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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
Quote from: blackcockerel on April 12, 2019, 02:10:56 PM
A godawful mess.

Its at around 45 seconds, when every other version sort of soars, this goes for an idle trot by a stream.

In general: Did not expect that.

purlieu

Quote from: daf on April 14, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
On This Day :
2 October : Philip Oakey, (Human League), born in Hinckley, Leicestershire
Arguably my home town's most famous export.

Nice song, but wasn't taken on his voice at all.

machotrouts

A victim of the implicit universal radio ban on yodelling in this post-1950s hellscape. 7th longest stay at #1 in chart history and I don't recognise it in the least. All I know Slim Whitman for is making the aliens' heads explode in Mars Attacks!.

I have no beef with a yodel. I don't like much actual music made by yodellers, but yodelling itself? Good. Country's not for me, but yodelling is an underutilised vocal tactic in modern pop. Let's hear somecunt yodelling over a Calvin Harris rave-up. Fucking bring it. Stick your mumble rap. It's yodelling now.

daf

Just spotted I missed out some links for the covers in yesterdays post - so please cut out & paste this corrected version into your copybooks :

✂- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ✂- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
QuoteKarl Denver, Howard Keel and David Whitfield have also recorded the song.
✂- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ✂- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

and as a special treat, here's a few more :
Nelson Eddy
Mario Lanza
Giorgio Tozzi

buzby

Quote from: blackcockerel on April 13, 2019, 05:21:05 PM
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.
Lennon did mickey-taking impressions of Cogan for cheap laughs - Cogan wasn't a student at Liverpool College Of Art!

daf

The Man From Cinderford, its . . .

37.  Jimmy Young - The Man From Laramie



From : 9 October – 5 November 1955
Weeks : 4
Flip side : No Arms Can Ever Hold You

Quote'The Man From Laramie' was Jimmy Young's second and final number one - following 'Unchained Melody' earlier in the year.

He returned to the UK Top 20 after a lengthy absence in 1963 with "Miss You" and continued to release singles until the late 1960s. Although after the success of Elvis Presley, he became anxious, depressed and increasingly dependent on sleeping pills. In February 1960, he started to have thoughts of suicide, and one friend told him to see an astrologer, Katina Theodossiou. Young said later, that "She said I was going to be a great success...there is absolutely no way with your chart you can commit suicide. In actual fact you're going to be around so long they're going to have to take you off the field and shoot you". Young later credited her with saving his career. Young said "She forecast that my future lay in interviewing people, not singing".

After a period with Radio Luxembourg, Young joined the BBC. He became a host of Housewives' Choice, on the BBC Light Programme, and later he became one of the first disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, presenting the weekday mid-morning show from 1967 to 1973. In 1973 he joined BBC Radio 2, where he presented a regular programme, until his retirement from broadcasting at the end of 2002. His theme music was "Town Talk" by Ken Woodman & His Piccadilly Brass. BFN ('Bye for now') was one of his catchphrases.

Young returned to BBC Radio 2 in 2011 with a special one-hour programme in celebration of his 90th birthday. Sir Jimmy Young at 90, broadcast on 20 September 2011, heard him in conversation with his friend and former sparring partner Ken Bruce, looking back over his career. In March 2012 Young returned to presenting on BBC Radio 2 after over nine years when he joined Desmond Carrington on a weekly show entitled Icons of the '50s.

Young died peacefully at home in the afternoon of 7 November 2016, aged 95, with his wife Alicia by his side.

QuoteThe Man from Laramie is a 1955 American Western film directed by Anthony Mann and starring James Stewart, Arthur Kennedy, Donald Crisp, and Cathy O'Donnell. It was one of the first Westerns to be filmed in CinemaScope to capture the vastness of the scenery. The film was also shot in Technicolor.

The movie's theme song of the same name, written by Lester Lee and Ned Washington, was recorded in the United States by Al Martino and in the United Kingdom by Jimmy Young. Young's version topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks in October 1955, while Martino's version (which did not chart in the U.S.) stalled at Number 19 that September.

