TV’s TOP Tunes

“TV’s Top Tunes” was a musical variety show that showcased the best singing artists and bands of the day. They would have on Big Bands, Jazz Bands and Orchestras playing music live. The series premiered on 2 July 1951 on the “CBS” TV network. The show premiered exactly 1 week after “CBS” began regularly scheduled commercial colorcasts on its’ five station network on the East Coast. The year of 1951 was a historic one in TV History as a lot of major long running shows began broadcasting this year. During the early days of TV shows premiered all throughout the year not just in the Fall. Those shows were “Dragnet” on 3 Jan., “Amos and Andy” on 28 Jun., “What’s My Line?” on 16 Jul., “Search For Tomorrow” on 3 Sep., “Love of Life” on 24 Sep., “I Love Lucy” on 15 Octand “The Roy Rogers Show” on 30 Dec. In 1951 the number of households that owned TV’s went from 10,200,000 in 1950 to 15,300,000. “TV’s Top Tunes” was only 15 minutes in length and the series ran for 4 seasons ending its’ run on 3 September 1955. The show aired every other weekday on Monday, Wednesday & Friday nights at 7:45 PM. The first season was co-hosted by Actor and Singer “Mel Torme”, Actress & Singer “Peggy Lee” as well as the singing group “The Fontane Sisters”. Some of the Great musical artists of the day that appeared on the show were “Frank Fontaine”, “Frankie Lane”, “Jimmy Dorsey”, “Julius LaRosa”, “Kitty Kallen”, “Patti Page”, “Ray Anthony”, “Tommy Dorsey”, “Tommy Mercer”, “The Skyliners” and many others. From July 1955 to the day it went off the air on 3 September 1955 it expanded to a 30-minute show and aired on Saturday night at 10 PM.