Older hit makers

Hello all
I am researching a rather obscure point and am hoping there is some
collective knowledge that can help me.
I want to know if there are any musicians who had their first hit after the
age of 50. I would prefer to know about ones who then went on to achieve

nancy13g...

Does the person have to be a "musician"? I'm sure Walter Brennan was
over 50 when he had his hit about "Old Rivers". May have been a one-hit
wonder, though. Sorry.

quester...

Actually, Walter Brennan (born 1894) hit the Top-40 charts 3 times
(matching his 3 Oscars. The first was Dutchman's Gold (in 1960, #30),
then Old Rivers (in 1962, #5), and finally Mama Sang A Song (later in
1962, #38).

more rather than to be one hit wonders.
Can anyone help? If you respond, please remove the underscore in my hotmail

R H Draney...

Lorne Greene fell just three months short when he hit number one with
"Ringo"....r

address.
Bob

quester...

Benny Bell was born in 1906 and had his first "Billboard Top-40" hit
with the novelty song "Shaving Cream" in 1975 (courtesy of Cousin
Brucie in New York and Dr. Demento, who pushed it). But the song had
first been released in 1946. I don't put Benny in the same category
as Louis Armstrong and Count Basie, but he had a number of novelty
records that sold. Without sales figures, I'm not sure if the 1946
version was considered a "hit" back then or not. But he certainly
would not have been considered famous in the same way Louis Armstrong
and Count Basie were at the time his recording made the charts.

quester...

Similarly to Louis Armstrong, Count Basie (born 1902) had his first
(and only) "Billboard Top-40 hit" in 1956 with April In Paris. So if
you just use the charts he could qualify. But according to the Joel
Whitburn entry his "best-known recording" (One O'Clock Jump) is in the
Grammy Hall Of Fame. That sounds like a "hit" to me - and that was
made in 1937. Again, this illustrates the problems involved if one
ONLY uses the charts to determine what a "hit" was for older artists,
especially those who were famous for a long time. From your post, I'm
GUESSING that you are looking for someone who was not famous prior to
the age of 50 and first became famous, had that "first hit" after the

John Dean...

It's going to depend on how you define "hit" and which country's hit parade
you care about, not to mention whether you have an accurate idea of the
actual d.o.b.
But Louis Armstrong was allegedly born in 1900 or 1901 and his first UK
chart entry was in 1952. And Duke Ellington (b. 1899) only had one UK hit
and that was in 1954. Muddy Waters (1915) eventually had a UK hit in 1988.

age of 50.

quester...

Charles Randolph Grean (Sounde), born 1913, had his only appearance on
the Billboard Top-40 at #13 in 1969 with "Quentin's Theme" (from the
vampiric soap opera "Dark Shadows").

Gunther Anderson...

Interesting - he wrote the Billboard Song ("Smoke Coca-Cola cigarettes,
chew Wrigley's spearmint beer...") with Cy Coben, and I suspect it
charted, if ever, well before 1963, though it would have been recorded
by someone else. Any record of it actually charting, or was it merely a
hit in thousands of summer camps?

Gunther Anderson

quester...

It didn't make the Billboard Top-40. Only a few Novelty songs do.
Summer camps are a niche market where such things are much more
popular than with the overall population. BUT -

It looks like Homer and Jethro put out a version in the 50s, so one
might need to check the Country charts instead of Billboard. There
seem to be many versions floating around, too, and some of them seem
clearly aimed at products popular before the 50s, i.e. before
Billboard was around. So it's possible that it was a "hit" in the 30s
or 40s. But again, novelty records rarely qualified as "hits".

This underscores the fact that Billboard is a limited tool to use.
It's a good starting place, but then additional research needs to be
done.

quester...

John already mentioned the UK side for Louis Armstrong. On the
American side, using "Billboard Top-40" as criteria for a "hit", Louis
(born in 1901) had his "first hit" in 1956 (A Theme from the
Threepenny Opera, aka Mack the Knife). He followed it up another hit
in 1956 (Blueberry Hill), another in 1964 (Hello Dolly) and another
in 1988 (What A Wonderful World).

But considering his fame prior to the beginning of the Billboard
Charts I don't think he should qualify. By 1929 he was considered to
be the most widely known black musician in the world. You would have
to use some other definition of "hit" back then, sales of records or
even sales of sheet music.

You're going to have the same problem on other artists who might
otherwise qualify. If they were musically famous prior to the
existence of the charts that are easily referenced (like Billboard),
what is your basis for deciding if they had had "hits" or not?