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

[daf]

the German version of Il Pulcino Pio.

BANGER!!!!!

[blackcockerel]

Is this our first Comedy Number One?

As you mention on your blog, this was produced by Dick Rowe (who also produced Lita Roza's version of 'Doggie in the Window') - the man at Decca who became notorious for turning down The Beatles . . . though he did later sign The Brumbeats , so made up for it in spades there!

Yeah, must be the first of that baffling phenomenon, the unfunny number one. I wrote about Cinderella Rockefeller the other week. Won't be published for a while but had a similar effect on me.

[daf]

She just blew in from the Windy City, its . . .

18. Doris Day - Secret Love



From : 11 – 17 April 1954 (1)
        + 2 May – 26 June 1954 (8)
Weeks : 9
Flip side : The Deadwood Stage (Whip - Crack - Away!)

Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922) is an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. And at the age of 96, she is the first of our UK Number Ones to be still alive!!

While recovering from an auto accident, Day started to sing along with the radio and discovered a talent she did not know she had. Observing her daughter sing, her mother decided Doris should have singing lessons. During the eight months she was taking singing lessons, Day had her first professional jobs as a vocalist, on the WLW radio program Carlin's Carnival, and in a local restaurant, Charlie Yee's Shanghai Inn.

During her radio performances, Day first caught the attention of Barney Rapp, who was looking for a girl vocalist and asked if Day would like to audition for the job.
In 1939, she adopted the stage surname "Day", at Rapp's suggestion - he felt that "Kappelhoff" was too long for marquees, and he admired her rendition of the song "Day After Day". After working with Rapp, Day worked with bandleaders Jimmy James, Bob Crosby, and Les Brown.

While working with Brown, Day scored her first hit recording, "Sentimental Journey", released in early 1945. It soon became an anthem of the desire of World War II demobilizing troops to return home. This song is still associated with Day, and she rerecorded it on several occasions.

"Secret Love" is a song composed by Sammy Fain (music) and Paul Francis Webster (lyrics) for Calamity Jane, a 1953 musical film in which it was introduced by Doris Day in the title role. Ranked as a number 1 hit for Day on both the Billboard and Cash Box, the song also afforded Day a number 1 hit in the UK.
The melody bears a slight resemblance to the opening theme of Schubert's A-major piano sonata, D.664.

Day recorded the song on 5 August 1953 in a session at the Warner Bros. Recording Studio (Burbank), overseen by Warner Bros. musical director Ray Heindorf. On the day of the recording session for "Secret Love", Day had done vocal exercises at her home. Then about noon — the session being scheduled for 1 p.m. — she had set out on her bicycle to the studio. Heindorf had rehearsed the studio orchestra prior to Day's reaching the studio; upon her arrival, Heindorf suggested that Day do a practice run-through with the orchestra prior to recording any takes, but acquiesced to Day's request that her first performance with the orchestra be recorded. Day recalls, "When I got there I sang the song with the orchestra for the first time ... That was the first and only take we did." ... "When I finished Ray called me into the sound booth grinning from ear to ear and said, 'That's it. You're never going to do it better.'

At the time of the release of the Doris Day version of "Secret Love" two vocal cover versions were issued, one of which - by Gogi Grant with the Harry Geller orchestra - is said to have been recorded at RCA Victor's LA recording studio in July 1953 which would make its recording earlier than Day's: the other vocal cover was recorded for MGM by Tommy Edwards with the LeRoy Holmes orchestra.
It was later recorded by Chet Baker in 1979 and released on his 1980 album 'Rendez-Vous' on the French Bingow label.

[purlieu]

I'm not sure I've ever heard so much harp in a pop song. That was alright I suppose.

[machotrouts]

A prehistoric gay anthem.

Has single artwork ever been less evocative of the actual song than this?

Doris Day (born Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff on April 3, 1922) is an American actress, singer, and animal welfare activist. And at the age of 96, she is the first of our UK Number Ones to be still alive!!

