Now we've reached the final year of the 50s and the best way to describe the charts this year is that it was a mixture of everything the charts had brought us so far, old and new.
In terms of music history though, 1959 is probably best remembered for the plane crash on February 3rd which saw the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and Big Bopper. From this, we possibly saw the first example of a musicians record sales being boosted by their death as shortly afterwards, Buddy Holly scored his first and only solo number one with "It Doesn't Matter Anymore". The Big Boppers only hit, "Chantilly Lace" had re-entered the charts prior to the plane crash, but was falling down the charts by the time the plane crash happened. The following month, Ritchie Valens had his only top 40 hit with "Donna". Surprisingly though, this only reached number 29 and was in the charts for just one week. Even more surprisingly was that Marty Wilde released a cover the same week and his version would reach number 3.
Another example of an English artist outperforming a cover of an American record was Craig Douglas with his cover of Sam Cookes "Only Sixteen" which reached number one in September, the week after Sam Cookes version dropped out of the charts having only reached number 23. We also saw Dion making his chart debut with "A Teenager in Love". This reached number 28, but there were also covers by both Marty Wilde and Craig Douglas whose versions reached number 2 and number 13 respectively.
Other notable chart debutants from the British scene included Billy Fury in February with "Maybe Tomorrow" and Adam Faith who reach number one with his debut "What Do You Want" which at 1 minutes 35 seconds is the shortest ever UK number one at the time of writing this. Another significant chart debutant was Johnny Kidd and the Pirates who reached number 26 with "Please Don't Touch". This group has often been credited with planting the seeds for the British invasion a few years later.
Lonnie Donegan was still very much active in the charts this year having six hits including two number 3s and a number 2.
Notable chart debutants from America this year included Lloyd Price who charted in February with "Stagger Lee". He would have a further three hits that year but would not have any further hits after this. In April, Neil Sedaka had his first hit with "I Go Ape", though he was the writer of "Stupid Cupid" by Connie Francis which had been a number one the previous year. We also had the chart debut of Johnny and the Hurricanes in October with "Red River Rock" helping with the growth of instrumental rock n roll along with Duane Eddy.
No less than six acts who had hits in the first year of the charts, 1952, would return to the charts this year after a period away. These were Frankie Laine, Guy Mitchell, Johnnie Ray, Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Winifred Atwell. However out of these, only Louis Armstrong and Nat King Cole would have further hits after 1959.
Elvis Presley had three hits this year taking his total to 29 and still being the act with the most hits, but also two of these hits were number ones making him joint top by this point alongside Frankie Laine and Guy Mitchell.
The year saw the first act from Croatia have a hit, Ivo Robic reaching number 23 in November with "Morgen" which would be his only hit. Nina and Frederik were the first act from Denmark having a hit with "Mary's Boy Child" which reached number 26, which charted better than the re-release of the Harry Belafonte version that year which reached number 30. Then there was the first act from Saint Lucia, Emile Ford and the Checkmates who were Christmas number one with their debut "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?". Emile Ford sadly passed away a couple of weeks before writing this post.
So that concludes the 50s. Instead of going straight onto 1960 I've decided to write a review of the 50s overall first which I'll hopefully do in a couple of weeks.
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