Country

92. Cliff Richard and The Shadows – Travellin’ Light (1959)

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The Info

Since the success of Living Doll , Cliff Richard’s band, The Drifters, had run into trouble. Unlike most backing bands at the time, they had signed a separate contract to Cliff, meaning they could release material on their own. Their first single, Feelin’ Fine, had to be withdrawn in the US when the manager of the famous soul group with the same name threatened legal action.

Before

The second single, Jet Black, was credited to The Four Jets, but manager Norrie Paramor suggested they needed to find a name and stick to it. That July while in a pub in Ruslip, bassist Jet Harris suggested to guitarist Hank Marvin they should be called The Shadows, and thus the name of one of the most famous bands of the next few years was finally settled. Bobby Vee’s backing group were also called The Shadows, but Marvin and co didn’t know this, so tough.

Travellin’ Light, written by Sid Tepper & Roy C Bennett, became their first single with their new name. Tepper and Bennett became two of Richards’ most frequent collaborators, and they also wrote many songs for Elvis Presley, particularly for his films.

Review

Travellin’ Light is pretty much a rewrite of Living Doll, as close as you can get to following up a number 1 with a repeat of the same formula. It’s also quite similar to Roger Miller’s 1965 number 1, King of the Road – had he been listening to this? The production is also similar to before, but this time Cliff’s voice has been treated with a strong echo effect, and there’s some welcome twangy guitar flourishes from Marvin, that could have done to be louder in the mix. Cliff is on his way to see his girl, and he’s so excited he’s taken nothing with him. He can’t even be bothered with a comb or toothbrush, the dirty beggar.

It’s an average country tune that would be better remembered if they’d at least tried to make it sound different to what had come before, but five weeks at number 1 suggests their fans were happy with more of the same.

The Info

Written by

Sid Tepper & Roy C Bennett

Producer

Norrie Paramor

Weeks at number 1

5 (30 October-3 December)

Trivia

Births

2 November: Actor Peter Mullan
14 November: Actor Paul McGann
18 November: Footballer Jimmy Quinn
25 November: Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy
30 November: Presenter Lorraine Kelly
2 December: Actress Gwyneth Strong

Deaths

26 November: Pianist Albert Ketèlbey

Meanwhile…

30 October: Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club opened in Soho, London. One of the most renowned venues of its kind, some of the artists who later played there include Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Curtis Mayfield, Prince and Jimi Hendrix, in his final public performance.

1 November: The first section of the M1 opened, between Watford and Rugby.

17 November: Prestwick and Renfrew become the first UK airports to feature duty free shops.

78. Conway Twitty – It's Only Make Believe (1958)

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The Intro

Much like Andy Williams, Conway Twitty was somewhat of an Elvis copyist to begin with, before developing his own style, and sounding like Elvis is probably what garnered him a number one single.

Before

Twitty had been born Harold Lloyd Jenkins on 1 September 1933 in Coahoma County, Mississippi. The family moved to Helena Arkansas when he was 10 years old, where he formed his first group, The Phillips County Ramblers. He later served in the Far East where his new group, The Cimmerons, would entertain his fellow troops. After his return, he heard Presley’s Mystery Train and became determined to follow in his footsteps, travelling to Sun Studios in the process.

Depending on which story you believe, he either took the name Conway Twitty from a map (Conway is in Arkansas and Twitty is in Texas), or he stole it from a man who his manager served with in the army, upon his suggestion. He switched from Sun Records to MGM Records and began releasing singles.
It’s Only Make Believe had been quickly written by Twitty and his drummer Jack Nance between sets at the Flamingo Lounge in Hamilton. Taking a whole year to climb the charts, it reached number 1 in the US and subsequently 21 other countries. To begin with, some listeners assumed the performer was Elvis recording under a pseudonym, the vocal was so similar.

Review

I didn’t cover It’s Only Make Believe during my blog on my mammoth listen to every Christmas number 1, here, but I was impressed by the intensity of the performance, and even more so since then. As the song began, I was ready to dismiss it as a sub-standard Elvis ballad rip-off like Pat Boone’s I’ll Be Home.

However, as Twitty proclaims his wish that his lover felt as strongly as he did, he moves out of the croon and really lets rip, and it’s a great vocal performance. He sounds genuinely pained by the time he reaches the song’s title at the end of each verse. I still think it’s a shame Lord Rockingham’s XI’s Hoots Mon didn’t stay at number 1 for another week to become the festive chart-topper, though.

