#21 Jambalaya - Jo Stafford

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #11

WoC: 2

Chart Run: 11-11

 

 

Originally written and recorded by American country legend Hank Williams, it was covered by numerous people. One of those covers was this one by Jo Stafford, who scored her second UK Chart hit with a comparatively disappointing 2 week run at No 11 compared to You Belong To Me which ascended to No 1 after a long stint in the top 5. It has a melody resembling Grand Texas - a traditional Cajun song, and was likely co-written by Moon Mullican - paid off the books.

I know the Carpenters version, though have heard other versions. Not a song I'm that fussed about in any version though, but it's quite jaunty and upbeat and roots.

#22 Tony Brent - Walkin' To Missouri

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #9

WoC: 7

Chart Run: 9-9 (B) 7-10-11-12-11

 

 

This little tune is a lovely one about a man moving away from home in seek of fortune only to be left with nothing and have to walk back to his home town of Missouri without a nickel to his name after finding out his girlfriend had been cheating. It peaked at a respectable 7th place. Tony Brent recorded the song for the UK market, with Sammy Kaye recording it for the US market, this being the era where such discrepancies were common.

#23 - Louis Armstrong - It Takes Two To Tango

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #6

WoC: 10

Chart Run: 8-8-8-9-7-6-7-10-7-10

 

 

The first of 7 UK Top 40 singles for Louis Armstrong - including his most famous song and UK No 1 What A Wonderful World in 1968. It was written by Al Hoffman and Dick Manning in 1952, it was recorded by many other artists to the years. It's a euphemistic classic in an era where euphemism was a necessity - a custom long since disregarded.

 

(Sorry for the break in this, being going through a rough patch personally)

Edited November 2, 20213 yr by chartfridays

Good to see you back - hope you’re OK. :)

Good to see you back - hope you’re OK. :)

 

Nothing that won't sort itself in time.

 

Anyway - It means we actually get to wait til November to include the first Christmas songs of the run down :rolleyes:

 

 

#24 - Bing Crosby - Silent Night, Holy Night

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #8

WoC: 2

Chart Run: 8-8

 

 

And it begins, thankfully with a short run down of only 12 songs on the list we only have a handful of Christmas songs to deal with this year. Bing Crosby's version of classic carol Silent Night begins in that vein. Contrary to what you might think Christmas number ones weren't viewed as particularly important in the very early years of the chart and it would be the 70s before it became one of the big achievement it was viewed as for many years until The X Factor, LadBaby, streaming services and other charity chuggers decided to ruin the tradition for the next generation. Good old Bing wouldn't manage to threaten that particular list though, gaining two weeks on the chart at 8 purely due to the frozen Christmas chart syndrome of the 50s. An older member might know more about this than me, but I imagine data just wasn't collected due to the bank holidays?

 

 

#25 Johnnie Ray & The Four Lads - Faith Can Move Mountains

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #7

WoC: 2

Chart Run: 7-7

 

 

Another hit for Johnnie Ray and a beautiful one - with Faith Can Move Mountains, of course Nat King Cole's version would do a slightky better stand of surviving the test of time, and I'll cover the song itself when we get to that one but aside from that Johnnie Ray managed a brief two week stint on the chart - helped largely as with the previous song by the late December frozen chart syndrome on it's way to being more than a one week wonder. The actual verses differ slightly from Nat King Cole's version.

Edited November 11, 20213 yr by chartfridays

#26 Nat King Cole - Because You’re Mine

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #6

WoC: 4

Chart Run: 6-6 (B) 10-11

 

 

We've already covered the Mario Lanza version from the film of the title name in this run-down, which had a very extended run in the UK Singles Chart, but Nat King Cole also managed to score up one of his 31 hits in Top 40 with a rendition of it too.

#27 Mantovani - White Christmas

 

Debut: 19 December 1952

Peak: #6

WoC: 3

Chart Run: 6-6-9

 

 

Mantovani lead one of the most popular British dance bands of the jazz era in the 30s and 40s on BBC Radio and in live performances, with his star still shining bright into the introduction of the official chart of the 1950s. However he would retire from performing live eventually following the war to concentrate on recording. Notably in the context of this thread he was the first person to sell 1m stereophonic records. He recorded numerous succesful albums, but also managed pop success with his single tracks.

 

I'm sure there's some very good uses for instrumental versions of Christmas songs, not that I can think of them off the top of my head. That said as so often through the early 50s Mantovani and his orchestra are ready to jump in. He'd later go on to have a number one with David Whitfield's Cara Mia, but our first introduction is this orchestral treatment of White Christmas which would tally up three weeks on the chart over the Christmas and New Year period, peaking at No 6.

Edited November 13, 20213 yr by chartfridays

Sorry to hear about the rough patch, hope things are a bit better now! I know the feeling, just starting to get a bit more organised myself and hope to indulge catching up on all the stuff I started on Buzzjack and had to halt.

 

Of the latest batch, well Bing and Christmas will always go together. In the olden days at Christmas/ New Year everything shut down and stayed shut, so limited chart returns - even where they were compiled they were usually just industry-published and I don't recall any Xmas chart not being repeated for a week on the BBC until, ooh, 1978 probably.

 

Nat King Cole is the classiest new entry I'd say. Mantovani I almost entered into Buzzjack - Elizabethan Serenade is fab amongst a career of largely muzak.

