UK Singles Chart: 1957

By 1957 Rock and Roll had well and truly established itself in the charts. The group who had the first Rock and Roll hit, Bill Haley and his Comets, had their 13th single in February with "Don't Knock the Rock". However, aside from future re-releases of "Rock Around the Clock", this would be the last we would see of Bill Haley and his Comets in the chart.

If you had to pick a year for Skiffle music though, 1957 would have to be it. Lonnie Donegan scored two number ones this year with "Cumberland Gap" and the double a-side "Gamblin Man/Puttin on the Style". One thing to note though is whilst there were many Skiffle groups around that time, very few had any chart success aside from Lonnie Donegan. I have identified three other Skiffle groups to have hits this year, Vipors Skiffle Group, Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group and Johnny Duncan & the Bluegrass Boys. Whilst Lonnie Donegan would continue to have further hits in years to come, the other three groups would only have hits in 1957.

Notable chart debutants of the year included Chuck Berry with "School Day" in June. Then in September in the same week we had debut hits from the Coasters with "Searchin", Jerry Lee Lewis with "Whole lot of Shakin Goin On" and the Crickets with "That'll be the Day" which would reach number one in November. Also in November we had debut hits from Everly Brothers with "Wake Up Little Susie" and Jackie Wilson with "Reet Petite". Then in December Buddy Holly would have his first solo hit with "Peggy Sue" and given he would die just over a year later this shows just how short his music career was.

It is quite well known that Elvis Presley current holds the record for the most UK number ones and it all began in 1957 with his first number one, "All Shook Up". At the time, Frankie Laine still had the most number ones, but he was now joint first with Guy Mitchell who had scored two number ones this year with "Singing the Blues" and "Rock-A-Billy". Guy Mitchell was one of the artists to have a hit in the first year of the charts in 1952 but by this time he had made the transition from Traditional Pop to Rock and Roll. Frankie Laine did add two more to his tally of hits though bringing him to 25 and still holding the record for most hits. In addition to Frankie Laine, Nat King Cole, Winifred Atwell and Johnnie Ray all maintain their records of having a hit in every year of the charts existence.

This year also sees the debut of the earliest group to have a single where all members are still alive at the time of writing this. They are the King Brothers who had three singles this year including a cover of "Wake Up Little Susie".

So now the charts are looking more like what the 50s are remembered for and several well known acts and songs now charted, what will 1958 bring? Find out in a couple of weeks.