After

Twitty failed to set the charts alight again for some time, until he decided to move from rock’n’roll to country music in 1965. Country radio stations were sceptical at first, but Twitty seemed genuine, and his career took off once more. His biggest country hit became Hello Darlin’ in 1970, but he maintained his country chart success until 1990, and achieved an incredible 55 number 1s in total. He even ran a multi-million-dollar country music entertainment complex called Twitty City from 1982 until his death.

On 4 June 1993 he collapsed on stage in Missouri and subsequently died of an abdominal aortic aneurysm the following day. He was 59. His final album, Final Touches, was released two months later.

The Outro

1958’s number 1 singles definitely showed rock’n’roll taking control of the record-buying market. A number of future classics hit the top, and the easy listening ballads largely took a back seat. Unfortunately, so did the female artists, as once again, with the exception of Connie Francis, the top of the charts was dominated by men.

The Info

Written by

Jack Nance & Conway Twitty

Producer

Jim Vinneau

Weeks at number 1

5 (19 December 1958-22 January 1959)

Trivia

Births

16 January 1959: Singer Sade Adu 

Deaths

22 January: Racing driver Mike Hawthorn 

Meanwhile…

24 December 1958: The south of England was covered by a blanket of thick fog. BOAC Bristol Brittania 312 had left Heathrow on a test flight. After completion, the crew requested to land at Hurn Airport instead, probably due to the poor conditions. Three minutes later, the plane hit a ploughed field, bringing down telephone lines and trees. All seven passengers were killed, and two of the five crew also died.

15 January 1959: Tyne Tees Television, the ITV franchise for the north east, began transmission.

22 January: Racing driver Mike Hawthorn died after his car hit a tree on the A3.

73. The Everly Brothers with Orchestra conducted by Archie Bleyer – All I Have to Do is Dream/Claudette (1958)

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The Intro

The first of four number 1s for the country-influenced rock’n’roll duo in this country, and the best-selling single of 1958. All I Have to Do is Dream/Claudette enjoyed a seven-week run at the top of the charts and established The Everly Brothers as one of the biggest and most influential acts of the next few years.

Before

Isaac Donald ‘Don’ Everly was born in Brownie, Muhlenberg County, Kentucky on 1 February 1937, and Phillip Jason ‘Phil’ Everly arrived on 19 January 1939 in Chicago, Illinois.

Born into a musical family, their father Ike was a guitarist and mother Margaret a singer. They sang as the Everly Family on the radio in the mid-1940s, with the boys known as ‘Little Donny’ and ‘Baby Boy Phil’. In 1955 the brothers moved to Nashville, Tennessee. By this point, their musical prowess already had an important fan – family friend Chet Atkins, a record producer and songwriter.

Atkins used his contacts to get Don and Phil a record deal, and their first single, Bye Bye Love (covered by Simon & Garfunkel as the last track on Bridge Over Troubled Water in 1970) was a smash-hit, selling over a million and reaching number six over here.

They continued to work with its songwriters, Felice and Boudleaux Bryant (Bryant’s solo work, Hey Joe, performed by Frankie Laine, had been a UK number 1 in 1953), releasing Wake Up Little Susie, which reached number 2, before working on All I Have to Do is Dream, which was by Boudleaux alone, and allegedly written in only 15 minutes.

Review

Opening with the lush jangle of Chet Atkins on guitar, All I Have to Do is Dream begins straight away with that memorable chorus, a trick later used by ABBA and Stock, Aitken & Waterman to pull the listener in. If that jangle doesn’t grab you (and if it doesn’t, what’s wrong with you?), the vocals will. Don and Phil’s unique harmonies still sound sublime today. The only misfire is the dated, corny lyric:

‘Only trouble is, gee whiz,
I’m dreamin’ my life away’

Fortunately before you have time to dwell on that too much you’re back into the chorus. This is the sound of the Everly Brothers and Boudleaux Bryant at their best. According to Phil, the acetate featuring Boudleaux on vocals would have been a hit anyway, such was the beauty of the song. Maybe so, but it’s his and brother Don’s voices, and Atkins’ guitar work, that make All I Have to Do is Dream a classic.

https://youtu.be/7izXABdoDPA

The other song, Claudette, hasn’t aged as well, but it’s a decent enough uptempo acoustic track, written by Roy Orbison and named after his first wife. As a B-side, however, it would certainly have been better than average, and as it helped propel ‘The Big O’ to success and helped buy him a cadillac, then it’s alright by me.

