Category: Music

Aaron Copland and Appalachian Spring

American composer Aaron Copland was born on November 14, 1900, in Brooklyn, New York. The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, at age 15 Copland decided to become a composer.

In 1942, Copland began working with Martha Graham on Appalachian Spring, a ballet that eventually won the 1944 Pulitzer Prize in music. The Library of Congress’s Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation commissioned the work from Graham and Copland. Between July 1942 and July 1943, Graham sent three scripts to Copland. On receiving the third script, Copland wrote the music we know as Appalachian Spring.

Hearing the music, Graham revised the action yet again:

I have been working on your music. It is so beautiful and so wonderfully made. I have become obsessed by it. But I have also been doing a little cursing, too, as you probably did earlier over that not-so-good script. But what you did from that has made me change in many places. Naturally that will not do anything to the music, it is simply that the music made me change. It is so knit and of a completeness that it takes you into very strong hands and leads you into its own world. And there I am.

In the end, no script accompanied what Copland called “Ballet for Martha” and Graham retitled, Appalachian Spring. A splendid collaboration between American masters of music and dance, the ballet premiered at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium in 1944.

Library of Congress

November 8th is the birthday

… of Patti Page. A good gift for Patti as she turns 79 might be A Doggy in The Window. Depends on how much, I suppose.

… of Morley Safer. He’s 75.

… of Bonnie Raitt. She turns 57 in the Nick of Time.

It’s also the birthday of Margaret Mitchell, born on this date in 1900. As you all must know (but just in case), Mitchell’s original name for Scarlett O’Hara was Pansy O’Hara. Just wouldn’t have been the same.

Feeling Good

Jerry Lee Lewis is an acquired taste, to be sure, one luckily most of us acquired at an early age.

But listening to Before the Night Is Over with Jerry Lee singing at age 71 and B.B. King playing at age 80 is a tribute to the human spirit.

Update:

All Music’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine:

This is the only guest-studded superstar album where all the guests bend to the will of the main act, who dominates the proceedings in every conceivable way. Jerry Lee doesn’t just run the guests ragged; he turns their songs inside out, too — and nowhere is that clearer than on the opening “Rock and Roll,” the Led Zeppelin classic that is now stripped of its signature riff and sounds as if it were a lost gem dug out of the Sun vaults. Far from struggling with this, Jimmy Page embraces it, following the Killer as he runs off on his own course — he turns into support, and the rest of other 20 guests follow suit (with the possible exception of Kid Rock, who sounds like the party guest who won’t go home on an otherwise strong version of “Honky Tonk Woman”).

[…]

[N]o, this is a record that celebrates life, both in its joys and sorrows, and it’s hard not to see it as nothing short of inspiring.

Last Man Standing

Jerry Lee

The UPS delivery came while I was messing with the NewMexiKen database and I did get to listen to Jerry Lee Lewis’ new CD Last Man Standing while I was fiddling around. Great stuff — which despite its release just last month I classified under the genre “Rock and Roll” (which is what I call pre-Beatles rock).

The 21 tracks each feature another artist, but Jerry Lee and his piano are the stars.

Last Man Standing

NewMexiKen read in Rolling Stone that Lewis faced the recording of this album with some trepidation. According to the article he’d spent most of the last decade watching Gunsmoke re-runs. The producer told Lewis not to worry, that most of the rock stars appearing on the album had wanted to be him when they grew up.

Soggy Mountain Boys

Singer Dan Tyminski of Union Station (Alison Krauss’ band) tells the story of getting to sing the voice over for I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow for the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou?. When he told his wife, she asked him, “What’s a voice over?”

“It’s where you see George Clooney, but hear my voice,” Dan told her.

“Oh Dan,” she replied, “that’s been my fantasy.”

Been Doin’ Other Stuff

Among other things, NewMexiKen has been importing CDs into my iTunes music collection, now over 10,000 tracks. I decided with that many I really shouldn’t count on the shuffle to get nice sets of tunes. I had to make some playlists.

So then I began thinking up ideas for playlists. How about a tune for each of the 50 states I thought.

