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Post by Earl Purple on May 13, 2015 21:01:10 GMT 1
Thank you for the comments. I always like it when I get comments on these. And it's good that in this era we can find original versions to songs. I don't always like them as much as the charted version. There are a couple of new interpretations of songs/tunes here to discuss.
25 March 1961
1 ( 1 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro < 2nd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) 3 ( 4 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen 4 ( 3 ) Surrender - Elvis Presley (#2[1]) 5 ( 7 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers 6 ( 8 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley 7 ( 6 ) The Magnificent Seven - John Barry (#6) 8 ( 14 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer 9 ( 5 ) Pepe - Duane Eddy (#1[4]) 10 ( 10 ) Theme For A Dream - Cliff Richard
11 ( -- ) Blue Moon - Marcels 12 ( -- ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee 13 ( 16 ) Marry Me - Mike Preston 14 ( 21 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin 15 ( 18 ) Hearts Of Stone - Bill Black's Combo 16 ( 9 ) Spanish Harlem - Ben E King (#4) 17 ( 11 ) Black Bear - Frank Cordell & His Orchestra (#10) 18 ( 20 ) Ram-Bunk-Shush - Ventures 19 ( 13 ) Man From Madrid - Tony Osborne Sound (#12) 20 ( -- ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents
21 ( 17 ) Ja-Da - Johnny &The Hurricanes (#17) 22 ( 12 ) FBI - Shadows (#6) 23 ( -- ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro 24 ( -- ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney 25 ( 29 ) And The Heavens Cried - Anthony Newley 26 ( 15 ) Ginchy - Bert Weedon (#2[1]) 27 ( -- ) The Watusi - Vibrations 28 ( 25 ) What Am I Gonna Do - Emile Ford & The Checkmates (#25) 29 ( 19 ) Dedicated To The One I Love - Shirelles (#7) 30 ( 23 ) African Waltz - Johnny Dankworth (#17)
-- ( 22 ) Who Am I - Adam Faith (#10) -- ( 24 ) Good Time Baby - Bobby Rydell (#14) -- ( 26 ) Are You Sure - Allisons (#19) -- ( 27 ) Bangers And Mash - Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren (#2[1]) -- ( 28 ) Little Boy Sad - Johnny Burnette (#22) -- ( 30 ) Ebony Eyes - Everly Brothers (#14)
-- ( -- ) For My Baby - Brook Benton -- ( -- ) Model Girl - Johnny Maestro -- ( -- ) Entry Of The Gladiators - Nero & The Gladiators
Fairly quiet at the top end, but 6 new entries. Next week though the chart is about to explode again. So actually it's quite welcoming that the chart is ready for it.
Contrast my highest entry this week with the lowest placed non-entry. Blue Moon has been uptempoed from swing-doo-wop style to rock 'n' roll. No doubt a generation of old-school were cringing "what have they done to this classic". But a younger generation thought they improved it. I wasn't born yet but I think they did too.
Compare that to the "Entry Of The Gladiators" cover that has been slowed down. You'll probably know the tune if you hear it.
Elsewhere, Peggy Lee charts with her version of "Till There Was You" sticking fairly failthful to the way it was written. Apparently Paul McCartney's cousin was a big Peggy Lee fan and played him this version and the Beatles subsequently covered it. Peggy Lee's most famous hit "Fever" was covered later by Madonna, but has passed us by. She is, of course, totally unrelated to the other Ms Lee who has been visiting our charts.
Brenda isn't here but two other teenage kids are fighting for rights. Kathy Young's melody reminds me a bit of "Am I That Easy To Forget" but there's still something lovely about this song, a poor teenage anthem of plans going wrong and being all alone on your birthday with nobody to celebrate it with. Helen Shapiro meanwhile debuts with what is more of a teenage protest song.
In spite of her youth in 1961 she never made it into the later era of my chart, i.e. 1977 onward, although she was only about 30 when I started doing my chart properly. Gene Pitney, on the other hand, has made it due to Marc Almond duetting with him on one of his 1967 hits. We'll be hearing a lot more from him.
