Obscure American Artists 1956-1963 (discogs) CB Looking Ahead & MV Hit Records 1959-1963

The turn of the 1950s and 1960s was a breaking point in the history of pop music, golden age of rockabilly, teen pop and doo wop. In 1959, Billboard BU has been launched and extended the number of chart entries, Cash Box, Music Vendor and Regional Charts (Gavin, Breakout, Territorial) added many other entries. Nevertheless, many “good” Artists from American music scene didn’t enter any chart and they are worth to be saved from obscurity. Discographies of Artists that recorded between 1956 (beginning of RnR) and 1963 (year preceding British Invasion) one/few singles*, create Parts divided into five categories

·         Rock(abilly) & Country
·         Instrumental
·         Doo-Wop & Vocal Group Harmony
·         Teen Pop
·         Popcorn (All Others)

and denoted as Xnn:  X=,R,Q,V,T,P. For many Artists, categorization is fuzzy!!!
* If discography spans beyond this period, then selected earlier/later recordings can be taken into account as suplement

Singles of obscure Artists are hard to find, they are not available on Internet Marketplace. I managed to buy many (around 1000) rare singles but the number of missing tracks is still significant. Please help me to reduce this number.

 Missing updated 27.12.2024

Having a pleasure in listening old and obscure tunes is more important than collecting. Sound quality of majority of YouTube rips also many tracks from CD compilations is very poor and such copies are disregarded. Making a good rip is very simple, modern (produced in the XXI century) turntable and Audacity (freeware) is all that you need. I have prepared  Vinyl-to-PC (Tutorial) - please follow the guidelines.

Popcorn category has been extracted. This style, established in the 1970s,  includes a wide variety of American obscure recordings of pop-soul music made between the late 1950s and early 1960s. This category includes everything that do not fall into the primary four categories. e.g. (early Northern) Soul, (Rhythm &) Blues, AC, Exotica, Novelty.

Each discography has been carefully researched, booklets with biographies are attached. Primary references: Discogs, 45cat and
http://rcs-discography.com (Rockin’ Country Style)
http://doo-wop.blogg.org
http://rocky-52.net

https://www.rocknroll-schallplatten-forum.de

https://www.uncamarvy.com/index.html

track-list

S01  S02

T01  T02  T03  T04  T05  T06  T07  T08  T09  T10  T11  T12  T13  T14  T15  T16  T17  T18  T19  T20  T21

T22  T23  T24  T25

P01  P02  P03  P04  P05  P06  P07  P08  P09  P10  P11  P12

R01  R02  R03  R04  R05  R06  R07  R08  R09  R10  R11  R12  R13  R14  R15  R16  R17  R18  R19  R20

Q01  Q02  Q03  Q04  Q05  Q06  Q07  Q08  Q09  Q10  Q11  Q12  Q13  Q14  Q15  Q16  Q17  Q18  Q19

Q20  Q21  Q22  Q23  Q24  Q25  Q26  Q27  Q28  Q29  Q30  Q31  Q32  Q33  Q34  Q35  Q36  Q37  Q38

Q39  Q40  Q41  Q42  Q43  Q44  Q45  Q46  Q47  Q48  Q49  Q50  Q51  Q52  Q53  Q54  Q55  Q56  Q57

Q58  Q59  Q60  Q61  Q62  Q63  Q64  Q65  Q66  Q67  Q68  Q69  Q70

V01

Access to passes only for collectors who actively participate in the project = help to reduce Missing (list above), share comments to artist bios

If you are not able to find any missing track, you can search the missing 45 on Discogs or e-bay, buy, rip and send mp3 to me. There are no passes to artist bios and you are welcomed to comment.

Previously posted files in this series can be found below "Terms of Participation" post. Other previously posted files can be found below this post Observations after five years

CASH BOX LOOKING AHEAD 1959-1963

non-Billboard (all charts); non-Breakout Hits; non- Music Vendor; non-Gavin Report
no re-entries and re-issues, single edits only
392 singles ≈ ¼ of all singles that entered Looking Ahead 1959-1963.

As & Bs - no missing tracks!

NL01  NL02  NL03  NL04  NL05  NL06  NL07  

NL08  NL09  NL10  NL11  NL12  NL13  NL14

NL15  NL16  NL17  NL18  NL19  NL20  NL21

NL22  NL23  NL24  NL25  NL26

Track-list LA

Looking Ahead chart started on October 3, 1959 (with 20 positions) and grew up to 50 positions by April 29, 1961.

MV HIT RECORDS 101-150 1959-1963

non-Billboard (all charts); non-Breakout Hits; non-Gavin Report, non-CB (incl. LA)
no re-entries and re-issues, mono single edits only

746 45's (SP or EP) ≈ 70% of all 45's that entered MV 100+ 1959-1963, In majority, from the original 45's (from my record collection).

Every track is professionally remastered and tagged (see Project Description}. Data are collected from original charts, as printed in Music Vendor = numerous omissions and errors present in Whitburn’s book are rectified.

Links to H01-H50 below.

 

Non-Bill... Hit Records

Missing

On February 23, 1959, Music Vendor magazine introduced “Beat Of The Week - Heading For The Top 100” chart (5-35 entries). This was 15 weeks prior to Billboard introducing its “Bubbling Under” chart. In September of 1962, Music Vendor’s "Heading  For The Top 100" chart grew to 50 positions and changed its name to “Looking Up”. In April of 1964*, Music Vendor became Record World and this chart was retitled “Singles Coming Up”.

H01

* The last issue of Music Vendor was released on the 11^th of April 1964. Track-list for 15 weeks of 1964 and links to corresponding files (H51-H55) below (no missing tracks).

Non Bill… Hit Records 64

Tracks US Charts 59-63

you can download and sort by charts (column F): Bill, Bill R&B (B), Bill Country (C), Gavin (NG), Breakout Hits (NB), Music Vendor (NV) and Cash Box (N and NL)

Links to already posted non-Billboard Cash Box, Music Vendor, Gavin Report can be found in
non-Bill CB, MV & GR

Links to Territorial and Breakout Hits can be found in

T & BH