After

The Everly Brothers tied at number 1 for their first week with Vic Damone’s On the Street Where You Live, but went on to spend most of the summer at the top.

The Info

Written by

All I Have to Do is Dream: Boudleaux Bryant/Claudette: Roy Orbison 

Producer

Archie Bleyer

Weeks at number 1

7 (4 July-21 August)*BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

6 July: Comedian Jennifer Saunders
9 July: Actor Robin Kermode
11 July: Actor Mark Lester
15 July: Scientist Mark Lester
17 July: Journalist Suzanne Moore
24 July: Actor Joe McGann
30 July: Singer-songwriter Kate Bush/Athlete Daley Thompson
7 August: Iron Maiden singer Bruce Dickinson
10 August: Labour MP Rosie Winterton
13 August: Singer Feargal Sharkey
14 August: Conservative MP Philip Dunne

Deaths

20 July: Campaigner Margaret Haig Thomas, 2nd Viscountess Rhondda

Meanwhile…

10 July: The first parking meters were installed.

18-26 July: The British Empire and Commonwealth Games were held in Cardiff.

26 July: The Queen gave her eldest son Charles the customary title of Prince of Wales, and the presentation of débutantes to the royal court were abolished.

1 August: Carry On Sergeant, the first of the Carry On films, premiered. Different in tone from the bawdy humour that was to come, it featured Bob Monkhouse and the first star of Doctor Who, William Hartnell.

70. Marvin Rainwater – Whole Lotta Woman (1958)

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The Info

Enjoying a three-week stint at number 1, Marvin Rainwater’s Whole Lotta Woman was a self-penned primitive rockabilly tune.

Before

Born in Wichita, Kansas on 2 July 1925, Marvin Karlton Rainwater had studied classical piano as a child, but he lost part of his right thumb in an accident as a teenager. He trained to be a vet, but after his stint in the Navy during World War Two, he decided to try the guitar.

Claiming to be 25 percent Cherokee, he cut a unique figure when he began wearing his trademark buckskin jacket and headband on stage, and writing his own songs. He won the TV talent show Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in 1955, and from there a recording contract with MGM swiftly followed.

Combining country and western with the emerging rockabilly sound, and with an imposing physique and unique, craggy good looks, Rainwater had natural star quality, and scored a hit with Gonna Find Me a Bluebird in the US in 1957, the same year he released The Majesty of Love, a duet with future number 1 artist Connie Francis.

Review

Whole Lotta Woman is a simple rocker with sexually-charged lyrics that only just made it past censorship (the BBC let it go, but some of the US broadcasters wouldn’t touch it). The most interesting aspect of the recording is probably Rainwater’s raucous, double-tracked vocals, and the duelling electric guitar and piano instrumental break. Not bad, but it suffers coming after a run of interesting, more famous chart-toppers.

After

Rainwater’s follow-up, I Dig You Baby, made the top 20, but he failed to repeat his early flourish of success. He began recording material with his younger sister, Patty, but around this time he developed ongoing throat problems. His voice suffered, and MGM let him go. He went into semi-retirement to rest his voice, recording sporadically for other labels. Changing tastes and lack of momentum caused his career to stall, and eventually he was diagnosed with throat cancer. He recovered from this, but his career didn’t.

Sadly, his final recording sessions remain unissued due to the dire state of his voice, and by then he was living in a caravan with his family on wasteland in Minnesota. He died of heart failure on 17 September 2013, aged 88.

The Outro

His guitar-playing had inspired many however – back in Rainwater’s glory days, a teenage guitarist called Brian Rankin was waiting in the shadows to make his mark on rock’n’roll, and he was quite the fan. He even changed his name in tribute, to Hank Marvin.

The Info

Written by

Marvin Rainwater

Producer

Jim Vinneau

Weeks at number 1

3 (25 April-15 May)

Trivia

Births

25 April: Marillion Singer Fish
3 May  Presenter Sandi Toksvig

Deaths

3 May: Cricketer Frank Foster

Meanwhile…

30 April: The Life Peerages Act allowed the creation of life peers who could sit in the House of Lords. As women could become life peers, the act made it possible for women to sit in the House of Lords for the first time. On the same day, the musical My Fair Lady opened at Drury Lane Theatre in London, starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews.

