Your Hit Parade

This extremely popular musical series was first broadcast in 1935 on the radio and then on television in 1950. Lucky Strike cigarettes was the sponsor of the Saturday evening show that featured the most popular songs of the day played by orchestra leaders and singers.

Announcers on the top rated show included Ben Grauer on NBC and then Andre Baruch when the show went to CBS. When the musical variety program first opened its vocalists included Gogo DeLys, Kay Thompson and Charles Carlisle, among others. The orchestra was originally led by Lennie Hayton and then guest orchestras such as Freddie Rich, Ray Sinatra and Al Goodman rotated their talents.

Your Hit Parade reflected the ultimate pop culture of the day and thousands of fans listened in rapture as the exciting “countdown to the Number One song” from a group of 15, was hyped. There were drums and trumpets to announce the top song of the week.

Disc jockeys on the radio hadn’t made their debut as yet, so Your Hit Parade was the final word in the popularity of songs of the day. Tin Pan Alley were the only ones who ever questioned the tabulations of Your Hit Parade – which were calculated in the American Tobacco offices – in secret. Actually, the results weren’t known until 8:30 on Saturday evening and the orchestras and/or singers couldn’t rehearse until that time.

Some radio aficionados claim that the show was copied from the old Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra which ran on NBC from 1928 until 1931. Lucky Strike was a genius when it came to advertising and “catch” phrases such as “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet,” and “It’s toasted,” when describing its best-selling cigarette.

There were large turnovers in personnel during the time that Your Hit Parade Series was on the radio. Over 52 singers and 19 orchestra leaders led the show during its 24-years of broadcasting. Stars such as Joan Edwards and Ethel Smith were featured on the show, and Frank Sinatra brought groups of screaming teenaged bobbysoxer fans to the hit show.

In 1947, Your Hit Parade made the move to Hollywood, where Sinatra returned to the show and brought his own orchestra leader, Axel Stordahl from the Tommy Dorsey group. Sinatra and Stordahl appeared on the show until 1949.

No one knew what types of songs would be featured on each week’s episodes of Your Hit Parade. It could be Christmas or other seasonal songs that hung around until the season was over and was then replaced by more lasting hits such as Buttons and Bows, I’ll Be Seeing You and Some Enchanted Evening.

Your Hit Parade Series also had a great run on television, running simultaneously with the radio broadcast. Dorothy Collins, Snooky Lanson and Gisele MacKenzie were the popular singers on the television version.

Happy listening my friends,