Billboard Top Country & Western Records of 1951
These are lists of Billboard magazine's "Top Country & Western Records" for 1951, ranked by retail sales and juke box plays.
Overview
Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart" was 1951's No. 1 country hit based on retail sales and No. 6 based on juke box plays. Lefty Frizzell's "I Want to Be with You Always" ranked No. 1 based on juke box plays and No. 2 based on retail sales.[1][2][3] The year's other top hits included: Frizzell's "Always Late with Your Kisses" (No. 2 retail, No. 2 juke box), Hank Snow's "The Rhumba Boogie" (No. 4 retail, No. 5 juke box), Eddy Arnold's "I Wanna Play House With You" (No. 2 juke box, No. 5 retail), and Tennessee Ernie Ford's "The Shotgun Boogie" (No. 4 juke box, No. 7 retail).[1][3]
Leading artists and labels
The Billboard year-end charts were cited as proof that Lefty Frizzell was "the nation's number one western and country recording star."[2] Frizzell led all other artists with seven records appearing on the Billboard year-end charts.[2] Eddy Arnold placed second with six records followed by Hank Williams (five), Hank Snow (five), and Carl Smith (three).[1]
The RCA Victor and Columbia labels dominated the 1951 year-end country charts, with 14 records from RCA Victor and 12 from Columbia.[1] Decca, which had dominated the 1950 year-end country charts with 11 records, managed to land only one record on the 1951 year-end charts.
Other promulgators
While Billboard is considered the authoritative source, at least one other publisher, Music VF, created its own list of the top country hits of 1951. Music VF's list was led by (1) "Slow Poke" by Pee Wee King, (2) "Mockin' Bird Hill" by Les Paul and Mary Ford, (3) "On Top of Old Smoky" by The Weavers, (4) "Down Yonder" by Del Wood, and (5) "Mockin' Bird Hill by the Pinetoppers.[4]
Country music in 1951
During the early 1950s, there was tremendous growth in the popularity of country music, as artists like Eddy Arnold sold records at a level that rivaled Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and other top pop artists.[5] Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz", produced and recorded in Nashville, crossed over to become a No. 1 hit on pop charts in 1951, and "more than any other single song, established Nashville as a source of songs for the pop market.[6][7] Hank Williams' "Cold, Cold Heart" was another prominent example of country music crossing over in 1951; the song was such a massive hit that five versions reached the pop Top 30, and Tony Bennett's version spent six weeks at No. 1.[8] The creation of a separate Billboard chart to track the top country hits confirmed the increased importance of the genre.[9]
Top records
| Retail year-end[1] |
Juke box year-end[1] |
Peak[note 1][10] | Title | Artist(s) | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 1 | "Cold, Cold Heart" | Hank Williams | M-G-M |
| 2 | 1 | 1 | "I Want to Be with You Always" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | "Always Late with Your Kisses" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 4 | 5 | 1 | "The Rhumba Boogie" | Hank Snow | RCA Victor |
| 5 | 2 | 1 | "I Wanna Play House With You" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| 6 | 13 | 1 | "There's Been a Change in Me" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| 7 | 4 | 1 | "The Shotgun Boogie" | Tennessee Ernie Ford | Capitol |
| 8 | 7 | 1 | "Hey, Good Lookin'" | Hank Williams | M-G-M |
| 9 | 11 | 2 | "Mom and Dad's Waltz" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 10 | 17 | 1 | "The Golden Rocket" | Hank Snow | RCA Victor |
| 11 | NR | 1 | "I'm Movin' On | Hank Snow | RCA Victor |
| 12 | 8 | 1 | "Kentucky Waltz" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| 13 | 10 | 1 | "Slow Poke" | Pee Wee King | RCA Victor |
| 14 | 9 | 2 | "Let's Live a Little" | Carl Smith | Columbia |
| 15 | 19 | 1 | "I Love You a Thousand Ways" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 16 | 30 | 4 | "Poison Love" | Johnnie and Jack | RCA Victor |
| 17 | 12 | 2 | "Down the Trail of Aching Hearts" | Hank Snow | RCA Victor |
| 18 | 25 | 4 | "Bluebird Island" | Hank Snow | RCA Victor |
| 19 | 29 | 5 | "Peace in the Valley" | Red Foley | Decca |
| 20 | 23 | 4 | "Mr. Moon" | Carl Smith | Columbia |
| 21 | 20 | 1 | "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 22 | NR | 5 | "Heart Strings" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| 23 | 26 | 2 | "Somebody's Been Beating My Time" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| 24 | NR | 6 | "Travelin' Blues" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 25 | 21 | "Beautiful Brown Eyes" | Jimmy Wakely | Capitol | |
| 26 | NR | 4 | "Look What Thoughts Will Do" | Lefty Frizzell | Columbia |
| 27 | 15 | 3 | "Howlin' at the Moon" | Hank Williams | M-G-M |
| 28 | NR | 1 | "Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way" | Carl Smith | Columbia |
| 29 | 28 | 4 | "Crazy Heart" | Hank Williams | M-G-M |
| 30 | NR | 8 | "It's No Secret" | Stuart Hamblen | Columbia |
| NR | 14 | 2 | "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You)" | Hank Williams | M-G-M |
| NR | 16 | 3 | "Mockin' Bird Hill" | Pinetoppers | Coral |
| NR | 18 | 5 | "Down Yonder" | Del Wood | Tennessee |
| NR | 22 | 4 | "Something Old, Something New" | Eddy Arnold | RCA Victor |
| NR | 24 | 2 | "Tennessee Waltz" | Patti Page | Mercury |
| NR | 27 | 5 | "Cryin' Heart Blues" | Johnnie and Jack | RCA Victor |
| NR | 30 | 7 | "Sick, Sober and Sorry | Johnny Bond | Columbia |
See also
Notes
- This column recites the record's peak position on Billboard's weekly charts.
References
- "The Year's Top Country & Western Records" (PDF). The Billboard. January 12, 1952. p. 22.
- "Number One Western Recording Star". The Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune. March 6, 1952. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
- Leonidas Fragias (2018). Country Chart Collection. Arts & Charts – via Archive.org.
- "Top Country Songs of 1951". Music VF. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
- Cusic, Don. "The Emergence of the Country Music Business: 1945-1955." Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 17, no. 2, 1995, pp. 17–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23413699. Accessed 2 Dec. 2020.
- Cusic, p. 27.
- "Year's Top Pop Records according to Retail Sales" (PDF). The Billboard. 64 (1): 11. January 5, 1952.
- Robert Hilburn (March 8, 1992). "How Unforgettable? How could a song from 1951 be declared the best song of 1991?". Los Angeles Times.
- Cusic, p. 19.
- Joel Whitburn (1995). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books. ISBN 0823076326.