression on me but then She Loves You exploded all over the country. More on that at another time.