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

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Does anyone remember the cover version by 1980s types Modern Romance? I quite liked that version. One of the blokes involved in that band went on to write rubbish sitcoms starring Denise Van Outen.

[daf]

What's-a matter you? Gotta no respect? Ah shaddap-a you face!, its . . .

32 .  Tony Bennett - Stranger In Paradise



From : 8 – 21 May 1955
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Why Does It Have To Be Me?

Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born on August 3, 1926, in the Astoria neighborhood of New York City's Queens borough to grocer John Benedetto and seamstress Anna Suraci.

His Uncle Dick was a tap dancer in vaudeville, giving him an early window into show business, and his Uncle Frank was the Queens borough library commissioner. By age 10 he was already singing, and performed at the opening of the Triborough Bridge, standing next to Mayor Fiorello La Guardia who patted him on the head.

He attended New York's School of Industrial Art where he studied painting and music and would later appreciate their emphasis on proper technique.  But he dropped out at age 16 to help support his family. He worked as a singing waiter, playing and winning amateur nights all around the city.

Benedetto was drafted into the United States Army in November 1944, during the final stages of World War II. As March 1945 began, he joined the front line and what he would later describe as a "front-row seat in hell." He would later write, "Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one."
At the war's conclusion he stayed in Germany, assigned to an informal Special Services band unit that would entertain nearby American forces. He sang with the 314th Army Special Services Band under the stage name Joe Bari.
Upon his discharge from the Army and return to the States in 1946, Benedetto studied at the American Theatre Wing on the GI Bill. He made a few recordings as Bari in 1949 for small Leslie Records, but they failed to sell.

In 1950, Bennett cut a demo of "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" and was signed to the major Columbia Records label by Mitch Miller. His first big hit was "Because of You", a ballad produced by Miller with a lush orchestral arrangement from Percy Faith a number one on the pop charts in 1951 for ten weeks, and selling over a million copies. This was followed to the top of the charts by a rendition of Hank Williams's "Cold, Cold Heart".

A third number-one came in 1953 with "Rags to Riches".  Later that year, the producers of the upcoming Broadway musical Kismet had Bennett record "Stranger in Paradise" as a way of promoting the show during a New York newspaper strike. The song reached the top, the show was a hit, and Bennett began a long practice of recording show tunes. "Stranger in Paradise" was also a number-one hit in the United Kingdom a year and a half later and started Bennett's career as an international artist.

A firm believer in the Civil Rights Movement, Bennett participated in the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches. Years later he would continue this commitment by refusing to perform in apartheid South Africa.

"Stranger in Paradise" is a popular song from the musical Kismet (1953), and is credited to Robert Wright and George Forrest. Like almost all the music in that show, the melody was taken from music composed by Alexander Borodin (1833–1887), in this case, the "Gliding Dance of the Maidens", from the Polovtsian Dances in the opera Prince Igor (1890).

The huge popularity of "Stranger in Paradise" in the UK is reflected by the fact that no fewer than six versions charted in 1955: besides the chart topper by Tony Bennett, others include the versions by the Four Aces (No. 6), Tony Martin (No. 6), Bing Crosby (No. 17), Don Cornell (No. 19), as well as an instrumental version by Eddie Calvert (No. 14) in the UK chart listings. In the same year, the song was recorded in France by Gloria Lasso as Étranger au paradis.

In 2011, Tony Bennett rerecorded the song as a duet with Andrea Bocelli for Bennett's album Duets II.

On This Day :

13 May : A riot takes place at an Elvis Presley concert in Jacksonville, Florida
16 May : Hazel O' Connor, singer/actress (Breaking Glass), born in Coventry
21 May : Chuck Berry records his first ever song, Maybellene.

[EOLAN]

Tony Bennett; probably the first performer I would consider myself a fan of the list so far. Never heard this song though. And of course another one to add to the list of the still living.

[machotrouts]

Tony Bennett is the first (and oldest) living person on this list not to be on my Derby Dead Pool theme team of UK #1 hitmakers. Turns 93 this year and still too healthy. And yet I had room for Demi Lovato.