...and the first person to be on my Derby Dead Pool theme team of UK #1 hitmakers! "Thank you for this honour", Doris is reported to have said

[daf]

Everyone's favourite Nabob of Sob, its . . .

19.  Johnnie Ray - Such A Night



From : 25 April – 1 May 1954
Weeks : 1
Flip side : An Orchid For The Lady

John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what would become rock and roll, for his jazz and blues-influenced music and his animated stage personality. Tony Bennett called Ray the "father of rock and roll," and historians have noted him as a pioneering figure in the development of the genre.

At age thirteen, Ray became deaf in his left ear following a mishap that occurred during a Boy Scout ritual called a "blanket toss." In later years, Ray performed wearing a hearing aid. Surgery performed in 1958 left him almost completely deaf in both ears, although hearing aids helped his condition. Ray credited his deafness as pivotal to his career and performance style saying :
"My need for sincerity traces back to when I was a child and lost my hearing. I became withdrawn. I had an emotional need to develop a relationship to other people."

Raised in Oregon, Ray began singing professionally at age fifteen on Portland radio stations. He would later gain a local following singing at small, predominantly African-American nightclubs in Detroit, where he was discovered in 1951 and subsequently signed to Columbia Records. He rose quickly from obscurity in the United States with the release of his debut album, Johnnie Ray (1952). 

Ray's performing style included theatrics later associated with rock and roll, including tearing at his hair, falling to the floor, and crying onstage. Ray quickly earned the nicknames "Mr. Emotion", "The Nabob of Sob", and "The Prince of Wails".

"Such a Night" was written by Lincoln Chase and first recorded by The Drifters featuring Clyde McPhatter, recorded the song in November 1953, and Atlantic Records released it in January 1954 as the intended B-side of the McPhatter-penned "Lucille", which was recorded by an early version of the group. Despite being banned by some radio stations as too "racy", it reached number 2 on the American R&B chart in 1954.

The song also became a hit single for Johnnie Ray, whose cover version reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1954. Ray's version entered the US Cash Box chart on 27 March 1954, peaking at No. 18 two weeks later on 10 April.

Lincoln R. Chase (June 29, 1926 – October 6, 1980) was an African-American songwriter and occasional recording artist. As a writer, his most notable songs were "Such a Night", "Jim Dandy", and two of the rockingest cuts ever laid on wax with Shirley Ellis in the early 1960s  : "The Name Game" and "The Clapping Song" (The former being a co-write with the song's prime linnet : Shirley, Shirley, Bo-burley, Banana fanna fo-furley, Me mi mo-murley . . . Shirley!)

[machotrouts]

Vocal really stands out amid your cosily sexless Comos and Fishers. Is this rock yet, or does he just sing like it is?

Apparently he was gay. Looks like I'm in with a chance, boys

[Jerzy Bondov]

Apparently he was gay. Looks like I'm in with a chance, boys

"Ray's performing style included theatrics [...] including tearing at his hair, falling to the floor, and crying onstage"

Yeah, sounds gay to me (I'm allowed to make this joke because I kissed another boy once)

[daf]

Officially bisexual :

In 1951, prior to Ray's fame, he was arrested in Detroit for accosting and soliciting an undercover vice squad police officer for sex in the restroom of the Stone Theatre, a burlesque house. When he appeared in court, he pleaded guilty to the charges, paid a fine, and was released. Due to his obscurity at the time, Detroit newspapers did not report the story. After his rise to fame the following year, rumors about his sexuality began to spread as a result of the incident.

Despite her knowledge of the solicitation arrest, Marilyn Morrison, daughter of the owner of West Hollywood's Mocambo nightclub, married Ray at the peak of his American fame.
Aware of Ray's sexuality, Morrison told a friend she would "straighten it out." The couple separated in 1953 and divorced in 1954. Several writers have noted that the Ray-Morrison marriage occurred under false pretences, and that Ray had had a long-term relationship with his manager, Bill Franklin.

However, a biography of Ray points out that Franklin was 13 years younger than Ray and that both their personal and business relationships began in 1963, many years after the Ray-Morrison divorce. In a 1953 newspaper interview with James Bacon, Ray blamed rumors about his sexuality for the breakup of his marriage to Morrison.

In 1959, Ray was arrested again in Detroit for soliciting an undercover officer at the Brass Rail, a bar that was described many years later by one biographer as a haven for musicians and by another biographer as a gay bar. Ray went to trial following this second arrest and was found not guilty. Two years after his death, several friends shared with biographer Jonny Whiteside their knowledge that Ray was bisexual.

The marriage seems to put him in the Elton, rather than the Bowie category of Bi-ness - basically gay, but attempting to manage his true sexuality in a hostile environment.

In 1969, Ray returned to the United States from a European tour with Judy Garland

Case closed!

[machotrouts]

He was trying to marry Marilyn Manson but got confused, see.

[blackcockerel]

Poor old Johnnie Ray. I enjoyed this one more than any that came before when blogging the 50s ones. Used a clip of him performing live where he reminded me of Jarvis. There's also of course the fact he was a bit deaf and wore a hearing aid, which Morrissey did for a while by way of tribute. One of the first eccentric frontmen, who specialised in camp melancholy. Few more decent number ones to come from him too.

[Satchmo Distel]

How many No. 1 hitmakers have been mentioned on a future Number 1 (Come On Eileen in this case)?

Dexys also covered a song featuring another No. 1 artist (Jackie/Jocky Wilson) but that did not make No. 1.

Johnnie's breakthrough year was 1951, when he was massive, and he was arguably already in decline in 1953 (overtaken by Frankie Laine and Guy Mitchell).

Doris Day's US hitmaking goes back to 1945 (Sentimental Journey). She had at least two duets with Johnnie Ray which seems strange given her conservatism and his bisexuality and gender fluidity (in terms of being a very emotional singer in the age of rugged silent types).

If you want a really odd comeback performance, Ray on Wheeltappers:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1183114/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

[daf]

Poor old Johnnie Ray. I enjoyed this one more than any that came before when blogging the 50s ones.

This, for me, is out first glimpse of the future - Doo-Woppers, Big Boppers, Jailhouse Rockers - it's all in here!

Good old Johnny Ray!

[daf]

Doris Day (. . .) had at least two duets with Johnnie Ray which seems strange given her conservatism and his bisexuality and gender fluidity

She's a gay icon now isn't she?

Calamity Jane is so gender fluid, it's leaking out of my saddlebags!

[Crabwalk]

This, for me, is out first glimpse of the future - Doo-Woppers, Big Boppers, Jailhouse Rockers - it's all in here!

Good old Johnny Ray!

Indeed! It still has that mambo element too, which is a sound I love.

He really should've had a backing group called 'The Deep Horns'.

[kalowski]

This, for me, is out first glimpse of the future - Doo-Woppers, Big Boppers, Jailhouse Rockers - it's all in here!

Good old Johnny Ray!

I agree, although it's also another example of white artists profiting hugely at the expense of black artists. The Drifters version is just brilliant.

[Satchmo Distel]

Such A Night - first No. 1 by a black songwriter - Lincoln Chase?

There's one older No. 1 star than Doris still alive, of course

[Captain Z]

Yes, Elvis.

How many No. 1 hitmakers have been mentioned on a future Number 1 (Come On Eileen in this case)?

If only 'Jimmy Ray - Are You Jimmy Ray' had made it to #1 then Johnny Ray would have been mentioned in two.

[Satchmo Distel]

Elvis is only 84 and will soon be officially dead longer than he was officially alive.

[purlieu]

Well that had a bit of oomph much needed in this thread. Not bad.

[machotrouts]

There's one older No. 1 star than Doris still alive, of course

Older No. 1 star as in "older [No. 1 star]" (i.e. Vera Lynn) and not "[older No.1] star" (i.e. any of the people we've already covered), right? Because I couldn't 100% vouch for the Stargazers when I was researching for that dead pool team. Doesn't seem like anyone's paid attention to whether they're alive or dead.

I See the Moon? More like I Dead the Soon

[Satchmo Distel]

Stargazer Fred Datchler was the dad of the lead singer of Johnny Hates Jazz. He is also on I Am The Walrus, as a member of the Mike Sammes Singers.

[daf]

Cara Mia! Here we go again, its . . .

20.  David Whitfield - Cara Mia



From : 27 June – 4 September 1954
Weeks : 10
Flip side : Love, Tears And Kisses

David 'Dave' Whitfield was born at the age of 0 on Planet Earth in the nude.

His first couple of releases were not successful, but the third song, a recording of 'Bridge Of Sighs' finally broke him into the top 10 and the next release, 'Answer Me' went all the way to no.1. After further top 10 hits, 'Rags To Riches' and 'The Book', he delivered a tenor ballad called 'Cara Mia' backed by Mantovani & His Orchestra. This soupy rubbish was the first record to spend ten consecutive weeks at No. 1 in the UK, and the record that earned him a golden disc for one million sales.
'Cara Mia' was also a hit in the US and Whitfield was invited to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show as well as being one of the stars of the 1954 Royal Command Performance alongside Bob Hope, Frankie Howerd, Guy Mitchell, Norman Wisdom, Max Bygraves, Frankie Laine and Howard Keel.

Because of the success of 'Cara Mia' in Canada and America, David was invited to appear on Ed Sullivan's Toast of the Town show, and sang two songs to an audience of millions. After the show, the CBS switchboard was jammed with calls from delighted Americans all demanding to know more about this unknown singer.
He was the first British artist to break into the American charts, and was such a huge hit with the American public he was called back to appear on the show a further six times, a record for any British performer before or since. On David's seventh appearance he had an audience of over 65 million viewers, and by 1956 there were 15 fan clubs in America alone.

At the end of 1954 David convalesced in Switzerland following another bout of throat trouble which dogged him throughout most of his career, returning to England at the beginning of 1955 when he took over his role in Aladdin from Teddy Johnson, who had stood in for him. Another huge success for David. His four recordings that year continued the success story, all appearing in the top twenty, and staying there for several weeks. They were, 'Beyond the Stars', 'Mama', 'When You Lose the One You Love', and the most successful, reaching number 3, was 'Everywhere'.

'The Adoration Waltz' was the last record of David's to enter the top ten. It reached number 9 before going out by the end of March 1957. He also recorded the theme song for the film Sea Wife, starring Richard Burton and Joan Collins. The song, 'I'll Find You', reached number 27.
He was kept busy touring the country and the year ended with him returning to pantomime in the starring role of Robinson Crusoe with Arthur Askey and Tommy Cooper.
More records were cut but none entered the charts, due no doubt to the upsurge of 'dirty boppers', but David was still kept busy in variety and in another pantomime, Humpty Dumpty. He starred in The Sleeping Beauty at Leeds and Liverpool an 1961, followed by Goldilocks and the Three Bears in Sheffield and Leeds in 1963. By all reports both shows were a huge success.

His last LP, made for Philips in 1975 and entitled 'Hey There! It's David Whitfield', included his third recording of "Cara Mia" (he had already recorded a stereo re-make for Decca in 1966 for an album entitled 'Great Songs for Young Lovers').

"Cara Mia" was written by 'Tulio Trapani' (the nom de plum of the song's co-writer and arranger Mantovani) and 'Lee Lange' (Bunny Lewis, Whitfield's producer).

As a composer, Lewis contributed the song, "A Voice in the Wilderness", to the Cliff Richard film, Expresso Bongo, and also wrote a handful of songs that figured in the repertoire of early 1960s UK pop star Helen Shapiro. As well as Lee Lange, Bridges also wrote and produced his songs under the pseudonyms of Johnny May and Emile Reisdorff.

He went on to produce 4 UK Pinnacle Platters - 'Cara Mia' and 'Answer Me', Eden Kane's 'Well I Ask You', plus Craig Douglas' version of Kung Fu Fighting 'Only Sixteen' - beating off Mickey Most & Phil Spector's total of 3 each with a shitty stick.

The song also became a #4 hit for the American rock group Jay and the Americans in 1965.