There are two "Watusi" hits, the Vibrations do it first, then there's another one coming up next year. Up until now "Watusi" was for me the title of the 1994 album by the Wedding Present.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 14, 2015 23:09:22 GMT 1
1 April 1961
1 ( 1 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro < 3rd week at #1 > 2 ( -- ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" 3 ( 2 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) 4 ( 3 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3) 5 ( -- ) Runaway - Del Shannon 6 ( 11 ) Blue Moon - Marcels 7 ( 5 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers (#5) 8 ( 12 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee 9 ( 6 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley (#6) 10 ( 8 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8)
11 ( -- ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 12 ( 4 ) Surrender - Elvis Presley (#2[1]) 13 ( -- ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers 14 ( 7 ) The Magnificent Seven - John Barry (#6) 15 ( -- ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones 16 ( 14 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14) 17 ( 10 ) Theme For A Dream - Cliff Richard (#10) 18 ( 20 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents 19 ( 13 ) Marry Me - Mike Preston (#13) 20 ( 15 ) Hearts Of Stone - Bill Black's Combo (#15)
21 ( 9 ) Pepe - Duane Eddy (#1[4]) 22 ( 23 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro 23 ( 24 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney 24 ( 27 ) The Watusi - Vibrations 25 ( -- ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard 26 ( 18 ) Ram-Bunk-Shush - Ventures (#18) 27 ( 25 ) And The Heavens Cried - Anthony Newley (#25) 28 ( 17 ) Black Bear - Frank Cordell & His Orchestra (#10) 29 ( 16 ) Spanish Harlem - Ben E King (#4) 30 ( 21 ) Ja-Da - Johnny &The Hurricanes (#17)
-- ( 19 ) Man From Madrid - Tony Osborne Sound (#12) -- ( 22 ) FBI - Shadows (#6) -- ( 26 ) Ginchy - Bert Weedon (#2[1]) -- ( 28 ) What Am I Gonna Do - Emile Ford & The Checkmates (#25) -- ( 29 ) Dedicated To The One I Love - Shirelles (#7) -- ( 30 ) African Waltz - Johnny Dankworth (#17)
-- ( -- ) Take Good Care Of Her - Adam Wade -- ( -- ) Asia Minor - Kokomo -- ( -- ) Baby Blue - Echoes
I said the chart would explode this week and we have new entries at #2 and #5. And these from 2 songs I would have expected to be among the biggest hits of the year, yet they come onto the playlist on the same week. A possibility that Clarence Frogman Henry will claim a couple of weeks at the top then yield. We'll see. Del Shannon's "Runaway" does have the accolade of being a brand new song that he wrote himself.
"But I Do" on the other hand is an old song but one of those I will always associate with this particular version. It was used in a commercial in 1993 and scraped the top 75 but I did have a chance to chart it then.
Temperence Seven's "You're Driving Me Crazy" is also a very old song and it's done in Trad Jazz 20's style but I couldn't find a previous version quite as "well produced" as this one. Thus this version also has its own magic.
Incidentally looking at comments in raliverpool's 60s charts I noticed he said this was an instrumental, and also claimed Buona Sera by Acker Bilk to be one, but neither are. They both have long instrumental parts to start but then clearly both songs go vocal.
When a song starts slowly with the refrain "Darling oh darling, you're not the same..." you wouldn't guess what's about to come next. Now would you believe, it takes off, goes totally uptempo and he's actually complaining about her overuse of make-up.
Jimmy Jones had a #1 last year and this song has its bit of falsetto vocals.
Altogether a great top 5 new entries. Cliff's uptempo "Gee Whiz It's You" is the 3rd "Gee Whiz" song to be playlisted recently but the only one so far to chart.
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Post by rubcale on May 15, 2015 9:38:36 GMT 1
Is Cliff's Gee Whiz the first single to chart on import sales alone?