Here’s what I’ve got so far (just from what I had):

  1. Sweet Home Alabama / Lynyrd Skynyrd
  2. North to Alaska / Johnny Horton
  3. By the Time I Get to Phoenix / Glen Campbell
  4. California Dreamin’ / The Mamas & The Papas
  5. Rocky Mountain High / John Denver
  6. Georgia on My Mind / Ray Charles
  7. Hawai’i ’78 / Israel Kamakawiwo’ole
  8. Chicago / Frank Sinatra
  9. On The Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe / Johnny Mercer
  10. Kentucky Rain / Elvis Presley
  11. Louisiana 1927 / Randy Newman
  12. Streets of Baltimore / The Little Willies
  13. M.T.A. / The Kingston Trio
  14. Saginaw, Michigan / Lefty Frizzell
  15. Mississippi / Bob Dylan
  16. Kansas City / Wilbert Harrison
  17. Meet Me In Montana / Marie Osmond & Dan Seals
  18. Nebraska / Bruce Springsteen
  19. All the Way to Reno / R.E.M.
  20. New York City / The Peter Malick Group Featuring Norah Jones
  21. Carolina in My Mind / James Taylor
  22. Ohio / Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young
  23. Take Me Back to Tulsa / Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
  24. Portland, Oregon / Loretta Lynn with Jack White
  25. Philadelphia Freedom / Elton John
  26. Tennessee Waltz / Eva Cassidy
  27. Waltz Across Texas / Ernest Tubb
  28. Moonlight in Vermont / Willie Nelson
  29. East Virginia / Joan Baez
  30. Grand Coulee Dam / Woody Guthrie
  31. Take Me Home, Country Roads / John Denver
  32. What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Has Made a Loser Out of Me) / Jerry Lee Lewis

Jill suggests George Thorogood’s “Delaware Slide.” And there’s Lee Ann Womack’s “A Little Past Little Rock.” (Reba’s “Little Rock” is another kind of rock.) Neil Young has a song “Albuquerque” and there’s Joe Glaser’s “The Lights of Albuquerque.”

How about it, any ideas?

The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century

Throughout the year 2000, NPR presented the stories behind 100 of the most important American musical works of the 20th century. These special features cover music from a wide variety of genres — classical, jazz, rock’n’roll, country, R&B, musical theatre and film scores. NPR 100 stories aired on All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and NPR’s weekend news magazine programs.

Here are the 100, but follow this link to learn more, including audio of the original reports.