3 May: Bolton Wanderers won the FA Cup for the fourth time with a 2-0 victory over Manchester United, a club still reeling from the Munich Air Disaster.

53. Guy Mitchell with Ray Conniff & His Orchestra – Singing the Blues (1957)

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The Intro

1957 began with happy-go-lucky crooner Guy Mitchell at the top for the third time, with his version of Singing the Blues.

Before

Previously recorded by country star Marty Robbins, it had been written by Mervin Endsley, a musician who had contracted polio at the age of three and had been in a wheelchair ever since. From the age of 11 he spent three years in the unfortunately-named Crippled Children’s Hospital in Memphis. While there he became a huge country music fan and taught himself the guitar. He had written Singing the Blues in 1954 and taken it to Nashville in the hope of getting a hit. And a hit is what he got, several times over.

Review

I wasn’t too flattering about Mitchell’s 1953 number 1s – She Wears Red Feathers and Look at That Girl – but Singing the Blues is a cut above both of them.

Produced once more by Mitch Miller, Mitchell is in his element here. The country element is hard to detect – this version of Singing the Blues sounds more like the older generation trying to harness rock’n’roll and put their own, safer, stamp on it. Unlike Kay Starr on (The) Rock and Roll Waltz, Mitchell and Miller pull it off. That’s largely down to the song itself, a winning tune set to effectively downbeat lyrics, rather than a naff novelty song with a new genre awkwardly shoved into it.

Mitchell, from the evidence I’ve heard, couldn’t sing a sad song if he tried, and he certainly doesn’t try here. Somehow though, it all gels, with Mitchell turning it into a cheeky come-on over a chirpy backing of whistling, ukulele and backing harmonies. He’s hoping to charm his ex into coming back.

After

And listeners kept coming back to Singing the Blues – his version made it to number 1 for two more week-long stints, making him one of only five acts to have the same number 1 on three separate occasions. The other artists are Frankie Laine with I Believe, Pharrell Williams with Happy, What Do You Mean? by Justin Bieber and Despacito (Remix) by Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber.

The Outro

At the same time as the Mitchell and Robbins versions were released, they found themselves competing with a third, by up-and-coming rock’n’roller Tommy Steele. More on that next time…

The Info

Written by

Melvin Endsley

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

3 (4-10 January, 18-24 January & 1-7 February)

Trivia

Births

6 January: Astronaut Michael Foale
22 January: Journalist Francis Wheen
24 January: Comedian Adrian Edmondson

Meanwhile…

9 January: 1957 began with political change. Prime Minister Anthony Eden had struggled at the end of 1956 to recover from the debacle of Suez, and perhaps because of this he had suffered ill health. His doctors advised him to quit if he wanted to carry on living, and so he resigned.

10 January: With no formal process in place at the time, the Conservative Party decided Eden would be succeeded by then-Chancellor Harold Macmillan. The political situation was so rocky at the time that Macmillan told Queen Elizabeth II he could not promise the government would last longer than six weeks.

41. Tennessee Ernie Ford with Orchestra conducted by Jack Fascinato – Sixteen Tons (1956)

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The Intro

Interest in Dickie Valentine’s Christmas Alphabet understandably died down after the holidays, and the first new number 1 of the year was Rock Around the Clock, enjoying its second run at the top, before being usurped by a rather unique single.

Before

Sixteen Tons had originally been written and recorded by country singer-songwriter Merle Travis back in 1946. Travis’s songs often spoke of the hardships of workers in the US as he came from a mining family in Kentucky. His brother once wrote him a letter with the line ‘You load sixteen tons and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt’. His father was also fond of saying ‘I can’t afford to die. I owe my soul to the company store’. Back then, miners were paid with credit vouchers that they could use to buy goods at the company store. Travis had the beginnings of a very catchy chorus . He came up with a song whose humour is as black as the dirt in the miners’ fingernails, and Tennessee Ernie Ford was listening. 10 years later, his cover became his second UK number 1 single in less than a year.