I have nothing to say about the song. Music is a secondary interest after deadpooling. Sorry.

[daf]

Surprisingly, his only UK Number One - equalling Dean Martin's singular tally, but two shy of 'The Stargazers' trio of pinnacle platters - well done British lunatics!

[blackcockerel]

Earliest number 1 artist I've seen live, back at Glasto in 1998. Seems like a nice bloke. Not a great song though is it?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Johnnie Ray's version of Such a Night is weird. Maybe it's because I'm used to the versions by Elvis and the Drifters, which as you'd expect are swinging R&B records, but in Ray's hands it becomes this eccentric herky jerky thing which neither rocks nor rolls.

The Drifters version has a similar offbeat rhythm to Ray's version, but Clyde McPhatter sails over it with ease. Ray sounds a bit uncertain. As for Elvis, he turns it into a straight-up sexy creole thing.

The Drifters: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbI5KRYfkho

Elvis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbKcRlh_gxc

[Satchmo Distel]

Yes that's especially odd given that Ray came up through R&B clubs in Detroit so he clearly knew how to swing but preferred to emphasize the theatrical side of his persona, influenced strongly by Judy Garland. He's caught in two minds on this record.

On the other hand, few white Brits had ever heard anything like 'Such A Night' in 1954 so it was still shocking to them.

[purlieu]

Lots of vibrato on the voice there.

Yeah, the first artist so far who I'd count myself genuinely familiar with. Modern era, here we come! I don't really need to hear another version of 'Stranger in Paradise', though.

[daf]

Monkey See, Monkey Parp, its . . .

33.  Eddie Calvert - Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White



From : May 22 – June 18 1955
Weeks : 4
Flip side : Roses Of Picardy

Eddie Calvert became a familiar musician on BBC Radio and TV during the 1950s. He first recorded for Melodisc c. 1949–1951 before he started to record for EMI's Columbia label and his records included two UK number ones, "Oh Mein Papa" and, more than a year later, "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White". He was the first British instrumentalist to achieve two number ones.

Further chart entries were "John and Julie", taken from the soundtrack of the film John and Juliet, and "Mandy", his last major hit.

As music began to change in the 1960s with the worldwide popularity of groups like The Dave Clark Five and the Tottenham Sound, Calvert's musical renditions became less popular among record buyers. By 1968 Calvert had become disillusioned with life under the Labour government of Harold Wilson, and was especially critical of the UK Government's policy towards Rhodesia's 'white minority regime' under Ian Smith's administration.

After a world tour that included several stops in Africa, he left the UK, making South Africa his home. He continued to perform there, and was a regular visitor to Rhodesia. He continued to record for the local market and performed a version of "Amazing Grace", retitled "Amazing Race" specially adapted for Rhodesia . . . (!)

In the United Kingdom, two versions of the song went to number one in 1955. The first was the version by Perez Prado, which reached number one for two weeks, followed, less than a month later, by this slightly more shit version by British trumpeter Eddie Calvert for four weeks.

In 1982, the British Modern Romantic pop group Modern Romance had a UK Top 20 hit with the vocal version of the song with bald spivvy parping courtesy of John Du Prez (real name : Trevor Jones). The B-side was a (mostly) instrumental track titled Who Is John Du Prez?

On This Day :

23 May : Dean Friedman, American singer-songwriter, born in Paramus, New Jersey
30 May : Nicky "Topper" Headon, English drummer (Clash) born
1 June : During the première of Billy Wilder's film of The Seven Year Itch, Marilyn Monroe stands on a New York City Subway grating as her white dress is blown above her knees. . . . CORRR!!!!
8 June : English computer boffin Tim Berners-Lee is born in London
11 June : Eighty-three people are killed and at least 100 are injured after two race cars collide in the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans.
16 June : Pianist Glenn Gould completes his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations.

[blackcockerel]

Predictably stiffer than Prado's, but I like the way it goes off-script at the end

[machotrouts]

He continued to record for the local market and performed a version of "Amazing Grace", retitled "Amazing Race" specially adapted for Rhodesia . . . (!)

Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White Supremacist

There's not an awful lot to distinguish this Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White from the other Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White, besides the additional percussive stem of me tutting at the racist honker, but I much prefer hearing two Cherries Pink and Apple Blossoms White duking it out than two Answers Me. (Is this the only time two different versions of an instrumental both went to #1?)

I was going to say about the Pérez Prado one, I think it might be the first #1 record I actually recognise from real life and not just from digging through chart history, supposing that my awareness of That Doggie in the Window isn't necessarily from the Lita Roza version; but then maybe it's this one I know? (It also might just be a false familiarity I often subconsciously superimpose on things that I feel like I should have known about all this time.)

[machotrouts]

Johnnie Ray's version of Such a Night is weird. Maybe it's because I'm used to the versions by Elvis and the Drifters, which as you'd expect are swinging R&B records, but in Ray's hands it becomes this eccentric herky jerky thing which neither rocks nor rolls.

"eccentric herky jerky thing which neither rocks nor rolls" perfectly encapsulates what I like about Johnnie Ray's vocal. Was horrified when I went back to check the Drifters version to find it sounded like an actual song once. I don't like songs, I only like eccentric herky jerky things which neither rock nor roll.

[Satchmo Distel]

Tony Bennett started out his US chart career doing Italian operatic type songs, despite his medium of choice being jazz. He was also one of the few white acts to appear on Nat King Cole's US TV show.

[daf]

The young one . . . Darling, he's the young one, its . . .

34.  Jimmy Young - Unchained Melody



From : 19 June – 9 July 1955
Weeks : 3
Flip side :  Help Me Forget

Sir Leslie Ronald Young, CBE (21 September 1921 – 7 November 2016), known as Jimmy Young, was an English singer, disc jockey and radio personality.

Young was born in Cinderford, Gloucestershire. The son of a baker and a dressmaker, he attended East Dean Grammar School. Young nearly died from bronchitis, double pneumonia and pleurisy as a child. He excelled at boxing and rugby, playing for Cinderford RFC and later turning down a place with Wigan's rugby league team.
After his parents divorced in 1939, he left for South Wales to work as an electrician. Young later joined the RAF staying until 1949, becoming a PT Instructor.

Young signed to the new Polygon Records in 1950, joining Petula Clark, Louis Prima and Dorothy Squires. All his recordings on the label were conducted by Ron Goodwin. Goodwin later said he always liked working with Young "because he was always so enthusiastic. He thought everything we did was going to be a hit." The most popular was "Too Young" (1951), a big sheet music seller at the time; it was a cover version of the Nat King Cole original.

During the early 1950s, while singing on radio in Manchester with the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra (later the Northern Dance Orchestra or NDO), he struck up a friendship with announcer Trevor Hill with both men trying to put off the other live on air by pulling faces.

In 1952, he signed a recording contract with Decca. Young enjoyed Top 10 successes with "Eternally", "Chain Gang" and "More" (with which he surpassed Perry Como's American original in the British Singles Chart listings). His most successful year as a recording artist was 1955, when he scored two number ones.

"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the little-known prison film 'Unchained'.

In 1954, North was contracted to compose the score for the 1955 prison film 'Unchained'. North composed and recorded the score, and then was asked to write a song based upon the movie's theme. North asked Hy Zaret to write the lyrics, but Zaret initially declined, saying he was too busy painting his house. North was able to convince him to take the job, and together they wrote "Unchained Melody."  Zaret refused the producer's request to include the word "unchained" in his lyrics. The song eventually became known as the "Unchained Melody" even though the song does not actually include the word "unchained". Instead, Zaret chose to focus on someone who pines for a lover he has not seen in a "long, lonely time".

The film centered on a man who contemplates either escaping from prison to live life on the run or completing his sentence and returning to his wife and family. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. He performs an abbreviated version in the film, playing one of the prisoners. Lying on a bed, he sings it accompanied by another prisoner on guitar while others listen sadly.

In 1955, three versions of the song (by Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, and Roy Hamilton) charted in the Billboard Top 10 in the United States, and four versions (by Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young, and Liberace) appeared in the Top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, an unbeaten record for any song. The song continued to chart in the 21st century, and it was the only song to reach number one with four different recordings in the UK until it was joined by "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in 2014.

