Anomalies

The Very 1950s Music of ‘Back to the Future’

One of the best moments in cinema is when Marty McFly turns the corner and finds himself face to face with Main Street, Hill Valley, in November of 1955. In this classic scene setter in Back to the Future, Marty reads a poster promoting showings of the 1954 film Cattle Queen of Montana, starring Barbara Stanwyck and Ronald Reagan. That information comes into play later in the film – just about everything in Back to the Future has purpose.

At that same moment, “Mr. Sandman” by the Four Aces begins.

It’s the inferior “Mr. Sandman,” as we’ve discussed previously – the Chordettes perform the definitive, sprite and superbly produced version. The record store advertises new singles: “The Ballad of Davy Crockett” by Fess Parker and “16 Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford. Other record covers: “Unforgettable” by Nat King Cole, Patti Page’s In the Land of Hi-Fi, and Eydie Gorme’s Eydie in Dixieland. There is an issue here, however: Both the Page and Gorme albums were released after 1955; in fact, Gorme’s came out in 1959.

Nevertheless, the scene is set: This is a different time.

Music plays a critical role in Back to the Future, helping to set scenes and even draw attention to the characters. For example, there’s Marty’s big moment on stage at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, where he helps Marvin Berry and the Starlighters finish a performance so Lorraine Bates and George McFly can kiss. The group plays “Earth Angel” by the Penguins when the big kiss occurs (one of the most satisfying moments in film history), and afterward, Marty breaks into the “new” sound of 1958: “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.

“Earth Angel” is one of the two current Hall of Songs nominees that shows up in the movie. The Starlighters also play “Night Train” by Jimmy Forrest as teenagers twirl about on the dance floor. We also get some nominee-adjacent tunes, such as the Four Aces’ version of “Mr. Sandman” and “The Wallflower” by Etta James, an answer song to Hank Ballard and the Midnighters’ “Work With Me Annie.”

But it ain’t all 1950s tunes in Back to the Future. Of course, Huey Lewis and the News pops in, but so does Eddie Van Halen. And that one, like just about everything in the film, has a purpose.

So, This is Music Before Elvis

On July 8, 1954, Elvis Presley’s cover of Arthur Crudup’s “That’s All Right” first hit the airwaves in Memphis, Tennessee. While the full weight of Elvis wasn’t felt across America for another two years, you can draw a clear line in the middle of ’54. After this is a music world with Elvis, whose pull was as strong as a deadly tornado, while before it is a vast landscape untouched by ferocious winds. It’s a place where sounds could sprout and grow on their own terms. It’s a time of innocence and wildness – really anything could happen.

What we’ve heard during the first three episodes of Hall of Songs is a whole range of sounds, from plaintive and searing country by way of Hank Williams to gashouse rhythm and blues by way of Billy Ward and His Dominoes, and from rousing blues by way of Big Mama Thornton to doo-wop by way of the Crows. This is practically everything in the Anglo West outside of jazz and the traditional pop laid down by the likes of Nat King Cole, Patti Page, and Tony Bennett, but it exists in pockets. There’s rhythm and blues in the Deep South, Blues in Chicago, country music in between, and something a bit more polished on either coast. Soon everything will converge, and to many, it does so through Elvis.

That makes this period, the years between 1951 and 54, intimately special. All of the songs we hear in the Hall of Songs nominee pool are held dear by the youth and by Black Americans, by the non-traditional musical tastemakers. They’re not pop hits because they’re not pop, or in other words, pop hasn’t shifted to these genres. That will happen with Bill Haley and especially with Elvis, and then there’ll be some pushback in the very late 1950s and early 1960s, just before the Beatles kick down the doors for good. But before all that push and pull there’s this small slice of music history, where pioneers like Les Paul and Lloyd Price advance music forward so that the more immortalized giants like Elvis can really thrive.

Once we get to 1954, everything begins to change. The sound that is generally accepted as early rock ‘n’ roll clarifies. The sound that is generally accepted as soul is born and quickly steps into its own lane. The truth is that these sounds are a lot closer than one thinks, that what we consider rock ‘n’ roll is actually a great combination of white and Black, of gee-tar and piani. But we’ve been told that this and that are different, and once 1954 hits, this and that truly start to become this and that.

But that’s for future conversations. For now, we can appreciate the experimentation and the raw sounds of hiccupping guitars, bouncy boogie-woogie piano lines, and suggestive vocals not yet ready for prime time.

The music of the very early 1950s is as much enlightening as it is exciting. It’s been a pleasure to fall in love with songs like “Sixty Minute Man” and “Night Train.” Once Elvis hits, things won’t ever be the same, but this small sample here proves that rock ‘n’ roll was always about underdogs, the overlooked, the underappreciated, and the viscerally adept.

Thoughts on ‘John Deere Green’

When we sat down to do a podcast about the greatest songs in history, it never would have occurred to me that the first song we talked about in any (albeit brief) detail in Episode 1 would be “John Deere Green” by Joe Diffie, a song that topped out at Number 5 on the country charts. But, after thinking about it for a bit, I think it fits into our ambitious project pretty well.

First, Joe Diffie himself – he had a solid career with some chart success, including two Number 1 country songs. But, except to those of us who spent the 90s listening to country radio while driving a Ford Ranger, he’s not a household name in the 2020s. Sadly, I was reminded of his songs (after years of him not crossing my mind) when he passed away from COVID in March 2020, one of the first notable names taken by the pandemic. He was a talented country vocalist who recorded with some more well-known names, including the legendary George Jones.

Like many of his bigger hits – including his biggest chart success, “Pickup Man” – “John Deere Green” is intended to make you chuckle – the tale of a high school romance between Billy Bob and Charlene. Intending (successfully) for the entire town to know his affections, Billy Bob paints a giant heart – not in red, but in the color of his tractor. Although it’s not what I would call deep, it actually holds up pretty well – there’s no punching down and it does feel like Diffie sings the lyrics from the heart.

“John Deere Greene” was written by Dennis Linde, another Nashville staple with quite a career. His first big hit as a songwriter was none other than “Burning Love,” by Elvis and his last major contribution was writing “Goodbye Earl,” a controversial gold single for (the also controversial) The Chicks.

In short, we have a well-penned, well-received, country hit resulting from the combination of two music business lifers who were always looking to make a smash and who both occasionally succeeded. In the journey through rock and roll history that we’re about to start, there are thousands more songs like this than there are eternally-loved Number 1s. But it’s songs like this that make us love music and keep coming back searching for those special songs.