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

[purlieu]

Can't beat a thoughtful chorus, can you?

[machotrouts]

Macho like a Trouts!, its . . .

Quite like that people were whacking emerging genres into song titles like "Rock-a-Billy" and "Rock 'n' Roll Waltz" back then, like if you invented a fictional band from the 1950s and put absolutely no effort into making up song titles to add colour to their bio.

Other songs written by Eddie V. Deane include :  "A Little Dog Cried", "Small Sad Sam", and "Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu" for Dicky Doo and the Don'ts.

These are the titles you'd come up with if you did put effort in. The songs themselves... I'm all for a talky bit in a song, but "A Little Dog Cried" and "Small Sad Sam" are basically just monologues? And "Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu" is literally just the phrase "Nee Nee Na Na Na Na Nu Nu"? Outstanding scam artistry. Pantheon of songwriter greats.

[daf]

The boys watch the girls while the girls watch the boys who watch the girls flutter by, its . . .

59.  Andy Williams - Butterfly



From : 19 May – 1 June 1957
Weeks : 2
Flip side : It Doesn't Take Very Long

Howard Andrew Williams was born on 3 December, 1927 in Wall Lake, Iowa.

He and his brothers formed the Williams Brothers quartet in late 1938. Moving to Los Angeles in 1943, the Williams Brothers sang with Bing Crosby on his 1944 hit record "Swinging on a Star".

The Williams Brothers were signed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to appear in Anchors Aweigh and Ziegfeld Follies (1945) but, before they went before the cameras, the oldest brother, Bob, was drafted into military service and the group's contract was canceled.

After landing a spot as a regular on Tonight Starring Steve Allen in 1954, Williams was signed to a recording contract with Cadence Records, a small label in New York, run by conductor Archie Bleyer. Williams's third single, "Canadian Sunset", reached No. 7 in the Top Ten in August 1956; it was followed in February 1957 by his only Billboard No. 1 hit, "Butterfly" which was also No. 1 for two weeks on the UK Singles Chart in May 1957.

In 1961, Williams married Claudine Longet, moved to Los Angeles, California, and signed with Columbia Records. His first album with Columbia, Danny Boy and Other Songs I Love to Sing, was a chart success, peaking at No. 19. He was then asked to sing "Moon River", the theme from Breakfast at Tiffany's, at the 1962 Academy Awards, where it won Best Original Song.

In 1963, Williams's producer Robert Mersey encouraged him to record "Can't Get Used to Losing You" as the B Side to "Days of Wine and Roses". Williams initially did not like the pop song, but "Can't Get Used to Losing You" reached No. 2 in the US and in the UK.

Building on his experience with Allen and some short-term variety shows in the 1950s, he became the star of his own weekly television variety show in the fall of 1962. Though canceled after 1963 due to low ratings, the show was then sponsored to make 12 weekly specials in the 1963–1964 season. This series, The Andy Williams Show, won three Emmy Awards for outstanding variety program. Among his series regulars were the Osmond Brothers.

His 1967 recording of "Music to Watch Girls By" became a big UK hit to a new young television audience in 1999, when it reached No. 9 after being featured in new television advertisements for the Fiat Punto.

In 2002, he re-recorded "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" as a duet with British actress and singer Denise van Outen; it reached No. 23 in the UK singles charts.

On September 25, 2012, Williams died of bladder cancer at the age of 84 at his home in Branson, Missouri. 

"Butterfly" was written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann and published in 1957. The song is credited to Anthony September as songwriter in some sources. This was a pseudonym of Anthony Mammarella, producer of American Bandstand.

The original recording of the song by Charlie Gracie reached No. 1 on the Billboard chart, and No. 12 on the UK Singles Chart in 1957.

Other versions include :  Bob Carroll (1957)  /  Tommy Steele (1957)  /  The Crests (1960)  / Cliff Richard (2016)

In 2010 English singer-songwriter Eliza Doolittle sampled this on her UK hit, "Skinny Genes"

On This Day :

23 May : Thereza Bazar, (Dollar), born in Toronto, Ontario
23 May : Jimmy McShane, (Baltimora), born in Derry, Northern Ireland
27 May : Toronto's CHUM-AM becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock 'n' Roll music format
27 May : Siouxsie Sioux [Susan Ballion], (Siouxsie & Banshees), born in Southwark, London
27 May : Duncan Goodhew, (Olympic swimmer), born in Marylebone, London
29 May : James Whale, English film director (Bride of Frankenstein), commits suicide by drowning at 67
31 May : Great Britain performs (atmospheric) nuclear test at Christmas Island
1 June : the first Premium Bond winners selected by the computer ERNIE

[machotrouts]

He's no Crazy Town and he's definitely no smile.dk.