  • ADAGIO FOR STRINGS, SAMUEL BARBER (prem. 1938)
  • AIN’T THAT A SHAME, words/music FATS DOMINO (1955); as performed by FATS DOMINO
  • ALEXANDER’S RAGTIME BAND, words/music IRVING BERLIN (1911); as performed by IRVING BERLIN
  • ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL, words/music JACK LAWRENCE/ARTHUR ALTMAN (1940), as performed by FRANK SINATRA and HARRY JAMES & HIS ORCHESTRA (1943)
  • APPALACHIAN SPRING, AARON COPLAND (1944)
  • AS TIME GOES BY, words/music HERMAN HUPFELD (1931)
  • BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN, words/music RAYWHITLEY/GENE AUTRY (1939); as performed by GENE AUTRY
  • BLOWIN’ IN THE WIND, words/music BOB DYLAN (1962)
  • BLUE MOON OF KENTUCKY, BILL MONROE (1947)
  • BLUE SUEDE SHOES, CARL PERKINS (1956)
  • BODY & SOUL, instrumental version by COLEMAN HAWKINS (1939)
  • BORN TO RUN (LP), BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN (1975)
  • CHORUS LINE (musical), music MARVIN HAMLISCH/words EDWARD KLEBAN (1975)
  • COAL MINER’S DAUGHTER, LORETTA LYNN (1971)
  • CRAZY, words/music by WILLIE NELSON, performed by PATSY CLINE (1961)
  • DJANGO, music JOHN LEWIS; performed by MODERN JAZZ QUARTET (1955)
  • DREAM A LITTLE DREAM OF ME, GUS KAHN/WILBER SCHWANDT/FABIAN ANDRE performed by Kate Smith (1931); revived by Mama Cass Elliot (1963)
  • DRUMMING, STEVE REICH (1971)
  • FIDDLER ON THE ROOF (musical), SHELDON HARNICK/JERRY BOCK (1964)
  • FINE & MELLOW, words/music BILLIE HOLIDAY (1940)
  • FIRE AND RAIN, words/music JAMES TAYLOR; as performed by JAMES TAYLOR (1970)
  • FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN, music EARL SCRUGGS, performed by EARLE FLATT/ LESTER SCRUGGS and THE FOGGY MOUNTAIN BOYS (1949)
  • 4:33, JOHN CAGE (1952)
  • GIVE MY REGARDS TO BROADWAY, GEORGE M. COHAN (1904)
  • GONE WITH THE WIND (film score), MAX STEINER (1939)
  • GOOD VIBRATIONS, THE BEACH BOYS (1966)
  • GRACELAND (LP), PAUL SIMON (1986)
  • GRAND CANYON SUITE, FERDE GROFE (1931)
  • GREAT BALLS OF FIRE, JERRY LEE LEWIS (1957)
  • THE GREAT PRETENDER, THE PLATTERS (1955)
  • GUYS & DOLLS (musical), FRANK LOESSER (prem. 1950)
  • HELLHOUND ON MY TRAIL, ROBERT JOHNSON (1937)
  • HELLO DOLLY (tune), words/music JERRY HERMAN; as performed by LOUIS ARMSTRONG (1964)
  • HIS EYE IS ON THE SPARROW, words/music C.D. MARTIN/C.H. GABRIEL; as performed by MAHALIA JACKSON (1958)
  • HOOCHIE COOCHIE MAN, words/music WILLIE DIXON; as performed by MUDDY WATERS (1954)
  • HOUND DOG/DON’T BE CRUEL, words/music JERRY LEIBER/MIKE STOLLER; OTIS BLACKWELL/ELVIS PRESLEY; as performed by ELVIS PRESLEY (1956)
  • I GOT RHYTHM, GEORGE & IRA GERSHWIN (1930)
  • I WALK THE LINE, words/music JOHNNY CASH; as performed by JOHNNY CASH (1956)
  • I WANNA BE SEDATED, THE RAMONES (1977)
  • I’M SO LONESOME I COULD CRY, words/music HANK WILLIAMS; as performed by HANK WILLIAMS (1949)
  • IN THE MOOD, words ANDY RAZAF, music JOE GARLAND (1939), performed/recorded GLENN MILLER & HIS ORCHESTRA (1940)
  • (GOODNIGHT) IRENE, words/music HUDDIE LEDBETTER (LEAD BELLY) and JOHN LOMAX (1950), as performed by THE WEAVERS
  • KIND OF BLUE (LP), MILES DAVIS (1959)
  • KING PORTER STOMP, JELLY ROLL MORTON (1924)
  • KO KO, CHARLIE PARKER (rec. 1945)
  • LA BAMBA, words/music WILLIAM CLAUSON; as performed by RITCHIE VALENS (1958)
  • LET’S STAY TOGETHER, words/music AL GREEN/WILLIE MITCHELL/AL JACKSON; as performed by AL GREEN (1971)
  • LIGHT MY FIRE, THE DOORS (1967)
  • LIKE A ROLLING STONE, BOB DYLAN (1965)
  • A LOVE SUPREME (LP), JOHN COLTRANE (1964)
  • MACK THE KNIFE, words MARC BLITZSTEIN (after BERTOLT BRECHT)/music KURT WEILL; as performed by ELLA FITZGERALD (1960)
