Saturday 2 January 1960, 6-6.30pm

Chairman: David Jacobs

Panel: Paul Carpenter, Peggy Cummins, Gilbert Harding, Lady Carolyn Townshend

Records played:
On The Beach – Playmates (Columbia)
I Wanna Be Loved – Ricky Nelson (London)
If I Give My Heart to You – Ketty Lester (Philips)
Marching Guitars – Bell Sounds (HMV)
Why – Frankie Avalon (HMV)
The Big Hurt – Miss Toni Fisher (Top Rank)
Love Is the Only Thing – Tennessee Ernie Ford (Capitol)
Oh Melancholy Me – Passions (HMV)

“Disgraceful! All American records on Saturday’s ‘Juke Box Jury’. Surely the producer Russell Turner should have noticed this great injustice – hardly respectful to his boss, Eric Maschwitz, former Songwriters’ Guild chairman, who greatly champions British tunes.” NME’s Alley Cat, 8 January 1960
The panel (including that long-haired beat boy Gilbert Harding) discussed the Playmates, Ricky Nelson, Kitty Kallen, the Bell Sounds, Frankie Avalon (‘Why’), Miss Toni Fisher, Tennessee Ernie Ford and the Passions. Looking at the BBC’s logs, it is absurd that the panel were asked to comment on Kitty Kallen’s ‘If I Give My Heart to You’ after just 30 seconds.
Gilbert Harding was described by NME as “television’s supreme critic and avowed hater of rock ’n’ roll.” When he was doing a DJ stint on the Light Programme, he once had to play Great Balls of Fire, but took it off halfway through and said, “That’s enough of that rubbish.”
Carolyn Townshend was one of England’s most beautiful debs. Became Lady Carolyn Capellini; married Antonio Capellini, 30, Italian landowner. She had been a TV scriptwriter.
Paul Carpenter & Peggy Cummins were actors.