Top Ten Tuesday: KTOP (1490 AM, Topeka KS), 01/02/56

There’s very little data on KTOP in Topeka other than they’re now a sports-talk station carrying ESPN programming. Based on the date of this survey, I’d say they’ve been around at least 65 years, and at the beginning of 1956 were broadcasting a Top 40 format. Here’s their Top Ten from January 2, 1956.

#	Song/Artist	Remarks
10	Gee Whittakers! Pat Boone	It wouldn’t be a Top Ten survey from the ’50’s without at least contribution from Mr. White Bucks himself. “Gee Whittakers!” peaked at #19.
9	I Hear You Knockin’ Gale Storm	The star of My Little Margie and The Gale Storm Show was also a singer of some note. Between the two series she had time to record this cover of Fats Domino’s hit song and take it to #2, her personal best.
8	Angels In The Sky The Crew-Cuts	Despite the fact that they called themselves The Crew-Cuts, none of them appear to have worn their hair in one. Nevertheless, they took this song by Dick Glasser to #13.
7	Teenage Prayer Gale Storm	Yes, Gale had two songs in the Top Ten at the same time. This only reached #6.
6	Burn That Candle Bill Haley & His Comets	I can’t for the life of me figure which movie this is from or even if the person who made the video just put it with a scene from the movie because he liked the dancers. Regardless, Bill and crew took this to #9.
5	Poor Me Fats Domino	“Poor Me” made it to #1 on the R&B chart, but only to #47 on the Cash Box Top 100 and not at all onto Billboard‘s chart.
4	Love And Marriage Frank Sinatra	Frank Sinatra must have really liked the music of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, and Lord knows it liked him, too. He took this to #5 in the US and #3 in the UK. This was the version used for the TV show Married…With Children.
3	The Great Pretender The Platters	Buck Ram, the Platters’ manager and producer who had been a successful songwriter, wrote “The Great Pretender” and Tony Williams sang lead on it. It reached #1 on the Top 100 and R&B chart and #5 in the UK.
2	Sixteen Tons Tennessee Ernie Ford	This is, simply, a great song, and no one could sing it like Tennessee Ernie Ford. I love how the band lays low while he sings the verses so all you hear are his voice and the finger snaps, and he makes the song look much easier than I’m sure it was. It spent ten weeks at #1 on the country chart, then crossed over and spent another 8 weeks at #1 on the Top 100.
1	Memories Are Made Of This Dean Martin	Dean’s backup singers on this record were Terry Gilkyson, Richard Dehr, and Frank Miller, the authors of the song, appearing as The Easy Riders. The song reached #1 on the Top 100 for five weeks.