According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists, including :
Ricky Nelson
The Goons
Duane Eddy
Honeyboy Martin
Floor
Rabujos
DJ Mystik

On This Day :

21 June : Footballer Michel Platini born in Jœuf, France
26 June : Mick Jones, (The Clash), born in Wandsworth, London
3 July : Neil Clark, guitarist (Lloyd Cole & The Commotions) born in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland
5 July : The 5th Berlin International Film Festival concludes, with the Golden Bear being awarded to 'Die Ratten' by audience vote.

[blackcockerel]

A godawful mess.

[daf]

Wonder if they were going for the Cowboy angle here -

That 'cha-cha-cha' rhythm sounds like he bouncing up and down in the saddle (patrolling the local allotment 'pon the lookout for those marrow-rustling varmints!)

[Satchmo Distel]

His next No. 1 is a Western theme so maybe that connects them?

[machotrouts]

I've patiently sat through various Unchained Melodies for comparison, and I'm pretty sure this version is the worst. I assume there are so many versions of the song because everyone heard Jimmy Young and thought "fucking hell, that's not how you do it".

The first time I found out that 'Unchained Melody' was actually from a film called 'Unchained' was a mind-blower. I love that, on some level, we must all just assume the title is a reference to how freewheeling and off-the-cuff it is. Get a load of this wild, uninhibited, crazy fucking melody! Depraved, tits out, anything goes melody! This melody is emancipated as all fuck!

[purlieu]

Imagine hearing that bit of mediocre pap and thinking "there's a big powerful ballad in there". Incredible.

Anyway, sod the Righteous Brothers, we all know the best version is by The Goons.

The first piece of music I ever wrote began by me pissing around on a keyboard, finding the first few notes of 'Unchained Melody', and working from there. I called it 'Countryside Melody'.

[Satchmo Distel]

Anyway, sod the Righteous Brothers, we all know the best version is by The Goons.

Produced by George Martin. Thus his first appearance on the thread.

[daf]

Laugh, Giggle, Chuckle, Chortle, Guffaw, its . . .

35.  Alma Cogan - Dreamboat



From : 10 – 23 July 1955
Weeks : 2
Flip side (10" 78rpm): Irish Mambo
Flip side (7" 45 rpm): Twenty Tiny Fingers

Alma Angela Cohen was born on 19 May 1932 in Whitechapel, London, of Russian-Romanian Jewish descent. Her father's family, the Kogins, arrived in Britain from Russia, while her mother's family were refugees from Romania.

Aged 14, she was recommended by Vera Lynn for a variety show at the Grand Theatre in Brighton. At 16 she was told by bandleader Ted Heath "You've got a good voice, but you're far too young for this business. Come back in five years' time." Heath would later say: "'Letting her go was one of the biggest mistakes of my life." But Cogan found work singing at tea dances, while also studying dress design at Worthing Art College, and was soon appearing in the musical High Button Shoes and a revue, Sauce Tartare. She became resident singer at the Cumberland Hotel in 1949, where she was spotted by Walter Ridley of HMV, who became her coach.

Cogan's first release was "To Be Worthy of You" in 1952. This led to her appearing regularly on the BBC's radio show Gently Bentley, and then becoming the vocalist for Take It From Here, a BBC radio comedy programme.

In 1953, while recording "If I Had a Golden Umbrella", she broke into a giggle; she then played up the effect on later recordings. Soon she was dubbed the "Girl with the giggle in her voice".

Cogan would appear in the UK Singles Chart eighteen times in the 1950s, including "Bell Bottom Blues", "I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango", "Sugartime" and "Never Do A Tango With An Eskimo".

Somehow Just Couldn't Resist Her With Her Pocket Transistor failed to make the charts in 1960, and the UK musical revolution of the early 1960s, symbolised by the rise of The Dave Clark Five and The Brumbeats, suddenly made Cogan unfashionable. Her highest 1960s chart ranking in the UK was no. 26 with "We Got Love", and most of her successes at this time were abroad, notably in Sweden and Japan. In 1964, Cogan recorded "Tennessee Waltz" in a rock-and-roll ballad style; this version was no. 1 in Sweden for five weeks and also reached the top 20 in Denmark, while a German language rendering reached no. 10 in Germany. She had another number one hit in Sweden in 1965, "The Birds and the Bees".