[machotrouts]

Ah, the second comedy record to go to #1.

I've been spending a few minutes on YouTube trying to figure out which Muppet he sounds like – maybe it isn't a specific Muppet, he just generally sounds like a Muppet? That final note, in particular – that's got to be a punchline, right? He wasn't trying to sound good?

To think we're still another couple of Despacitos away from booting this out of the UK's all-time top 10 longest-running #1s.

The backing vocals are nice.

[purlieu]

Crikey. That was horrible.

[Pranet]

Spike Milligan doing an impression of Harry Secombe.

[buzby]

I've been spending a few minutes on YouTube trying to figure out which Muppet he sounds like – maybe it isn't a specific Muppet, he just generally sounds like a Muppet? That final note, in particular – that's got to be a punchline, right? He wasn't trying to sound good?

I'm getting Dr. Bunsen Honeydew

Spike Milligan doing an impression of Harry Secombe.

Or this. The record-buying public was obviously still enamoured with the light tenor (unfortunately).

[Jerzy Bondov]

Haha on first listen I turned it off before the end, but it is worth sticking with it for the last note. Obviously sounds dreadful but I reckon if you went on Britain's Got Talent singing like that you'd go far. 'Ah they don't make them like they used to!'

[Crabwalk]

Spike Milligan doing an impression of Harry Secombe.

This is exactly what I thought when I first listened to for the first time!

I enjoyed the YouTube comment from the 15-year-old who'd rather listen to this than 'dirty songs'. Probably one of Jacob Reese-Mogg's kids.

[daf]

Hey Kitty! You're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind, its . . .

21.  Kitty Kallen - Little Things Mean A Lot



From : 5 – 11 September 1954
Weeks : 1
Flip side : I Don't Think You Love Me Anymore

Kitty Kallen (born Katie Kallen; May 25, 1921 – January 7, 2016) was an American popular singer whose career spanned from the 1930s to the 1960s, to include the Swing era of the Big Band years, the post-WWII pop scene and the early years of rock 'n roll. As a young girl, she sang on The Children's Hour, a radio program sponsored by Horn & Hardart, an automat chain.
In 1936, Kallen had a radio program on Philadelphia's WCAU and sang with the big bands of Jan Savitt, with Artie Shaw in 1938, and Jack Teagarden in 1940.

At 21, she joined the Jimmy Dorsey band, replacing Helen O'Connell. One of her recordings with Dorsey was a favorite of American servicemen "They're Either Too Young or Too Old" which reached the No. 2 position in the Billboard charts in 1944. The same year, Kallen performed the vocals for Dorsey's number-one hit "Besame Mucho".
Between January and November 1945, she had two songs recorded with the Harry James Orchestra in the top twenty, six in the top ten, and two at the #1 spot: "I'm Beginning to See the Light" and "It's Been a Long, Long Time", which remains deeply associated with the end of World War II and the returning troops.
In 1951, Kallen appeared with Buster Crabbe (Flash Gordon) as the Queen and King of Winter at the Lake Placid resort.

Voted "most popular female singer" in 1954 in both Billboard and Variety polls, Kallen lost her voice at the London Palladium in 1955 at the top of her career and stopped singing before an audience for four years. After testing her voice under a pseudonym in small town venues, she ultimately returned and went on to achieve 13 top-ten career hits.

"Little Things Mean a Lot" is a popular song written by Edith Lindeman (lyrics) and Carl Stutz (music), published in 1953.
Lindeman was the leisure editor of the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Stutz, a disc jockey from Richmond, Virginia. Stutz and Lindeman are also known for writing Perry Como's 1959 hit, "I Know" (which reached No.13 on the UK Singles Chart).

"Little Things Mean a Lot," by Kitty Kallen was also No.1 on both the U.S. Billboard and the Cash Box charts in 1954. Billboard ranked it as the No. 1 song of 1954.

A cover of the song was done by Alma Cogan with orchestra conducted by Frank Cordell in London on May 22, 1954. Cogan's recording reached No. 11 in the UK.