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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

purlieu

Ah, a group!

That's pleasant enough I suppose. I like the odd sounding percussion.


machotrouts

Sorry if this isn't an insightful contribution to the 1950s music thread, but this is an OLD ass sounding song. Its only possible function today would be to soundtrack the depressing bit in a film set in in the 1930s or 1870s or whenever this was as a lady sits at home listening to the wireless and crying while it rains outside. Amazing that there was a time when this was a hot new hit and people went out and deliberately bought it on metal tubes or stone slabs or whatever the music format back then was. Almost impossible for a spunky young man like me to conceive of a time when this was contemporary pop. Mind you I also think that about Westlife

Quote from: daf on March 16, 2019, 02:35:20 PM...and its fans included Queen Elizabeth II.

Imagine being so old that you stanned for these guys? Makes me sick that this is in anyone's living memory. Hope she dies

Mr Banlon

Quote from: daf on March 10, 2019, 03:17:45 PM
So strap yourselves in & let the madness begin, with our first entry - straight in at number one, it's . . .

1. Al Martino - Here In My Heart



From : November 9 1952 -  January 10 1953   
Weeks : 9
B side : I Cried Myself To Sleep Last Night

Apparently the mob got him that #1 : https://youtu.be/iokbNGL3x50?t=1035

daf

The one with the Waggly Tail, it's . . .

8. Lita Roza - (How Much Is) That Doggie In The Window



From : 12 – 18 April 1953
Weeks : 1
B side : Tell Me We'll Meet Again

QuoteBorn Lilian Patricia Lita Roza in Liverpool. She was the eldest of seven children. and began work at an early age to support the family. She owed her sultry looks and passion to her father, an amateur accordionist who also played piano in Liverpool nightclubs. Her father was of Filipino ancestry.

At the age of 12, she saw an advert in the local newspaper for juvenile dancers and passed the audition. She took to the stage at that age in a pantomime and by the time she was 15 was working with the comedian, and fellow Merseysider, Ted Ray. When she was 16, she answered an advertisement and got a job as a singer in the "New Yorker" club in Southport for £5 a week. Soon afterwards she signed up with the Harry Roy Orchestra in London, moving on to work with other bands of the era, including that of Edmundo Ros.

By the time she was 18, Roza had left show business, married an American and moved to Miami, Florida. However, the marriage did not last and shortly after the Second World War she returned to the United Kingdom.

Quote"(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?" is a popular novelty song published as having been written by Bob Merrill in 1952 and loosely based on the folk tune Carnival of Venice. This song is also loosely based on the song "Oh, where, oh, where, has my little dog gone?" The best-known version of the song was the original, recorded by Patti Page on December 18, 1952 under the title "The Doggie in the Window". It reached No. 1 on both the Billboard and Cash Box charts in 1953, and sold over two million copies.

Mercury, however, had poor distribution in the United Kingdom. Therefore, a recording by Lita Roza was the one most widely heard in the UK, reaching No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1953. It also distinguished Roza as the first British woman to have a number-one hit in the UK chart. It was also the first song with a question in the title to reach number 1.

Roza was a singer with The Ted Heath jazz band during the 1950s. In 1951, she recorded "Allentown Jail" with the Heath Band, which led to her A&R Dick Rowe asking her to sing "(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?". Her initial response was negative, "I'm not recording that, it's rubbish." She recalled that he pleaded with her, responding "It'll be a big hit, please do it, Lita."She relented, saying she would record it but never sing it again afterwards.

"Doggie" was a new entry in the UK charts on 14 March 1953 at number nine. It moved up to number three in its second and third week of release before dropping down to number four on 4 April. On 11 April it moved up to number two for a week, before becoming number one on 18 April. This made Lita Roza the first person from Liverpool to top the UK singles chart, long before The Beatles, Cilla Black, or Ken "Diddy? No, Doddy" Dodd did.

In an 1987 Tom Hibbert Smash Hits interview, then current Prime Minister Margaret "Vinegar Tits" Thatcher (28 in 1953) revealed this was her favourite song of all time. However, she had previously claimed that Rolf Harris' "Two Little Boys" was her favourite song on a radio show in 1979, the fickle trout.

Chriddof

I approve of the direction those last couple of paragraphs went in.

(I wonder if Thatcher claiming that "Telstar" was her favourite song ever was a lie, too?)

purlieu

Ted Heath eh? No wonder Maggie was a fan.

