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.
