Question: Which music act has had the longest UK Top 40 career?
The answer as of December 2019 is Dean Martin after he scored his first UK Top 40 hit in 50 years. But for 8 years prior to this the answer was Tony Bennett.
Not the most obvious one, particularly as he's only had 9 Top 40 hits overall, but they span a period from 1955-2011.
Once again we have someone who's managed both a Number 1 and a Number 40, the 11th act to do so.
Despite the record he hold, his Top 40 career hasn't exactly been great. Aside from his number one debut "Stranger In Paradise", he hasn't managed another Top 10. His follow up "Close Your Eyes" was his second highest charting single at 18.
This was hit number 6 for him. It had charted more successfully for Harry Secombe 2 years earlier as was taken from the musical "Pickwick". It was the first of 3 Top 40 hits for him in 1965.
As you may have worked out, the 3rd of these hits was hit number 8 and he'd wait 46 years until hit number 9, meaning another record he did hold was the longest gap between hits. He managed to get that final hit from collaborating with Amy Winehouse, but only just managed it as it made 40. More on that if I ever reach 2011 in this series (which I hope to do).
That record was also broken in December 2019 by Bobby Helms who scored his first hit in 61 years.
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