All I Want Is Loving You
All I Want Is Loving You
Popular Female Singers of the 1950s
In All I Want Is Loving You: Popular Female Singers of the 1950s, author Steve Bergsman focuses on the white, female artists of the 1950s, a time that predated the chart-topping girl groups of the early 1960s. These popular performers, many of whom graduated out of the big bands of the 1940s, impacted popular music in a huge way. As the last bastion of traditional pop and the last sirens of swing, they undeniably shined in the spotlight. Yet these singers’ fame dimmed relatively quickly with the advent of rock ’n’ roll. A fortunate few, like Doris Day, Patti Page, Peggy Lee, and Debbie Reynolds, experienced some of their biggest hits in the late 1950s, and Eydie Gormé broke out in the 1960s. The luckiest, including Dinah Shore and Rosemary Clooney, ventured to television with varying degrees of success. Others would become major attractions at nightclubs in Las Vegas or, like Teresa Brewer, shift into the jazz world.
Though the moment did not last, these performers were best-selling singers, darlings of the disk jockeys, and the frenetic heartbeat of fan clubs during their heyday. In a companion volume, Bergsman has written the history of African American women singers of the same era. These Black musicians transitioned more easily as a new form of music, rock ’n’ roll, skyrocketed in popularity. In both books, Bergsman reintroduces readers to these talented singers, offering a thorough look at their work and turning up the volume on their legacy.
This engrossing history is packed with impressive details and a healthy dose of nostalgia, set in a striking cultural framework. . . . Enjoyable and educational. Will appeal to a wide range of popular-musical enthusiasts, including those who remember the era well and those eager to learn more about it.
[…] Bergson as a writer gets a great deal of information in not all that many words. We can learn a lot from these books, especially with the Internet to help us hear songs after he’s whetted our curiosity.
Authors have long neglected the fabulous females of the fifties, but Steve Bergsman makes up for that neglect with this fascinating, fact-filled book. All I Want Is Loving You fills a major gap in pop music history and Bergsman is the author who should fill it.
All I Want Is Loving You: Popular Female Singers of the 1950s takes you on a time machine to an era of great singers and music. I highly recommend this book. It is a great read and education on what music was like in the fifties era.
Steve Bergsman has written an informative and charming book that will be nostalgic for many readers, while providing a lot of fascinating esoterica about the workings of the 1950s music business. I’ve read tons of books on popular music, and this is one of the best as far as I’m concerned.
This book is so important, because it brings back these great singers and their wonderful songs, which have mostly been forgotten. These songs touched the heart and were the fabric of our lives. By extension, the contributions of the 1950s female singers affected my generation of rock ’n’ rollers, who influenced the next generation of female singers, who were the backbone of succeeding generations and on and on until we end up where we are today.
Steve Bergsman is a longtime journalist who has written over a dozen books. His most recent books are a biography of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins and, as coauthor, Chapel of Love: The Story of New Orleans Girl Group the Dixie Cups, published by University Press of Mississippi.
