DJ Alan Freed hosted the first rock ‘n’ roll show: March 21, 1952

---

The first Moondog Coronation Ball was held in Cleveland. The event is generally considered the first rock ‘n’ roll show in the U.S. Featured acts included a mix of black and white performers intended to attract a racially mixed audience. Among the acts were Paul Williams’ Hucklebuckers, Tiny Grimes’ Rockin’ Highlanders (featuring Screamin’ Jay Hawkins), The Dominoes, and Danny Cobb. At the time, nearly all performances, radio stations, and record labels were racially segregated.



DJ Alan Freed, who conceived and promoted the event, is credited with coining the term “rock and roll.” The event took its name from “Moondoggers” – the nickname he gave his listeners. Freed came to Cleveland’s WXEL-TV in April 1950 and began his late-night, rock-n-roll-themed Moondog show on WJW radio in July 1951. He went to New York in 1954 and left the business in 1959 after involvement in a payola scandal. He died in 1965 at age 43.





The event, held at the Cleveland Arena, proved a bit of a fiasco as promoters continued selling tickets long after they’d reached the venue’s roughly-10,000 seat capacity. At least some of the additional tickets have been attributed to counterfeiting. It was estimated that 20,000 fans showed up. When they couldn’t get in, the crowd broke down the doors to storm the arena. Local authorities shut down the concert after the first song for fear of rioting.

---

Resources and Related Links:

• Alan Freed’s DMDB Music Maker Encyclopedia
  
• About.com: Moondog Coronation Ball – Past and Present by Sandy Mitchell
  
• Fiftiesweb.com: Moondog Coronation Ball
  
• Wikipedia: Moondog Coronation Ball
  

---

Fun.’s “We Are Young” hit #1

We Are Young Fun. with Janelle Monáe

Writer(s): Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, Jeffrey Bhasker (see lyrics here) Released: September 20, 2011 First Charted: December 17, 2011 Peak: 16 US, 14 RR, 12 AC, 13 A40, 2 AA, 12 MR, 11 UK, 11 CN, 13 AU (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 10.0 US, 1.8 UK, 14.16 world (includes US + UK) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 1237.81 video, 1081.28 streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: While they won the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2013, Fun. had been around since 2008, releasing their debut in 2009 and the follow-up, Some Nights, which garnered them their Grammy, in 2012. The song that put them on the map was “We Are Young,” a mix of power pop and alternative rock with an indie spirit which “captures the moments of youthful exuberance that come with a memorable night out.” SF Lead singer Nate Ruess said the lyrics were inspired by “my worst drinking night of all time.” SF This song and Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used to Know” were hailed for returning rock to the pop charts. Rolling Stone’s Steve Knopper touted the song’s “sprightly pop-novelty feel” WK while his compatriot, Jody Rosen, described it as “rollickingly catchy” and “emo self-deprecation that leavens the bombast.” WK About.com’s Bill Lamb said the song “carries a hook in the chorus that is likely to stop many listeners dead in their tracks.” WK All Music Guide’s Tim Sendra notes Ruess “provides a very human core that grounds things even as the music builds to ornate crescendos.” AMG Interestingly, the song didn’t become a hit until after landing a Chevrolet ad in Super Bowl XLVI and getting covered for American TV show, Glee. PJ Bloom, the latter’s music supervisor, noted, “Glee doesn’t break bands, we celebrate existing pop success – that’s our core model.” WK He changed his mind after hearing the song once, later calling it one of the “pinnacle song moments of the entire series.” WK The song was propelled to the top of the pop charts, logging seven weeks of digital sales of more than 300,000 – the first to do so. WK It was the first song since Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” to log seven weeks with 120 million radio impressions WK and was the most listened to song on Facebook in 2012. SF It was also featured in another ad in Super Bowl XLVII – this time a Spanish language version of the song for Taco Bell. Resources: DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Fun. DMDB Encyclopedia entry for Janelle Monáe AMG All Music Guide review by Tim Sendra SF Songfacts WK Wikipedia Last updated 2/24/2024.

100 years ago: “Moonlight Bay” hit #1

Moonlight Bay American Quartet

Writer(s): Edward Madden, Percy Wenrich (see lyrics here) First Charted: March 9, 1912 Peak: 18 US, 112 GA, 18 SM, 2 DF (Click for codes to charts.) Sales (in millions): 1.0 (sheet music) Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, 0.16 video, -- streaming

Awards: Click on award for more details.