  • MAYBELLENE, words/music by CHUCK BERRY, RUSS FRATTO, and ALAN FREED; performed by CHUCK BERRY (1955)
  • MOOD INDIGO, DUKE ELLINGTON (1931)
  • MY FAIR LADY (musical), LERNER & LOWE (1956)
  • MY FUNNY VALENTINE, music RICHARD RODGERS/words LORENZ HART (1937)
  • MY GIRL, words/music by WILLIAM ROBINSON and RONALD WHITE; as performed by THE TEMPTATIONS (1965)
  • NIGHT & DAY, COLE PORTER (1932)
  • A NIGHT IN TUNISIA, DIZZY GILLESPIE (1946)
  • OKLAHOMA! (musical), RODGERS & HAMMERSTEIN (1943)
  • ONCE IN A LIFETIME, THE TALKING HEADS (1983)
  • ONE O’CLOCK JUMP, COUNT BASIE (1938)
  • OYE COMO VA, words/music TITO PUENTE (1963); recorded by SANTANA (1971)
  • PAPA’S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG, JAMES BROWN (1965)
  • PEGGY SUE, words/music JERRY ALLISON/BUDDY HOLLY/NORMAN PETTY; as recorded by BUDDY HOLLY (1957)
  • PORGY AND BESS, music GEORGE GERSHWIN/words IRA GERSHWIN/DUBOSE HEYWARD (1935)
  • PSYCHO (film score), BERNARD HERMANN (1960)
  • PURPLE HAZE, JIMI HENDRIX (1967)
  • RAPPER’S DELIGHT, SUGARHILL GANG (1979)
  • RESPECT, words/music OTIS REDDING (1965); as performed by ARETHA FRANKLIN (1967)
  • RHAPSODY IN BLUE, GEORGE GERSHWIN (1924); orchestrated FERDE GROFE (1926)
  • ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK, words/music MAX FREEDMAN and JIMMY DE KNIGHT (1953); first recorded by BILL HALEY (1955)
  • ROUND MIDNIGHT, music THELONIUS MONK (1946)
  • (GET YOUR KICKS ON) ROUTE 66, words/music BOB TROUP (1946); performed by NAT KING COLE
  • ST. LOUIS BLUES, words/music W.C. HANDY (1914); as performed by BESSIE SMITH
  • SHAFT (single), ISAAC HAYES (1971)
  • SHOWBOAT (musical), HAMMERSTEIN/KERN (1927)
  • SING, SING, SING, words/music LOUIS PRIMA (1936), as performed by BENNY GOODMAN & HIS ORCHESTRA at Carnegie Hall 1938
  • SINGIN’ IN THE RAIN (film musical), words/music ARTHUR FREED/NACIO HERB BROWN (1952)
  • SITTIN’ ON THE DOCK OF THE BAY, words/music OTIS REDDING and STEVE CROPPER (1968); recorded by OTIS REDDING
  • SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT, NIRVANA (1991)
  • STAND BY YOUR MAN, words/music TAMMY WYNNETTE and BILLY SHERRILL (1968); as performed by TAMMY WYNNETTE
  • STARDUST, words MITCHELL PARISH/music HOAGY CARMICHAEL (1929)
  • SYMPHONY OF PSALMS, IGOR STRAVINSKY (1948)
  • TAKE FIVE, music PAUL DESMOND (1960); recorded by DAVE BRUBECK
  • TAKE MY HAND, PRECIOUS LORD, words/music THOMAS A. DORSEY (1932)
  • TAKE THE A TRAIN, BILLY STRAYHORN (1941), performed by DUKE ELLINGTON ORCHESTRA
  • TALKING BOOK (LP), STEVIE WONDER (1972)
  • TAPESTRY (LP), CAROLE KING (1971)
  • THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND, WOODY GUTHRIE (1956)
  • TOM DOOLEY (traditional), arranged by DAVE GUARD (1958); as performed by THE KINGSTON TRIO
  • THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO (LP), THE VELVET UNDERGROUND (1967)
  • WARNER BROS. CARTOONS, music CARL STALLINGS (1940s & 1950s)
  • WE SHALL OVERCOME, words/music ZILPHIA HORTON, FRANK HAMILTON, GUY CARAWAN, PETE SEEGER (1960); believed to have originated from C. ALBERT TINDLEY’S 1901 Baptist hymn I’LL OVERCOME SOME DAY
  • WEST END BLUES, words by CLARENCE WILLIAMS/music by JOE OLIVER (1928); as performed by LOUIS ARMSTRONG AND HIS HOT FIVE
  • WEST SIDE STORY (musical), LEONARD BERNSTEIN/STEPHEN SONDHEIM (1957)
  • WHAT’D I SAY, RAY CHARLES (1959)
  • WHAT’S GOING ON, words/music by AL CLEVELAND, MARVIN GAYE, and RENAULDO BENSON (1970); recorded by MARVIN GAYE
  • WHITE CHRISTMAS, IRVING BERLIN (1942); as performed by BING CROSBY
  • WILDWOOD FLOWER, CARTER FAMILY (1927)
  • WIZARD OF OZ (film musical), words E.Y. HARBURG/music HAROLD ARLEN (1939)

