The 7 Best Albums of 1955 Ranked

1955 was the year that American recorded music changed drastically. To a white mainstream audience, seemingly out of nowhere, came rock and roll. Within the next few years, it would become the accepted paradigm. But in 1955, the huge success of Bill Haley & His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock,” the biggest hit of the year and a white-fronted adaptation of the sound pioneered by Black artists over at least the previous five years, had just heralded a new era. Elvis Presley linked up with Colonel Tom Parker and got signed to RCA, Chuck Berry, Etta James, and Little Richard recorded their first singles, and semi-veteran artists like Fats Domino were facing great success. And yet, because no change is made overnight nor is it all-encompassing, the older mode of pop music held on. And in album form, it wouldn’t be until the next year that rock pioneers would sell their music through long-playing records. So in this evaluation of the best albums of 1955, not a single rock and roll artist appears; that also indicates the fact that crooners, jazz musicians, and country stars did not disappear after Elvis started shaking his hips on stage or television.

#7 — BANTU CHORAL FOLK SONGS — Pete Seeger

Favorite track: “Babevuya (Wedding Song)”

Pete Seeger will forever be one of the great folk music artists. From his work with The Almanac Singers and The Weavers to his exciting yet underheard 1950s solo work, Seeger had a singular way of getting at the nature of humanity with his music. With the Song Swappers, a choral group that often performed with Seeger at this time, he created an album that honored and interpreted South African folk music: BANTU CHORAL FOLK SONGS. Recording various songs used in rituals and work, Seeger arranges beautiful harmonies for his chorus and accompanies with a lively banjo, and if I’m not mistaken, throws in his own powerful voice here and there as well. The result is a soulful record that is certainly less Les Baxter (as in, “exotic” and othering) and more respectful of unique sounds and song structures. BANTU CHORAL FOLK SONGS is a unique and stirring take on “world music” that was gaining ground in America in the 1950s.

#6 — SATCH PLAYS FATS — Louis Armstrong

Favorite track: “All That Meat and No Potatoes”

Louis Armstrong’s tribute album to the compositions of the innovative Harlem pianist, composer, and bandleader is effective in that it carries the energy of Fats Waller’s own recordings while immediately associating itself with a newer production sound and Armstrong’s instincts. I mean, it’s hard to divorce oneself from that immortal Armstrong voice, let alone his singular trumpet style. SATCH PLAYS FATS, by design, is old-fashioned for 1955. However, in an era where great strides were being made in avant-garde jazz and associated mainstreaming of those experimental ideas, Armstrong plays with grace in the mode he helped pioneer. In working with Waller’s compositions, the trumpeter and vocalist leads a vital band on SATCH PLAYS FATS.

#5 — MISS SHOW BUSINESS — Judy Garland

Favorite track: “Over the Rainbow”

MISS SHOW BUSINESS was one of Judy Garland’s first albums not explicitly tied to her movie and soundtrack work. Indeed, although it carries her theatricality and still powerful voice, the record mostly runs with traditional folk tunes and old pop standards. The orchestration and arrangement is updated and lush, however, and it all plays into the record’s conceit that you are listening to a consummate professional at work. MISS SHOW BUSINESS concludes with a more somber take on “Over the Rainbow,” the one concession to Garland’s larger-than-life image, and that finale beautifully anchors what is otherwise a mostly upbeat experience.

#4 — CHET BAKER SINGS AND PLAYS — Chet Baker

Favorite track: “Let’s Get Lost”

Following up his successful CHET BAKER SINGS from the year prior (one of my favorites of 1954, actually), the vocalist/trumpeter continued the West Coast cool sound onto CHET BAKER SINGS AND PLAYS. Although it’s a slightly less good album than its predecessor, SINGS AND PLAYS still carries Chet Baker’s sweetly reedy voice and, of course, his horn skills for a laid back listen. A song like “Let’s Get Lost” has more pep than anything on the SINGS album, but in general, SINGS AND PLAYS is just a great continuation of that approach. Baker’s almost aloof style of singing and playing doesn’t mean that there’s no emotion behind his music, but instead, that the affectation swirls the sound into something enveloping and almost mystical. SINGS AND PLAYS is not a jazz revolution, but it’s a damn good dip into cool.

#3 — RAMBLIN’ MAN — Hank Williams

Favorite track: “Ramblin’ Man”

The last of the original Hank Williams posthumous albums that collected “old” singles for the first time in LP form, RAMBLIN’ MAN carries a theme informed by its title. Its songs embody the lonesome Williams, the low-down and sometimes unsure country guitarist and singer who was retroactively enshrined with flawless hero worship. The imperfections of the characters present on RAMBLIN’ MAN, communicated through powerfully simple lyrics, are wonderfully accompanied by Williams’ effective song structure and the out-of-time reverberations of Don Helms’ steel guitar. The record isn’t quite all killer no filler, but it comes close. RAMBLIN’ MAN’s presence on this list serves as a farewell to an artist who has appeared the most in my celebrations of the albums of the early 1950s.

#2 — GOOFING-OFF SUITE — Pete Seeger

Favorite track: “Opening Theme”

Seeger’s GOOFING-OFF SUITE is a total knockout surprise of an album. As has been illustrated by his earlier appearance on this list and others, I can always expect to enjoy, often on a deep level, his version of Americana. But something I wasn’t quite prepared for was his artistic boldness in this period of his career, including BANTU CHORAL FOLK SONGS and GOOFING-OFF SUITE. The latter album is a tale of two approaches. On side one, Seeger crafts incredible banjo-based arrangements of atmospheric classical and original compositions. Side two has a more “typical” folk song flair, lyrical tunes that nevertheless play just as wonderfully as the works found on the more atypical flipside. Listening to GOOFING-OFF SUITE has become an almost rhapsodic experience for me, whisking me off to an almost surreal musical plane right from the jump with its “Opening Theme.”

#1 — IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS — Frank Sinatra

Favorite track: “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”

There was no other place this list was going to end up. IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS, Frank Sinatra’s magnum opus, cemented his artistic and commercial comeback after a fallow early 1950s. With Nelson Riddle’s incredibly substantial help in the form of whimsical and somber, yet not wholly depressing, arrangements, Sinatra communicates with his voice and words an ode to exquisite heartbreak. Claims that IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS was the first concept record are not correct, but it is true that the 12-inch long-player, which ran a whopping 48 minutes, played an immense role in popularizing the album as the artistic measurement for music, and the way performers made their biggest and boldest stabs at the form. The record’s place in history is assured by these contributions to both Sinatra’s career and the music industry in general, but it’s important to note that it still sounds incredible today. The (nearly) title track is a wonderful opener, proclaiming that IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS is going to be a dive into something “deeper.” But the album never loses its mass tear-jerking appeal, constantly serving up instrumentation that perfectly blends with Sinatra’s stellar voice (it had never sounded better) to make for a heart-stirring listen for the ages. IN THE WEE SMALL HOURS is not only the best album of 1955, but also one of the best albums of all time and quite probably the best of Sinatra’s vast career.