About the Song: “Arguably the best moonlight song ever written,” PS “Moonlight Bay” “conjures up an entire lost era of a slower-paced America that…had plenty of time for gentle spooning in an unspoiled natural setting.” SS It is “a very durable song from Tin Pan Alley about an idyllic setting for romance.” RCG Edward Madden, who also wrote “By the Light of the Silvery Moon,” penned the lyrics about “sailing across the bay at night in the moonlight while losing one’s heart to true love.” RCG The music was written by Percy Wenrich, “one of the era’s specialists in sentimental ballads.” SS. He came from a musical family wrote a number of hits in the rag genre and performed with his wife, Dolly Connelly, in vaudeville. PS It was Connelly who introduced the song in vaudeville and took it to #3 on the U.S. pop charts in 1912. It also became a “huge barbershop-quartet song as exemplified by the American Quartet,” JA who made the tune the biggest hit of 1912. CPM The song was revived by Alice Faye in the 1943 film On Moonlight Bay and again in 1951 in a Doris Day and Gordon MacRae film of the same name. The song has appeared many times in Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts featuring Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. WK In 1951, Bing and Gary Crosby took their version of the song to #14. JA Resources: DJ David Jasen (2002). A Century of American Popular Music: 2000 Best-Loved and Remembered Songs (1899-1999). Routledge: Taylor & Francis, Inc. Page 136. PS ParlorSongs.com RCG RimChiGuy.com The Old Songs (1900-1929) SS Steve Sullivan (2013). Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings (Volumes I & II). Scarecrow Press: Lanham, Maryland.Page 587. CPM Joel Whitburn (1999). A Century of Pop Music. Record Research, Inc.: Menomonee Falls, WI. Page 23. Related Links: Last updated 3/19/2023.

My Fair Lady opened on Broadway: March 15, 1956

---

My Fair Lady is “the crowning achievement” ^AZ for lyricist Alan Jay Lerner and composer Frederick Loewe. Some consider it to be “the most perfect stage musical ever.” ^CL “It boasts a magnificent score…witty, intelligent, beautiful, and romantic.” ^NRR This is “a collection of performances that long ago became a ubiquitous and indispensable fixture of American musical theater.” ^AZ

The musical was an updated version of George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion, a story about “the mythic Greek figure who falls in love with his sculpture.” ^TM In My Fair Lady, the story focuses on “the relationship between an elocutionist” ^R-C and “pre-World War I London flower girl Eliza Doolittle, who aspires to a better accent and the social advantages that will come with it.” ^R-S Its 2,700 performances “gracefully spanned the Eisenhower and Camelot eras, then begat a wildly popular film version, whose 1965 Best Picture Oscar capped the show’s decade of prominence.” ^AZ

The cast album “captures landmark performances by Julie Andrews, Rex Harrison and Stanley Holloway.” ^NRR Andrews was a “twenty-year-old revelation” ^ZS as “the fairest of all ladies,” ^ZS making the “loverly…score soar” ^ZS with her “glorious voice and emotional range.” ^ZS Harrison is “effortlessly charming” ^ZS in his recreation of the stage role as “Professor Henry Higgins (he had also appeared in the film adaptation of…Pygmalion.” ^R-S

“The show yielded an astounding number of songs that became standards, including the luminous I Could Have Danced All Night and I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” ^TM Among the other gems in this “embarrassment of riches,” ^AZ including On the Street Where You Live, The Rain in Spain, Wouldn’t It Be Loverly, and Why Can’t the English?.

For the movie version, Harrison and Holloway were back again, but Andrews wasn’t deemed enough of a star although “embarrassingly, by the time the movie opened, Mary Poppins had made her more than enough of a star to do so.” ^R-S Audrey Hepburn stepped into the role with the singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon, who “was an accomplished Hollywood voice ghost, having previously sung for Deborah Kerr in The King and I, Natalie Wood in West Side Story, and Rosalind Russell in Gypsy.” ^R-S

Ultimately the soundtrack paled to the cast recording, which was considered critically and commercially more successful. The cast recording sold 8 million copies in the U.S. and topped the Billboard charts for 15 weeks. It also spent 19 weeks atop the UK charts.

---

Awards:

• one of the top 1000 albums of all time
  
• Rated best album of the year by DMDB
  
• Worldwide best-selling album of the year
  
• Biggest #1 Albums in U.S.
  
• Biggest #1 Albums in U.K.
  
• Grammy Hall of Fame
  
• National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress
  

---

Resources and Related Links:

• DMDB page for My Fair Lady
  
• Alan Jay Lerner’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry
  
• Frederick Loewe’s DMDB Encyclopedia entry
  
• ^R-C All Music Guide review of cast album by William Ruhlmann
  
• ^R-S All Music Guide review of soundtrack by William Ruhlmann
  
• ^AZ Amazon.com review of the cast album by Jerry McCulley
  
• ^CL Colin Larkin (1998). Virgin All-Time Top 1000 Albums. Virgin Books: London, England. Page 201.
  
• ^TM Tom Moon (2008). 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die. Workman Publishing Company, Inc.: New York, NY.
  
• ^NRR National Recording Registry
  
• ^ZS Zagat Survey (2003). Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY. Page 170.
  

