Events

Jan 1
Jan 2

Jan 14


Jan 19

January 1955

RCA drops the list price on LP's EP's and 45's.
Panama president Jose Antonio Remon is assassinated.
Alan Freed's first New York Rock and Roll stage show includes the Clovers, the Drifters and Fats Domino.
The Scrabble board game debuts.

 

 

 

 
 
 

As one of the first Doo Wop acts, the Penguins entered the charts with their top hit single "Earth Angel." The Penguins were never able to replicate the success of their only Top 40 hit, but the song became a rock & roll classic. Around 1954, the Penguins signed with the local Los Angeles independent label Dootone Records. The group's first single was going to be the up-tempo "Hey Sinorita," with the ballad "Earth Angel" as its B-side. Upon the release of the single in the latter half of 1954, LA radio stations received more requests for "Earth Angel" than "Hey Sinorita," and the song soon became the record's A-side. Doo-Wop was becoming very popular by now and more and more streetcorner groups started working their way up into the charts. January 1955 would signify the real take off for Doo-wop music when, along with the Penguins, The Charms with "Hearts Of Stone", even-though undercut by the Fontane Sisters with their high ranking cover, had a top 20 ranking.

  
 
 

 

 

January 1955

Pos

From

Title

Artist

Label

Wks

1

1

Mr. Sandman *

Chordettes

Cadence

19

2

7

Let Me Go, Lover

Joan Weber

Columbia

14

3

8

The Naughty Lady Of Shady Lane

Ames Brothers

RCA

14

4

17

Hearts of Stone *

Fontane Sisters

Dot

16

5

4

Teach Me Tonight *

De Castro Sisters

Abbott

17

6

18

Let Me Go, Lover

Teresa Brewer

Coral

9

7

3

This Ole House

Rosemary Clooney

Columbia

23

8

2

I Need You Now

Eddie Fisher

RCA

21

9

15

Make Yourself Comfortable

Sarah Vaughan

Mercury

14

10

6

Count You're Blessings

Eddie Fisher

RCA

13

11

10

Mr. Sandman *

Four Aces

Decca

12

12

0

Melody Of Love

Billy Vaughn

Dot

21

13

19

That's All I Want From You *

Jaye P. Morgan

RCA

18

14

16

Dim, Dim The Lights

Bill Haley & His Comets

Decca

12

15

0

Sincerely *

McGuire Sisters

Coral

17

16

9

Shake Rattle And Roll *

Bill Haley & His Comets

Decca

20

17

0

(Baby Do'nt Love me) No More

DeJohn Sisters

Epic

9

18

5

Papa Loves Mambo *

Perry Como

RCA

16

19

0

Earth Angel (Will You Be Mine) *

Penguins

Dootone

11

20

20

Hearts of Stone *

Charms

Deluxe

7