Music of the 1950s reflected a popular culture enamored by UFOs, aliens, and robots. R&B singer Roy Milton and his band The Solid Senders recorded “Flying Saucer” in 1952. Labeled “D.J. Sample, Not for Sale,” the 78 rpm record on display is from blues legend B.B. King’s personal collection.

Jesse Lee Turner’s 1958 single “Little Space Girl” was a one-hit wonder of Earth-alien romance:

Cause you and me and me and you

We don’t even look alike

Cause you’ve got four arms

The better to hold you

Three lips

The better to kiss you

Three eyes

All the better to see

I can really rock and swing

Cause I’ve got more of everything

Written in 1954, Frank Sinatra released his adaptation of “Fly Me to the Moon” on the 1964 LP album It Might as Well Be Swing recorded with Count Basie and arranged by Quincy Jones. This version of the song became closely associated with NASA, playing on board both the Apollo 10 mission (the second to orbit the moon) and on the moon landing mission of Apollo 11.

Released in 1969, the same year that the Apollo 11 crew successfully completed their mission, was R&B artist Joe Simon’s “Moon Walk, Part 1.” In the lyrics, the singer’s romantic frustrations have him “doin’ the moon walk,” providing dance instructions to “just walk along and bounce” and later “Here come some rocks/A little of that moon dust/Put it in your bag/Walk on home with it now.”