---

James J. Fuld The Book of World-Famous Music

James J. Fuld: The Book of World-Famous Music

First published in 1966, this book offers insights into more than 700 standards. While the songs aren’t ranked, I have created a top 100 ranking by looking at how many other lists the songs in this book appeared on. Publication years for songs are indicated, but no specific artist is attached to each song. Click here to see other lists from critics and individuals and here to see other lists from publications and/or organizations. 1. “White Christmas” (1942) 2. “Stardust” (1927) 3. “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” (1911) 4. “St. Louis Blues” (1914) 5. “Summertime” (1935) 6. “Over the Rainbow” (1939) 7. “Body and Soul” (1930) 8. “Night and Day” (1932) 9. “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” (1908) 10. “Begin the Beguine” (1935) 11. “Ain’t Misbehavin’” (1929) 12. “All the Things You Are” (1939) 13. “The Battle Hymn of the Republic (aka ‘Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!’)” (1861) 14. “God Bless America” (1939) 15. “When the Saints Go Marching In” (1880) 16. “Over There” (1917) 17. “You’re a Grand Old Flag (aka “The Grand Old Rag”)” (1906) 18. “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” (1949) 19. “The Star-Spangled Banner” (1814) 20. “Tea for Two” (1924) 21. “The Man I Love” (1928) 22. “April in Paris” (1932) 23. “Silent Night” (1818) 24. “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?” (1902) 25. “Home on the Range” (1873) 26. “I Got Rhythm” (1930) 27. “America the Beautiful” (1895) 28. “Give My Regards to Broadway” (1904) 29. “Stormy Weather (Keeps Rainin' All the Time)” (1933) 30. “You Made Me Love You (I Didn't Want to Do It)” (1913) 31. “Mack the Knife” (1928) 32. “Sophisticated Lady” (1933) 33. “Jingle Bells” (1857) 34. “Yankee Doodle (aka ‘Yankee Doodle Went to Town’)” (1754) 35. “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” (1806) 36. “Oh! Susanna” (1846) 37. “Darktown Strutters’ Ball” (1917) 38. “Some of These Days” (1911) 39. “Shine on Harvest Moon” (1908) 40. “Old MacDonald Had a Farm” (1706) 41. “Swanee” (1920) 42. “Hello Ma Baby” (1899) 43. “After the Ball” (1892) 44. “As Time Goes By” (1931) 45. “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (1938) 46. “When Johnny Comes Marching Home” (1863) 47. “Tiger Rag” (1918) 48. “Twelfth Street Rag” (1916) 49. “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” (1928) 50. “Dixie” (1859) 51. “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” (1936) 52. “My Blue Heaven” (1927) 53. “My Melancholy Baby” (1928) 54. “Rhapsody in Blue” (1924) 55. “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” (1894) 56. “Someone to Watch Over Me” (1926) 57. “September Song” (1939) 58. “O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)” (1751) 59. “Camptown Races (Gwine to Run All Night)” (1850) 60. “April Showers” (1921) 61. “For Me and My Gal” (1917) 62. “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (1933) 63. “By the Light of the Silvery Moon” (1909) 64. “Let Me Call You Sweetheart” (1910) 65. “In the Good Old Summertime” (1902) 66. “Dancing in the Dark” (1941) 67. “Joy to the World” (1719) 68. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” (1852) 69. “The Yellow Rose of Texas” (1853) 70. “Ol’ Man River” (1927) 71. “Peg O’ My Heart” (1913) 72. “Anchors Aweigh (U.S. Navy Song)” (1906) 73. “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” (1739) 74. “Sweet Adeline (You’re the Flower of My Heart)” (1903) 75. “Whispering” (1920) 76. “Always” (1926) 77. “Oh, You Beautiful Doll” (1911) 78. “Auld Lang Syne” (1799) 79. “Daisy Bell (A Bicycle Built for Two)” (1892) 80. “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot” (1873) 81. “On Top of Old Smoky” (1841) 82. “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain” (1899) 83. “Clementine” (1884) 84. “Happy Days Are Here Again” (1930) 85. “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (1830) 86. “London Bridge is Falling Down” (1744) 87. “Frère Jacques (Are You Sleeping?)” (1780) 88. “The Old Folks at Home (Swanee River)” (1851) 89. “Home Sweet Home” (1823) 90. “Turkey in the Straw” (1820) 91. “Way Down Yonder in New Orleans” (1922) 92. “My Old Kentucky Home” (1853) 93. “Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning” (1918) 94. “Happy Birthday to You” (1893) 95. “What Is This Thing Called Love?” (1930) 96. “I Want a Girl Just Like the Girl Who Married Dear Old Dad” (1911) 97. “Rock-a-Bye Baby” (1884) 98. “Sometimes I’m Happy” (1927) 99. “Jimmy Crack Corn (The Blue Tail Fly)” (1846) 100. “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” (1909) Resources/Related Links: Dave’s Music Database: lists from critics and individuals Dave’s Music Database: lists from publications and/or organizations James J. Fuld (3/14/2012). The Book of World-Famous Music. Fifth edition. General Publishing Company, Ltd.; Toronto, Ontario, Canada. First posted 12/10/2025.