I can't believe it's this soon we've had a full-on novelty number 1. Lends a certain credence to the 'everything's been done before' perspective.

kalowski


DrGreggles

Quote from: daf on March 17, 2019, 01:38:33 PM
The one with the Waggly Tail

WOOF WOOF!

Sorry, force of habit.
I think it's called Crackerjack Syndrome.

DrGreggles



buzby

Quote from: daf on March 17, 2019, 01:38:33 PM
This made Lita Roza the first person from Liverpool to top the UK singles chart, long before The Beatles, Cilla Black, or Ken "Diddy? No, Doddy" Dodd did.
There are two other artists from Liverpool with two Number Ones each who also beat The Beatles, Gerry, Cilla, Doddy etc., but we'll come to them as and when (I'm distantly-related to one of them).

Johnboy

This must be one of the first number ones I heard, but not the recording as such, just the song being sung by people in the early '70s

ToneLa

Quote from: buzby on March 18, 2019, 12:39:34 AM
There are two other artists from Liverpool with two Number Ones each who also beat The Beatles, Gerry, Cilla, Doddy etc., but we'll come to them as and2 when (I'm distantly-related to one of them).

I don't post here as much as I should, I always feel like I'm scratching at the window, as my music taste is sporadic and not to my shame universal but I follow this thread from the outside.

I'd be interested to know what record was Buzb. Look forward to the reveal. And from the natter on sudden (spam), even how much!

Suppose I will find oot! Keep up the good work pal.

daf

The Hit that just won't Quit, its . . .

9. Frankie Laine - I Believe



From : 19 April – 20 June 1953 (9 weeks)
        + 28 June – 8 August 1953 (6 weeks)
        + 16 August – 5 September 1953 (3 weeks)
Weeks : 18 (!)
A side : Your Cheatin' Heart *

QuoteFrankie Laine was born Francesco Paolo LoVecchio on March 30, 1913, to Giovanni and Cresenzia LoVecchio (née Salerno). His parents had emigrated from Monreale, Sicily, to Chicago's Near West Side, in "Little Italy" where his father worked at one time as the personal barber for gangster Al Capone. Laine's family appears to have had several organized crime connections, and young Francesco was living with his grandfather when the latter was killed by rival gangsters.

The eldest of eight children, Laine got his first taste of singing as a member of the choir in the Church of the Immaculate Conception's elementary school across the street from the North Park Avenue home. He later attended Lane Technical High School, where he helped to develop his lung power and breath control by joining the track and field and basketball teams. He realized he wanted to be a singer when he missed time in school to see Al Jolson's current talking picture, 'The Singing Fool'. Jolson would later visit Laine when both were filming pictures in 1949, and at about this time, Jolson remarked that Laine was going to put all the other singers out of business.

Quote"I Believe" was written by Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman in 1953. It was commissioned and introduced by Jane Froman on her television show, and became the first hit song ever introduced on TV. Froman, troubled by the uprising of the Korean War in 1952 so soon after World War II, asked Drake, Graham, Shirl and Stillman to compose a song that would offer hope and faith to the populace. Froman's commercial recording reached No. 11 in the Billboard charts during a 10-week stay.

As well as spending eighteen bum-numbing weeks at the top of the UK Singles Chart. Laine also had the most successful version in the USA, where he reached #2 for three weeks.
Later this was a #2 UK hit for the Irish trio The Bachelors in 1964 and a #1 UK hit for TV's soldier duo Robson & Jerome in 1995.

Betting without Bryan Adams' 16 week continuous reign of terror in the 90's, at 18 weeks, this holds the record for the most non-consecutive weeks at the UK number one spot.

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

purlieu

Bloody hell, that was over before it felt like it even got going. I liked the choir.

daf

Bet Westlife would have done this one - (with the trademark 'stool lifting' key change moment at the end) - if Robson & Jerome hadn't bagsied it first.

machotrouts

Great that this is the song that spent the most weeks ever at #1 – by at least that one metric, the biggest hit in UK chart history – and about all the commentary it's inspired is "I liked the choir".

I don't think it's made much of a lasting impression on the populace, has it? Hasn't even been performed on The X Factor, as far as I know. Danny Tetley would've had the judges in floods if he'd closed out a show with this.


buzby

Laine was a massive star (especially for people of my dad's generation, and Macca was a big fan - Laine's 1953 ballad 'Answer Me' was the inspiration for Yesterday), up there with the likes of Sinatra and Bennett (who started out as a plugger for Laine) but unlike them his voice was versatile enough allow him to sing in any genre, though his first loves were jazz and blues.