"Ｉ＇Ｍ ＣＬＩＰＰＩＮＧ ＹＯＵＲ ＷＩＮＧＳ， ＹＯＵＲ ＦＬＹＩＮＧ ＩＳ ＴＨＲＯＵＧＨ．．． because I'm crazy about you! You butterfly!"

This is supposed to be another one of those superficially bright whistlepop songs with ironically dark lyrics, right? This didn't just sound fine and normal in 1957?

Fun Andy Williams fact: Andy Williams had a verified Twitter account.

Fun Andy Williams speculation: that Twitter seems so obviously not him? I 100% think a half-hearted parody was accidentally given a blue tick through some administrative error, and has just kept its head down since Andy Williams died so as not to arouse suspicion.

[Captain Z]

I meant to chip in a bit more regularly with this, I'm very much enjoying reading but I do remember this late 50's to early 60's period being a bit of a slog. Rock Around The Great Comet Balls Of Fire and Sixteen Tons Of Cumberland Gap were the only songs I really remember standing out in the era we're currently on. There's a small upturn coming and then for me things became consistently enjoyable around 1963.

[purlieu]

The boys watch the girls while the girls watch the boys who watch the girls flutter by, its . . .

59.  Andy Williams - Butterfly

Shite.

[daf]

Yip! Yip! Whip out yer boom-diddy-boom-diddy, its . . .

60.  Johnnie Ray - Yes Tonight Josephine



From : 2 – 22 June 1957
Weeks : 3
Flip side : No Wedding Today

After releasing four singles in 1957, including a #8 hit with 'You Don't Owe Me A Thing' and his third and final UK number 1, 'Yes Tonight Josephine', his popularity began to decline. With no chart action in 1958, his final UK chart entry was "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" - reaching #26 in 1959.

In 1959, Ray was arrested in Detroit for soliciting an undercover officer at the Brass Rail, a bar that was described by one biographer as a haven for musicians and by another as a gay bar. Ray went to trial following this arrest and was found not guilty.

In 1960, he was hospitalized for tuberculosis. Shortly after his recovery, he quit drinking. His music was not available for sale and he did not appear on American television during the first half of the 1960s.

In 1969, Ray headlined a European concert tour with Judy Garland. He served as the best man at her wedding to her last husband, nightclub manager Mickey Deans, in London on March 15, 1969. Shortly after Ray returned to the United States, an American doctor informed him that he was well enough to drink an occasional glass of wine. He resumed drinking heavily and his health began to decline. Despite this, in the 1970s he appeared several times on prime-time network television in the United States.

Archival footage of Ray arriving at London Heathrow Airport in 1954 was featured in the 1982 music video for Dexys Midnight Runners' hit single "Come On Eileen". The lyrics of the song also mention him: "Poor old Johnnie Ray . . sounded sad upon the radio / moved a million hearts in mono."

In 1986, Ray appeared as a Los Angeles taxicab driver in Billy Idol's "Don't Need a Gun" video and is name-checked in the lyrics of the song.

On February 24, 1990, he died of hepatic encephalopathy resulting from liver failure.

Yes Tonight Josephine" was a popular music song from 1957. It was written by Winfield Scott and Dorothy Goodman, and was a hit single for Johnnie Ray.

Ray's recording was produced by Mitch Miller, and gave him his third and final number 1 hit in the UK Singles Chart. The single first entered the UK Singles Chart on 10 May 1957, and peaked at number 1 for three weeks in June, and spending 16 weeks on the chart. The original record was only available as a 78rpm disc.

Other versions include : The Tunettes (1957)  / The Bintangs (1977)  /  The Jets  (1981)

A German version ("Ja heut' Nacht, Josefine") by Jo Roland was also released in 1957

On This Day :

3 June : Noël Coward returns to Britain from the West Indies amid criticism that he is living abroad to avoid having to pay tax.
2 June : Mark Lawrenson, (Footballer), born in Penwortham, Lancashire
12 June : Jimmy Dorsey, US orchestra leader, dies at 53
15 June : "Ziegfeld Follies of 1957" closes at Winter Garden NYC after 123 performances
21 June : Mark Brzezicki, drummer (Big Country), born in Slough, Berkshire
22 June : Danny Baker, (NME Writer / Radio Presenter), born in Deptford, London
22 June : Garry "Gary" Beers, (INXS), born in Sydney, New South Wales

[purlieu]

First number one to feature Muppets, there.