On This Day :
Quote9 October : Steve Ovett, British Olympic athlete, born in Brighton
11 October : 'Oklahoma!', the first feature photographed in the Todd-AO 70 mm widescreen process, is released in the USA.
18 October : Timmy Mallett, British TV presenter born in Marple, Cheshire
20 October : Elvis Presley's first performance north of the Mason–Dixon line at a concert at Brooklyn High School - as the opening act for Pat Boone and Bill Haley
21 October : Eric Faulkner, guitarist (Bay City Rollers), born in Edinburgh
31 October : Princess Margaret announces that she does not intend to marry Group Captain Peter Townsend.
5 November : Racial segregation is outlawed on trains and buses in interstate commerce in the United States.

blackcockerel

Quote from: buzby on April 15, 2019, 01:45:23 PM
Lennon did mickey-taking impressions of Cogan for cheap laughs - Cogan wasn't a student at Liverpool College Of Art!

Ah, that will have been me rushing and misreading something, ta!

blackcockerel

Quote from: daf on April 15, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
The Man From Cinderford, its . . .

37.  Jimmy Young - The Man From Laramie



From : 9 October – 5 November 1955
Weeks : 4
Flip side : No Arms Can Ever Hold You

On This Day :

Ugh. The way he sings 'girlies'

daf

That accent - come on mate, you're from Gloucestershire!

Pranet

Put me in mind of the British made cowboy film in Norbert Smith- A Life.

buzby

Quote from: daf on April 14, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
Everyone's Favourite Stunning Countrypolitan, its . . .

36.  Slim Whitman - Rose Marie
good old Slim Whitman - the top yodeller in Country. if you see any film of him performing it's always amazing to hear this falsetto voice coming from this gentle giant of a man. Any time I hear his voice I'm instantly transported back to being a little kid and my dad playing his singles (and later cassettes) on a sunday. When I had to dispose of dad's records and tapes I kept his box of singles, including this one with the picture sleeve in the YT video.

machotrouts

Unfortunately, there's no Righteous Brothers cover of this one, so we'll never know how it was supposed to sound.

daf

A million housewives every day, pick up a tin of beans and say, its . . .

38.  Johnston Brothers - Hernando's Hideaway  (with Castanets by Elsa Brunelleschi)



From : 6 – 19 November 1955
Weeks : 2
Flip side : Hey There

QuoteJohnny Johnston (born John Harold Johnston, 10 July 1919) formed a music publishing company, Michael Reine Music, in London in 1946, and was used by the BBC Light Programme radio channel as a singer and arranger. His first big success was to write and perform, with his vocal quartet The Keynotes, the theme to the successful comedy series Take It From Here in 1948. The Keynotes remained a popular singing group in the United Kingdom throughout the 1950s, winning several awards but having no hit records.

In 1949 Johnston formed an all-male singing trio, The Johnston Brothers, the other members being Alan Dean, Eddie Lester and Denny Vaughan. They won a recording contract with Decca Records, and had their first UK Top 10 hit in 1953 with "Oh Happy Day". In November 1955, their version of "Hernando's Hideaway", from the movie The Pajama Game, reached the number one spot for two weeks.

By 1956, Johnston had established Johnny Johnston Jingles Ltd., which was responsible for hundreds of advertising jingles in the early years of British commercial television, including "A million housewives every day pick up a tin of beans and say - Beanz Meanz Heinz!", "You can be sure of Shell", and the first ever colour TV commercial in Britain, for Birds Eye peas in 1969.

The Johnston Brothers had a number of smaller follow-up hits in the UK, including the medley "Join In And Sing Again" (1955) and "Heart" (1957).
In a surprise move, the group reformed in 1975 with a completely different line up, and in 1977 scored a UK top 35 hit with a funked up version of the Shuggie Otis classic Strawberry Letter 23.