#28 Tony Brent - Make It Soon

 

Debut: 2 January 1952

Peak: #9

WoC: 7

Chart Run: 12-11-9-9 (B) 10-9-12

 

 

The second of seven hits on this chart for Tony Brent. It's a nice enough song, if a bit dated even for the time it came out. According to Wikipedia, he was ridiculously popular in Sri Lanka and South Asia, which might make some sense with his Asian heritage but the only other source in English I found for this is an 11 year old wordpress blog mentioning Radio Ceylon and a few amazon reviews so take that with a pinch of salt.

#29 Eddie Fisher - Outside of Heaven

 

 

Debut: 2 January 1953

Peak: #1

WoC: 17

Chart Run: 12-6-4-2-1-3-2-2-2-3-3-4-2-9-7-7 (B) 12

 

The 4th UK No 1 is this pop song by Eddie Fisher with the Hugo Winterhalter Orchestra. An incredibly romantic and somewhat sad song about a man watching his true love going out with another man, it enjoy a prolonged stay on the UK chart and the first of two UK number ones for Fisher. It would remain on the singles chart all the way through the first quarter of the year and a little bit beyond, as mentioned peaking at No 1. It would back for a much shorter one week run afterwards. It performed much better in the UK than the US where it peaked a No 8.

 

It was written by Sammy Gallop and Chester Conn -

Edited November 15, 20213 yr by chartfridays

There’s been a lot of forgettable stuff the last few weeks but Outisde of Heaven is lovely, and he sings it so well. :)

Seen as these two have entered next to eachother on the countdown we might as well post them together.

 

#30 Nat King Cole - Faith Can Move Mountains

 

 

Debut: 2 January 1953

Peak: 10

WoC: 4

Chart Run: 11 (B) 10-10 (B) 10

 

 

 

#31 Jimmy Young - Faith Can Move Mountains

 

Debut: 9 January 1953

Peak: 11

WoC: 1

Chart Run: 11

 

 

 

 

 

A song already covered here thanks to Johnnie Ray having the first hit with it on the UK Singles Chart so I won't rehash stuff on the song's composition (which there's isn't much of to start with). We're still in the era where a good song would get passed around to every man under the sun to try and score a decent number with.

 

Jimmy Young is by no means a poor singer but Nat's version of this absolutely knocks his and Johnnie Ray's out of the park, and it's a good thing to see unlike many other American hits of the era Nat's actually got the credited it deserved in the UK. Nat King Cole's singing is better than either of the other two, as demonstrated by his enduring global popularity and recognition all these years later.

Edited November 16, 20213 yr by chartfridays

#32 Mills Brothers - Glow Worm

 

Debut: 15 January 1953

Peak: 10

WoC: 1

Chart Run: 10

 

 

The Mills Brothers were an American traditional pop quarter of the 30s, 40s and 50s, but they were far more successful in the US, this being their only UK hit single, and spending a single week in the chart. Their most notable achievement being becoming the first African American act to have US No 1 on Billboard with Paper Doll in 1943.

 

This is mainly down to their prime era being in the immediate pre-war and immediate post-war era, and they were notably over in England just before war was declared - having to get out of the country quickly they took a boat to Australia - the only one they could get and returned to the US via South America.

Edited November 17, 20213 yr by chartfridays

#33 Ted Heath and His Music- Vanessa

 

Debut: 22 January 1953

Peak: 11

WoC: 1

Chart Run: 11

 

 

Ted Heath was of course a giant of his era, although the name now is more likely to conjure up and image of the former Prime Minister who served his first parliament nearly two decades after this record charted than the bandleader. Heath began his career playing to commuters in London Bridge Station in 1910s and would go from that to playing American tours over the course his decades long career by the 1950s when he arranged a reciprocal arrangement with Stan Kenton who toured the UK.

 

He also won the NME award for best bandleader every year from 1952 to 1961 - he also recorded scores of albums although only one of these would hit the pop charts. Vanessa is the first of his 9 UK Chart singles, 8 as 'Ted Heath and His Music" and the last "sucu sucu" as the Ted Heath Orchestra in 1961.

#34 Perry Como with The Ramblers - Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes

 

Debut: 22 January 1952

Peak: 01

WoC: 15

Chart Run: 10-8-3-1-1-1-1-1-2-2-4-5-3-5-9

 

 

The first hit on the chart for Perry Como (on this occasion with "The Ramblers") he'd go on to have another 25 hits just as Perry Como, the last coming in 1974 with "I Want to Give You" peaking at 31. He'd however only manage a second No 1 with Magic Moments in 1958 which would spend 8 weeks in the chart.

 

It peaked at No 1 with 5 weeks occupying the spot between the run of aforementioned Outside of Heaven and Lita Roza's How Much Is That Doggie in the Window. It also reached No 1 in the US. The B Side was To Know You Is To Love You. It was written by Texan musician Slim Willet.

 

 

 

 

Don’t Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes is a bop! One of my favourites from this period.

I second the the Nat 'King' Cole appreciation, he is timelessly great where others just sound dated. Never heard the Mills Brothers record but it's not bad and I'm surprised by the Ted Heath track - I rather like it! A bop of its day, at least the first bit is, the middle bit will have 'em stood on the dancefloor bemused :lol:

Don’t Let the Stars Get In Your Eyes is a bop! One of my favourites from this period.

 

Yup, it's a great song beautifully song by Perry Como

 

I second the the Nat 'King' Cole appreciation, he is timelessly great where others just sound dated. Never heard the Mills Brothers record but it's not bad and I'm surprised by the Ted Heath track - I rather like it! A bop of its day, at least the first bit is, the middle bit will have 'em stood on the dancefloor bemused :lol:

 

A lot of big bands are far better than they're ever given credit for. We'll see a fair few popping up for a few more years yet before rock and roll made them a bit outdated and uncool for the next generation.