Review

Sixteen Tons is so much better than Give Me Your Word. His previous number 1 was a mediocre ballad that could have recorded by anyone. It’s hard to think who could perform Sixteen Tons as well as Ford. The sparse arrangement features his deep, booming voice and finger-clicking to begin with, followed by a clarinet backing him up, Ford speaks not only for US workers, but any slave to the man. In the gloomy winter months of 1956, no doubt UK miners could find solace in such a song. The mining references may root the song firmly in the past, but anyone who finds themselves slaving away just to get by can identify.  And it helps that it’s as catchy as hell.

After

Selling millions upon millions, Sixteen Tons became Ford’s signature song, and earned him his own TV show, which ran for five years.

Unfortunately, he and his first wife Betty had alcohol problems, and while he managed during his career peak, by the 70s his love of whiskey was taking its toll.

The Outro

Betty died in 1989 but even this couldn’t curtail his drinking, and he remarried less than four months later. Ford died of liver failure on 17 October 1991 – 36 years to the day of the first release of Sixteen Tons. However, he left behind the definitive version of a song that truly resonates.

The Info

Written by

Merle Travis

Producer

Lee Gillette

Weeks at number 1

2 (20 January-16 February)

Trivia

Births

31 January: Sex Pistols Singer John Lydon
2 January: Actor Philip Franks
13 February: New Order bassist Peter Hook

Deaths

31 January: Author AA Milne

Meanwhile…

24 January: Plans were announced for the building of thousands of new homes in the Barbican area of London, which had been devastated by Luftwaffe bombings in World War Two.

37. Jimmy Young with Bob Sharples & His Music – The Man from Laramie (1955)

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The Intro

As well as the mambo craze of 1955, Britain was also in love with cowboys and country and western music. Slim Whitman’s Rose Marie held the top spot for 11 weeks, and the first ‘official’ country song to hit number 1 happened earlier that year – Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Give Me your Word (although, as I said here, it’s not really a country song, and you could argue that Frankie Laine’s Hey Joe should earn that honour).

Before

That summer had seen the release of Western movie The Man from Laramie, starring James Stewart in the title role, as a stranger who causes ructions by working for the rival of a cattle baron. Lester Lee and Ned Washington had written the theme, and Al Martino performed the US version. He only just scraped into the top 20 in the US, but Jimmy Young, riding high off his previous number 1 with Unchained Melody, became the first homegrown artist to have two consecutive number 1s in the UK.

Review

Young makes a better job of The Man from Laramie, than he did Unchained Melody. It’s a jolly, rickety old number, and I suppose it’s kind of catchy, but having said all this, I have no desire to ever hear it again.

Basically, it’s Young telling us all the ways in which the Man from Laramie is brilliant. His voice is better suited to this than his previous chart-topper, but he’s still bellowing, and the worst bit is the cringeworthy way he changes his voice to sing smarmily:

‘He had a flair for ladies
Now the ladies loved his air of mystery’

After

The fact Young is so fondly remembered for his career as a DJ rather than his music suggests he was right to switch careers. He became a disc jockey that year on Housewive’s Choice, but sensing the music climate was changing following Elvis’s success, he decided to go full-time, working for Radio Luxembourg and the BBC.

The Outro

In 1967 he was one of the original band of DJs on the fledgling Radio 1. Considered too ‘square’ by some of the station’s bosses, he proved them wrong and his morning show proved very popular. He switched to Radio 2 for the lunchtime show in 1973, and stayed with the station, becoming a national institution, loved for his charm and relaxed style. He was just as nice in person as on the air, by all accounts, and was mourned by millions when he died peacefully in his sleep on 7 November 2016, aged 95.

The Info

Written by

Lester Lee & Ned Washington

Producer

Dick Rowe

Weeks at number 1

4 (14 October-10 November)

Trivia

Births

18 October: Presenter Timmy Mallett

Deaths

14 October: Songwriter Harry Parr-Davies

36. Slim Whitman – Rose Marie (1955)

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The Intro

Influential country-western singer, guitarist and yodeller Slim Whitman’s Rose Marie enjoyed a massive 11-week-long reign in 1955. It stood as the longest-running continuous number 1 until Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at the top in 1991 with (Everything I Do) I Do It For You.

