During the 1940s and 1950s, there was a survey that would the best sellers on sheet music and phonograph records, the songs most heard on the air and most played on the automatic coin machines, an accurate, authentic tabulation of America's taste in popular music. We called it by one name, and one name alone. And that one name was the HIT PARADE.

In this thread: 1946.

The year began with the Broadway open of a revised and streamlined revival of Kern and Hammerstein's Show Boat; continued with the American release of the all-time classic color film version of Shakespeare's Henry V; and ended with the New York open of the classic Christmas film It's A Wonderful Life, which remains a Christmas tradition, having made frequent appearances on television each and every year since.

Speaking of television, 1946 was the year when that medium started its rise, and, coincidentally, the rise of the Baby Boomers who called television home. Although quite a few cities had experimental television stations (and indeed, the flagship stations of both CBS and NBC were the first two to be licensed), WWII had all but suspended TV production, as many of the parts that went into making televisions were being used for accessories made during the war. As better explained elsewhere, television would ultimately replace radio as the dominant medium in the United States.

We listened to the following songs during that remarkable year, the first full year since 1941 in which we weren't actively in war.

As before, the following masters are of the finest quality...sounding almost as fresh and lively as ever.

(Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of MCA Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of Capitol Records, Inc.)

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

(Courtesy of Columbia Special Products, a Service of CBS, Inc.)

It's time to turn the object in the last song off, and let it all rest until next time.

(Courtesy of RCA Records)

5091256 Even to this day me and my family gather together to watch, Its A Wonderful Life. And I enjoy it every time.

I would like to ask a quick question, would you mind if I went ahead and pinned your two threads to the main forum page?

5091430 Go right ahead.

5091466 Thanks bud!