Frank Sinatra

10. Eddie Fisher Featuring Sally Sweetland, with Hugo Winterhalter & His Orchestra – I'm Walking Behind You (1953)

/ robbarker1979 / 3 Comments

The Intro

On his previous number 1, Outside of Heaven, Eddie Fisher sounded like he was stalking an ex-partner by watching her in the crowd as she married someone else. This time, with accompaniment from the singer Sally Sweetland, his obsession has deepened – he’s walking down the aisle behind the bride-to-be!

Before

This forgettable slice of traditional pop was written by the first British songwriter to top the US charts, Billy Reid. Fisher and Sweetland are so loud you can barely hear the musicians, but the song is so average it doesn’t really matter.

Sweetland, born Sally Miller on 23 September 1911, was a soprano who provided backing vocals for the young Tony Bennett. Years later she worked as a vocal coach with her husband Lee, and among their students was one Seth McFarlane, later the creator of animated comedy Family Guy. She lived to the grand old age of 103, passing away on 8 February 2015.

Review

‘I’m walking behind you
On your wedding day
And I’ll hear you promise
To love and obey
Though you may forget me
You’re still on my mind
Look over your shoulder
I’m walking behind’

Shudder. Was stalking an ex considered socially acceptable in 1953? It certainly didn’t stop Fisher bagging another number 1, so perhaps so. Frank Sinatra later covered it too.

After

This was Fisher’s last number 1 in the UK, and this may be down to the problems his personal life would cause. In 1955 he married actress Debbie Reynolds, and had two children, one being Star Wars great Carrie Fisher. They had a very public divorce and he went on to marry Elizabeth Taylor, with who he had been having an affair. Taylor had been married to Fisher’s best friend, the deceased Mike Todd (I wonder if Fisher checked to see if the ghost of Todd was walking behind him in church?). Such behaviour, bad enough now, must have been truly scandalous in the 50s. His TV show was subsequently cancelled and he was then dropped by RCA Victor in 1960.

The handsome crooner notched up a further three marriages after Taylor. He tried a comeback in 1983 but this went nowhere and his final album was made a year later.

The Outro

Plagued by health problems in later years, Fisher was rarely seen in public. He fell and broke his hip and died due to surgery complications on 22 September 2010. He was 82.

The Info

Written by

Billy Reid

Producer

Hugo Winterhalter

Weeks at number 1

1 (26 June-2 July)

5. Perry Como with the Ramblers – Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes (1953)

/ robbarker1979

The Intro

The first number 1 by an artist I was aware of before taking on this project, US easy listening singer Perry Como was one of the biggest stars of the 50s, and one of the names that really conjures up the era that predates rock’n’roll. After two world wars and economic depression, this is what the people needed. 

With his baritone croon, his cardigans (Bing Crosby once said Como was ‘the man who invented casual’, so we have him to thank for Alan Partridge) and the general aura of cosiness that he gave off, Como had nearly three decades of huge success from the 40s onwards. Had the UK charts existed earlier he’d have no doubt been number 1 before 1953. Not bad going for a man who began work as a barber as a 10-year-old.

Before

Como was born Pierino Ronald Como, the seventh of 10 children to Italian immigrant parents, in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania on 18 May 1912. His parents owned a second-hand organ, and as a toddler young Como would start learning the ropes of his first instrument. The older he got, the more instruments he would learn, and being a singer wasn’t top of his ambitions. He wanted to be the best barber in the neighbourhood. He had his own shop aged 14.

In 1932 Como made his first appearance on stage in Cleveland while attending a Freddy Carlone show. Carlone invited audience members to perform with him, and a terrified Como was pushed into it by his friends. He was immediately offered a job.

In 1936 he made his first recordings with Ted Weems’s orchestra, where he worked on the smooth singing style that would make his name. But Como had started a family, and missed his wife and young son, so he quit in 1942 to become a barber once more. The offers kept coming though, and in 1943 he signed with RCA Victor, the company he stayed with for the next 44 years. He gained the interest of Frank Sinatra, who sometimes asked him to fill in for him on theatre shows. Como rocketed to stardom.

Review

His first UK chart-topper, Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes shares similarities to Jo Stafford’s number 1, You Belong to Me. Her song featured a woman hoping that her partner would remember who he should be thinking of while he was away,  Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes is about an absent man asking his lover not to stray. I quite like that title, it’s more oblique than the other number 1s that preceded it.

The tune gallops along at a fair rate (well, by 50s standards) but ultimately, it hasn’t aged well. It was written by Winston L. Moore, who was better known as the disc jockey Slim Willet, and had been covered several times before Como, but predictably enough, his was the best known and most successful, staying at number one for five weeks. He would once again reach number 1 in 1958 with the much more memorable Magic Moments.

After

Amusingly, Willet co-wrote a response song with Tommy Hill, to be performed by his sister Goldie Hill, with the less cryptic title I Let the Stars Get in My Eyes, in which Hill basically sings that, oops, she did exactly what she was told not to do and fell for someone else. Charming.

The Info

Written by

Slim Willet

Producer

Eli Oberstein

Weeks at number 1

5 (6 February-12 March)

Trivia

Births

17 February: Comedian Norman Pace 

Meanwhile…

5 February: To the delight of children, and many adults, the government ended rationing on sweets.