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)

#36 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' by Hank Williams (1949)

SONG
*You will have to click on 'Watch on YouTube' - not entirely sure why it makes a difference*

"Haha, well I know of Hank Williams because one of the prisoners in The Shawshank Redemption (one of my favourite films of all time) is a huge fan, but this is the first song of his that I have heard. I like it. It sounds like country and Hawaiian music had a baby! I also like his style of singing. Proper old school country and blues!" - LC

Written by: Hank Williams.
Producer: Uncredited.

Label: MGM.

FACTS

• Hank Williams often put his own life into his songs, whether it be poking fun at his own alcoholism in My Bucket's Got a Hole in it or eerily anticipating his own downfall in I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, which was released only weeks before his death.
• I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry was apparently written about his turbulent marriage.
• This song began life as a poem before Williams had a change of heart.
• It was originally the B-side of My Bucket's Got a Hole in it so it wasn't a hit in its day.
• It has since become a reference point for his troubled life, which ended with him dosed up on morphine and alcohol in the backseat of a car on New Year's Day, 1953. 
• Rolling Stone ranked it #111 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. It's the second oldest song on the list, and one of only two from the 1940s.
  
• Cover versions of the song include those by artists such as Johnny Cash with Nick Cave, Ray Charles, Dean Martin, Al Green, Bob Dylan, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, and Me First & the Gimme Gimmes.

Recommended songs by this artist...

Lost Highway (1949)

#35 'Saturday Night Fry Fish' by Louis Jordan & His Tympany Five (1949)

SONG

"Well, it put a smile on my face straight away! Love the rhythm of the verses too. This tune makes me want to dance. Quality! Yeah, this is one to listen to folks! In fact, I would definitely listen to this one again." - LC

Written by: Louis Jordan and Ellis Walsh.
Producer: Uncredited.
Label: Decca.

FACTS

• This song tells the tale of a police raid on a New Orleans house party.
• It spent 12 weeks at the top of the US R&B chart and was one of Louis Jordan's last hits.
• By 1951, his 10-year chart run had begun to decline as rock 'n' roll, a genre he'd help to create, was becoming more and more popular.
• It also reached 21 in the main chart, which, at the time, was quite an achievement for a record by an artist who was non-white.
• Four decades later, his music was rediscovered when Clarke Peters created the musical Five Guys Named Moe, basing it around Jordan's songs; the musical transferred from the London fringe to lengthy runs in the West End and on Broadway. 
• BBC comedy-show host Stephen Fry adapted the song's title into a play on his own name and used the result for his six-part 1988 programme Saturday Night Fry. 
• American radio station WHRV, broadcasting from Norfolk, Virginia, uses the song's name for its Saturday night early-jazz program hosted by Neal Murray.

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

SONG

"I like the melody of this one, and I have decided that I very much like Nat's voice. This one is definitely worth a listen. Nice piano too :)" - LC

Written by: Eden Ahbez.

Producer: Uncredited (arranged by Frank DeVol).

Label: Capitol.

FACTS

• The back story of this song goes that a few days after composer Eden Ahbez presented Nat King Cole's manager with Nature Boy in 1947, Cole performed it live at a nightclub in Los Angeles. Before Cole even reached his dressing room, after finishing his set, Irving Berlin offered to buy it.
• Cole had had a series of hits in 1940s that appealed to a white audience. This was quite a feat as music at the time was still very much divided by race, and crossing over from black jazz to white pop acceptability was rare. Cole did it with style when this song became number 1 in the U.S.
• The original version of this song recorded by Cole in August 1947 was transformed by Frankie DeVol of Capitol Records, whose use of strings and flute to create an enchanting backdrop for Cole's vocals made the song a massive hit.
• Cole only does the vocals on this track and the piano solo is taken by someone else.

Recommended songs by this artist...

#28 (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66 (1946)
#88 When I Fall In Love (1957)

#33 'Good Rockin' Tonight' by Roy Brown (1947)

SONG

"As the title suggests, you can definitely hear more of a rock influence in this song, along with the  brass and boogie-woogie blues riff. I like this one, it made me wiggle." - LC

Written by: Roy Brown.

Producer: Jules Braun.

Label: DeLuxe.