'Dreamboat' was written by American Jack Hoffman - writer of "Christmas in Jail'.
In 1955, 'Dreamboat' was also recorded by The Paulette Sisters, and 5 De Marco Sisters.

Unusually, the 10" and  7" of Alma Cogan's version have different b-sides - possibly an early attempt at exploiting the fan-base for maximum chart potential?

On This Day :

13 July : Ruth Ellis, 28, becomes the last woman ever to be executed in the United Kingdom
16 July : The 1955 British Grand Prix is held at Aintree Motor Racing Circuit and is won by Stirling Moss.
18 July : Terry Chambers, drummer (XTC), born in Wiltshire, England
18 July : 'Disneyland' opens in California.
21 July : Henry Preistman, (The Christians) born in Hull
21 July : The BBC brings into service its Divis 405-line VHF Band transmitter, marking the launch of a television service for Northern Ireland
23 July : The Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales reopens as a Heritage railway.

[Satchmo Distel]

Alma allegedly had an affair with John Lennon, who was devastated when she died.

[Phil_A]

The young one . . . Darling, he's the young one, its . . .

34.  Jimmy Young - Unchained Melody



From : 19 June – 9 July 1955
Weeks : 3
Flip side :  Help Me Forget

On This Day :

I find it quite amusing that despite his name, Young appears to've been born old. Even in his thirties he looked middle-aged.

Also, something I recall from the Popular entry on this song many years ago, he pronounces every "love" as "lub". You will never unhear it.

[blackcockerel]

Alma allegedly had an affair with John Lennon, who was devastated when she died.

Apparently so. Me blog sez:

Her dwindling chart action didn't prevent Cogan from throwing hip showbiz parties at her widowed mother's flat in Kensington. Regularly seen attending were the likes of Princess Margaret, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Bruce Forsyth and Roger Moore. She also become closely linked to the Beatles. Despite the teenage John bullying her at college, according to Lennon's ex-wife Cynthia, they had a romance after meeting on Ready Steady Go! in 1964, but it was kept out of the public eye. Allegedly, Paul McCartney first played the melody of Yesterday on her piano. So it seems a shame the Fab Four couldn't work their magic and help Cogan's music career.

[DrGreggles]

I find it quite amusing that despite his name, Young appears to've been born old.

I find it quite amusing that he used to be a slightly flattened Ernie Wise.

[machotrouts]

Dreamboat is too short to talk about. Better listen to a b-side to not feel short-changed.

"Twenty Tiny Fingers" regrettably goes to some lengths to clarify that it's about having twins, not a mutant, and Alma Cogan sounds fucking delighted about it. Banging on about how one of them looks like mommy and the other looks like pop and how it's twice the blessings and twice the fun and live laugh love and all that. Cogan, so far as I can tell, did not have any children at all, which, I'm sorry, makes this song completely demented. What a weirdly specific thing to sing about to not have happened to you. I'm all for playing characters but what the fuck is this. Why would you sing this. Why would anyone sing this. I like the bit where she goes "pop, pop, pop, pop-da-pop pop, pop. Pop-pop". Better than the a-side.

[purlieu]

That was more lively than I expected from the title. Fun enough I suppose.

[daf]

Everyone's Favourite Stunning Countrypolitan, its . . .

36.  Slim Whitman - Rose Marie



From : 24 July – 8 October 1955
Weeks : 11
Flip side : We Stood At The Altar

Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr (January 20, 1923 – June 19, 2013), professionally known by the stage name Slim Whitman, was an American country music, western music and folk music artist singer-songwriter and instrumentalist known for his yodeling abilities and his smooth, high, three-octave-range falsetto in a style christened as "countrypolitan".

Although once known as "America's Favorite Folk Singer", he was consistently more popular throughout Europe, and in particular the United Kingdom, than in his native America, especially with his covers of pop standards, film songs, love songs, folk tunes, and melodic gospel hymns.