He had the biggest record deal in the industry until RCA bought out Presley's contract, and was the first person in the US to simultaneously hold the number 1 and number 2 positions in the chart, when in 1949 'Mule Train' knocked his own 'Lucky Old Sun' off the top spot. The same year that 'I Believe' was at number one for 18 weeks, he also set another UK chart record of being at number one for 27 weeks in total (with two more tracks daf will soon get to), which has also never been beaten.

Hew was also very active in the civil rights movement, becoming the first white performer to appear on Nat King Cole's TV show (for which he waived his usual salary as nobody would sponsor Cole's show) and appeared at a free concert staged for Dr King's suoorters during the Selma to Montgomery march, alongside Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone, Tony Bennett and Joan Baez.

Needless to say, he was another favourite of my mum and dad (they went to see him at the Empire when he toured the UK in the 90s) and despite offloading my dad's record collection I've still got his 7" 'Western Favourites' EP from 1961 that contained 4 of the Western theme songs that he sang or covered, including 'Champion The Wonder Horse', a childhood favourite of mine.

I'm not sure the split between A and B sides was as important back then. Billboard allowed both sides to chart and the NME was actually quite restrictive compared to other charts by only recognizing the best selling side. I wonder if Hank Williams' estate made a ton of money from his song being on the disc, or if sheet music was still the big earner?

Champion The Wonder Horse was still being broadcast up to around 1980 I think so we all knew Frankie's voice way after he stopped charting.

Purely in terms of weeks in the Top 5, I think Frankie beat Elvis in the 50s. Presley's biggest ever years were 61 and 62.

daf

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on March 19, 2019, 10:15:51 AM
I'm not sure the split between A and B sides was as important back then. Billboard allowed both sides to chart and the NME was actually quite restrictive compared to other charts by only recognizing the best selling side. I wonder if Hank Williams' estate made a ton of money from his song being on the disc, or if sheet music was still the big earner?

That is a very good point :

As radio plays didn't count towards the chart placing (in the UK), and you were technically buying both sides on a record, the sheet music sales MUST have been the deciding factor on which side became "the hit". *

I think you've cracked it!

- - - - - - - - - -
* (I think the 'publishing' means all songs still have to come out as sheet music - I was able to pick up the sheet music for 'Phorever People' in my fanatical Shamen obsession days back in the 90s)

daf

Quote from: machotrouts on March 19, 2019, 03:59:53 AM
I don't think it's made much of a lasting impression on the populace, has it? Hasn't even been performed on The X Factor, as far as I know.

I mentioned the Robson & Jerome version from 1995 (which we'll cover as a future number 1) - so it did have some 'legs' *

- - - - - - - - - - - - -
* (unsurprisingly, Simon Cowell was the brawn behind R&J's retro revival career - which was almost like a trial run for X Factor's karaoke hit factory)

buzby

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on March 19, 2019, 10:15:51 AM
Champion The Wonder Horse was still being broadcast up to around 1980 I think so we all knew Frankie's voice way after he stopped charting.
The vocals on the TV show theme are by Mike Stewart (uncredited - Laine was supposed to record it, but was unavailable for the session)  Laine recorded a cover of it 4 years after after the series ended as the B side to his cover of the theme from The Advuntures Of Robin Hood (having previously had hits with his cover of the theme for High Noon and his themes from Rawhide and Gunfight At The O.K. Corral). It was issued as an A-side by Philips in the UK, but wasn't a hit (the preceding single, Rawhide, had got to number 6)

Quote from: daf on March 19, 2019, 10:24:54 AM
As radio plays didn't count towards the chart placing (in the UK), and you were technically buying both sides on a record, the sheet music sales MUST have been the deciding factor on which side became "the hit". *
From November 1952 when the NME started it's chart, it was only based on physical single sales, not sheet music. Radio Luxembourg started broadcasting a Top 20 based on the Music Publishers Association sheet music chart in 1950 though, and 'I Believe' got to #1 in that too (sheet music was still outselling singles at this point, and would do for a few years yet - despite being in the chart for 36 weeks, 'I Believe' sold less than a million copies). I expect Philips were looking at the sheet music sales and decided to flip the record for radio play (it's notable that the single doesn't actually have an A and B side marked on the label).

daf

On the rebound and now shacked up with his second Number One, its . . .

