Your Hit Parade Clip: Tweedlee Dee by Dorothy Collins

[michelle91088]

i like this song...

[mopable]

elvis was good for one thing making money

[TheApocalypstick]

Directed by David Lynch.

[SergioRafaelNittolo]

please somebody kill me



[wlh70]

@SergioRafaelNittolo I'll gladly accept your offer.

[hebneh]

There's an undeniable irony in the staging of this song, originally by a black singer (LaVerne Baker), as if it was a Swiss cuckoo clock with the lead singer in a blonde Aryan wig.

[robh693]

@hebneh If you are going to infuse racism into this video, please have the courtesy to at least know that this set is of German design.

[fran9860]

GIRLFRIEND HAS IT GOING ON DOLLFACE:)!~

[Lalilola1000]

awe, so cute! ^_^

[TrueLight55]

I adore this version. It is just amazing. And what innocence huh! Someone mentioned Little Richard..don't forget Elvis sang this, didn't record it though. He infused the glorious sound of the Rockabilly genre. He was a prominent player of rockabilly. FYI Elvis is the only individual in history titled a "master artist" in 5 Genres of music including Rockabilly!! It's good to have an open mind!! But if you don't like a little "raunch" you won't like E's version! PS I love super love this version!

[magcarril]

This is old fashioned ENTERTAINMENT! Take it light...It was one way of seeing and hearing the hits of the week...Nostalgic Memories! Peace, love and a smile...MARIA GONZALEZ...VIVA MARIA!

[flightmatron]

"Tweedlee Dee" was covered by Georgia Gibbs. It was nothing compared to the original by LaVerne Baker. Gisele MacKenzie is here singing "Dance with me Henry, also originally recorded by black artist. There was a lot of this piracy in the 50s. Pat Boone even sang Little Richards "Tutti Frutti." His wop-bop-a-loo-bop had no "boom." Cornball at it's best.

[rslitman]

The LaVern Baker version is nowhere to be found on YouTube. That's the one I was really looking for.

[MikeHudson65]

How camp, I love it.

[bueno40]

Is it just because I am a Brazilian and would note this in a heartbeat but the beat IS from the song Brazil that Carmen Mirand make immortal? Have you see the movie Brazil? If I find a video clip of it you can compare and see the shameless use of the beat. I like this song though, but it is funny how it was used with no problems at all. Thanks for the posting. I love your videos!

[cha5]

I kind of wonder about some of these

"surveys of the top favorite tunes" that YHP supposedly used, I mean were their "surveys" reflected in 'Downbeat' or 'Billboard' from the 1950s which actually kept track of what the most popular albums were back then?

[pgh45rpms]

YHP began as a radio show in 1935. Their surveys were supposedly based on record & sheet music sales, radio airplay and jukebox figures -- but how the YHP surveys were actually tabulated was never disclosed.

YHP was a radio fixture until 1953. The tv version began in 1950, but folded by the end of the decade. When r&r caught on, Billboard, Cashbox & Downbeat were far more accurate, as were radio station playlists.

[mikeinfla]

I like Dorothy's version better then the original. Same with Unchained Medoly. I just like her voice I guess.

[fromthesidelines]

"Rock and Roll" was the factor that eventually

doomed "YOUR HIT PARADE", because, by 1956-'57, teens insisted on hearing the ORIGINAL performers (or their recordings) instead of the "YHP" cast, who were indeed mostly out of touch with "current" songs performed between 1955 and the end of the series in 1959 {Snooky Lanson's "Hound Dog" was a good example}.

[hah13]

can't believe I used to like this junk..then I discovered originals..sorry..but it's not just "Show Business" It's white artists ripping of black artists///no "race music" was played by white dj's

[annshelaann]

This is really funny I love the man dancers!

[MrMemories]

Man, I bet those 2 poor guys felt stupid having to dress up like that and dance together.

[timmytickles]

i love Dorothy Collins!

i wish we could see video of her in FOLLIES!

[Sugarbehr1967]

Pat Boone recording 'Tutti Frutti'...Dorothy Collins performing 'Tweedlee Dee'...the ignorance of the 50's...they appealed to white bread America who wanted to put the real music where they thought it belonged..while the music got out to the masses..it took a pioneer like Alan Freed to showcase the true artists!

[unclealand]

I don't think "Tutti Frutti" was a great loss as a representation of anything, and, besides, it was Laverne Baker's version of "Tweedlee Dee" that outsold the cover done by Rosemary Clooney.

[trolleybus1962]

It was Georgia Gibbs who made the cover version of 'Tweedlee Dee' and it outsold LaVerne Baker's version.

Google 'wikipedia tweedlee dee' for details.

[unclealand]

You're right about Georgia Gibbs, but do you really use Wikipedia as a reliable and sane source of facts? Always re-check their info. Anybody can write to the Wikipedia database.

[trolleybus1962]

Lavern Baker's entry in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame states how she and others suffered by their records being covered by white singers and the pop radio stations not playing their records.

She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991.

Their website is rockhall dot com.

I am white but I still think it was disgraceful how these black singers were treated.

[unclealand]

Sorry, but it's called Show BUSINESS. It's about money and popularity. Look at some of the other groups and people who were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It's not about art.

[ibm650]

I'm (now) an old white guy who grew up in Southern Ontario listening to hit parade shows from Detroit and Buffalo. Local jukeboxes played 45s based on popularity, indeed, but in high school, my generation began to learn where this music came from. Race isn't the point. Buddy Holly was white and got invited to play the Apollo based on the sound of his "Not Fade Away" demo. Georgia Gibbs or Pat Boone? No way--no soul. Originality trumps watered-down covers.

[unclealand]

When black singers began to show they could make big money, that is when the staions and producers started paying attention.  It's a business. So is the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. I mean, they just "honored" Madonna.

[luvureally]

Trolleybus is right. Georgia Gibb's tripe outsold Lavern's far superior version.

[luvureally]

It was not a great loss that Pat Boone was (at the time) seen as a rock&roll innovator? Thats like having Lawrence Welk cover "Cold Sweat".

[kaleman1]

Eileen Wilson...Snooky Lanson...Dorothy Collins..the 3 Original Hit Paraders. It was a fun show and rock and roll was indeed the end for it.

[ChristianWithNES]

I have several episodes of "Your Hit Parade" on DVD, It's a fun TV show.

[fromthesidelines]

This was basicially the beginning of the end for the show. When the cast tried to perform "rock and roll" numbers like this, they could not match LaVerne Baker (and other "original" renditions), and the teenagers watching "YOUR HIT PARADE" knew this. That's why there was a general "overhaul" of the cast in 1957...and the show went off in April of 1959.

[solarvegan]

Good observation! I suppose "Your Hit Parade" was out of step with the burgeoning rock 'n' roll era.

[milliband]

I think the real spike in the chest was Snooky Lanson doing Hound Dog!

[jangel47]

I hate to admit this but I remember that on your hit parade. I was born in 1947 and always watched Your Hit Parade with my parents. The really had a problem coming up with new ideas when a song stayed on the charts for several weeks. And Snooky doing Hound Dog, well that was when the shows premise of perfoming top songs was becoming out of synch with the times. The performers became more important than the song.

[azqrlaf]

Listen to LaVerne Baker do this same song.

[CIAdude]

Where can I find Laverne Bakers Version??

[hajune]

great classy show

[BigDaddy1968]

Wow! They had gay men back in the olden days too.

LOL!!!

[ginhay2003]

I didn't think I'd ever see one of these again! Thank you so much. I loved this show when I was a kid.