CoronaVinyl Day 277 (V): Sail Along Silv'ry Moon by Billy Vaughn

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "V," and all I have left from "V" artists are two Billy Vaughn albums, so we're going with his 1958 album Sail Along Silv'ry Moon.

Back on Festivus, I featured Vaughn's 1960 album Billy Vaughn Plays The Million Sellers, so i won't go too deep into Vaughn's background again, but in case you already forgot, he was a successful orchestra leader in the '50s and '60s.

As with Billy Vaughn Plays The Million Sellers, Sail Along Silv'ry Moon is a jazzy collection of pop and instrumental standards played by Vaughn's orchestra.  It's the kind of music you can imagine your grandparents listening to on an old Victrola instead of that confounded rock and roll the kids were listening to.

The album did pretty well, reaching #5 on the Billboard album chart, and it spawned three Top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100.  The title track was originally a hit for Bing Crosby in 1937, and Vaughn's version did just as well, reaching #5 on the Billboard Hot 100, #1 on the pop charts in Canada, Germany, and Norway, and #4 in Australia.  It was a big enough hit that it came it at #6 on Billboard's Year-End singles chart in 1958.

"Raunchy" was a contemporary instrumental rock and roll song by Bill Justis.  It's famous as the song that a 14-year-old George Harrison played for Paul McCartney and John Lennon that convinced them to let George join The Quarrymen, which, of course, became The Beatles.  Vaughn's sax-forward version of the song went to #10 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Finally, Vaughn's dreamy version of "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" -- originally a 1934 western song by The Sons of Pioneers, whose 1946 version of the song was famously featured at the beginning of The Big Lebowski -- went to #30 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Favorite song on Side 1:  "Sweet Georgia Brown"
You probably know "Sweet Georgia Brown" as the theme song of the Harlem Globetrotters.  Vaughn's version is pleasant.

Favorite song on Side 2:  "Raunchy"
Even if this wasn't related to The Beatles in any way, I would still pick it as my favorite off of Side 2 because it's got more punch and grit than most of the songs on the album.  I actually like it better than the original.