Quote"Hernando's Hideaway" is a tango show tune from the musical The Pajama Game, written by Jerry Ross and Richard Adler and published in 1954. It was sung in the stage and film versions of the musical by Carol Haney.

The most successful recording of the song was done by Archie Bleyer, the record reaching No. 2 on the Billboard chart in 1954. A version by Johnny Ray hit #14. A rendition by Enoch Light was featured prominently on Command Records' Provocative Percussion as well as the Command test record. It has also been covered by Alma Cogan, and David Clayton Thomas, and is often played by breakbeat DJs. The R&B singer Debelah Morgan sampled it (with different lyrics and a new middle section) on her international pop hit "Dance With Me" released in 2000. The instrumental section of The Johnston Brothers' 1955 recording was used as the theme for Brick Top Polford in the movie Snatch.

As well as 15 versions in Finnish, other notable versions include : The Ventures, The Gems, The Muppets and The Tesco Bombers

The Pajama Game is set in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hernando's Hideaway was a raunchy dive in East Dubuque, Illinois, perched on a high cliff overlooking the highway between Dubuque and Galena.
"Hernando's Hideaway" also became a nickname for the smoking room for British parliamentarians in the House of Commons. The Labour Member of Parliament, Stephen Pound, told the House during a smoking debate on February 14, 2006: "I refer the House to the dystopic hell – 'Hernando's Hideaway' – that is the Smoking Room on the Library Corridor. It is like the Raft of the Medusa most nights, with great groups of people crammed into it."

On This Day :
Quote12 November : Les McKeown, (Bay City Rollers), born in Edinburgh
13 November : Whoopi Goldberg, US actress and comedian, born in Manhattan, New York
15 November : The Leningrad Metro opens in Russia.
17 November : Peter Cox, (Go West), born Kingston upon Thames, London
19 November : C. Northcote Parkinson first propounds 'Parkinson's law', in The Economist.

Al Martino's version of "The Man From Laramie" is a lot more passionate, making the Jimmy Young version sound even more pedestrian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuj1C44iD9A

But it only made #19, suggesting either that Young benefited from preferential playlisting or the UK public were tone deaf.

Johnston Brothers Flip side : Hey There was a Top 5 hit for Johnnie Ray

Elephant in the room: the next #1 changes everything.


buzby

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on April 16, 2019, 02:54:00 PM
Al Martino's version of "The Man From Laramie" is a lot more passionate, making the Jimmy Young version sound even more pedestrian:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuj1C44iD9A

But it only made #19, suggesting either that Young benefited from preferential playlisting or the UK public were tone deaf.
It was another case of Young's label (Decca) gazumphing the release of the US artist's version (on Capitol/EMI) by a week (22nd of September vs 29th of September - Young's version was at #5 when Martino's entered the chart at#19, fell to #20 the following week then dropped out of the chart apart from a one-week reentry at #20 at the beginning of November). Both versions were covers of version used on the film's soundtrack (which was sung by an uncredited male chorus), though Martino's version was officially sanctioned by Columbia Pictures to promote the film's release.

machotrouts

Immediately recognisable tango standard, that's a nice surprise. I was going to say "oh yeah, I know this from the original instrumental, not sure about these vocals they've slapped on it though"... but apparently it always had the vocals? It really sounds like a cack-handed attempt at vocalising an instrumental. What do I know it from? Just people humming it or what? Replace the bean jinglemen with violins or accordions or what have you, and then we'd really be getting somewhere.

The pre-rock #1s have been a bit more diverse than I'd dreaded. Nobody wants to sit through 38 Eddie Fisher pew mopers.

purlieu

Jimmy Young. I'm getting to the stage where there's little-to-nothing to say about these songs. How long until rock'n'roll again? At least it'll mix things up!

The tango was fun, at least.

blackcockerel

Quote from: purlieu on April 16, 2019, 11:26:45 PM
Jimmy Young. I'm getting to the stage where there's little-to-nothing to say about these songs. How long until rock'n'roll again? At least it'll mix things up!

