Record of the Year 1953: Les Paul & Mary Ford - Vaya Con Dios

I had a bigger selection of songs to choose from in 1953 than I did in 1952. Like I said in my review though, the music style did not change much and again no songs stood out as being fantastic.

However my choice for 1953 was different to most, if not all the other songs of that year as it featured a guitar. Like with every year from now on, I do not know every hit of the year and obviously do not have the time to listen to every song I don't know on YouTube, so if you know of another guitar based song of this year or just want to recommend a different song of this year then please leave a comment below.

Les Paul and Mary Ford were a husband and wife duo, and they were officially a one hit wonder in this country. However, Les Paul is a well known name amongst guitarists, notably for the Gibson Les Paul guitar.

There is obviously nothing unusual about hearing a guitar on a song these days, but I would imagine if I heard this song for this first time in 1953 it would have sounded refreshingly different to the other music I would have been used to.

Despite the Spanish title, which translates to go with god, the lyrics are in English with the song title being the only words in Spanish.

UK Singles Chart: 1953

In terms of music style, 1953 was pretty much the same as 1952, though it would probably be expected given the charts had only existed for the final 6 weeks of 1952.

It was still a top 12 and there was a total of 76 songs which made the charts that year. For the first and only time in chart history, there was a joint number one which happened the second week of December. It was actually the same song sung by two different artists. The song was Answer Me and the artists were Frankie Laine and David Whitfield. The David Whitfield version was number one first at the start of November, then was knocked off a week later by Frankie Laine which would remain number one for the rest of the year.

Its a well known fact that the song which spent the most consecutive weeks at number one in the charts history was Bryan Adams - (Everything I do) I do it for you, spending 16 weeks at the top in 1991. What is less known is that the song to spend the most weeks at number one overall was Frankie Laine - I Believe which was number one for a total of 18 weeks, all of which happened in 1953.

In fact Frankie Laine was very much the dominant figure in the singles chart this year spending a total of 27 weeks at number one from three songs, his other number one being Hey Joe. He also ended the year as the artist with the most singles (7) and most number ones (3). The only other artists to have had more than one number one were Eddie Fisher (Outside of Heaven & I'm Walking Behind You) and Guy Mitchell (She Wears Red Feathers & Look at That Girl).

By the end of the year there was still no artists from outside of the UK, USA, Canada or Trinidad & Tobago who had scored a hit single. Winifred Atwell was still the only person to have written their own hit single to date too.

It was still very much dominated by solo artists, but there were four groups who had hits that year, Mills Brothers, Stargazers, Johnston Brothers and Beverley Sisters. Mills Brothers were the first group to be considered a one hit wonder, their hit being Glow Worm. Stargazers were the first group to score a number one with Broken Wings. Until Joy Beverley died recently, every member of the Beverley Sisters was still alive which made them the earliest group to have a hit single with all members still alive. I shall reveal who that honour goes to now in this blod once I get to the relevant year.

Finally, many people will remember at primary school being taught the song (How Much is) That Doggie in the Window. Well this was actually a number one hit in 1953 by Lita Roza, though apparently she disliked the song and refused to sing it on stage.

Essential Mix

Being the wrong side of 30 and therefore not being part of Radio One's target audience, I have not listened to Radio One for quite a few years. Radio One has a bit of a reputation for moving on DJs to pastures new to keep their audience young. In fact Radio Two now has a very similar DJ line up to Radio One 20 years ago.

If the show was a bit more specialised then the age of the DJ wouldn't matter so much, a good example being John Peel remaining on the station until his death. However, the likes of Judge Jules, Seb Fontaine, Danny Rampling, Fabio & Grooverider amongst others have long gone.

I was therefore surprised to discover recently that one show which still remains after all these years is the Essential Mix. It began in 1993 so is older than most of Radio One's target audience. It features DJs of all areas of dance music with a different guest DJ every week playing a 2 hour set. However, the sets do not purely consist of dance music, Spin Doctors - Two Princes and Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit being examples of non dance music which have appeared in sets.

For me, the essential mix that got me most excited back in the day was Force & Styles in 1997. They were the first ever hardcore DJs to do an essential mix, and I was very much into my happy hardcore at the time.

Wikipedia has a list of all essential mixes here. I have listened to several mixes from yesteryear recently and have found every mix I have searched for, mainly on Mixcloud or Soundcloud.

Record of the Year 1952: Jo Stafford - Jambalaya

With just 27 singles charting in 1952 I've been able to listen to all the ones I don't already know on YouTube. None of them stood out as being great but a few of them were alright, the best one in my opinion being Jo Stafford - Jambalaya.

Like many people under a certain age, I heard the Carpenters version of this first and have always found it pleasant enough. Even this version though is not the original. It was written and recorded first by Hank Williams who actually passed away whilst this version was in the charts.

This was Jo Stafford's second hit single which made number where it stayed for 2 weeks before falling out the charts. Her first single, You Belong to Me, on the other hand remained in the charts and became number one 2 weeks later and would remain in the singles chart for 19 weeks.

She would only have two further hits in the UK, Make Love to Me in 1954 and Suddenly There's a Valley in 1955. In her native America though she had many hits dating back to 1944 and would continue to have hits there until 1959 when she semi retired from the music industry. She died aged 90 in 2008.

UK Singles Chart: 1952

The UK Singles Chart first began on November 14th 1952. It started out as a top 12, but the first ever chart contained 15 songs. This was because the chart was based on the 10 biggest selling records from 20 different record shops, therefore sometimes you would have songs tied in the same position.

