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This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1951.

Specific locations

  • 1951 in British music
  • 1951 in Norwegian music

Specific genres

  • 1951 in country music
  • 1951 in jazz

Events

  • January 29 – Nilla Pizzi wins the first annual Sanremo Music Festival with "Grazie dei fiori".
  • February 22 – The first complete performance of Charles Ives's Symphony No. 2, written between 1897 and 1902, is given in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
  • March 3-5 – Jackie Brenston "and His Delta Cats" (actually Ike Turner's Kings of Rhythm) record "Rocket 88" at Sam Phillips' Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, a candidate for the first rock and roll record (released in April).
  • March 5 – The Suk Trio, consisting of Josef Suk (violinist), Jiří Hubička (pianist) and Saša Večtomov (cellist), make their debut, at the Rudolfinum Hall in Prague (Czechoslovakia).
  • April 4 – Frankie Laine, newly signed by Columbia Records, becoming the highest paid vocalist of his day, immediately justifies his new contract by recording the double-sided megahit "Jezebel"/"Rose, Rose, I Love You", the latter being the only major popular music chart hit in the United States written by a Chinese composer (Chen Gexin).
  • April 18 – An article entitled "The Fight Against Formalism in Art and Literature, for a Progressive German Culture" appears in the Tägliche Rundschau, official daily of the Soviet Government in Germany, promulgating the new cultural policy of the DDR.
  • May 9–26 – The Queen Elisabeth Competition for violin is held (for the first time under that name) in Brussels, Belgium. Leonid Kogan is awarded first prize.
  • June 9 – Joseph Haydn's opera L'anima del filosofo, better known by its alternative title Orfeo ed Euridice and written in 1791–92, is given its world premiere at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino.
  • June 14 – Bill Haley and His Saddlemen record their version of "Rocket 88", combining the rhythm and blues arrangement of the version recorded in early March by Jackie Brentson with country music trappings.
  • June 22 – July 10 – Darmstädter Internationale Ferienkurse held in Darmstadt.
  • July 2–14 – The seventh annual Cheltenham Music Festival is held in Cheltenham, England, with a performance of Brian Easdale's opera The Sleeping Children, premieres of the first symphonies of Malcolm Arnold, John Gardner and Arnold van Wyk, Franz Reizenstein's Serenade for Winds and Maurice Jacobson's Symphonic Suite, as well as performances of works by Humphrey Searle, Robert Masters, Benjamin Frankel and Philip Sainton.
  • July 11 – Disc jockey and music promoter Alan Freed broadcasts his first Rhythm and blues radio programme from station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio. Freed uses the term rock and roll to describe R&B, in an effort to introduce the music to a broader white audience.
  • July 14–21 – The Haslemere Music Festival, consisting of six concerts of early music, takes place in Haslemere, England.
  • July 29 – The annual Bayreuth Festival resumes for the first time since the Second World War, now under the general direction of Wieland Wagner, with an opening concert of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, followed by productions of Der Ring des Nibelungen, Parsifal and Die Meistersinger.
  • August – The annual Salzburg Festival takes place in Salzburg, Austria, featuring four opera productions from the Vienna State Opera: Mozart's Idomeneo and Die Zauberflöte and Verdi's Otello, all conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Berg's Wozzeck, conducted by Karl Böhm, as well as seven orchestral concerts by the Vienna Philharmonic (two conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler and one each by Edwin Fischer, Rafael Kubelík, Eugen Jochum, Karl Böhm, and Leopold Stokowski), six choral concerts, four chamber-music concerts, three solo recitals, and a number of smaller events.
  • September 5 – Opening of the month-long Berlin Festival of the Arts, with a performance in the New Schillertheater of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 by the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. Subsequent musical events include performances of Gian Carlo Menotti's The Consul, Benjamin Britten's Let's Make an Opera and the first German performance of Oklahoma!.
  • September 11 – The Rake's Progress, an opera by Igor Stravinsky with libretto by W. H. Auden and Chester Kallman, premieres in Venice, conducted by the composer.
  • September 17–22 – The fourth annual Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts opens in Swansea, Wales, with a controversial speech by one of Wales's leading composers, Daniel Jones. The festival is the final component in the Festival of Britain and consists of seven programmes, featuring Welsh composer Arwel Hughes's new oratorio St. David and appearances by Victoria de los Ángeles, Zino Francescatti, André Navarra, Walter Susskind and Jean Martinon.
  • October 6–7 – The Donaueschinger Musiktage features the world premieres of Ernst Krenek's Double Concerto for viola, piano, and small orchestra, Rolf Liebermann's Piano Sonata, Pierre Boulez's Polyphonie X for 18 solo instruments, Hermann Reutter's Der himmlische Vagant, lyrische Portrait des F. Villon von Klabund for alto and baritone voices and instrumental ensemble, and Marcel Mihalovici's Étude en deux parties for piano and ensemble, as well as German first performances of works by Messiaen, Guido Turchi, Harsányi, Jelinek, and Honegger, and a performance of Henze's Third Symphony.
  • October 21 – Opening of a "Festival of Music and the Arts" at Wexford in Ireland, the forerunner of Wexford Festival Opera.
  • October 22 – Reopening of the Royal Opera House, London, with a production of Puccini's Turandot, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli and with Gertrude Grob-Prandl in the title role.
  • November 29 – December 3 – The Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt, plays four concerts in London as part of a thirteen-concert tour of England and Ireland.
  • December 7 – Opening of the opera season at La Scala in Milan, three weeks earlier than the traditional date of December 26, with a double-bill consisting of Verdi's I vespri siciliani and Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress.
  • December 28 - John Serry collaborates with Nicola Paone (the "Italian Bing Crosby") in a recording for RCA Victor In New York City.