[Pranet]

Catching up with these- thanks daf you are putting a lot of effort into this.

Going back to Lonnie Donegan for a moment- the opening of Frankie and Johnny invented The Fall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKotu3lrjKA

[Dr Rock]

thanks daf you are putting a lot of effort into this.

Seconded. Have ten imaginary karma points.

[daf]

Aw, thanks fellas!

60 down, only another . . . (checks wiki) . . . 1294 to go!!

[Satchmo Distel]

Had a sneak look at 61-67. The No. 1 spot is about to wake up.

[machotrouts]

What kind of dumbass undercover policeman passes up the chance to shag Johnnie Ray up the arse and see if he makes the "YIP! YIP!" noise in bed too? He doesn't, of course – his backing vocalists do that from under the bed – but the point is, we must overthrow and slaughter the incurious popo.

[famethrowa]

Catching up with these- thanks daf you are putting a lot of effort into this.

Going back to Lonnie Donegan for a moment- the opening of Frankie and Johnny invented The Fall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKotu3lrjKA

haha fantastic

[daf]

Oh, I do like to be B-side the Double A-side, its . . .

61.  Lonnie Donegan - Puttin' On The Style / Gamblin' Man

 

From : 23 June – 6 July 1957
Weeks : 2
bonus video :  Gamblin' Man / Puttin On The Style

While in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played guitar and banjo in their Dixieland set. He began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what posters called a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s. In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.

With a washboard, tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan played folk and blues songs by artists such as Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. This proved popular and in July 1954 he recorded a fast version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side, reaching No. 8 in the UK.

His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954. Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band, and by spring 1955, signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached No. 2 in the UK Singles Chart.

He appeared on television in the United States on the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show. Returning to the UK, he recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in summer 1956, with songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball".

Donegan went on to successes such as "Cumberland Gap" and "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?)", his biggest hit in the U.S., on Dot.

Vernon Dalhart recorded "Puttin' On the Style" in December of 1925 and by 1926 it was a popular hit. The song was collected in the Catskills by Norman Cazden from Ernie Sagar in 1945 showing that it had entered oral tradition.

"Puttin' On the Style" was a 1957 hit for skiffle artist Lonnie Donegan. It was recorded live at the London Palladium and released as a double A-side along with "Gamblin' Man" and reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in June and July 1957, where it spent two weeks in this position.

A low quality recording of the song performed by The Quarrymen, John Lennon's group live on 6 July 1957 exists, although it has never been released officially. It was recorded the same day that Lennon met his songwriting partner Paul McCartney. The song was also satirised by Peter Sellers on his song "Puttin' on the Smile" (1959), which he presented in the guise of folk singer, Lenny Goonagan.

The Chad Mitchell Trio also recorded this song on the "Mighty Day on Campus" album. Finnish singer Lasse Liemola had a hit in 1958 with a Finnish version of the song titled as "Diivaillen". In 1974 a group called Hullujussi covered "Diivaillen" in their album "Bulvania".

"Gamblin' Man" was written by Woody Guthrie (spuriously credited to "Guthrie/Donnegan" - presumably for adding the crucial washboard!)

It was recorded live at the London Palladium and released as a double A side along with "Puttin' On the Style". It reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in June and July 1957, where it spent two weeks in this position. This was the last UK number 1 to be released on 78 rpm format only, as 7' vinyl had become the norm by this time.

On This Day :

23 June : Leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee John, (Imagination), born in Hackney, London
3 July : Laura Branigan, singer ("Gloria"), born in Mount Kisco, New York
5 July : Althea Gibson becomes the first black female athlete to win Wimbledon beating Darlene Hard 6-3, 6-2
6 July : John Lennon and Paul McCartney first meet as teenagers at a garden fete at St. Peter's Church, Woolton, Liverpool, England, at which Lennon's skiffle group, The Quarrymen, is playing a gig consisting of what sounds like six versions of 'Putting on the Style' from inside a Cosmonaut's washing machine.

[purlieu]

Ah, Gamblin' Man is particularly great. Didn't expect to be enjoying skiffle so much.

[machotrouts]

I enjoyed that Rock Island Line documentary on iPlayer last night, thanks for alerting me to that daf. That's filled in an 18-month gap in my music knowledge. Mind you, it seems impossible to appreciate the song on its own merits once you know it was written as an advertising jingle. How can you unhear that?

"Puttin' on the Style" is as fusty and cornball as I'd expected Lonnie Donegan to be before knowing anything about him, but the frenzied escalation of "Gamblin' Man" is much more up my cumberland gap. Usually I put titles between apostrophes, but in this case, I put them between quotation marks, because they both have apostrophes in them already. That's the mark of a good writer.

[daf]

Itchin' like a man on a fuzzy tree, its . . .

62.  Elvis Presley - All Shook Up



From : 7 July – 24 August 1957
Weeks : 7
Flip side : That's When Your Heartaches Begin

Elvis Presley was born Evis Aaron (or Aron?) Presley (yes, you read that right - 'EVIS'!) on January 8, 1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love Presley (née Smith) and Vernon Elvis Presley. Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn.

He was encouraged to enter a singing contest held at the Mississippi–Alabama Fair and Dairy Show on October 3, 1945, by his schoolteacher. The ten-year-old Presley was dressed as a cowboy; he stood on a chair to reach the microphone and sang "Old Shep". He recalled placing fifth.

In August 1953, Presley checked into the offices of Sun Records. He aimed to pay for a few minutes of studio time to record a two-sided acetate disc: "My Happiness" and "That's When Your Heartaches Begin". He later claimed that he intended the record as a gift for his mother. Asked by receptionist Marion Keisker what kind of singer he was, Presley responded, "I sing all kinds." When she pressed him on who he sounded like, he repeatedly answered, "I don't sound like nobody." After he recorded, Sun boss Sam Phillips asked Keisker to note down the young man's name, which she did along with her own commentary: "Good ballad singer. Hold."

In 1954, Phillips invited two local musicians, guitarist Winfield "Scotty" Moore and upright bass player Bill Black, to work something up with Presley for a recording session. The session, held the evening of July 5, proved entirely unfruitful until Presley took his guitar and launched into a 1946 blues number, Arthur Crudup's "That's All Right". Moore recalled :
"All of a sudden, Elvis just started singing this song, jumping around and acting the fool, and then Bill picked up his bass, and he started acting the fool, too, and I started playing with them. Sam, I think, had the door to the control booth open ... he stuck his head out and said, 'What are you doing?' And we said, 'We don't know.' 'Well, back up,' he said, 'try to find a place to start, and do it again.'"

Three days later, popular Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips played "That's All Right" on his Red, Hot, and Blue show. Listeners began phoning in, eager to find out who the singer really was. The interest was such that Phillips played the record repeatedly during the remaining two hours of his show. During the next few days, the trio recorded a bluegrass number, Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky". A single was pressed with "That's All Right" on the A side and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" on the reverse.

"All Shook Up" was written by Otis Blackwell at the offices of Shalimar Music in 1956 after Al Stanton, one of Shalimar's owners, shaking a bottle of Pepsi at the time, suggested he write a song based on the phrase "all shook up."

According to Peter Guralnick the song has a different origin. In his book Last Train to Memphis he wrote that Elvis thought "All Shook Up" was a good phrase for a refrain. For this he received a co-writing credit.

Elvis himself, during an interview on October 28, 1957, said: "I've never even had an idea for a song. Just once, maybe. I went to bed one night, had quite a dream, and woke up all shook up. I phoned a pal and told him about it. By morning, he had a new song, 'All Shook Up'."

Actor David Hess, using the stage name David Hill, was the first to record the song and release it a few weeks before Elvis on Aladdin Records, titled "I'm All Shook Up". In a 2009 interview, Hess revealed the origins of the song, and claimed to come up with the title of the song: "As far as 'All Shook Up', the title came from a real set of circumstances and when I decided not to write it, Otis Blackwell did and I had the first recording for Aladdin Records. It was my title, but Otis wrote the song and Presley took a writing credit in order to get him to record it. That's the way things happened in those days."

On January 12, 1957, Presley recorded the song at Radio Recorders in Hollywood.  The duet vocal on the record is by the Jordanaires first tenor Gordon Stoker. Take 10 was selected for release, and in March the song entered Billboard's Top 100 chart at #25. Within three weeks it had knocked Perry Como's "Round and Round" off the top spot, and stayed there for eight consecutive weeks. The song also became Presley's first No. 1 hit on the UK Singles Chart, remaining there for seven weeks.

Other versions include :
Suzi Quatro for her debut solo album Suzi Quatro in 1973. (Presley invited Quatro to Graceland, commenting that her version was the best since the original.)
Jim Dale released a version as a single on Parlophone records in 1957.
The Jeff Beck Group, featuring Rod Stewart on vocals, released a version on their 1969 album Beck-Ola.
In 1999 Paul McCartney cut a hard-rocking version on the album Run Devil Run

"That's When Your Heartaches Begin" was written in 1937 by Fred Fisher, William Raskin and Billy Hill. It was recorded and released the same year by Shep Fields Rippling Rhythm, and again by the Ink Spots in 1941. R&B male soprano Billy Bunn and His Buddies recorded the song for RCA, which was released in 1952.