FACTS

• Brown was born in Louisiana and had grown up singing gospel. Originally (if you can call it that) he was a Bing Crosby imitator, but he quickly reshaped his sound after witnessing money being thrown at blues singers in Houston.
• Brown's stage presence and versatility allowed him to establish himself as the most popular black singer in New Orleans. 
• Brown originally wrote the song for Wynonie Harris but Harris turned it down. He later covered the song and had a number 1 hit with it.
• Brown wrote the song in 1946 and performed it to boogie-woogie pianist Cecil Grant. Grant was so inspired by the song that he asked Brown to perform it over the phone to Jule Braun of DeLuxe Records in New Jersey. Braun was so impressed that he told Grant to give Brown $100 and book him into the Drew Drop to keep an eye on him. Braun flew to New Orleans two days later, set up a recording session and released Good Rockin' Tonight in May 1947.
• It has since been covered by artists including Elvis Presley, Paul McCartney and Bruce Springsteen.

Wynonie Harris's cover, which hit number 1 in the R&B chart:

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

SONG

"It's hard to imagine a Christmas without hearing this song. I had no idea it was so old though. I definitely agree with this one being on the list, it has truly stood the test of time but I have no fear that anyone will die without having heard it, haha. I'm also pleased to announce that MY favourite Christmas song also made this list, but it's going to be a long journey before we get to it." - LC

Written by: Irving Berlin.
Producer: Uncredited.
Label: Decca.

FACTS

• The song's writer, Irving Berlin, was a famously terrible pianist and never learnt how to write musical notation, yet despite this he managed to write more than 800 published songs; a catalog of success which has yet to be matched by any other song writer.
• First drafted by Irving in 1940, White Christmas appeared in 1942, sung by Bing Crosby in the film Holiday Inn.
• Although this recording was released at the height of summer, its timing coincided with the escalation of US involvement in WWII. The song's sentimentality struck a chord with the soldiers parted from their loved ones and the life they once knew. The song reached number 1 by October.
• Five years later, Crosby was asked to re-record the song because of the degradation of the original master plate; it is this version we are most familiar with today.
• The song has been credited with 50 million sales worldwide and is, therefore, the biggest selling single of all time.
• It has since been covered by a variety of artists, including: Frank Sinatra, The Drifters, Elvis Presley, Smokey Robinson & the Miracles, Doris Day, The Supremes, Bob Marley, Dean Martin, Barbara Streisand, Otis Redding, Stiff Little Fingers, Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton, New Kids on the Block, Martina McBride, Chicago, A1, Bette Midler, LeAnn Rhymes, Dionne Warwick, Westlife, Twisted Sister, Taylor Swift, Rick Astley, Boy George,and Michael Buble ft. Shania Twain.

Recommended songs by this artist...

#10 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1932)

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

SONG

"It's finds like this that  make this musical journey a rewarding one. Of course, being a huge Kevin Spacey fan (he directed and starred in a film based on Bobby Darin's life) and a fan of music in general, I am familiar with Bobby Darin's Beyond the Sea, but I had no idea that it was based on an original French song. Oh yes, and THIS is a TUNE!!!" - LC

Written by: Charles Trenet and Albert Lasry.

Producer: Uncredited.

Label: EMI.

FACTS

• Trenet wrote the lyrics of "La Mer" on a train in 1943 while travelling along the French Mediterranean coast, returning from Paris to Narbonne. He supposedly wrote the song in ten minutes, on toilet paper supplied by SNCF. 
• He was assisted with the tune by Leo Chauliac. It was originally published by Raoul Breton.
• It was not until 1946 that Trenet recorded the song, since neither he nor the people around him believed the song to be anything special or particularly original. 
• When he released "La Mer" in 1946 it became an unexpected hit, and has remained a French classic ever since.
• English lyrics, unrelated to the French lyrics, were later written by Jack Lawrence and entitled "Beyond the Sea". 
• This became a hit for Bobby Darin in 1959. 
• The song has been recorded by more than 400 other artists in many languages.

Translation
The Sea

The sea,

We see dancing along the shores of clear bays,

Shimmers with silver

The sea

Changing shimmers

Under the rain

The sea

With the summer sky

Mix up her white horses

With the angels so pure

The infinite azure shepherdess

Sea

Sea

By the ponds

Those big wet reeds

See

Those white birds

And those rusty houses

The sea

Has cradled them

Along the shores of clear bays

And with a love song

The sea

Has rocked my heart for life.

Bobby Darin's Beyond the Sea: