Mitch Miller

9. Frankie Laine with Paul Weston & His Orchestra – I Believe (1953)

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The Intro

US singer, songwriter and actor Frankie Laine’s cover of I Believe stayed at number 1 for nine weeks, equalling the previous record held by Al Martino’s Here in My Heart. However, following a week at number 1 for I’m Walking Behind You by Eddie Fisher and Sally Sweetland, it returned to the top spot for a further six weeks. Mantovani’s The Song from The Moulin Rouge then topped the charts, but once again, I Believe went back to number 1. A staggering feat, this cover of a religious power ballad notched up 18 weeks as the nation’s bestseller. It still holds the record for most non-concurrent weeks at number 1.

Before

I Believe was written by musicians Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl and Al Stillman for Jane Froman. Froman was a big stage, TV and radio star who had suffered chronic injuries in a 1943 plane crash. Troubled by the Korean War in 1952, she asked her songwriters to come up with a tune that would offer hope to the audience of her TV show, Jane Froman’s USA Canteen. It’s fair to say that Drake, Graham, Shirl and Stillman delivered. But back in 1953, such a big song required a big voice, and a big star. So Frankie Laine was a natural choice.

Francesco Paolo LoVecchio arrived in the world on 30 March 1913, the son of Sicilian refugees. The LoVecchios had links to organised crime, and Francesco’s father had even worked as Al Capone’s barber.

Little LoVecchio got his first taste for singing as a member of a church choir, and acquired his astounding vocal prowess through high-school sports. As a teenager in the 20s he found himself performing for thousands at a charity ball. Clearly, a star in the making. But fame didn’t come instantly.

With influences including Bing Crosby and Billie Holiday, Frank LoVecchio spent much of the Great Depression performing at dance marathons. 1937 saw him briefly replace Perry Como in the Freddy Carlone band, and a year later he took on the stage name Frankie Laine.

It wasn’t until World War Two ended that his career really took off. He began recording for Mercury in 1946, and initially listeners thought he was black. Laine’s version of That’s My Desire established him as a force to be reckoned with. Soon he was working with Mitch Miller, and together they were a formidable team. Hit after hit followed, particularly when they jumped ship to Columbia. 1952 saw Laine begin working his magic on film and TV western themes, with High Noon being his first.

Review

While cynical non-believers may balk at the lyrics, I Believe, by comparison to its predecessors at number 1, screams ‘I am a hit and I am important’ at you. For a nation of churchgoers in the 50s, this grandiose ballad was bound to do well. It could partly be that it’s already registered in my mind as a success due to Robson and Jerome’s bland cover (their follow-up to Unchained Melody) from 1995, which cashed in on the elderly’s memories of the song and fans of the duo’s characters in the ITV drama Soldier Soldier. Their cover remains an early warning of Cowell’s evil reign of terror over the charts for years to come.

Beginning with the gentle strum of an acoustic guitar, Laine builds the song into a display of righteous power, bellowing at the end with a performance that is still impressive today.

The Outro

After 18 weeks of chart dominance, Laine still had more to come. 1953 was truly his year.

The Info

Written by

Ervin Drake, Irvin Graham, Jimmy Shirl & Al Stillman

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

18 (24 April-25 June, 3 July-13 August, 21 August-10 September) *BEST-SELLING SINGLE OF THE YEAR*

Trivia

Births

6 May: Prime Minister
15 May: Musician Mike Oldfield
19 May: Comedian Victoria Wood
24 May: Actor Alfred Molina
26 May: Conservative MP Michael Portillo
19 June: Dr Hilary Jones
8 August: Racing driver Nigel Mansell
23 August: Bucks Fizz singer Bobby G

Deaths

1 June: Footballer Alex James

Meanwhile…

24 April: Prime Minister Winston Churchill received a knighthood from the Queen. Recognised officially for his part in leading the nation during World War Two, Churchill would then suffer a stroke on 25 June. It began a period of ill health that would begin the decline of the great wartime leader.

2 May: Blackpool win the first televised FA Cup final with a 4-3 win over Bolton Wanderers.

2 June: Elizabeth II’s Coronation took place. The public holiday inadvertently saw the start of the television revolution in the UK, with many families purchasing one specifically to watch a crown be placed on the head of somebody who’d already been Queen for over a year. Also that morning, news reached the world that Mount Everest had finally been conquered. It actually happened on 29 May, but the news travelled slowly.

25 June: The serial killer John Christie was sentenced to death for the murder of his wife Ethel. However, he should have been sentenced for more. A further seven bodies were uncovered at 10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill. During the trial, Christie confessed to murdering Beryl Evans. Beryl, her husband Timothy and their baby daughter Geraldine had lived at the flat in the 40s, and in 1950, Beryl’s husband Timothy was hanged for murdering Beryl and Geraldine, despite him insisting Christie had been responsible. Christie had even been a witness for the prosecution. He was hanged on 15 July. Yet another instance of tragic errors in the justice system that helped lead to the abolishment of the death penalty. The whole shocking, terrible story was made into a film starring Richard Attenborough in 1971 and a BBC television series starring Tim Roth in 2016.

18 July: Influential sci-fi drama The Quatermass Experiment began on the BBC.

20 July: Nostalgic (yes the BBC loved looking to the past even then) music hall series The Good Old Days began. It would run for 30 years.

6. Guy Mitchell with Mitch Miller & His Orchestra & Chorus – She Wears Red Feathers (1953)

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The Intro

Hmm. Novelty songs were all the rage back in the 50s. I’ve nothing against novelty songs if done right, but these early ones came way before anyone had even thought of political correctness. She Wears Red Feathers is the bizarre tale of an English banker’s love for a hula-hula girl, who apparently ‘lives on just cokey-nuts and fish from the sea’. The banker and his love get married in a ceremony involving an elephant and baboons playing bassoons… clearly, the weirdest number 1 up to this point.

This song didn’t do great in the US, but the British have always had a more eccentric sense of humour, and they welcomed it with open arms and sent cheeky US crooner and actor Guy Mitchell’s version to number 1 on 13 March.

Before

Mitchell’s real name was Albert George Cernik. The son of Croatian immigrants (parents who immigrated to the US seems to be a common theme among many of these early number 1 stars) was born on 22 February 1927. Cernik was signed to Warner Brothers Pictures when only 11 to sing and act.

During World War Two he served in the US navy before accepting an invitation to join Carmen Cavallaro’s big band, but solo stardom was right around the corner when he, like Al Martino, won the radio talent show Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts in 1949. A year later he signed with Columbia, where Mitch Miller took him under his wing and dubbed him Guy Mitchell, because he seemed like a nice guy. Debut single My Heart Cries for You made him an instant success, narrowly missing out on the top spot in America. His first hit in the UK, the bizarre Feet Up (Pat Him on the Po-Po), was the first ever number two in the singles chart.

Review

Despite the lyrics to She Wears Red Feathers being highly questionable, (‘cokey-nuts’ is performed by Mitchell in a ‘comedy’ accent), the chorus is memorable. It’s the sort of tune you can imagine Nigel Farage singing after a skinful.

Worryingly, it’s the earliest number 1 I have heard. It’s been lurking somewhere in the dark corners of my mind all this time, as I recognised the title when I came upon it and the chorus started up in my brain automatically. I’ve no idea where I heard it. We certainly didn’t own a copy, so it must have been in a film or TV show.

The song was created in 1952 (all these early number ones so far have actually dated from the previous year) by US songsmith Bob Merrill. Merrill had an astounding hit rate and was the second most successful songwriter of the decade in this country. He co-wrote If I Knew You Were Comin’ I’d’ve Baked a Cake with Al Hoffman and Clem Watts in 1950, and specialised in comical, catchy tunes.

Merrill and Mitchell worked very well together, especially when produced by Mitch Miller, who was renowned for inventiveness and gimmickry. Miller hated rock’n’roll when it came about, calling it ‘musical baby food’, and he turned both Elvis Presley and the Beatles down. Not exactly forward-thinking, Mitch.

However, back in the early 50s, Mitchell, Merrill and Miller could do no wrong, and Mitchell scored another three number 1s.