Albums released

  • Ballin' the Jack – Georgia Gibbs
  • Beloved Hymns – Bing Crosby
  • Bing and the Dixieland Bands – Bing Crosby
  • Bing Sings Victor Herbert – Bing Crosby
  • Blue Period – Miles Davis
  • Country Style – Bing Crosby
  • Dig – Miles Davis
  • Down Memory Lane – Bing Crosby
  • Folk Song Favorites – Patti Page
  • Go West, Young Man – Bing Crosby
  • Historically Speaking – Gerry Mulligan
  • Hoop-De-Doo – Ames Brothers
  • I'll See You in My Dreams – Doris Day
  • In the Evening by the Moonlight – Ames Brothers
  • Let's Polka – Frank Yankovic Orchestra (Pontiac Records PLP-520)
  • Lullaby of Broadway – Doris Day
  • Music, Maestro Please – Frankie Laine
  • On Moonlight Bay – Doris Day
  • One for My Baby – Frankie Laine
  • Porgy and Bess – Various Artists
  • Precious Memories – Bill Kenny
  • Sentimental Me – Ames Brothers
  • Sweet Leilani – Ames Brothers
  • Teresa Brewer – Teresa Brewer
  • Two Tickets to Broadway – Dinah Shore
  • Way Back Home – Bing Crosby
  • Wonderful Words – The Mills Brothers

US No 1 hit singles

These singles reached the top of US Billboard magazine's charts in 1951.

{| class="wiktable"

!First week!!Number of weeks!!Title!!Artist

|-

|March 3, 1951||align="center"|1||"If"||Perry Como

|-

|March 10, 1951||align="center"|1||"Be My Love"||Mario Lanza

|-

|March 17, 1951||align="center"|5||"If"||Perry Como

|-

|April 21, 1951||align="center"|9||"How High the Moon"||Les Paul & Mary Ford

|-

|June 23, 1951||align="center"|5||"Too Young"||Nat King Cole

|-

|July 28, 1951||align="center"|6||"Come On-a My House"||Rosemary Clooney

|-

|September 8, 1951||align="center"|8||"Because of You"||Tony Bennett

|-

|November 3, 1951||align="center"|6||"Cold, Cold Heart"||Tony Bennett

|-

|December 15, 1951||align="center"|2||"(It's No) Sin"||Eddy Howard

|-

|December 29, 1951||align="center"|11||"Cry"||Johnnie Ray & The Four Lads

|}

Biggest hit singles

The following songs achieved the highest chart positions

in the limited set of charts available for 1951.