Thanks to Annette for the idea.

Best line of the day, so far

“DAMN, something just occured to me. I can move the money I spend from the Ipod Music budget over to the Dairy Queen Blizzard budget i had previous decimated to fill my Ipod. ! I really miss Heath and Reese Cup Blizzards, thank you Gootube !!!… ”

— Billionaire Mark Cuban in a post describing, fancifully, how he gets his music from YouTube videos rather than iTunes.

Thelonious Monk

… was born on this date in 1917.

Thelonious Monk, who was criticized by observers who failed to listen to his music on its own terms, suffered through a decade of neglect before he was suddenly acclaimed as a genius; his music had not changed one bit in the interim. In fact, one of the more remarkable aspects of Monk’s music was that it was fully formed by 1947 and he saw no need to alter his playing or compositional style in the slightest during the next 25 years. (All Music)

A must-have jazz album is Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall. All Music has a review and the background — the tape had been lost for decades.

Monk died in 1982.

Two for Tea

An article from The New York Times on the return of jaguars to New Mexico and Arizona — Gone for Decades, Jaguars Steal Back to the Southwest. The fence along the border will put an end to this nonsense.

And some background about Gershwin’s opera Porgy and Bess, which opened 71 years ago tonight — Happy Birthday, Porgy.

“Summertime” “Bess, You Is My Woman Now” “I Got Plenty o’ Nothin” “It Ain’t Necessarily So” — good stuff.

Oldie But a Goodie

65-year-old Bob Dylan and 61-year-old Bob Seger have nothing on 80-year-old Tony Bennett with their recent best-selling albums. Bennett’s new album, Duets debuted this week at number three.

It’s just Bennett’s third top ten album of his career, the first was early in 1957. His first number one single was “Because of You” in 1951.

71-year-old Jerry Lee Lewis’ new album debuted at spot 26.

Love, Oh Love, Oh Careless Love

One thing that iTunes makes possible that I find is really fun and fascinating. Pick a great classic song — “Careless Love” is a good choice.

Then listen to all the versions — Odetta, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Madeleine Peyroux, Benny Goodman, Brook Benton, Dinah Washington, Dave Van Ronk, Joan Baez, Dr. John, Josh White, Lena Horne, Leadbelly, Lightnin’ Hopkins, The Ravens, Pinetop Perkins, Wynton Marsalis and (the only one you really need) Bessie Smith.

And one they don’t have, but should, Ray Charles.

How did we live before the internets?

Music! Music! Music!

NewMexiKen has been working at converting all of my CDs (600, more or less) to computer files. Many I’ve done during the past few years, but it’s taking forever to go back through and copy the discs and tracks I skipped. I keep stopping to listen.

The other problem with doing this, of course, if you are obsessive-compulsive about it (who, me?) is one discovers there are records I don’t have that I just “have to have,” usually just a track or two. Some are available from the iTunes store for 99¢, and I’ve bought a few, (a good new Buck Owens greatest hits CD released in August was a find), but there are a few that even iTunes doesn’t have.

Among the MIA: The infamous “I Love Rock ‘n Roll” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts is foremost. It’s the only track I’m missing from Rolling Stone‘s 500 top songs. A good cut of Sammi Smith’s “Help Me Make It through the Night” is also unavailable. (A collector can’t be buying the remakes; we need the original sound.) Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung” is another — I need it to complete some list of the top rock guitar solos.

(This is not a scanvenger hunt. I don’t want anyone to copy these songs and send them to me. The fun is in the search, as any collector knows. And none of these tracks are impossible to find if one wants to buy whole CDs.)

Another thing is I can’t quite convince myself to buy just digital files if I want a whole album (Grateful Dead’s Live/Dead comes to mind or Sasha Dobson’s Modern Romance). I still think I’ll get the CD — so I can copy it to the computer, which is where I listen. Buying the album from iTunes is a few dollars cheaper than getting the CD from Amazon, and instant gratification, but having the physical CD seems, somehow, worthwhile. Anyone else still hung up on this?