10. Eddie Fisher - I'm Walking Behind You ("with Hugo Winterhalter's Orchestra and Sally Sweetland")



From : 21 – 27 June 1953
Weeks : 1
A side : Hold Me *

Quote"I'm Walking Behind You" is a popular song written by Billy Reid and published in 1953.
Eddie Fisher's rendition of the song, with soprano and music teacher Sally Sweetland, became a number-one hit single on both the Cash Box and Billboard record charts in 1953 in the United States, as well as reaching number one on the UK Singles Chart.

Sally Sweetland was featured as solo artist on television programs such as The Perry Como Show and The Ed Sullivan Show, and later worked as a vocal coach with her husband Lee, a baritone, who was Woody Woodpecker's singing voice on NBC radio. Among their students were Seth MacFarlane, creator of 'The Orville'.

The recording by Eddie Fisher and Hugo Winterhalter's orchestra and chorus was made on 7 April 1953.
In the same year, Frank Sinatra released his own rendition of the song in his very first recording session at Capitol Records on 2 April.

Quote"Hold Me" is a popular song by Jack Little, Dave Oppenheim, and Ira Schuster. The song was published in 1933; it was recorded by Little Jack Little, and covered by Eddy Duchin, Greta Keller and Ted Fio Rito.
In 1981, it was covered (via PJ Proby's 1964 version) by B. A. Robertson and Maggie Bell, reaching no. 11 in the UK Hit Parade.

QuoteIn 1981, Fisher wrote an autobiography, 'Eddie: My Life, My Loves' . . .  He wrote another autobiography in 1999 titled 'Been There, Done That'. The later book devotes little space to Fisher's singing career, but recycled the material of his first book and added many new eye-popping sexual details that were too strong to publish before.
Upon the book's publication, his daughter Carrie declared: "That's it. I'm having my DNA fumigated."

This seems to be our first UK number one available in the UK as a 45 rpm 7inch, rather than a 78rpm shellac 10 inch. #

- - - - - - - - -
* (This is another one where the B side has become 'the hit')
# (. . . or rather, the second - see buzby's update below)

buzby

Quote from: daf on March 19, 2019, 01:58:59 PM
10. Eddie Fisher - I'm Walking Behind You ("with Hugo Winterhalter's Orchestra and Sally Sweetland")

This seems to be our first UK number one available in the UK as a 45 rpm 7inch, rather than a 78rpm shellac 10 inch.
Fisher's previous #1 Outside Of Heaven/Lady Of Spain was also released as a 7", but after it had vacated the top spot. The same was true of Perry Como's #1 (it seems HMV were market leaders in the transition to 7")

daf

Ta - I stand corrected!

(discogs didn't have it listed - which is where I was cribbing my B side & format info from)

machotrouts

Sally Sweetland was born in 1911 and age 42 at the time of this record. She died in 2015, age 103. (I'd link to an article, but her death went unreported even in local or specialist press, at least as far as Google knows.) She outlived the 17-years-her-junior Eddie Fisher, and died only one year before his daughter Carrie.

She's not the earliest-born #1 hitmaker – Hugo Winterhalter has her beat, for one – but is she maybe the earliest-born vocalist credited on a #1 hit? She's got a year on dusty old Como, at least.

Anyway, congratulations to Eddie Fisher on becoming the first artist to rack up two UK #1s – two UK #1s about stalking an ex at a wedding, at that. No point messing with a winning formula. The public can't get enough of mopey old bride botherer Eddie, crywanking in the pews.

Captain Z

They may have pressed it at 45rpm but I think they forgot to adjust the speed from 78. Even at 1.5x this is a struggle. Nice instrumentation. 4/11

DrGreggles


Quote from: machotrouts on March 19, 2019, 05:40:50 PM
Sally Sweetland was born in 1911 and age 42 at the time of this record. She died in 2015, age 103. (I'd link to an article, but her death went unreported even in local or specialist press, at least as far as Google knows.) She outlived the 17-years-her-junior Eddie Fisher, and died only one year before his daughter Carrie.

She's not the earliest-born #1 hitmaker – Hugo Winterhalter has her beat, for one – but is she maybe the earliest-born vocalist credited on a #1 hit? She's got a year on dusty old Como, at least.

Anyway, congratulations to Eddie Fisher on becoming the first artist to rack up two UK #1s – two UK #1s about stalking an ex at a wedding, at that. No point messing with a winning formula. The public can't get enough of mopey old bride botherer Eddie, crywanking in the pews.

Louis Armstrong, born 1901, No. 1 hit in 1968

Tom Jones, born 1940, sang on Comic Relief #1 in 2009