Popular music can be a great window into the soul of an era.
As the new year of 1956 began, Tennessee Ernie Ford was just finishing a 6-week run at #1 of his hit song Sixteen Tons.
"Sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt."Seems appropriate for taking on an Airstream restoration, don't you think?
Other hit songs in 1956 seem to confirm the Airstreamer's plight. Sixteen Tons was displaced at #1 by Dean Martin singing one of my favorites, Memories Are Made Of This. Dean lasted five weeks at #1.
1956 was a watershed year for pop music because starting in April, the old school singers like Tony Bennett, Doris Day, Eddie Fisher, Perry Como and Dean Martin who had ruled the early 50s were displaced at #1 by the fresh face of Elvis Presley. Elvis dominated the last eight months of the year, first with Heartbreak Hotel for eight weeks, then with Don't Be Cruel for eleven weeks and finally with Love Me Tender for five.
It seems all these songs were written just for me and my Airstream.
