93. The Stargazers - I See the Moon
92. The Dream Weavers - It's
Almost Tomorrow
91. David Whitfield - Answer
Me. Not as good as the Frankie Laine version ...
90. Pat Boone - I'll
Be Home
89. Eddie Calvert - Oh Mein
Papa
88. Eddie Calvert - Cherry
Pink (and Apple Blossom White)
87. Don Cornell - Hold
My Hand
86. Russ Conway - Side
Saddle
85. Craig Douglas - Only Sixteen. The title makes it sound like it's going to be super-creepy, which it's not, but it's not great.
84. Johnnie Ray - Yes Tonight Josephine. Moved a million hearts in mono, apparently, but not this one.
83. Slim Whitman - Rose
Marie
82. Dickie Valentine with the Stargazers - The Finger of Suspicion
81. Winifred Atwell - Let's
Have Another Party. Very much the Jive Bunny records of their day.
80. The Stargazers - Broken
Wings
79. Russ Conway - Roulette
78. Mantovani - The Song from Moulin Rouge. Until I heard this, I'd only known Mantovani as a rude rhyming slang word in Trainspotting ...
77. Vera Lynn - My
Son, My Son. Gawd bless'er.
76. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Give
Me Your Word
75. Pérez Prado and his Orchestra - Cherry Pink (and Apple Blossom White). Better than the Eddie Calvert version.
74. Ronnie Hilton - No
Other Love
73. Eddie Fisher - Outside
of Heaven
72. Dickie Valentine - Christmas
Alphabet. Dickie Valentine sounds like it should be the name of a spiv friend of Walker in Dad's Army.
71. Guy Mitchell - Look
at That Girl
70. David Whitfield with Mantovani and his Orchestra - Cara Mia. Class teacher on my PGCE was called David Whitfield. Once bumped him at a Decemberists gig. Don't think it's the same guy.
69. Frankie Laine - Hey
Joe
68. Perry Como - Don't
Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes
67. Andy Williams - Butterfly
66. Frankie Vaughan -The
Garden of Eden
65. Guy Mitchell - Singing
the Blues
64. Jimmy Young - The Man
from Laramie
63. Ruby Murray - Softly,
Softly. Talking of rhyming slang.
62. Frankie Laine - A
Woman in Love
61. Eddie Fisher with Sally Sweetland - I'm Walking Behind You. Talking of creepy titles.
60. Frankie Laine - Answer
Me
59. Jerry Keller - Here
Comes Summer
58. Conway Twitty - It's
Only Make Believe
57. The Kalin Twins - When
56. Jimmy Young - Unchained Melody. Unchained Melody is a fabulous song, but this is not a great version. Did you know it's called Unchained Melody because it was on the soundtrack for a film called Unchained?
55. Cliff Richard and the Shadows - Travellin' Light
54. Lord Rockingham's XI - Hoots
Mon
53. Guy Mitchell - Rock-a-Billy
52. Johnnie Ray - Just
Walking in the Rain. Poor old Johnnie Ray ..
51. Winifred Atwell - The
Poor People of Paris
50. The Johnston Brothers - Hernando's
Hideaway
49. Kay Starr - Comes
A-Long A-Love
48. Guy Mitchell - She
Wears Red Feathers. Teetering on the brink of bad taste ...
47. Elvis Presley - A
Fool Such as I / I Need Your Love Tonight
46. Michael Holliday - The
Story of My Life
45. Alma Cogan - Dreamboat
44. Frank Sinatra - Three
Coins in the Fountain
43. Tommy Edwards - It's
All in the Game
42. Tommy Steele - Singing the Blues. Still going, Tommy Steele. Pretty interesting wikipedia page. One of those people who was clearly massively famously for quite a long time but now not many people know about.
41. Anne Shelton - Lay
Down Your Arms
40. Johnnie Ray - Such a Night. Our mothers, crying, sang along, and who could blame them?
39. Doris Day - Secret
Love
38. Shirley Bassey - As I Love You. From the hotel I always stay in Cardiff, you can see the row of small houses on Tiger Bay where Shirley Bassey was born and raised. She done well.
37. Elvis Presley - One
Night / I Got Stung
36. Marvin Rainwater - Whole Lotta Woman. Great name, Marvin Rainwater.
35. Paul Anka - Diana. As far as I know, the only artist on the list who has done a version of Smells Like Teen Spirit, though, to be fair, wouldn't put it past Bassey either ...
34. Lonnie Donegan - Gamblin'
Man / Puttin' On the Style
33. Kay Starr - Rock
and Roll Waltz
32. Lita Roza - (How
Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?
31. Al Martino - Here in My Heart. The very first Number 1, and has a suitably grand introduction.
30. Jo Stafford - You
Belong to Me
29. Adam Faith - What Do You Want? You've got to have it, after all.
28. Jane Morgan - The Day
the Rains Came
27. Elvis Presley - All
Shook Up
26. Tony Bennett - Stranger in Paradise. I was listening to this for about 20 seconds and thinking "wow, this guy, whoever it is, has a great voice", and, yes, that figures ...
25. Rosemary Clooney - This
Ole House. Closemary Rooney.
24. Cliff Richard and the Drifters - Living Doll. The Drifters before they were The Shadows.
23. Perry Como - Magic
Moments. Quality Street advert with Jeremy Rampling.
22. Dean Martin - Memories
Are Made of This
21. Connie Francis - Who's
Sorry Now
20. Tab Hunter - Young
Love
19. Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen
Tons
18. Kitty Kallen - Little Things Mean a Lot. Just a whole bunch of nice, classic songs, at this stage.
17. Vic Damone - On the Street Where You Live. I would say, this could be better. It starts and ends too grand. Such a glorious song, but think I prefer a Nat King Cole version or such like.
16. Harry Belafonte - Mary's
Boy Child
15. Connie Francis - Stupid
Cupid / Carolina Moon
14. Bobby Darin - Dream Lover. Bobby Darin was Italian-American too, like nearly all the other singers.
13. Rosemary Clooney - Mambo
Italiano. While Rosemary Clooney, despite her gleeful appropriation here, was not ...
12. Buddy Holly - It Doesn't Matter Anymore. The first ever posthumous Number 1, this ...
11. The Platters - Smoke
Gets in Your Eyes
10. Lonnie Donegan - Cumberland Gap. Seen, i think, as the first UK rock'n'roll-adjacent Number 1. Ferocious bit of skiffle.
9. The Crickets - That'll
Be the Day. Buddy brilliant, as they say ...
8. The Everly Brothers - All
I Have to Do Is Dream / Claudette
7. Bill Haley & His Comets - Rock Around the Clock. Terrific song, this, even removing the context. I remember dancing to this at a wedding when I was about 8, just going absolutely nuts to it. That's the feeling.
6. Doris Day - Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera). I really liked, when i watched The Man Who Knew Too Much, that it's, like, key to the whole twisty dark plot.
5. Frankie Laine - I Believe. Secretly, when we were young men of values and used to sing the Christian songs and the folk songs and the protest songs, this was my favourite. It is like, say, What a Wonderful World, and Every Grain of Sand, a song that says "a world so beautiful must have a benevolent creator, and that is my comfort" and i think one can be very susceptible to that when you're transitioning to realising that the mundane things that you thought were just mundane when you were young are actually miraculous in their mundanity. Anyway, still have massive fondness for this stirring song of simple faith. The Frankie Laine version is decent, though not perfect - it took me on a search for an ideal version, and surprisingly, the best I found was by old Tom Jones.
4. Bobby Darin - Mack the Knife. Not many more fun songs in history than this one.
3. Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock. I've often struggled to hear the Elvis Presley that everyone else hears, but I hear it on Jailhouse Rock. What a performance.
2. Jerry Lee Lewis - Great Balls of Fire. The awful human of the era, and i guess if i was being consistent I'd put it bottom, but, there we go, get's the Billie Jean pass of indestructible ubiquity.
1. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers - Why Do Fools Fall in Love. So beautiful. A few months after Rock around the Clock, but really the first real sound of youth. Still not topped, really.
OK, 50s done, just the 2020s to go ... think they'll be pretty decent ...
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