The tango was fun, at least.
Not long to wait at all, luckily!

daf

OK, you juvenile delinquents, get ready to rip out the seats!!, its . . .

39.  Bill Haley and His Comets - Rock Around The Clock



From : 20 November – 10 December 1955 (3)
       + 1 – 14 January 1956 (2)
Weeks : 5
Flip side : Thirteen Women

QuoteBill Haley was born July 6, 1925 in Highland Park, Michigan, as William John Clifton Haley. In 1929, the four-year-old Haley underwent an inner-ear mastoid operation which accidentally severed an optic nerve, leaving him blind in his left eye for the rest of his life.

In the mid-1940s, Bill Haley performed with the Down Homers and formed a group called the Four Aces of Western Swing. The group that later became the Comets initially formed as "Bill Haley and the Saddlemen" c. 1949–1952, and performed mostly country and western songs, though occasionally with a bluesy feel. Haley began his rock and roll career with what is now recognized as a rockabilly style in a cover of "Rocket 88" recorded for the Philadelphia-based Holiday Records label in 1951.

It soon became apparent that a new name was needed to fit the new musical style. A friend of Haley's, making note of the common alternative pronunciation of the name Halley's Comet to rhyme with Bailey, suggested that Haley call his band the Comets.

In 1953, Haley scored his first national success with an original song called "Crazy Man, Crazy," - the first rock and roll song to be televised nationally when it was used on the soundtrack for a 1953 television show starring James Dean.

In the spring of 1954, Haley and His Comets left Essex for New York-based Decca Records. Their first session, on April 12, 1954, yielded "Rock Around the Clock," which would become Haley's biggest hit and one of the most important records in rock and roll history.

"Shake, Rattle and Roll" followed, a cover version of the Big Joe Turner recording released earlier in 1954.

In March, 1955, the group had four songs in Cash Box magazine's top 50 songs: "Dim, Dim the Lights," "Birth of the Boogie," "Mambo Rock," and "Shake, Rattle and Roll."

The band's popularity in the United States began to wane in 1956–57 as sexier, wilder acts such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Pat Boone began to dominate the record charts. Overseas, however, Haley and his band continued to be popular, touring the United Kingdom in February 1957, when Haley and his crew were mobbed by thousands of fans at Waterloo station in London.

Quote"Rock Around the Clock" was written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1954 for American Decca.

It was not the first rock and roll record, nor was it the first successful record of the genre (Bill Haley had American chart success with "Crazy Man, Crazy" in 1953, and in 1954, "Shake, Rattle and Roll" sung by Big Joe Turner reached No. 1 on the R&B chart). Haley's recording nevertheless became an anthem for rebellious 1950s youth and is widely considered to be the song that, more than any other, brought rock and roll into mainstream culture around the world.

Although it was first recorded by Italian-American band Sonny Dae and His Knights on March 20, 1954, Myers claimed the song had been written specifically for Haley but, for various reasons, Haley was unable to record it himself until April 12, 1954.

The recording session almost failed to take place because the band was traveling on a ferry that got stuck on a sandbar en route to New York from Philadelphia. Once at the studio, producer Milt Gabler insisted the band work on a song entitled "Thirteen Women (and Only One Man in Town)", which Gabler wanted to promote as the A-side of the group's first single for Decca - this ended up being the B-side.

Near the end of the session, the band finally recorded a take of "Rock Around the Clock," but Haley's vocals were drowned out by the band. A second take was quickly made with minimal accompaniment while Sammy Davis, Jr. waited outside the studio for his turn behind the microphone. Decca engineers later combined the two versions into one version.