When EMI had convened a panel the year previously to choose Cliff's next single Please Don't Tease was first, the management's preferred choice Nine Times Out Of Ten was third beaten for second by Gee Whiz It's You.
For some bizarre reason they didn't want to issue Gee Whiz as a single in the UK but instead released it in Europe. When word got round that the single could be obtained by order from their record shops Cliff's legion of fans began doing this and apparently the record had sold something like 40,000 before it even made the charts.
It was never officially released in Britain but EMI did belatedly make sure the shops could order the record.
Columbia records had the prefix DB. Gee Whiz was DC - presumably C stood for Continent?
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Post by Earl Purple on May 15, 2015 9:49:32 GMT 1
The chart experts here will know whether it's the first single to chart only on imports or whether something else preceded it.
Incidentally I reckon Cliff's best chances of getting a #1 in my chart will come in early 1963 and also in 1968 he may be the one who beats the current UK Eurovision Entry to become the biggest ever UK Eurovision entry hit in my chart. Clearly the Allisons made no challenge whatsoever to that.
In the later era, i.e. post 1977, Cliff's closest effort was a #2 hit duet with Sarah Brightman on "All I Ask Of You" in 1986.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 15, 2015 18:21:42 GMT 1
Moving on to 8th April, the last one from this playlist:
8 April 1961
1 ( 2 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" < 1st week at #1 > 2 ( 5 ) Runaway - Del Shannon 3 ( 1 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3]) 4 ( 6 ) Blue Moon - Marcels 5 ( 11 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 6 ( 3 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) 7 ( 13 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers 8 ( 4 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3) 9 ( 8 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) 10 ( 15 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones
11 ( 7 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers (#5) 12 ( 10 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8) 13 ( 9 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley (#6) 14 ( -- ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott 15 ( 25 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard 16 ( 18 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents 17 ( 16 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14) 18 ( 12 ) Surrender - Elvis Presley (#2[1]) 19 ( 14 ) The Magnificent Seven - John Barry (#6) 20 ( 22 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro
21 ( 24 ) The Watusi - Vibrations 22 ( -- ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe 23 ( 23 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney 24 ( -- ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles 25 ( 17 ) Theme For A Dream - Cliff Richard (#10) 26 ( 20 ) Hearts Of Stone - Bill Black's Combo (#15) 27 ( 19 ) Marry Me - Mike Preston (#13) 28 ( 27 ) And The Heavens Cried - Anthony Newley (#25) 29 ( 21 ) Pepe - Duane Eddy (#1[4]) 30 ( -- ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka
-- ( 26 ) Ram-Bunk-Shush - Ventures (#18) -- ( 28 ) Black Bear - Frank Cordell & His Orchestra (#10) -- ( 29 ) Spanish Harlem - Ben E King (#4) -- ( 30 ) Ja-Da - Johnny & The Hurricanes (#17)
-- ( -- ) A Hundred Pounds Of Clay - Gene McDaniels -- ( -- ) Once Upon A Time - Rochell And The Candles -- ( -- ) How Wonderful To Know - Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson -- ( -- ) Please Tell Me Why - Jackie Wilson -- ( -- ) You Can Depend On Me - Brenda Lee
As last week's entries climb well and Clarence Frogman Henry gets to #1, we have new entries from female singer Linda Scott who reached UK #7 with that song and then has a #50 hit and disappears.
Ernie K-Doe has a hit about his mother in law getting in the way of his relationship. I have one of those...
Ray Charles is pretty silent on this one, an instrumental. I guess he plays an instrument on it.
Paul Anka's songs are always on the edge of this chart. This one scrapes in just ahead of Gene McDaniels whose hit was covered in the UK by Craig Douglas, and is about creation of Adam and Eve.
Apparently when we were discussing the oldest currently living duets, Pearl Carr & Teddy Johnson come out a bit ahead of Patrick McNee and Honor Blackman. Both alive and both in their 90s.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 17, 2015 18:55:45 GMT 1
This is the chart of 15 April, the playlist I have been listening to ran from 15 April to 13 May. The week of 1st April threw up a lot of major songs. Within the current playlist, 9 out of the top 10 songs were on the list for 13th May and the other was on 6th May.