By the way, every once in awhile I run across a track, or even a whole CD, that won’t copy. That just drives this me nuts. Anyone else have this happen?

Best line of the day, so far

“The simple fact is that every time Krauss opens her mouth to sing, angels stop what they’re doing and take notes.”

— Rick Anderson in a review of Alison Krauss at All Music. He adds:

“There may be no musical pleasure quite as pure and sweet as listening to Krauss sing ‘Baby, Now That I’ve Found You’ or ‘When You Say Nothing at All.’ And when she starts in on the impossibly beautiful gospel tune ‘Down to the River to Pray,’ the effect is almost disturbingly moving.”

Happy Birthday Dear Trane, Genius and Boss

It’s the birthday of John Coltrane (1926), Ray Charles (1930) and Bruce Springsteen (1949).

It ought to be a damn holiday.

Oh, and four-time Oscar nominee Mickey Rooney is 86 and seven-time Emmy nominee Jason Alexander is 47.

Trane.

“My music,” John Coltrane said, “is the spiritual expression of what I am — my faith, my knowledge, my being…” The grandson of ministers, he began his career in the blues clubs of Philadelphia, and throughout his career combined the sacred and the secular in the intense, earnest sound of his saxophone. His musical sermons, by turns somber and ecstatic, radiated his undying faith in music’s power to heal.

Coltrane fell under the spell of Charlie Parker at age 18 and dedicated himself to a practice regime that sometimes found him asleep, fingers still ghosting the keys. He first gained fame as a member of Miles Davis’s classic quintet in 1955, worked with Thelonious Monk, then took the lessons he’d learned from those masters and became a leader in his own right — and the most admired, most influential and most adventurous saxophonist of the 1960s.

“There is never any end,” Coltrane said. “There are always new sounds to imagine; new feelings to get at. And always, there is the need to keep purifying these feelings and sounds so that … we can give … the best of what we are.” (Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame)

The Genius.

Many musicians possess elements of genius, but only one — the great Ray Charles — so completely embodies the term that it’s been bestowed upon him as a nickname. Charles displayed his genius by combining elements of gospel and blues into a fervid, exuberant style that would come to be known as soul music. While recording for Atlantic Records during the Fifties, the innovative singer, pianist and bandleader broke down the barriers between sacred and secular music. The gospel sound he’d heard growing up in the church found its way into the music he made as an adult. In his own words, he fostered “a crossover between gospel music and the rhythm patterns of the blues.” But he didn’t stop there: over the decades, elements of country & western and big-band jazz have infused his music as well. He is as complete and well-rounded a musical talent as this century has produced. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

The Boss.

Bruce Springsteen ranks alongside such rock and roll figureheads as Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, the Beatles and Bob Dylan. Just as those artists shaped popular music, Springsteen served as a pivotal figure in its evolution with his rise to prominence in the mid-Seventies. Early on, he was touted as one of several heirs to Bob Dylan’s mantle. All of these would-be “new Dylans”-who also included Loudon Wainwright, John Prine and Elliott Murphy-rose above the hype, but Springsteen soared highest, catapulting himself to fame on the unrestrained energy of his live shows, the evocative power of his songwriting, and the direct connection he forged with his listeners.

Springsteen lifted rock and roll from its early Seventies doldrums, providing continuity and renewal at a point when it was sorely in need of both. During a decade in which disco, glam-rock, heavy-metal and arena-rock provided different forms of escape into fantasy, Springsteen restored a note of urgency and realism to the rock and roll landscape. (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame)

Tune Up

The number one single in the land according to Billboard is Justin Timberlake’s “SexyBack,” in its fourth week at the top.

Number three is “Too Little Too Late” by JoJo. Fact about JoJo: She was born in December 1990. Nineteen-NINETY!

Even so, her song isn’t number one and JoJo’s already older than Little Peggy March and Brenda Lee were when they made it to the top. (They were both 15.)

And George Strait just pushed aside Conway Twitty. Twitty had 40 Country number ones. Strait has now had 41.

All this trivia thanks to Chart Beat.