According to the official record sheet from the session, however, the musicians on the famous recording are :

    Bill Haley – vocals, rhythm guitar
    Marshall Lytle – double bass
    Franny Beecher - guitar
    Billy Williamson – steel guitar
    Johnny Grande – piano
    Billy Gussak – drums
    Danny Cedrone – electric guitar
    Joey Ambrose (aka Joey D'Ambrosio) – tenor saxophone

The version of "Rock Around the Clock" that was used in the movie Blackboard Jungle differs from the hit single version. The difference is in the two solo breaks. The record has the guitar solo taking the first break and the sax solo taking the second break. The movie version is just the opposite with the sax solo coming first.

Many versions of the story behind how "Rock Around the Clock" was chosen for Blackboard Jungle circulated over the years. Recent research, however, reveals that the song was chosen from the collection of young Peter Ford, the son of Blackboard Jungle star Glenn Ford and dancer Eleanor Powell. The producers were looking for a song to represent the type of music the youth of 1955 was listening to, and the elder Ford borrowed several records from his son's collection, one of which was Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" and this was the song chosen.

In the UK, Haley's "Rock Around the Clock" was released on Brunswick Records, reaching number 17 on the UK Singles Chart in January 1955, four months before it first entered the US pop charts. The song re-entered the UK chart to reach number one in November 1955 for three weeks, and after a three-week break returned there for a further two weeks in January 1956. It re-entered the charts again in September 1956, reaching number 5. The song's original release saw it become the UK's first million selling single and it went on to sell over 1.4 million copies in total.

In 1964, Bill Haley and His Comets recorded a sequel song entitled "Dance Around the Clock".

On This Day :
Quote20 November : Bo Diddley makes his television debut on Ed Sullivan's 'Toast Of The Town' CBS show
22 November : Elvis Presley signs to RCA Records.
24 November : Clem Burke, drummer (Blondie) born in Bayonne, New Jersey
30 November : Billy Idol born (as William Broad) in Stanmore, Middlesex
1 December : In Montgomery, Alabama, USA, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott & foiling the evil schemes of Racist Time Fonz™
6 December : Rick Buckler, drummer (The Jam) born in Woking, Surrey
7 December : Clement Attlee resigns as leader of the UK Labour Party after twenty years.
1 January : Carl Perkins' record "Blue Suede Shoes" is released in the United States
4 January : Bernard Sumner (New Order), born in Salford




daf

Nice one - I've pasted your link into the post, if that's OK.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Rock Around The Clock is one of those songs which should be blunted by over-familiarity, it must be one of the most well-kent pop tunes of the last 100 years, but listening to it again there it still sounds great. So crisp and bumptious, so full of "Here we go, lads!" joie de vivre. 

I like how it's basically Hickory Dickory Dock dolled up in drainpipe trousers and a snazzy drape jacket, a pleasingly simple song performed by some swinging cats and a cheery moon-faced bloke who probably looked as old as most teenagers' dads in those days (he was only 30). It's a cracking record. Doesn't mess about either, does it? Over and done with in just over two minutes. It states its case then pisses off sharpish.

Yes, I suppose it sounds quite quaint compared to the raw rock and roll of Chuck, Elvis, Bo, Jerry Lee, Little (not Syd) et al, but you can see why ver kids went nuts for it at the time. Going from Jimmy Young to that in the space of a few months must've felt like swapping an old cardigan for a passport to the moon.

machotrouts

Momentous, I suppose. If only I was half as interested in rock and roll as I am novelty mambo instrumentals.

Here's a performance last year by Comets Joey Ambrose (on sax, aged 84) and Dick Richards (on drums, aged 94!).

(Dick doesn't appear to have been involved with Rock Around the Clock; Joey, I think, is the last survivor of the record.)


gilbertharding

Because I had to dig out my copy of Great Pop Things anyway for the Working Class thread, here's:


daf

Merry Christmas Everyone!, its . . .

40.  Dickie Valentine - Christmas Alphabet



From : 11 – 31 December 1955
Weeks : 3
Flip side : Where Are You Tonight?

QuoteDickie Valentine was born Richard Maxwell on 4 November 1929 in Marylebone, London.

