GEOFFREY SHRYHANE - It’s about time to Rock Around the Clock again ...

As a callow youth, I loved all those Top of the Pops favourites, but once the Beatles had wallowed in those first please-please me hits, I dismissed music and ever after listened to the news.

But now and again, one of those old pop tunes drifts over the airways and I’m instantly transported to those days when I had listened to the hits, especially on Radio Luxembourg, late on Sunday nights. True, the reception was on the fuzzy side, but oh how those memories came flooding back.

And even now many decades later, I recall the first rock ‘n’ roll record …with Mr Billy Haley rocking around the clock. The ’60s were the years when popular music livened up and by and large lost its stuffy appeal.

But when the “new music” came along, our parents dismissed it as rubbish. And that was before those head-banging numbers and Mr Rotten screaming about being the anti-Christ.

The kids loved the jumping about antics of the Rolling Stones. And still do. I really must tune in.

Anyway, here’s a list of the Top of the Pops from the ’50s. Enjoy.

1950 – Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered (Doris Day). 1951 – Tennessee Waltz (Patti Paige). 1952 – Unforgettable (Nat King Cole). 1953 – How Much is that Doggie in the Window (Lita Rosa). 1954 – I saw Mummy Kissing Santa Clause (the Beverley Sisters). 1955 – Unchained Melody (Jimmy Young); 1956 – Rock Around the Clock (Bill Haley), 1956 – That’ll be the Day – (Buddy Holly). 1957 – Great Balls of Fire – (Jerry Lee Lewis).