1955 Top Ten Songs: Burn That Candle (#9)

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Welcome to a new week, but the same old countdowns. Today, for your dining and dancing (emphasis on dancing) pleasure, I present another one of those early rock/rockabilly pioneers that you’ve never heard of. How DO I find them? Heck if I know! Just enjoy this song that’s 70 years old now. #9: Burn That Candle - Charline Arthur The story goes that Charlie Arthur was born in the boxcar of a train in 1929. Only in Texas, right? She was quite the musical prodigy, playing a number of instruments (and making her own “cigar box guitar” when she was six). Colonel Tom Parker (Elvis’ manager later, but Hank Snow’s manager at the time) found Arthur and used his pull with Snow to get her on RCA Records. The problem was, Chet Atkins didn’t think a lot of the rockabilly/jump blues/slightly suggestive (for the time) songs that she did. He thought she should be a “prim and proper lady” like all the other female country singers. (Needless to say, this was before Patsy Cline, or Patsy would have stormed into Atkins’ office with Charline and told him where to stick it!) No doubt that feud with the top A&R man in Nashville hurt her career severely. (Did Atkins deliberately sabotage Arthur’s career? Who knows…it’s entirely possible.) Her career went down fast, and by the time she died from atherosclerosis in 1987 at the young age of 58 she had been totally forgotten. However, historical discography labels like Bear Family came into existence, found her music, released it, and introduced her to an entirely new generation of fans (like me). This rocking little ditty was written by Winfield Scott (the same man who wrote “Tweedlee Dee,” used earlier in the countdown) and was a hit earlier in 1955 by Bill Haley and the Comets. I like his version, but this was the first version I heard. It smokes! Burn That Candle Written by Winfield Scott Recorded by Charline Arthur Released as a single, 1955 After we have had the wedding, mother: