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In my opinion, a pop standard is any song that has been performed or recorded by several people. Something that when you hear the words you are able to sing along. Or for lack of a better term we could refer to them as covers. Some may disagree with me stating that a pop standard, a rock standard, or any standard for that matter is the original version that we remember (the one that was drilled into the heads of the world). Read the first line again…I hope this conveys….if everyone is singing it it’s part of our lives.
A Traditional standard could be anything that we recognize, “White Christmas”, “Yesterday”, or “Let’s Twist Again”. We recognize all those songs, even “Mary had a Little Lamb” is a traditional standard. “White Christmas” is a widely popular Christmas song recorded many times and synonymous with the holiday. “Yesterday” from the Beatles catalogue was at one time the most recorded song in history being covered over 3000 times by 1995. “Let’s twist again” is a song made famous by Chubby Checker and has been covered only by a few. But when you hear Chubby sing it you can’t help but turn it up. We know all the words and never tire of hearing it.
“White Christmas”, “Yesterday”, “Let’s Twist again” all standards not all pop but very traditional. So in the future just know that I’m posting from the heart with a love of traditional pop music. I’m probably not sticking to the format. But we’ll leave the retrospective stuff for John. I think I will eventually get back there but…today we’re going to play something that you know.
Here are in my opinion are three popular standards that in their own way are not only traditional but something that in the near future we won’t be forgetting.
The version of “White Christmas” I’ve chosen is by Louis Armstrong. I love how he sings it. Certainly not the best version but for nostalgia and something other than Bing Crosby I think he’s a good example of timing and style. If you don’t know who Louis Armstrong is…listen to the voice and you’ll remember…”what a wonderful world it can be”… 
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“Yesterday” as performed by Ed Ames. This is a hard version to find and I am still not sure where I got it. It was on an old reel to reel that I got of music that someone in my family recorded back in the 70’s when they thought that records were going out of style. So they taped all their records and put this on a reel. The record outlasted the reel…but I still have the reel that was recorded yesterday. Hoping that you enjoy this version. It’s a step away from “Daniel Boone” or his ax wielding appearance on Johnny Carson in the 60’s. I’m going to save the history for later. This song was recorded after “My Cup Runneth Over”. Ed Ames is a favorite and I hope you like his version of this Beatles standard.
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Although we know the Chubby Checker version I have included a version by the French Elvis, Johnny Halladay. He’s still one of France’s biggest stars he has 18 platinum albums and has done shows for over 15 million people. Here he sings in English “Let’s Twist Again”. Even with a little french accent we still know this American pop music standard. He may not be able to touch Chubby but he sure gives him a run for his money.
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I hope you enjoy these songs as much as I did finding them. Just remember a standard is a frame of mind. I’m going to keep mine open. Just because it’s what we remember doesn’t mean someone else can’t do it better or equally as good in their own right. Coke a Cola said they’d like to teach the world to sing…and so did Jim Nabors. So in closing I’d like to include Gomer Pyle singing the American pop song “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” from his 1960’s television show “The Jim Nabors Hour”.
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Weather you prefer Pepsi or coke, grab one and sing along. Music is the universal language and maybe one day the world will sing along. It just takes one voice to teach, maybe yours will lead the way.
EDITORS NOTE:
Thanks Aaron for this great post. I’ll like to add my two cents so I thought I include a few videos of the songs or artists you wrote about.
My original intention was to find a clip of Louis doing “White Christmas” but there were none to be found. So I got the next best thing–Louis singing “It’s A Wonderful World”.
Here’s Ed Ames singing “My Cup Runneth Over” as well as some of his other big hits.
Johnny Halladay performing “Blue Suede Shoes” on a rare television appearance.
Finally we have the original Coke television commercial which introduced “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” to the world. The song went on to be an international sensation.
[tags]traditional pop music, pop standards, popular standards, american pop music, american pop song[/tags]
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