{| class="wikitable""

! <big>#</big>

! Artist

! Title

! Year

! Country

! Chart entries

|-

| 1 || Johnnie Ray || Cry || 1951 || US || US 1940s 1 – Dec 1951, US 1 for 11 weeks Dec 1951, US BB 2 of 1951, DDD 4 of 1951, RYM 5 of 1951, POP 6 of 1952, Italy 68 of 1955, Acclaimed 1084

|-

| 2 || Nat King Cole || Unforgettable || 1951 || US || US BB 1 of 1952, POP 1 of 1952, RYM 4 of 1951, US 1940s 14 – Nov 1951, DDD 25 of 1951, Europe 63 of the 1950s, Scrobulate 78 of vocal, WXPN 500

|-

| 3 || Les Paul & Mary Ford || How High the Moon || 1951 || US || US 1940s 1 – Mar 1951, US 1 for 9 weeks Apr 1951, DDD 10 of 1951, US BB 12 of 1951, POP 12 of 1951, RYM 19 of 1951, RIAA 317, Acclaimed 514

|-

| 4 || Nat King Cole || Too Young || 1951 || US || US 1940s 1 – Apr 1951, US 1 for 5 weeks Jun 1951, POP 1 of 1951, DDD 5 of 1951, RYM 10 of 1951

|-

| 5 || Mario Lanza || Be My Love || 1951 || US || US 1940s 1 – Dec 1950, US 1 for 1 weeks Mar 1951, US BB 9 of 1951, POP 9 of 1951, Europe 79 of the 1950s, RYM 137 of 1951

