Sunnyside, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, April 23, 2012.
CC Jukebox: 1959 Ford Galaxie – On The Street Where You Live
– Posted on April 15, 2016
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Curbside Classics Archives
Sunnyside, Chicago, Illinois.
Monday, April 23, 2012.
Perfect. I had to ponder for a minute or two just what old song that pic might have conjured in my own head, had I seen it without the offered pairing, but I couldn’t come up with a better one. Thanks for that.
My personal jukebox often cycles back to Nat, and Ray Charles, and Bo Diddley…
Nat and Ray had perhaps the two best voices in all of music.
Nice .
I love those Foxcraft skirts .
-Nate
Nice car, nice picture, nice tune, and a beloved favorite pop singer (and top-flight pianist).
I guess I’ll drop this ’59 Ford nugget here–from the August 1958 NADA magazine:
My Dad had a 59 Ford 2 door…..6 cylinder, 3 soeed……He drove it up until mid 1966 when it started rusting apart with 150,000 on it…..He bought a used 1965 Impala 4 door hardtop to reolace it.
Sally, thank you for posting that – so awesome to imagine what might (might not) have been if Ford hadn’t pushed this design forward for ’59.
The 1959 Ford is a car I will forever associate with Chicago. Remember the show Crime Story? It was set in Chicago and most of them drove ’59 Fords.
The first song that popped into my head when looking at the pic was Del Shannon’s “Runaway” from that Crime Story show.
Crime Story Lt. Mike Torello (played by Dennis Farina) had as his personal car a 1957 Chrysler 300C convertible. Definitely a 300C as the red tail light lens were full length.
I found the first scene on youtube, but for whatever reason it wouldn’t let me copy the address to link here.
Sitting at a diner in their ’59 Ford, the team takes off in a hurry after some guys shot up a night club. The baddies are then given a marked ’59 Ford and are chased by Torillo and Company in a black unmarked ’59.
The best line of the entire show was in this scene when Torillo tells one of the bad guys: “If you hurt anyone I am going to find whatever you love most in this world and I’m going to kill it.”
That line never fails to amuse me.
Jason, I too am a Farina fan. He was good as a TV cop, but he was great as movie gangster Ray “Bones” Barbone in “Get Shorty”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQS16P2m2Lc
Maybe this will work.
A good pairing, and there is no such thing as too much Nat King Cole (though I tend to prefer his earlier stuff with the King Cole Trio – Sally Sublette is right, Nat was awsome at the keyboard.)
The 2 door sedan version has to be relatively rare in upscale Galaxie trim on these ’59s.
1959 sure gave a person a fairly broad choice when shopping the low priced 3. The square and conservative Ford, the wild batwing Chevy and the still-attractive Forward Look Plymouth.
Thanks, JPC. According to my encyclopedia, this was one of 52,848 ’59 Galaxie 2-door Club Sedans produced for the model year, starting at $2,528 (~$20,700 in 2016). This was out of about 470,000 total Galaxies for ’59. I wonder how many survived, and also how many are still street-parked. 🙂
When Spring finally arrives in Chicago, the flowers bloom and the collector cars are on the streets!
Love it! +10
Nat King Cole was the king of cool. Vic Damone also did a very nice version of this song.
Thanks, everyone – I’m glad you liked this one. About the song, I believe Vic Damone’s fine rendition charted highest on the Billboard Hot 100. Nat King Cole’s bossa nova-tinged version is probably my favorite. Bon weekend!
Now I have that Del Shannon Runaway song stuck in my head….its been repeating over and over now in my mind.
Wonderful.
Time for a Laurence/Joseph CC Coffee Table Book.
As for “On the Street Where You Live” I prefer the Dean Martin version all the way and have the LP…but Vic Damone is truly underrated.
A ’59 Ford four door sedan was the last car owned by my maternal grandmother. whose bad-driving exploits were the stuff of legend within the family.
To my uncle: “Tell me when I hit something..” Whereupon she threw the car intoreverse, and backed out until her progress was arrested with a resounding crunch.
Uncle (cheerfully) “You hit.’
Heard this song just the other day on Crystal Clear Digital Radio.
What a beautiful song.
I wish this was on the street where I live. Sure beats a Vauxhall Corsa either side…….
Always thought the ’59 Fords were handsome and conservatively stylish. The buying public must have thought so as well, as this was one of the rare years back then that Ford beat Chevy in sales.