As we await the one vice presidential debate of the 2024 marketing campaign, a showdown between Democratic nominee Tim Walz and Republican nominee JD Vance on Tuesday (Oct. 1), let’s look again on the one No. 1 hit on the Scorching 100 that was written or co-written by a future VP.
The hit was Tommy Edwards’ “It’s All within the Recreation,” a philosophical romantic ballad which topped the Scorching 100 for six weeks within the fall of 1958. Charles Gates Dawes, a self-taught pianist, flutist and composer, composed the melody in 1911 underneath the title “Melody in A Main.” Dawes later turned an American diplomat and Republican politician, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and a TIME journal cowl topic. He served because the thirtieth VP of the U.S. from 1925-29 underneath Calvin Coolidge.
Dawes’ melody was not a significant hit underneath its unique title, however famous lyricist Carl Sigman remembered it and 40 years later added lyrics to it, reworking it into “It’s All within the Recreation.” Sigman’s most memorable lyric: “Occasionally he gained’t name/ However it’s all within the recreation.” Edwards first recorded the tune in 1951, the identical yr Sigman added lyrics to it. His fairly, however unremarkable, recording reached No. 18 on Billboard’s Disk Jockey and Finest Sellers charts.
The good Nat “King” Cole included the tune on his 1957 album Love Is the Factor, which topped the Billboard 200 for eight consecutive weeks.
In 1958, Edwards re-recorded the tune, giving it a lightweight doo-wop taste which made it appropriate with pop playlists — which by that time included quite a lot of doo-wop and rock and roll. Leroy Holmes was the orchestra chief on each variations. Each variations had been launched on the identical label (MGM Data). However the variations are stark. The sooner model is awash in strings; the replace is leaner. And Edwards doesn’t rush via the lyrics. Inserting pauses on two key traces (“You could have phrases/ With him” and “And he’ll kiss/ Your lips”) provides appreciable drama.
A re-release of the 1951 “conventional pop” model would doubtless not have succeeded in 1958 – music had modified lots within the intervening seven years – however the re-recording was a smash. It reached No. 1 on the Scorching 100 in seven weeks, bumping Domenico Modugno’s “Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blue (Volare)” (which went on to win Grammys for document and tune of the yr) from the highest spot in September 1958. “It’s All within the Recreation” remained on prime for six consecutive weeks, earlier than being changed by Conway Twitty’s “It’s Solely Make Consider.”
Sadly, Dawes died in April 1951, shortly earlier than Sigman added lyrics to his tune, so he by no means knew that the little ditty he wrote 40 years earlier was about to change into a success, and later, a timeless traditional.
Edwards returned to the highest 20 on the Scorching 100 thrice by 1960, with “Love Is All We Want,” “Please Mr. Solar” and “I Actually Don’t Wish to Know.” He died in 1969 at age 47 resulting from issues from cirrhosis of the liver.
“It’s All within the Recreation” has returned to the highest 30 on the Scorching 100 twice. British pop singer Cliff Richard took it to No. 25 in 1964. Motown greats the 4 Tops took it to No. 24 in 1970. As well as, Eddie Holman featured the tune because the B-side of “Hey There Lonely Woman,” a No. 2 Scorching 100 hit in 1970.
The 4 Tops’ recording made the highest 10 on what was then known as Finest Promoting Soul Singles. The tune was additionally a giant nation hit, making it a real multi-format smash. Tom T. Corridor’s single reached No. 12 in 1977 on what was then known as Scorching Nation Singles.
Quite a few different artists have recorded the tune, together with Barry Manilow, on his Billboard 200-topping album The Best Songs of the Fifties (2006), and George Benson on his double-live album Weekend in L.A., which made the highest 5 in 1978. The tune additionally appeared on prime 10 albums by pianist Roger Williams, bandleader Lawrence Welk and actor/singer George Maharis (an everyday on Route 66).
Donny & Marie Osmond recorded the tune in 1975. Earlier that yr, they’d a prime 10 hit on the Scorching 100 with “Morning Facet of the Mountain,” which was Edwards’ first chart hit in 1951, proper earlier than “It’s All within the Recreation.”
Different artists to have recorded “It’s All within the Recreation” embody Ricky Nelson, Keely Smith, Robert Goulet, Andy Williams, The Lettermen, Sandy Posey, Bobby Vinton, Bing Crosby, Brook Benton, Freddy Fender, Van Morrison, Issac Hayes, Glenn Jones, Merle Haggard & the Strangers and Johnny Mathis & Take 6.
Along with being the one future VP to have written or co-written a No. 1 Scorching 100 hit, Dawes is certainly one of simply two individuals credited with writing or co-writing a No. 1 hit who’ve additionally gained a Nobel Prize. He shares that distinction with Bob Dylan, whose many hits embody “Mr. Tambourine Man,” a No. 1 for The Byrds in 1965. Dawes was a co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1925 for his work on the Allied Reparations Fee, the place he helped formulate the Dawes Plan to assist the struggling German financial system. Dylan gained the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016.
Sigman, the lyricist of “It’s All within the Recreation,” wrote many well-known songs over the course of his lengthy profession, together with “Pennsylvania 6-5000,” “Loopy He Calls Me,” “Ebb Tide,” “What Now My Love,” “You’re My World” and “(The place Do I Start) Love Story.” He was inducted into the Songwriters Corridor of Fame in 1972 and died in 2000 at age 91.
CBS Night Information anchor Norah O’Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS’ Face the Nation are set to average Tuesday’s VP debate.