|}

Top hits on record

Top R&B hits on record

  • "Rocket 88" – Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats
  • "Sixty Minute Man" – Dominoes
  • "The Glory Of Love" – Five Keys
  • "The Thrill Is Gone" – Roy Hawkins
  • "Alice In Wonderland" – w. Bob Hilliard m. Sammy Fain
  • "All In The Golden Afternoon" – w. Bob Hilliard m. Sammy Fain
  • "Allentown Jail" – w.m. Irving Gordon
  • "And So To Sleep Again" w.m. Joe Marsala & Sunny Skylar
  • "Anywhere I Wander" – w.m. Frank Loesser
  • "A-Round the Corner" – trad arr. Josef Marais
  • "Asia Minor" – w.m. Roger King Mozian
  • "A-Sleepin' At The Foot Of The Bed" – Happy Wilson, Luther Patrick
  • "Be My Life's Companion" – w.m. Bob Hilliard & Milton De Lugg
  • "Beautiful Brown Eyes" – trad arr. Arthur Smith & Alton Delmore
  • "Because of You" – w.m. Arthur Hammerstein & Dudley Wilkinson
  • "Belle, Belle, My Liberty Belle" – w.m. Bob Merrill
  • "Bermuda" – w.m. Cynthia Strother & Eugene R. Strother
  • "The Blacksmith Blues" – w.m. Jack Holmes
  • "Blue Velvet" – w.m. Bernie Wayne & Lee Morris
  • "Christopher Columbus" – w.m. Terry Gilkyson
  • "Come On-A My House" – w.m. Ross Bagdasarian & William Saroyan
  • "Cry" – w.m. Churchill Kohlman
  • "Dance Me Loose" – w. Mel Howard m. Lee Erwin
  • "Domino" – w. (Eng) Don Raye (Fr) Jacques Plante m. Louis Ferrari
  • "Getting To Know You" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "Good Morning Mister Echo" – w.m. Bill Putman & Belinda Putman
  • "Half As Much" – w.m. Curly Williams
  • "He Had Refinement" – w. Dorothy Fields m. Arthur Schwartz
  • "Hello, Young Lovers" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "Hey, Good Lookin"' – w.m. Hank Williams
  • "How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Love You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life?" – w. Alan Jay Lerner m. Burton Lane
  • "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)" – w.m. Hank Williams
  • "I Get Ideas" – w. Dorcas Cochran m. Lenny Sanders
  • "I Have Dreamed" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "I Love Lucy theme song" m. Eliot Daniel
  • "I Love The Sunshine Of Your Smile" – w. Jack Hoffman m. Jimmy MacDonald
  • "I Still See Elisa" – w. Alan Jay Lerner m. Frederick Loewe. Introduced by James Barton in the musical Paint Your Wagon. Performed in the film version by Clint Eastwood.
  • "I Talk To The Trees" – w. Alan Jay Lerner m. Frederick Loewe. Introduced by Tony Bavaar and Olga San Juan in the musical Paint Your Wagon
  • "I Whistle A Happy Tune" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "I Wish I Wuz" – w.m. Sid Kuller & Lyn Murray. Introduced in the film Slaughter Trail
  • "I Won't Cry Anymore" – w. Fred Wise m. Al Frisch
  • "I'm A Fool To Want You" – w.m. Jack Wolf, Joel Herron & Frank Sinatra
  • "I'm Late" – w. Bob Hilliard m. Sammy Fain
  • "In The Cool, Cool, Cool Of The Evening" – w. Johnny Mercer m. Hoagy Carmichael. Introduced by Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman in the film Here Comes the Groom.
  • "It's All In The Game" – w. Carl Sigman m. Charles Gates Dawes Based on "Melody" by Dawes 1912.
  • "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" – w.m. Meredith Willson
  • "Jezebel" – w.m. Wayne Shanklin
  • "A Kiss To Build A Dream On" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Harry Ruby
  • "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine" – w. Paul Campbell m. Joel Newman
  • "The Little White Cloud That Cried" – w.m. Johnnie Ray
  • "The March Of The Siamese Children" – m. Richard Rodgers
  • "Mister and Mississippi" – w.m. Irving Gordon
  • "Misto Cristofo Columbo" – w.m. Jay Livingston & Ray Evans
  • "Mockin' Bird Hill" – w.m. Vaughn Horton
  • "The Morningside Of The Mountain" – w.m. Dick Manning & Larry Stock
  • "My Truly, Truly Fair" – w.m. Bob Merrill
  • "No Two People" – w.m. Frank Loesser
  • "Sail Away" – w.m. Noël Coward
  • "Sayang di Sayang" – w. Siti Zainab
  • "Shall We Dance?" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "Somewhere Along The Way" – w. Sammy Gallop m. Kurt Adams
  • "Shanghai" – w.m. Bob Hilliard & Milton De Lugg
  • "Shrimp Boats" – w.m. Paul Mason Howard & Paul Weston
  • "(It's No) Sin" – w. Chester R. Shull m. George Hoven
  • "Slow Poke" – w.m. Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart & Chilton Price
  • "So Far, So Good" – w. Betty Comden & Adolph Green m. Jule Styne from the revue Two On The Aisle
  • "Something Wonderful" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "Sound Off" – w.m. Willie Lee Duckworth, B. Lentz
  • "Sparrow In The Tree Top" – w.m. Bob Merrill
  • "Suzy Snowflake" – w.m. Sid Tepper & Roy C. Bennett
  • "Sweet Violets" – arr. Cy Coben & Charles Grean
  • "Tell Me Why" – w. Al Alberts m. Marty Gold
  • "They Call The Wind Maria" – w. Alan Jay Lerner m. Frederick Loewe. Introduced in the musical Paint Your Wagon by Rufus Smith
  • "The Thrill Is Gone" – w.m. Rick Darnell & Roy Hawkins
  • "Thumbelina" – w.m. Frank Loesser
  • "Too Young" – w. Sylvia Dee m. Sidney Lippman
  • "Top Banana" – w.m. Johnny Mercer from the musical Top Banana (musical)
  • "The Typewriter" – m. Leroy Anderson
  • "Unforgettable" – w.m. Irving Gordon
  • "Vanity" – w. Jack Manus & Bernard Bierman m. Guy Wood
  • "Very Good Advice" – w. Bob Hilliard m. Sammy Fain
  • "A Very Merry Un-Birthday To You" – w.m. Mack David, Al Hoffman & Jerry Livingston
  • "Wand'rin' Star" – w. Alan Jay Lerner m. Frederick Loewe. Introduced by Rufus Smith, Robert Penn and Jared Reed in the musical Paint Your Wagon.
  • "We Kiss In A Shadow" – w. Oscar Hammerstein II m. Richard Rodgers
  • "When The World Was Young" – w. (Eng) Johnny Mercer (Fr) Angela Vannier m. M. Philippe-Gerard
  • "Wonderful Copenhagen" – w.m. Frank Loesser
  • "Would I Love You (Love You, Love You)" – w. Bob Russell m. Harold Spina

