My verdict on the Pre-1950s entries.

Well, firstly, I would just like to say how relieved I am to have finally reached the 1950s. It was quite a struggle listening to some of those songs... However, I thought what might be nice to sort of break up the song posts a bit would be to pinpoint the songs that did stand out, either because they were brilliant or because they were particularly awful and made me question why on earth they were included in the first place.


So here we go...

The absolute winner would have to be:

#8 'Minnie the Moocher' by Cab Calloway & His Orchestra (1931)

Highlights:

(There are some good songs that I've left out but my original list was 20 songs long)

#1 'O Sole Mio' by Enrico Caruso (1916)

#3 'Allons à Lafayette' by Joe and Cléoma Falcon (1928)

#6 'St. James Infirmary Blues' by Louis Armstrong & His Hot Five (1929)

#9 'Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl' by Bessie Smith (1931)

#16 'Strange Fruit' by Billie Holiday (1939)

#17 'Over the Rainbow' by Judy Garland (1939)

#19 'Mbube' by Solomon Linda & the Evening Birds (1939)

#20 'The Java Jive' by The Ink Spots (1940)

#21 'Gloomy Sunday' by Billie Holiday (1941)

#23 'God Bless the Child' by Billie Holiday (1941)

#25 'Rum and Coca-Cola' by Lord Invader (1943)

#27 'Lili Marleen' by Marlene Dietrich (1945)

#31 'La Mer' by Charles Trenet (1946)

#32 'White Christmas' by Bing Crosby (1947)

#34 'Nature Boy' by The Nat King Cole Trio (1948)

Songs that I found particularly tedious:

#5 'Pokarekare' by Ana Hato (1929)

#14 'Cross Road Blues' by Robert Johnson (1936)

#29 'Al Gurugu' by La Nina de los Peines (1946)