In November 1954, Valentine was invited to sing at the Royal Command Performance, and in February 1955 he was top billed at the London Palladium. He also cracked jokes and impersonated entertainers, including Johnnie Ray, Frankie Laine, Mario Lanza and Billy Daniels.

He recorded two number one hits, "Christmas Alphabet" and "Finger of Suspicion". His first chart-topper came only two months after his marriage to Elizabeth Flynn at Caxton Hall, which caused scenes of hysteria and was widely expected to sound the death knell to his career. In fact, 1955 was by far his best chart year, with two number ones and three other Top Ten hits - "Mr Sandman" (#5), "A Blossom Fell" (#9), and "I Wonder" (#4)

In April 1955, Valentine again topped the bill at the London Palladium for two weeks, a month after winning the male vocalist category in the NME poll.

Further attempts to conquer the Christmas market were made in 1956 - "Christmas Island" (#8), and 1957 - "Snowbound For Christmas" (#28).
His final chart entry was with "One More Sunrise (Morgen)" - reaching #14 in 1959.

In 1961, he had a television series Calling Dickie Valentine.
In 1966 Valentine partnered with Peter Sellers on the ATV sketch show The Dickie Valentine Show.

Travelling to his next gig at the Double Diamond Club in Caerphilly, Wales, he was killed outright in a car crash on a single lane bridge at Glangrwyney, near Crickhowell, Wales on 6 May 1971, at the age of 41, together with pianist Sidney Boatman and drummer Dave Pearson.

Quote"Christmas Alphabet" is a Christmas song written by Buddy Kaye and Jules Loman, first released in 1954 by The McGuire Sisters.

In 1955 a cover version recorded by Dickie Valentine and produced by Dick Rowe ("The man who signed The Brumbeats") became a Christmas Number One hit in the UK Singles Chart. It first entered the UK chart on 25 November 1955, where it spent seven weeks, three of which were at the top spot.

It is notable for being the first UK Christmas chart topper that is actually about Christmas - and only one of two Christmas themed number ones 'till the Glam Rock era of the 70's revived the tradition.

On This Day :
Quote12 December : Christopher Cockerell patents his design of the hovercraft.
14 December : Hugh Gaitskell becomes leader of the UK Labour Party.
15 December : Paul Simonon (The Clash) born in Thornton Heath, Croydon.
20 December : Cardiff is declared the capital of Wales by the British Government.
23 December : Carol Ann Duffy, Scottish poet (British Poet Laureate 2009-2019), born in Glasgow.
25 December : After being on radio since 1932, the Royal Christmas Message is broadcast on British television for the first time . . . but in sound only (!)
31 December : Michigan J. Frog, created by Chuck Jones (Looney Tunes), first debuts in "One Froggy Evening".

purlieu

I always found classic rock 'n' roll quite baffling, as I enjoy so little of it that I can't imagine why it was ever popular. But my word what a bit of context can do for a song. Having listened to the various songs from the past few weeks, that sounded fresh and exciting in a way I never imagined it could. For kids around at the time... yeah, I totally see now why it all took off.

Quote from: daf on April 18, 2019, 02:00:00 PM
40.  Dickie Valentine - Christmas Alphabet
Oh for fuck's sake.

daf

Yes, I think I said earlier that Such a Night was our first glimpse into the future - but in Rock around the Clock the future has fully turned up, and is busy slashing seats and farting in Dickie Valentine's face.

Now, have another listen to that guitar solo . . .

QuoteDanny Cedrone had been unable to attend the session rehearsal and was uncertain what to play for the first instrumental break in the song. One of the Comets suggested Cedrone repeat the solo he'd played on "Rock the Joint" from 1952.

The resulting solo, which was smoother than the previous recorded version, is widely considered one of the greatest rock and roll guitar solos of all time.

On June 17 1954, ten days after this session, Cedrone died of a broken neck after falling down a staircase.

Teddy boys go wild to a ghost!