Whitman was a self-taught left-handed guitarist, though he was right-handed. He had lost almost all of the second finger on his left hand in an accident while working at a meat packing plant. He worked odd jobs at a Tampa shipyard while developing a musical career, eventually performing with bands known as the Variety Rhythm Boys and the Light Crust Doughboys. He was briefly nicknamed The Smiling Starduster after a stint with a group called The Stardusters.

Whitman's first big break came when talent manager "Colonel" Thomas Parker heard him singing on the radio and offered to represent him. After signing with RCA Records, he was billed as "the cowboy singer Slim Whitman", after Canadian singer Wilf Carter, who was known in the United States as Montana Slim. Whitman released his first single in 1948, "I'm Casting My Lasso Towards The Sky", complete with yodel. He toured and sang in a variety of venues, including the radio show Louisiana Hayride.

At first he was unable to make a living from music, and kept a part-time job at a post office. That changed in the early 1950s after he recorded a version of the Bob Nolan hit "Love Song of the Waterfall", which made it into the country music top ten. His next single, "Indian Love Call", taken from the light operetta Rose-Marie, was even more successful, reaching number two in the country music charts and appearing in the US pop music chart's top ten.

In 1956 he became the first-ever country music singer to perform at the London Palladium. Soon after, Whitman was invited to join the Grand Ole Opry, and in 1957, along with other musical stars, he appeared in the film musical Jamboree. Despite this exposure, he never achieved the level of stardom in the United States that he did in Britain, where he had a number of other hits during the 1950s.

Throughout the early 1970s, he continued to record and was a guest on Wolfman Jack's television show The Midnight Special. At the time, Whitman's recording efforts were yielding only minor hits in the US. The mid-1970s were a successful time for Whitman in the UK Albums Chart. In 1976 a compilation album, The Very Best of Slim Whitman, was number one for six weeks, staying seventeen weeks on the chart.

"Rose Marie" is a popular song from the musical or operetta of the same name. The music was written by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, the lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II, In the original Broadway production in 1924, the song was performed by Dennis King and Arthur Deagon, as the characters Jim Kenyon and Sergeant Malone.

On three occasions the play has been made into a movie: Rose-Marie (1928), Rose Marie (1936), the most commercially successful, starring Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, and Rose Marie (1954). Karl Denver, Howard Keel and David Whitfield have also recorded the song.

In 1955, "Rose Marie" was a hit for the American country singer Slim Whitman. Produced by the excellently named Lew Chudd, of Imperial Records. Whitman's recording of the song spent a bum-numbing 11 weeks at number one in the UK Singles Chart - setting a record which was not beaten until 1991.

On This Day :

29 July : Jem Finer, (The Pogues - banjo) born in Stoke-on-Trent
30 July : Rat Scabies, (the Damned - drums), born in Kingston upon Thames
5 August : Carmen Miranda, Portuguese Brazilian singer and actress died age 46
17 August : Colin Moulding, (XTC - bass) born in Swindon
27 August : First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London, compiled by Norris and Ross McWhirter.
1 September : Bruce Foxton, (The Jam - bass) born in Woking
2 September : Christopher Mayhew ingests 400 mg of mescaline for a Panorama BBC TV special that is never broadcast.
3 September : Steve Jones (Sex Pistols - guitar) born in Shepherd's Bush, London,
15 September : Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel Lolita is published in Paris by Olympia Press.
16 September : Janet Ellis, English television presenter (Blue Peter, Jigsaw), born in Chatham, Kent
22 September : Independent Commercial Television (ITV) begins broadcasting in the United Kingdom.
25 September : Steven Severin, (Siouxsie & Banshees - bass), born in Highgate, London
30 September : James Dean, 24, US actor, killed when his automobile collides with another car at a highway junction in California.
2 October : Philip Oakey, (Human League), born in Hinckley, Leicestershire
2 October : 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents' is broadcast for the first time, on the CBS TV network in the United States.

[Pranet]

I rather liked that one.

Re the Alma Cogan song, the b side to the 78, Irish Mambo, is everything you might expect it to be from the title.