The charts are often criticised for not being what they used to be. Some criticisms I've heard in recent years include it's too American, aren't they too old to still be in the charts, nobody writes their own music, its the same artists over again. However these criticisms could also be applied to the charts of 1952.

There was a total of 27 songs which made the charts that year and 20 different artists. In the 7 weeks that it had been going, Vera Lynn had already clocked up 3 hits. Of the 20 artists, 13 of them were American, 5 British, 1 Canadian and 1 Trinidadian. Of the 5 British artists, 3 of them were actually born outside the UK, Mantovani was born in Italy, Ray Martin in Austria and Tony Brent in India. The oldest artist in the charts that year was Louis Armstrong who was 51. The only song which had been written by the artist performing it that year was Britannia Rag by Winifred Atwell.

The first ever UK number one was Al Martino - Here in my Heart and this would be the only number one single of the year, though Jo Stafford - You Belong to Me and Kay Starr - Comes A-Long A-Love which were the second and third number ones were released that year.

The first ever band to have a single was The Four Lads who collaborated with Johnnie Ray on Faith Can Move Mountains, and they would be the only band to have a hit that year. They are still together today although only one original member remains. We also had the first one hit wonder, Jane Wyman who collaborated with Bing Crosby on Zing a Little Zong but would never have another hit.

We had two Christmas singles this year, Bing Crosby - Silent Night and Mantovani - White Christmas. Many of the songs of the year could be described as either Traditional Pop or Light Orchestral music, none of it being the rock n roll the 50s are often remember for.

UK Singles Chart - Year by Year Review

As I mentioned in the intro on this blog, one thing I intend to do is a year by year review of the UK singles chart.

I'm doing this for a couple of reasons. First of all I find it interesting to see how the singles chart has evolved over the years. Secondly, I've learnt about the history of music all my life, but have found that when the years I've lived through feature it can be quite inaccurate.

One example that sticks in my mind was several years ago I was watching a show on one of the music channels which had a top 10 songs of 1991. This was the year that Bryan Adams spent 16 weeks at number one, Chesney Hawkes had his moment of glory, Bohemian Rhapsody which tops many lists was rereleased and was Christmas number one. However, the number one song was Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis. This was a song which reached number 22 and never got much attention until the following year when Shut up and Dance illegally sampled it for Raving I'm Raving. To me the top 10 of 1991 should be 10 songs which were big in 1991, not the 10 songs from 1991 you are likely to still get on music channels today.

The site I'm using to review each year is everyhit. Obviously I don't know every UK single there has ever been and I'm not going to have time to listen to every tune I don't know. I should know enough of the popular records of each year to give an accurate review though.

Another thing to bear in mind is that it is a review of the singles chart, not the music industry as a whole. Therefore album bands such as Pink Floyd or Genesis won't get much of a mention in the 70s even though they were no doubt popular bands at the time.

Finally I will pick my tune of the year for each year. This is obviously my opinion and many of you won't agree with my choice. For some of you though it could remind you of a forgotten gem or introduce you to a tune you never knew but end up liking. It is purely based on quality though, so it may be a number 1 or a number 40.

I'll begin with 1952 next week and then try to do it every two weeks. It may change to once a week if I find I have enough time to do that.

Smile High Club

Smile High Club is an event run by Fatboy Slim which debuted at SW4 and Creamfields festivals back in August. On January 2nd a Smile High Club event was held at Tobacco Dock in London which I went to.

The DJs I particularly went to see were Erol Alkan, 2 Many DJs and Fatboy Slim himself. It was also an all day event running from 13:00 - 23:00.

Annoyingly they didn't announce the set times prior to the event. In their own words - Set times TBA on the day – arrive early & enjoy the event! However, I had no intention of arriving early as 10 hours in the same building is too long for my liking and £5 for a tin of beer is too expensive to not having cheaper beer from home beforehand.

Fortunately somebody tweeted a picture of the set times an hour or so after the event began. There I discovered there were two rooms with Fatboy Slim playing the last set in one room and 2 Many DJs playing the last set in the other room therefore I had to choose between them. As I've seen Fatboy Slim before but am yet to see 2 Many DJs I went for the latter.

Arriving at the venue early evening time I first took a look around the venue which was quite interesting. I then went to find the cloakroom to find there wasn't one, instead you had to pay £5 for a locker but there wasn't any lockers left. Then I found the toilets only to find they were VIP toilets and instead had to go to the other end of the venue and queue for a ridiculously long time to use the normal ones, though I did get to hear some of SecondCity during this time which was ok.

Heading to the second room where I would spend the rest of the evening, this was actually an indoor car park and in my opinion much better than the other room and quite possibly bigger too. It was also much cooler in there which was handy given I still had my coat.

PBR Streetgang were playing an enjoyable set of house music at the time. Then Erol Alkan came on with lots a smoke going off such that anyone could have been playing and I'd be none the wiser. It did sound very much like Erol Alkan though with his usual blend of Electro House music. Towards the end of his set there was a mass exodus of people presumably going to the other room to see Fatboy Slim.

Then 2 Many DJs came doing plenty of mashups mixed in with House music. As the set went on the room started to fill up again with people who presumably couldn't get into the other room. Towards the end of the set they went old skool playing tunes like Pump up the Jam, House Nation and Blue Monday. All in all a very good set and the right decision to see them.