So look forward to 3 weeks of stagnation with regards to entries. It gives those big hitters from the week of 1 April a chance for a long chart run.
15 April 1961
1 ( 1 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" < 2nd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Runaway - Del Shannon 3 ( 5 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 4 ( 4 ) Blue Moon - Marcels 5 ( 7 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers 6 ( 3 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3]) 7 ( 14 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott 8 ( 10 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones 9 ( 15 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard 10 ( 6 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2])
11 ( 9 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) 12 ( 8 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3) 13 ( 22 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe 14 ( 16 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents 15 ( 24 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles 16 ( 12 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8) 17 ( 11 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers (#5) 18 ( 13 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley (#6) 19 ( 17 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14) 20 ( 20 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro
21 ( 21 ) The Watusi - Vibrations 22 ( 30 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka 23 ( 23 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney 24 ( 19 ) The Magnificent Seven - John Barry (#6) 25 ( 18 ) Surrender - Elvis Presley (#2[1]) 26 ( -- ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws 27 ( -- ) Staying In - Bobby Vee 28 ( 28 ) And The Heavens Cried - Anthony Newley (#25) 29 ( -- ) Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler 30 ( 26 ) Hearts Of Stone - Bill Black's Combo (#15)
-- ( 25 ) Theme For A Dream - Cliff Richard (#10) -- ( 27 ) Marry Me - Mike Preston (#13) -- ( 29 ) Pepe - Duane Eddy (#1[4])
-- ( -- ) Linda Lu - Johnny Kidd & The Pirates -- ( -- ) Hideaway - Freddie King -- ( -- ) Something Missing - Petula Clark
With regards to Bobby Vee, the fact that the Crickets version of More Than I Can Say was a hit in my chart just last year I went only for Staying In which is ok. He'll have bigger hits.
Johnny Kidd & The Pirates had one of the biggest hits of 1960 with "Shakin' All Over". But Linda Lu is just ordinary. And with regards to Petula Clark I didn't even know she had a single between Sailor and Romeo. Sailor was a #1 and Romeo a top 5 hit in the UK. This one got nowhere and I can see why.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 19, 2015 0:42:03 GMT 1
1 ( 1 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" < 3rd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Runaway - Del Shannon 3 ( 3 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 4 ( 5 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers 5 ( 4 ) Blue Moon - Marcels (#4) 6 ( 7 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott 7 ( 9 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard 8 ( 8 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones 9 ( 13 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe 10 ( 6 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3])
11 ( 15 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles 12 ( 14 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents 13 ( 11 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) 14 ( -- ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon 15 ( 10 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) 16 ( 12 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3) 17 ( 22 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka 18 ( 26 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws 19 ( 27 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee 20 ( 29 ) Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler
21 ( 20 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro (#20) 22 ( 16 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8) 23 ( 21 ) The Watusi - Vibrations (#21) 24 ( 19 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14) 25 ( 23 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney (#23) 26 ( 18 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley (#6) 27 ( 17 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers (#5) 28 ( -- ) Daddy's Home - Shep And The Limelites 29 ( -- ) My Blue Heaven - Frank Sinatra 30 ( -- ) Theme From Dixie - Duane Eddy
-- ( 24 ) The Magnificent Seven - John Barry (#6) -- ( 25 ) Surrender - Elvis Presley (#2[1]) -- ( 28 ) And The Heavens Cried - Anthony Newley (#25) -- ( 30 ) Hearts Of Stone - Bill Black's Combo (#15)
-- ( -- ) Cowboy Jimmy Joe - Alma Cogan -- ( -- ) Trust In Me - Etta James -- ( -- ) Just For Old Time's Sake - McGuire Sisters
The top 3 still remain static with the #4 and #5 swapping places whilst the highest entry comes in at #4 for Freddy Cannon covering a song that was first an instrumental a long time earlier then had lyrics added about 11 years prior to this version. Louis Armstrong recorded it as an instrumental.
