Singing star of the 50s
Teresa Brewer's voice was familiar on radio and records throughout the 1950s. From 1950 to 1957 she made the Top 40 twenty-five times, beginning with Music, Music, Music, (1950, #1 USA) also known for its familiar opening words Put another nickel in, in the nickelodeon.
Some of her songs, like Ricochet (1953, #2 USA), were in that perky post-WW2, pre-rock'n'roll vein of Music, Music, Music, but that did not confine her. A Tear Fell (1956 #5 USA) was on the pop charts while Ivory Joe Hunter's version was charting #15 R&B, and her cover of Sam Cooke's current hit You Send Me charted #8 USA for her in 1957.
In the following years she proved her versatility by recording albums with jazz greats including Count Basie (The Songs Of Bessie Smith), Stephane Grappelli and Duke Ellington. On the 1973 album In London she recorded contemporary songs with Oily Rags, a younger band featuring Chas Hodges and Dave Peacock, soon to be stars as Chas And Dave.
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Teresa's versions of Australian hits
Teresa Brewer clearly cast widely for material. Her cover versions even included three songs previously released by Australasian artists, songs that would have been familiar mainly to Australians.
There were Teresa Brewer versions of:
• Col Joye's Bye Bye Baby (1959, #1 Sydney #3 Melbourne #2 Brisbane #2 Adelaide #2 Perth; #3 Australia)
• Patsy Ann Noble's Good Looking Boy (1961, #16 Sydney #6 Melbourne #13 Brisbane #8 Adelaide; #17 Australia), retitled Pretty Lookin’ Boy for the Teresa Brewer version
• Maria Dallas's Ambush (1967, #19 Sydney #12 Melbourne #4 Brisbane; #16 Australia).
All three of those records had chart success only in Australia.
This is apparently happenstance, as there seems to be no special connection between Teresa Brewer and Australia, and the origins of the songs do not carry any hidden links as far as I can see..
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Okay, some qualifications
Just to undermine my neat packaging, there are variations in the profiles of the three charting Australian singles by Col Joye, Patsy Ann Noble and Maria Dallas:
• Bye Bye Baby and Good Looking Boy were by recorded by Australians
• Ambush was by a New Zealander. It did not chart in NZ for Maria Dallas according to retrospective charts, but she was a star in NZ so many NZers would have known the song, especially since it was included on her albums Maria Dallas In Nashville (1967) and Tumblin’ Down (1968), both released in NZ.
• Bye Bye Baby and Ambush are American compositions
• Good Looking Boy was written by a New Zealander residing in Australia, Johnny Devlin
• Good Looking Boy and Ambush were original versions
• Bye Bye Baby was itself a cover by Col Joye, the only charting version of an unsuccessful American original by Sonny Williams
• Bye Bye Baby and Good Looking Boy were recorded in Sydney
• Ambush was recorded in Nashville.
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Further reading back at the website
• Song histories of Bye Bye Baby, (aka Bye Bye Baby Goodbye), Good Looking Boy and Ambush
• The Obscure Originators feature has articles about Sonny Williams who originally released Bye Bye Baby and about Bobby & Dude, the sisters from Texas who wrote Ambush.
Charts I used
Retrospectively compiled Australasian charts by Warwick Freeman (NZ), Dean Scapolo (NZ), Gavin Ryan (Australian capital cities) and Grant Dawe (national Australia). US charts by Joel Whitburn: 1940-1955, 1955-2012 (via Internet Archive).
↑ Patsy Ann Noble's Good Looking Boy retitled Pretty Lookin’ Boy for Teresa's version
↑ Teresa Brewer does Van Morrison with Oily Rag (1973)