On July 18, 1953, a young Elvis Presley entered Sun Records in Memphis, where he paid $3.98 for enough studio time to record a double-sided acetate single. On the A-side, he recorded "My Happiness", later made famous by Connie Francis in 1958, while he recorded "That's When Your Heartaches Begin" for the B-side.

He would later revisit the song on at least two occasions, the first during the famous Million Dollar Quartet sessions on December 4, 1956, and the second when he re-recorded the song in January 1957 as a B-side to "All Shook Up".

On This Day :

9 July : Marc Almond, (Soft Cell), born in Southport, Lancashire
9 July : Paul Merton, (comedian), born in Parsons Green, London
11 July : Peter Murphy, (Bauhaus), born in Northampton, Northamptonshire, Northamptonland
20 July : Stirling Moss finishes the British Grand Prix at Aintree in first position in a Vanwall VW5, the first World Championship victory for a British car.
28 July : Jerry Lee Lewis makes his 1st TV appearance (on the Steve Allen Show)
31 July : the Tryweryn Bill, permitting Liverpool City Council to build a reservoir which will drown the village of Capel Celyn, becomes law.
5 August : the cartoon character Andy Capp first appears in northern editions of the Daily Mirror.
5 August : "American Bandstand" premieres on network TV (ABC)
21 August : Budgie [Peter Edward Clarke],(drummer - Siouxsie & the Banshees), born in St. Helens, Lancashire,
24 August : Stephen Fry, (A Bit of Fry & Laurie), born in Hampstead, London
24 August : Jeffrey Daniel, (Shalamar), born in Los Angeles, California

[Satchmo Distel]

Elvis had already recorded a Blackwell tune, `Don't be Cruel'

https://americansongwriter.com/2007/07/dont-be-cruel-otis-blackwells-triumph/

[daf]

Just added a link to the David Hess original version - nice that they got Les Dawson in to handle the keys!

[purlieu]

That feels less out of place than Rock Around the Clock did earlier. But it's nice to know we're moving forward again.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Not one of my favourite Elvis tunes, but I do like its bouncy simplicity. Charming, breezy rhythm and blues. It's lo-fi, really, just a piano, vocals and Elvis slapping the back of his acoustic guitar.

It is, of course, also the inspiration for Death Cab For Cutie by The Bonzos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG74svJJ2lU

[Dr Rock]

So what is a 'fuzzy tree'? Why would a man remain on it if it was all itchy? Oh god it's not rude like Shake, Rattle & Roll is it?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Ever since I first heard All Shook Up as a child, I have wondered about this.

Maybe the hypothetical man climbed up the fuzzy tree to escape from, I dunno, some bees, and can't get down? That would certainly shake you up!

[daf]

So what is a 'fuzzy tree'?

The verse "itching like a man on a Fuzzy tree" refers to a tree that is infested by the Fall ( Autumn ) webworm (Hyphantria cunea). This caterpillar covers trees with webs that make the tree look "fuzzy". They also cause an Itchy rash.

So a man on a fuzzy tree would be itching - either due to the rash, or just from loads of hairy caterpillars tickling him.

[Satchmo Distel]

All Shook Up also spins its magic in less than 2 minutes (1:58).

[machotrouts]

Throughout my childhood I consistently misheard this as "a Moesha cup". Not a thing.

Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered 35 minutes before him, stillborn.

Imagine being Elvis's stillborn twin. Way to be the disappointment of the family. Actual Elvis is your brother and all you've done is get yanked dead out a fanny.

Ah yeah I have a brother, a twin actually. Who? Oh, Elvis. Yeah, yeah that one. 21 #1 hits, yeah. What do I do? Oh I'm medical waste. Dead at birth. Yeah... yeah, no hits, no. Just, died really.

[famethrowa]

Throughout my childhood I consistently misheard this as "a Moesha cup". Not a thing.

Imagine being Elvis's stillborn twin. Way to be the disappointment of the family. Actual Elvis is your brother and all you've done is get yanked dead out a fanny.

The wrong kid died!

[Pranet]

Just added a link to the David Hess original version - nice that they got Les Dawson in to handle the keys!

Bloody hell.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Bloody hell.

Quite. That's appalling.