The Top 20 Best Hit Songs Of 1955: No.2 The Penguins - Earth Angel

(Highest Chart Position:   No. 12)

There’s something so very innocent about “Earth Angel.”  Perhaps because it is the sound of a teenage crush.  Perhaps because it is the sound of 100% pure idealism.  

Perhaps it’s the romantic in me, but I like to imagine that the song was written, not in order to be a hit or anything as cynical as that, but simply in order to impress some little cutie in the neighborhood.   And then they sang it out of her window until her father came out  to tell them to scram.

 (Insert some nonsense ruminations about ”the tendency of teenage boys to create virtual pseudo religions about the girls they have a crush on” with some connection to the usage of “angel” imagery, here)

There’s even something so very innocent about the way it was recorded.  In a garage.  Can you say “authentic”?

Not to mention that it was pretty much the first hit single written by a bunch of almost teenagers (the oldest member of The Penguins had just turned 20) and inspired a mass movement of thousands of other kids - first black kids, and then everyone else - to start a doo-wop group in the late 1950s.  All you needed was a couple of friends and a corner to sing on, and as long as one of your friends could sing bass, and another could sing falsetto, you had yourself a doo-wop group!   You didn’t even need lessons.

That’s not just innocent.  It’s delightful naïve.  And that’s a beautiful thing.

THE REST OF THE TOP 20 OF 1955!

No. 20-16


No. 15-11

No. 10-6

No. 5

No. 4


No. 3