Before

Born Otis Dewey Whitman Jr in Tampa, Florida on 20 January 1923, Slim grew up loving the country songs of yodelling Jimmie Rodgers. During World War Two he entertained fellow soldiers with his singing. Whitman was so entertaining, his captain blocked a transfer to another ship. This proved to be a massive stroke of luck, as everybody on that ship was killed when it sank. He taught himself to play the guitar with his left hand, despite being right-handed, after losing a finger in an accident. This later had an effect on a young Paul McCartney, who was left-handed and decided to retune his guitar just as Whitman had. George Harrison was also taking note, and once said the first person he ever saw with a guitar was Whitman. The instrument was beginning to become fashionable, thanks in part to Slim.

Elvis’s future manager, ‘Colonel’ Tom Parker, had heard Whitman on the radio and took him under his wing, and his first single came out in 1948. A young Elvis Presley even supported him.

Whitman was very popular by 1955, and even more famous in the UK than the US. He avoided standard country fare about drinking and having no money, and became known for his more romantic material. His yodelling became his trademark, and it may sound surprising but even Michael Jackson listed him as one of his 10 favourite vocal performers.

Rose Marie had been released as a single in 1954. It was taken from the 1924 opera of the same name, with music by Rudolf Friml and Herbert Stothart, and the lyrics by Otto Harbach and Oscar Hammerstein II. Eventually it toppled Alma Cogan’s Dreamboat, and it reigned supreme from July to October.

Review

At first I was baffled by the success of Rose Marie. As I explained when reviewing Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Give Me Your Word, I’m not a country fan. I found myself more amused by Whitman’s voice than anything. I’m not averse to a bit of yodelling either (see Focus or Mr Trololo), but I just could not see the appeal. Unlike most of the other songs so far though, I went back to it a few times, and it has grown on me. Lew Chudd’s production is haunting, and the lyrics pack more depth into them than the usual hits of the time (of course, it was written 30 years earlier, so that might explain why). It’s a love song, but Whitman is powerless against his emotions:

‘Oh Rose Marie, I love you
I´m always dreaming of you
No matter what I do, I can’t forget you
Sometimes I wish that I never met you’

Nonetheless, Whitman has given up. He belongs to her now.

‘Of all the queens that ever lived, I choose you
To rule me, my Rose Marie’

So, yes, fair play to Whitman. But… 11 weeks at number 1? A world record for 36 years? Really? Having said that, when you’ve the likes of Jimmy Young as your competition, perhaps it’s understandable.

After

Whitman made history in 1956 when he became the first ever country star to perform at the London Palladium. He continued to have hits on these shores, including I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen in 1957.

His star began to wane as the 60s began, with mainly minor hits in the US country charts. Though he continued to record, Angeline (1984) was his last album for 18 years. He relied on royalties from compilations until he began work on his final album Twilight on the Trail which finally saw release in 2010.

The Outro

In 2013 Whitman died of heart failure on 19 June, aged 90.

The Info

Written by

Rudolf Friml, Herbert Stothart, Otto Harbach & Oscar Hammerstein II

Producer

Lew Chudd

Weeks at number 1

11 (29 July-13 October)

Trivia

Births

14 August: Actress Gillian Taylforth
1 September: The Jam bassist Bruce Foxton
3 September: Sex Pistols guitarist  Steve Jones
16 September: Children’s television presenter Janet Ellis
20 September: Actor David Haig
2 October: Human League singer Phil Oakey
9 October: Athlete Steve Ovett 

Deaths

16 September: Conservative MP Leo Amery

Meanwhile…

27 August: The Guinness Book of Records was first published.

4 September: BBC newsreaders were seen on television reading reports for the first time. The two in question were Richard Baker and Kenneth Kendall, who became celebrities themselves in time.

14 September: Airfix produced their first scale model aircraft kit.

22 September: ITV began, in London only. The first advert shown is for Gibbs’ SR toothpaste.

26 September: Clarence Birdseye started selling fish fingers in the UK.

30. Tennessee Ernie Ford with Orchestra conducted by Billy May – Give Me Your Word (1955)

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The Intro

Give Me Your Word, by Tennessee Ernie Ford, became number 1 on 11 March. Written by bandleader George Wyle and lyricist Irving Taylor, it’s considered the first country song to top the charts, although it isn’t really. All the ingredients of 50s romantic, overwrought ballads are present and correct. The only thing remotely ‘country’ about it is the drawl of Tennessee Ernie Ford.