Classical music

Premieres

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+ Sortable table

|-

! Composer !! Composition !! Date !! Location !! Performers

|-

| Arnold, Malcolm || Symphony No. 1 in D minor || 1951-07-06 || Cheltenham (Festival), UK || Hallé Orchestra – Arnold

|-

| Bal y Gay, Jesús || Concerto Grosso || 1951-03-30 || Mexico City || Mexico National Symphony – Chávez

|-

| Berger, Arthur || Duo for violin and piano || 1951-10-19 || New York, Town Hall || Lack, [pianist]

|-

| Blomdahl, Karl-Birger || Symphony No. 3, Facetter || 1951-06-25 || Frankfurt, Germany (ISCM Festival) || Bavarian Radio Symphony – Lehmann

|-

| Boulez, Pierre || Polyphonie X || 1951-10-06 || Donaueschingen, Germany (Musiktage) || SWF Radio Symphony – Rosbaud

|-

| Britten, Benjamin || Six Metamorphoses after Ovid || 1951-06-14 || Aldeburgh, UK (Festival) || Boughton. [pianist unknown]

|-

| Cage, John || Imaginary Landscape No. 4 || 1951-05-10 || New York City ||

|-

| Cooke, Arnold || Violin Sonata No. 2 || 1951-05-17 || London || Rapaport, Cross

|-

| Dority, Bryan || "How Sweet I Roamed", for soprano and piano || 1951-12-11 || New York City, Carnegie Hall || Turash, Garvey

|-

| Dutilleux, Henri || Symphony No. 1 || 1951-06-07 || Paris || RTF National Orchestra – Désormière

|-

| Ellington, Duke || Harlem || 1951-06-20 || New York (Lewisohn Stadium) || NBC Symphony Orchestra – Ellington

|-

| Ferguson, Howard || Piano Concerto in D || 1951-06-22 || Belfast, UK || Ferguson / City of Belfast Orchestra – Mulgan

|-

| Foss, Lukas || Piano Concerto No. 2 || 1951-10-07 || Venice, Italy (Biennale) || Foss / La Fenice Philharmonic – Sanzogno

|-

| Fricker, Peter Racine || Symphony No. 2 || 1951-07-26 || Liverpool, UK || Liverpool Philharmonic – Rignold

|-

| Fulton, Norman || Sinfonia pastorale || 1951-06-? || Bournemouth, UK || Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra – [conductor unknown]

|-

| Gardner, John || Symphony No. 1, Op. 2 || 1951-07-05 || Cheltenham, UK (Festival) || Hallé Orchestra – Barbirolli

|-

| Garūta, Lūcija/Skulte, Bruno || God, Thy Earth Is Aflame cantata, completed by Skulte || Cologne, Germany || Marschner, Stockhausen

|-

| Talma, Louise || The Leaden Echo and the Golden Echo, choral dialogue || 1951-12-14 || New York, Juilliard Concert Hall || Juilliard Chorus – Hufstader

|-

| Villa-Lobos, Heitor || Fantasia for saxophone, three horns, and strings || 1951-11-17 || Rio de Janeiro, Auditório do Palácio de Cultura, || , Orquestra de Câmara do Ministério da Educação e Cultura – Villa-Lobos

|-

| van Wyk, Arnold || Symphony No. 1 in A minor || 1951-07-03