UK Singles Chart: 1956

So in 1955 we had Bill Haley and his Comets with four Rock n Roll singles in the charts including "Rock Around the Clock" which after a slow start made number one. We also had Pat Boone do a Rock n Roll cover and one hit wonder Boyd Bennett with a Rock n Roll single towards the end of the year. So would 1956 see the explosion of Rock n Roll we've been waiting for? I think we can assume yes it did.

The year began with "Rock Around the Clock" going back to number one for a couple of weeks, but January would also bring another style of music important to the history of popular music, skiffle. The so called king of skiffle, Lonnie Donegan had his first hit with "Rock Island Line". He would have further four singles that year, and he was said to have been a big influence on many bands of the 60s including the Beatles.

Bill Haley and his Comets were still flying the flag for Rock n Roll in the early part of the year, releasing "See You Later Alligator" in March. It was May of 1956 however when we started to see new Rock n Roll artists emerge, the first of whom was Elvis Presley who entered the charts with "Heartbreak Hotel". The following week saw Carl Perkins have his only UK hit, "Blue Suede Shoes", and then a week later Elvis hit the charts again with his cover of this track.

Then June saw Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers hit the charts with "Why do Fools Fall in Love" which would reach number one in July. Also in July, Gene Vincent has his first hot with "Be Bop a Lula" and Fats Domino have his first hit with "I'm in Love Again".

In August, Clyde McPhatter had his only UK hit with "Treasure of Love" and it's interesting to note that he had already left the Drifters by this point, but it would be several years until we would see the Drifters chart for the first time.

Vocal group and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Platters charted for the first time in September with a double A side of "The Great Pretender/Only You". Then in December Little Richard had his first UK hit with "Rip it Up" which was also covered by Bill Haley and his Comets but charted in November.

At the same, time there were several Rock and Roll covers by more traditional artists such as Alma Cogan covering "Why do Fools Fall in Love".

The Rock and Roll craze however didn't wipe out the traditional pop music which had dominated the charts in the earlier years. In fact 5 of the artists who charted in 1952 had number ones this year, they were Kay Starr, Winifred Atwell, Doris Day, Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray. This meant that Frankie Laine again had the most number ones with four, but this would be his last one. He was also still the artist with the most hits reaching 23 by the end of the year. He was also one of five artists to have had a hit in every year of the charts existence so far, the others being Doris Day, Johnnie Ray, Winifred Atwell and Nat King Cole.

The year saw the biggest increase in number of bands to have a hit so far and also saw a significant increase in the number of songwriters to have hit too. The year also saw the first Australian, Jimmy Parkinson and the first artist from the Republic of Ireland, Eamonn Andrews have a UK hit. Both artists however would not have another hit after 1956, the latter being a one hit wonder.

So now Rock and Roll has truly established itself in the charts, will 1957 bring us the death of traditional pop music? will we see more skiffle? and which well known acts will be making their chart debuts? find out in a couple of weeks.