Before

Ford, born Ernest Jennings Ford in Bristol Tennessee on 13 February 1919, had added the state to his stage name when he became a radio disc jockey during the 40s, and taken on the character of a wild, crazy hillbilly. Before then, the bass-baritone had served as a local radio announcer before becoming a First Lieutenant in the US Air Corps during World War Two. When the war ended, he was back on the radio.

But soon he was releasing singles, and doing very well out of fast-paced boogie-woogie like The Shotgun Boogie. He also recorded slower-paced duets with the likes of jazz singer Kay Starr, who had been number 1 in 1953 with Comes A-Long A-Love.

Review

How did Give Me Your Word achieve the same feat? Let alone, for seven weeks? This is a mystery, lost in the mists of time. I’m not much of a country fan, so I may be biased, but like I said above, this isn’t much of a country song. It had been a B-side originally, to River of No Return in 1954. That’s where by rights it should have stayed. It’s no How Soon Is Now? by The Smiths, for example, where the sheer brilliance of the tune demands it to be promoted from the flip side.

The Outro

To be fair to Ford, he made up for this bland, soppy rubbish when Sixteen Tons became his second number 1 in January 1956.

The Info

Written by

George Wyle & Irving Taylor

Producer

Lee Gillette

Weeks at number 1

7 (11 March-29 April) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

19 March: Poet John Burnside
5 April: DJ Janice Long

Deaths

11 March: Bacteriologist Sir Alexander Fleming

Meanwhile…

5 April 1955: Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced his retirement. The following day, his deputy for 15 years, Anthony Eden, replaced him in Downing Street. Highly regarded as a man of peace, world events would soon tarnish his reputation and have a lasting impact on his legacy.

13. Frankie Laine with Paul Weston & His Orchestra – Hey Joe (1953)

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The Intro

Frankie Laine dominated the singles chart in 1953 in a way nobody else has since. His record-breaking dominance with I Believe was proof of this enough, but there was more to come.

Before

On 23 October, Laine’s cover of Hey Joe ended the dominance of Guy Mitchell’s Look at That Girl. A week later, his next number 1, Answer Me, entered the charts. With four songs in a chart that only consisted of 12 singles back then, it’s doubtful that anyone else will ever have a third of all songs in the chart in any given week ever again. Although Ed Sheeran seems to be trying his best.

Review

Sadly, Hey Joe isn’t the legendary track covered by, among others, The Jimi Hendrix Experience. It was a country music track written by Boudleaux Bryant for Carl Smith, and had been a bestseller on the US country music chart for eight weeks. It was Bryant’s first notable achievement, and four years later he and his wife Felice would begin a run of hits for The Everly Brothers, including Bye Bye Love and All I Have to Do Is Dream. Hey Joe does not live up to those classics.

Laine’s cover, backed by Paul Weston & His Orchestra, certainly tries its best, and obviously its success suggests it worked with record buyers back then. Like Look at That Girl, it features a quite effective guitar solo, and the brass works well, but the lyrics are nauseating. Some cowboy is jealous of Joe’s gal, and he’s decided he’s going to take her for his own.

‘Hey Joe
She’s got skin that’s creamy dreamy
Eyes that look so lovey dovey
Lips as red as cherry berry wine’

Ugh. By the end of the song, he’s telling Joe that, though they might be friends to the end, the end is nigh as his passion for her is all-consuming. If Joe had any sense he’d shoot this annoying ex-friend first while he’s describing her in that patronising way of his.

Although Laine characteristically performs the tune with gusto, his vocal styling makes it worse, stretching certain words out past the point of no return. No doubt though, the popularity of westerns in the 50s, as well as Laine, meant Hey Joe was bound to do well.

The Info

Written by

Boudleaux Bryant

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

2 (23 October-5 November)

Trivia

Births

27 October: Actor Peter Firth

Meanwhile…

2 November: The Samaritans phone counselling service began. Vicar Chad Varah officially set it up in London, was inspired years earlier while at a funeral for a 14-year-old girl who had committed suicide in the belief she had an STD. She was in fact only menstruating. This troubled Varah to the extent he advertised for volunteers at his church to help people contemplating suicide, and The Daily Mirror came up with the name for the fledgling support group in their headline a month later for an article highlighting Varah’s work. Varah stayed with the Samaritans until 2004.