1962 Songs: Ramblin’ Rose

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Before I see what I can do today I’ll start your day off right with another song that’s 60 years old as of this year. Here’s a song that a lot of people know, as is obvious from a recent countdown I did. Ramblin’ Rose - Nat “King” Cole More than one person was expecting this to show up on my “roses” countdown. It didn’t make the top ten, but here’s where I compensate for that. Here’s some trivia for you: did you know that this legendary jazz, pop, and standards singer had a #1 hit on the Billboard country charts? Yep. Back in 1944, when the chart first started, the chart was “hillbilly, western, folk, and race” music. Why was the “race” (R&B, or basically anything from an African-American singer) thrown in with Gene Autry and Tex Ritter? Heck if I know. Maybe it was a different kind of “segregation” Billboard was utilizing: the “country chart” was used for anything that wasn’t Tin Pan Alley. (There are long stories about the disdain the pop music people had for country music, but the cliff notes version boils down to Roy Acuff starting Acuff-Rose Publishing for country singers because “pop” publishers wouldn’t accept his country songs, and Ernest Tubb starting his own record store because his fans couldn’t find his records.). Anyway, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” by the King Cole Trio hit #1 three different times, topping the chart for a total of five weeks. This song didn’t make the country charts (not by Cole, anyway), but there are plenty of country music fans who know this classic tune. As well as pop, jazz, and standards fans. Ramblin’ Rose Written by Noel and Joe Sherman Recorded by Nat “King” Cole Released as a single, 1962 Why I want you: