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The Toppermost of the Poppermost - UK Number Ones : part 1 - The 50s

Started by daf, March 10, 2019, 03:16:57 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

daf

Quote from: machotrouts on March 19, 2019, 05:40:50 PM
Eddie, crywanking in the pews.

I'm wanking behind you
on your wedding da-a-a-ay

And I'll hear you promise
to love and obe-e-e-ey

Though you may forget me,
you're still on my mi-i-i-i-nd

Look over your shoulder,
I'm wanking behind 

machotrouts

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on March 19, 2019, 07:20:00 PMLouis Armstrong, born 1901, No. 1 hit in 1968

[checks username] You're not supposed to promote your own music Louis you ASSHOLE.

I forgot how old he was when he recorded the few songs of his I know, despite his iconic gravelly deathbed tone. I remember looking at the Louis Armstrong discography page on Wikipedia a while ago and doing a scroll wheel double take at his singles going back to 1923. And to think he's still alive today and promoting himself on CaB.

I thought Mantovani, due to be discussed here tomorrow, would nab the distinction of overall earliest-born (vocalist or non-vocalist), but his youthful 1905 ass is out by 4 years. The current world's oldest living person was born in 1903, which closes the door on a new recording surpassing Armstrong, though I suppose there's nothing stopping millennials rallying around a good old-fashioned Xavier Cugat bop if they fancy.

(1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service's 'We Have All the Time in the World' – which is a lot of words and apostrophes in a row – reached #3 in 1994 after being revived by a Guinness ad, which must be one of the larger disparities between a song's chart peak and its artist's birthdate?)

Jerzy Bondov

I'm Walking Behind You, what a boring song about what should by all rights be an interesting topic - being a creepy fucker.

I Believe is lovely but to be honest I was hankering for another go round and a bit more histrionics. Robson & Jerome know what I'm talking about. Good lads.

daf

Cue the Cascading Strings, its . . .

11.  Mantovani - The Song From The Moulin Rouge



From : 9 – 15 August 1953
Weeks : 1
B side : Vola Colomba

QuoteAnnunzio Paolo Mantovani (15 November 1905 – 29 March 1980), known as Mantovani, was an Anglo-Italian conductor, composer and light orchestra-styled entertainer with a cascading strings musical signature.
He was born in Venice, Italy, into a musical family. His father, Bismarck, served as the concertmaster of La Scala opera house's orchestra in Milan, under the baton of Arturo Toscanini. The family moved to England in 1912, where young Annunzio studied at Trinity College of Music in London. After graduation, he formed his own orchestra, which played in and around Birmingham.

He worked with arranger and composer Ronald "Ronnie" Binge, who developed the "cascading strings" effect (also known as the "Mantovani sound"). Binge developed this technique to replicate the echo experienced in venues such as cathedrals and he achieved this goal through arranging skill alone.
His records were regularly used for demonstration purposes in stores selling hi-fi stereo equipment, as they were produced and arranged for stereo reproduction. He became the first person to sell a million stereophonic records. In 1952, Binge ceased to arrange for Mantovani but the distinctive sound of the orchestra remained.

After parting ways, the BBC commissioned Binge to write a new work for the Light Music Festival, after which followed other compositions for broadcasting: The Fire God, Trade Winds, The Watermill, and his regular weekly programme String Song. In 1957 he won the Ivor Novello award for the best light orchestral composition of the year, Elizabethan Serenade.
His most known work is the 1963 composition 'Sailing By' - which is heard every night on the wireless as the theme to the BBC Shipping Forecast :
. . . Forth, Tyne, Dogger: Moderate or good, occasionally very poor . . .

QuoteThe music was written by Georges Auric. The original French lyrics were by Jacques Larue, the English words by William Engvick.
In Moulin Rouge, the theme song was sung by Muriel Smith, dubbing for Zsa Zsa Gabor who lip-synched to Smith's singing.

The most popular version of the song was made by the Canadian Percy Faith's Orchestra, with a vocal by Felicia Sanders - a Number 1 in the USA for 10 weeks from 10 May to 18 July 1953.
In the United Kingdom, the instrumental version by Mantovani was the biggest hit, on which recording the plaintive accordion theme was played by Henry Krein. This version also charted in the U.S.

Jerzy Bondov

There's no words for us to laugh at from our superior 21st century sophisticated pop culture vantage point! Quite pretty.

Captain Z

Call me a purist but I prefer the original version by All Saints.

famethrowa

Round our way "Mantovani" used to be a punchline, a byword for cheesy easy listening. But I suppose it was revolutionary stuff in those days, using the orchestra as an experimental pallette with a clever arrangement, much like producers would soon do with the studio, and paving the way for Scott Walker etc.

Also, I don't live in the UK, have never even heard the Shipping Forecast on the radio, but hearing "Sailing By" fills me with some sort of teary deep fake nostalgia. What gives??
deep


Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: daf on March 18, 2019, 02:30:00 PM

*  Another side flipper : In the UK, 'I Believe' seems to have actually been the B side!

Most 78s of the pre-rock 'n Roll Era were two equally billed songs, No such thing as A or B sides. That's why the pedants Discogs rules list this as 'Your Cheatin' Heart / I Believe' it could have been the other way around.





I don't know how they put one song higher in the chart than the other.

daf

There is actually a slight difference shown on those labels -

AA 21009 1H - Your Cheatin' Heart
AA 21009 2H - I Believe

Possibly sheet music sales would have had an influence in identifying the hit (or flop!) side - as those would have been sold separately?

Pauline Walnuts

Quote from: HodgerMccodger on March 10, 2019, 07:01:25 PM
This looks like a really interesting thread. I wondered if you were aware of Tom Ewing's blog where he reviews every Number 1, he's one of the best writers on pop that I've been able to find (although the posts have really slowed down over the last couple of years)

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/popular/

There's something charmingly old fashioned about singles reviews so long you could in the time it takes to read one you could fire up youtube, listen to it, and make your own bloody mind up. There's also something charmingly old fashioned about review with text like:


The song is a labyrinth with no centre and no minotaur. "Set me free" sings Kylie. In its maze of loops, the song inverts itself. "Stay forever and ever" sings Kylie. The obsessive stops being the singer, starts being the listener, the hooks swirling round their head. The substitution hardly feels unpleasant.

Outside Kylie's dream city, George W. Bush was issuing pop culture with its draft papers. "Get down to Disney World in Florida," he implored American families, "Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed". The pleasurable was now political. After shuddering for a few weeks, the world economy took Dubya's hint. The next few years of Popular, the fever years of a false boom, see pop at its most giddy and glitzy, its most shirt-rending and sanctimonious, its most cynical, and often its most divisive. From reality TV to blogosphere feuds, pop was a zone of argument. But "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" stands apart from all that, everybody's sweetheart and nobody's cause. At once seductive, enigmatic and cosy, "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" was a hit people could get lost in, complete in itself. An unshaken kaleidoscope.


I mean, I ain't got no time for that sort of thing, but I'm sure there's a market for it.

daf

Look at that Guy, it's . . .

12.  Guy Mitchell - Look At That Girl



From : 6 September – 17 October 1953
Weeks : 6
Flip side : Hannah Lee

QuoteGuy Mitchell (born Albert George Cernik) was an American pop singer and actor, successful in his homeland, the UK, and Australia. He sold 44 million records, including six million-selling singles.

Mitch Miller, in charge of talent at Columbia Records, noticed Cernik in 1950. He joined Columbia and took his new stage name at Miller's urging: Miller supposedly said, "my name is 'Mitchell' and you seem a nice 'guy', so we'll call you Guy Mitchell."

In 1951 Mitch Miller had secured two songs for Frank Sinatra to record but, with studio and orchestra ready, Frank decided that the songs were not for him. The songs were offered to Guy and "My Heart Cries For You" and "The Roving Kind" were recorded, resulting in two million sellers on one disc. Thanks Frank!

Quote"Look at That Girl" is a 1953 popular song. It was written by Bob Merrill and produced by Mitch Miller.

As a record producer, Miller gained a reputation for both innovation and gimmickry. Although he oversaw dozens of chart hits, his relentlessly cheery arrangements and his penchant for novelty material drew criticism from some admirers of traditional pop music. Will Friedwald wrote in his book Jazz Singing (Da Capo Press, 1996) that :

"Miller exemplified the worst in American pop. He first aroused the ire of intelligent listeners by trying to turn — and darn near succeeding in turning — great artists like Sinatra, Clooney, and Tony Bennett into hacks. Miller chose the worst songs and put together the worst backings imaginable — not with the hit-or-miss attitude that bad musicians traditionally used, but with insight, forethought, careful planning, and perverted brilliance."

At the same time, Friedwald acknowledges Miller's great influence on later popular music production :

"Miller also conceived the idea of the pop record "sound" per se: not so much an arrangement or a tune, but an aural texture (usually replete with extramusical gimmicks) that could be created in the studio and then replicated in live performance, instead of the other way around. Miller was hardly a rock 'n' roller, yet without these ideas there could never have been rock 'n' roll. "Mule Train", Miller's first major hit (for Frankie Laine) and the foundation of his career, set the pattern for virtually the entire first decade of rock."

purlieu

I'm Walking Behind You - blech

Mantovani - Going for the obvious title there then. Adds a nice bit of variety to proceedings, its nature meaning it's probably the least dated sounding piece so far too.

Look at that Girl - I wonder where the 'pop songs = love songs' thing originally came from. God, this is all very pleasant, isn't it? I half expected him to start whistling at some point. I enjoyed the guitar solo, mind. A nice nod back at jazz.

Crabwalk

Yes, 'I'm walking Behind You' is the first song I've felt compelled to turn off early. Just awful.

The Mantovani is pleasant enough. Not enough for me to pick up any of the 50p Mantovani LPs I see whenever I browse a charity shop, but pleasant nonetheless.

I like the Guy Mitchell song quite a lot. It's not that far removed from some early 60s hits with it's jaunty vibe and celebration of THE MALE GAZE*. You can imagine Adam Faith singing it.

*Although it does follow 'Look at the way she walks' with 'listen when she talks' so +5 wokepoints for that at least.


Jerzy Bondov

Look At That Girl is a cheerful little one. I like the guitar. Tapping my toes here. You get the little twist that they're actually a couple and he's not just a creepy staring Eddie Fisher type, but he does suggest that he hasn't kissed her yet. Very chaste times.

QuoteFlip side : Hannah Lee

That was the flip side in the USA. In the UK it was Wise Man Or Fool:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFPJUH4fd4E

machotrouts

Early 1950s chart pop is a context where I'm genuinely relieved to hear a guitar solo in a song. It's like the opposite of real life.

Personally I don't know that I would claim someone as "mine" if I hadn't got any further than hugging them. I think most of the people I've hugged in my life would be confused and upset if I did. Might try it anyway. See what happens

buzby

Quote from: daf on March 21, 2019, 12:37:30 PM
There is actually a slight difference shown on those labels -

AA 21009 1H - Your Cheatin' Heart
AA 21009 2H - I Believe

Possibly sheet music sales would have had an influence in identifying the hit (or flop!) side - as those would have been sold separately?
The 'AA' numbers on the Philips labels are the matrix numbers used to identify the track on the record (duplicated from what was etched in the runout groove of the stamper), and would be used for example to record needle time stats and log per-play royalty payments. There was no indication of which side was supposed to be played preferentially, so the radio stations would play whatever side of the single they wanted, or the public requested. The record companies also didn't get anything from the sheet music sales (they only got paid through record sales and mechanical copyright royalties from radio plays), so they had no real 'skin in the game' over which side got played, as long as the record sold and was played on the radio.

The explicit identification of A and B sides on the actual records didn't happen until pop radio became a big decider in what became a hit in the early 60s, and the labels started telling the radio stations which side they wanted them to promote (this was also when the B-sides started being used to put out 'throwaway' tracks, or self-compositions in the case of a cover on the A-side to generate royalties). In Philips' case they only started putting large '1' and '2' identifiers on their single labels in mid-1961:

They switched to using 'A' and 'B' designations whem they redesigned their single labels in mid-1964:


As I said in my previous post, EMI and their HMV and Parlophone sub-labels seemed to be early adopters of the 7" format, and their early labels have no indication at all over which is the preferred side (even the matrix numbers have no '1', '2', 'A' or 'B' in their codes - they just used different numbers on each side), They changed their promo labels to the famous large 'A' on the A-side as an indication to radio stations at the start of 1961:

However, they never updated the retail single labels to have marked sides, even after they changed to the classic black and silver '45' design:


daf

Where's he going with that gun in his hand? its . . .

13.  Frankie Laine - Hey Joe



From : 18 – 31 October 1953
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Sittin' In The Sun (Countin' My Money)

QuoteShortly after graduating high school, Francesco Paolo LoVecchio signed on as a member of The Merry Garden's marathon dance company and toured with them, working dance marathons during the Great Depression (setting the world record of 3,501 hours with partner Ruthie Smith at Atlantic City's Million Dollar Pier in 1932). Billed as Frank LoVecchio, he would entertain the spectators during the fifteen-minute breaks the dancers were given each hour.

He changed his professional name to Frankie Laine in 1938, upon receiving a job singing for the New York City radio station WINS. The program director, Jack Coombs, thought that "LoVecchio" was "too foreign sounding, and too much of a mouthful for the studio announcers," so he Americanized it to "Lane." Frankie added the "i" to avoid confusion with a girl singer at the station who went by the name of Frances Lane. It was at this time that Laine got unknown songbird Helen O'Connell her job with the Jimmy Dorsey band. WINS, deciding that they no longer needed a jazz singer, dropped him. With the help of bandleader Jean Goldkette, he got a job with a radio show at NBC. As he was about to start, Germany attacked Poland and all sustainer broadcasts were pulled off the air in deference to the needs of the military.

Quote"Hey Joe" is a 1953 popular song written by Boudleaux Bryant. It was recorded by Carl Smith for Columbia Records on 19 May 1953 and spent eight weeks at #1 on the U.S. country music chart. This marked Bryant's first number-one record. He and his wife Felice also wrote 'All I Have to Do Is Dream', 'Bye Bye Love' and 'Wake Up Little Susie' for The Everly Brothers.

Later in 1953, Kitty Wells recorded an answer record also titled "Hey Joe" which hit number eight on the Jukebox Country & Western chart.

Jerzy Bondov

Another guitar solo - a nice one. Lyrically reminiscent of Jessie's Girl but Springfield's introverted torment is replaced with unnerving self-confidence. Laine spends no time looking in the mirror - he's coming for his friend's dolly and he's not taking no for an answer. The only obstacle is Joe - his pretty girly's feelings are irrelevant. Chilling.

purlieu

"I gotta have that dolly for my own."

Crikey, what an unpleasant song.

machotrouts

Listening to this and involuntarily grinning at the sheer unabashed cuntery of it. I was dreading more whingy milquetoast creep pop like Eddie Fisher, but this is the entire opposite – brazenly, joyously unsympathetic, no snivelling desperation to be liked, just straight-up shameless sociopathic fun. To think this came 53 years before "Don't Cha" by the Pussycat Dolls.

This is the first #1 I properly like, I think. (Hey Joe, not Don't Cha.) (That's the second.)

daf

One song, Four versions, first up its . . .

14.  David Whitfield - Answer Me



From : 1 – 7 November 1953
        + 6 – 12 December 1953 (Joint number One with Frankie Laine's version)
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Dance, Gypsy, Dance

QuoteDavid Whitfield (born 2 February 1925) was a popular British male tenor vocalist from Hull. He became the first British Artist to have a UK No.1 single in his home country and in the United States at the time with "Cara Mia".
He sang in the choir at his church during his childhood and entertained his fellow members of the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

Returning to civilian life after the war, David began working in the concrete business until a break came as he appeared on the talent show Opportunity Knocks on Radio Luxembourg. The host of the show, Hughie Green got him a booking at the Washington Hotel in the West End of London where a talent scout from Decca records heard him singing and signed him to the label.

Quote"Answer Me" was originally written 1952 (with German lyrics) under the title "Mütterlein" by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch. The English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman in 1952.

After the song was recorded by David Whitfield and Frankie Laine in 1953, the "religious" version was banned by the BBC after complaints by tedious blowhards.
Nevertheless, it still reached number one on the UK Singles Chart, after another version was written by Sigman in which, instead of directing the question to God about why the singer has lost his love, the lyric is addressed directly to the lost lover. In the new lyric, "Answer me, Lord above..." is changed to "Answer me, oh my love..." with other appropriate changes.

second version :
David Whitfield - Answer Me, My Love

'I Believe' was a sheet music #1 and also #1 during the Coronation so I think it just fitted British culture better than a Hank Williams tune did at that moment. It was also a bigger hit in the US than the flip.

purlieu

Quote from: daf on March 23, 2019, 02:14:38 PM
        + 6 – 12 December 1953 (Joint number One with Frankie Laine's version)
How does this work, then? Identical number of copies? Double a-side with both versions on?

It's probably the furthest from 'pop music' we've gone so far, sound-wise, isn't it?

daf

Quote from: purlieu on March 23, 2019, 05:32:35 PMDouble a-side with both versions on?
No - they're two separate releases (a bit like 'Blame it on the Boogie' with The Jacksons cover and Mick Jackson's original version battling it out at the same time)

Quote
How does this work, then? Identical number of copies?
From what I've gleaned from a quick google,  it doesn't seem they were actually counting individual sales to compile the chart at this point (see bit in bold below), and it seems, due to this slapdash system, they couldn't separate them for that week  :

QuoteThe first British sheet music charts only appeared sporadically in the Jazz based music paper Melody Maker. This paper was established in January 1926 as a monthly publication catering mainly to jazz fans. It became a weekly within a year and the first sheet music list appeared under the title Top Tunes in 1935 as part of the Song Sheet page.
It was by no means a regular feature at that time; sometimes disappearing for a few weeks. The first regular weekly chart commenced on 27 July 1946. One surprising feature of many of the early sheet music charts before 1946 was that many of them were only alphabetical lists, not sales based (!)

By the early 1950s, similar to 40s America, sales of 78rpm shellac discs started to grow. The recently revived music newspaper New Musical Express, came up with the idea of Britain's first sales based chart of popular discs. The paper's management contacted a number of record stores and gathered a master list of 53 establishments willing to supply returns. The compiling of the chart was undertaken by advertisement manager Percy Dickins, who took time out from his main duties of gathering advertising for the paper to phone between 15 - 25 record stores for their sales data.

Dickins would vary the stores contacted week by week in order to use all of the 53 on his list over a period of time. The data gathered from the stores differed from today's charts in one vital area. Though all record stores kept precise internal sales figures, only a list of their Top 10 selling titles was relayed as a list 1 to 10. It was deemed too time consuming for Dickins to have to tally up precise lists of sales figures. Far more convenient and time saving was the totting up of points per chart placing. For example ten points for a number one, down to one point for tenth place. This set a precedent for all early charts.

These early charts, though a Top 12 in size, could sometimes be rather larger due to the unusual tied position system. Instead of, for example a joint number 2 then number 4, the paper would go to number 3. This certainly expanded the chart but was soon amended. The immediate success of this list of best selling records led to the papers competitors starting up their own charts.

On 22 January 1955 Record Mirror displayed a Top 10 chart. This was compiled from postal returns financed by the paper from record stores.  Again, these were of Top 10 title listings. Record Mirror figures could be viewed as they published each stores list along with their address on its chart pages. This first chart was based on 24 stores returns. By 1956 Record Mirror was sampling over 60 record stores and as with New Musical Express they would rotate shops used from a larger pool. By 1956 sales of records were eclipsing sheet music, so record charts began to attain more prominence.
https://web.archive.org/web/20110903033717/http://www.davemcaleer.com/page21.htm

Nowhere Man

Blimey, this is very saccharine even for me. I quite liked the previous Frankie Laine one for how obtrusively crass it was.

Think I like Guy Mitchell best out of all the singers we've had so far. Don't want to look ahead and spoil it for myself (not completely familiar with this era, unlike most of the rock n roll era onwards)

Hope Tony Bennett and Ol' Mafia eyes make appearances soon.

machotrouts

What's wrong with this man's voice? Is he sat on the washing machine or has he got some sort of disorder? Was this a charity thing?

Looking forward to hearing the Frankie Laine 'cunt mix' where he threatens to steal God and fuck him, such is his modus operandi.

Johnboy

I played David Whitfield then youtube followed it up with Hey Joe - quite a contrast

everything sounds good though, I've had some stout