The Outro

Glam rockers Mud recorded an awful cover of She Wears Red Feathers in the 70s, when being PC still didn’t matter, and you can hear it here, if you really need to.

The Info

Written by

Bob Merrill

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

4 (13 March-9 April)

Trivia

Births

26 March: Author Christopher Fowler

Deaths

24 March: Queen Mary
6 April: Poet Idris Davies

Meanwhile…

24 March: Queen Mary, consort of the deceased King George V, died peacefully in her sleep.
On the same day, the discovery of several bodies at 10 Rillington Place shocked the country. The murderer, John Christie, had moved out four days earlier, leaving several bodies hidden around the house. He had killed at least eight people, including his wife Ethel.

31 March: Both the funeral of Queen Mary and the arrest of Christie took place. Mary had insisted that the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II should not be delayed in the event of her death. The trial of Christie, later in the year, revealed a terrible miscarriage of justice in which a husband and father had been wrongly sentenced to death by hanging.

3. Kay Starr – Comes A-Long A-Love (1953)

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The Intro

US pop and jazz singer Kay Starr hit number 1 with Comes A-Long A-Love (how ’50s’ is that title?). Unlike the first two top-selling tracks, this tune, written by former Tin Pan Alley songwriting veteran Al Sherman, was a chirpy, breezy little number, in which Starr extols the virtues of love. If you’re in love, you’re always singing, bells are ringing… you get the idea.

Before

Starr had been born Katherine Laverne Starks on 22 July 1922 on a reservation in Dougherty, Oklahoma to a native American father and mixed Irish and native American mother. The Starks moved to Dallas when her father got a job installing water sprinklers. Her mother raised chickens, which little Stark would serenade. Pretty idyllic, I’m sure you’ll agree. Her aunt was so impressed by the seven-year-old’s voice, she arranged for her to sing on a local radio station.

Fast forward a few years and the Starks were living in Memphis, and their daughter was regularly performing on the radio there. Misspellings in her fanmail resulted in her taking on the highly appropriate stage name Kay Starr.

Starr was only 17 and still at high school when she made her first recordings with legendary bandleader Glenn Miller in 1939. However, her vocal range didn’t really fit, and the partnership didn’t last long.

After working with Wingy Manone and Charlie Barnet’s ensembles, Starr took the plunge and went solo in 1946, but in a crowded market of female singers like Peggy Lee, the young hopeful was often left with the poorest material to record. Nonetheless, she did have hits in America, most notably with Wheel of Fortune in 1952, which went to number 1 there. Comes-A-Long-A-Love was released later that year.

Review

Although lyrically basic by today’s standards, this song does have something going for it. It must do as I’ve only heard it twice and it’s been in my head for days. Not sure about the lyrics below though…

‘I don’t care how
Blue you’re feeling now
You sparkle yes you bubble
Look out you gotta whole lotta trouble’

Is Starr basically telling the subject of her song, “I don’t care how down you are at the moment, just go and fall in love, alright?”. It seems harsh advice.

Nonetheless, she sings Sherman’s tune with a certain panache. In her voice you can hear the stylings of the rock’n’roll singers that would be all over the charts in a few years.

After

Comes A-Long A-Love was only number 1 for one week, but Starr, who Billie Holliday once proclaimed to be ‘the only white woman who could sing the blues’, would reach pole position one more time.

The Outro

It’s also worth noting that this is the first number 1 to be produced by Mitch Miller, the conductor and A&R man who would be responsible for many more chart-toppers over the next few years.

The Info

Written by

Al Sherman

Producer

Mitch Miller

Weeks at number 1

1 (23-29 January)

Trivia

Births

29 January: Footballer Ronnie Moore

Deaths

29 January: Criminal Derek Bentley

Meanwhile…

28 January: Derek Bentley was controversially hanged for murder at Wandsworth Prison in London. Bentley issued the infamous and ambiguous phrase “Let him have it” to his friend and accomplice Christopher Craig, and a policeman was shot dead. Bentley, who had health and developmental issues, was pardoned for the crime 45 years later, and the tragic case helped bring about the eventual end of the death penalty in the UK.