The artist at #7 would later on record the song at #28 and have a big UK #2 hit with it. Frank Sinatra keeps swinging (not sure if the drunks keep on singing) but Duane Eddy keeps on playing his guitar and does the famous theme from Dixie. Nothing wrong with this version but I'm generally uninspired by these versions of very very famous tunes. It's mostly an instrumental but right near the end you hear some vocals.
As Alma Cogan fails to enter for the last time, she will not achieve any hits on this chart. Maybe if my chart had extended back further she would have done.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 19, 2015 22:45:47 GMT 1
29 April 1961
1 ( 2 ) Runaway - Del Shannon < 1st week at #1 > 2 ( 1 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) 3 ( 3 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 4 ( 4 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers 5 ( 6 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott 6 ( 7 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard 7 ( 14 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon 8 ( 5 ) Blue Moon - Marcels (#4) 9 ( 9 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe 10 ( 8 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones (#8)
11 ( 11 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles 12 ( 12 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents 13 ( 18 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws 14 ( 17 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka 15 ( 19 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee 16 ( 20 ) Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler 17 ( 10 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3]) 18 ( 13 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) 19 ( -- ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens 20 ( 28 ) Daddy's Home - Shep And The Limelites
21 ( 29 ) My Blue Heaven - Frank Sinatra 22 ( 16 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3) 23 ( 15 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) 24 ( 30 ) Theme From Dixie - Duane Eddy 25 ( 21 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro (#20) 26 ( -- ) Easy Going Me - Adam Faith 27 ( 23 ) The Watusi - Vibrations (#21) 28 ( 25 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney (#23) 29 ( 22 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8) 30 ( 24 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14)
-- ( 26 ) Wooden Heart - Elvis Presley (#6) -- ( 27 ) 76 Trombones - King Brothers (#5)
-- ( -- ) Funny - Maxine Brown -- ( -- ) Breakin' In A Brand New Broken Heart - Connie Francis
Although we have a change at the top, still nothing can break into those top few positions which remain stagnant, following a week of good songs followed by several weeks of mostly mediocre ones. The two coming up are both a lot better, in particular 13th but next week has a couple of decent entries too.
So this week we get the Tokens, a doo-wop band who also did Wimoweh (The Lion Sleeps Tonight). This song sounds very reminiscent of a future song by one of their former members, Neil Sedaka.. I'm certain that isn't totally coincidental.
Adam Faith is starting to slip in the UK chart. This one wasn't a top 10 hit for him after a run of hits that were. He does, however, manage an entry, whilst two females miss out, one of them a rather prolific singer.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 21, 2015 0:30:55 GMT 1
6 May 1961
1 ( 1 ) Runaway - Del Shannon < 2nd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) 3 ( 3 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven 4 ( 7 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon 5 ( -- ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison 6 ( 4 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers (#4) 7 ( 5 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott (#5) 8 ( 6 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard (#6) 9 ( 9 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe 10 ( 13 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws
11 ( 19 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens 12 ( 8 ) Blue Moon - Marcels (#4) 13 ( 11 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles (#11) 14 ( 14 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka 15 ( 15 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee 16 ( 10 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones (#8) 17 ( 12 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents (#12) 18 ( 16 ) Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler (#16) 19 ( 20 ) Daddy's Home - Shep And The Limelites 20 ( 21 ) My Blue Heaven - Frank Sinatra
21 ( -- ) Mama Said - Shirelles 22 ( 26 ) Easy Going Me - Adam Faith 23 ( -- ) What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis 24 ( -- ) (Dance The) Mess Around - Chubby Checker 25 ( 24 ) Theme From Dixie - Duane Eddy (#24) 26 ( -- ) Bumble Boogie - B Bumble & The Stingers 27 ( -- ) Flaming Star - Elvis Presley 28 ( 18 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) 29 ( 17 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3]) 30 ( 22 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3)
-- ( 23 ) Walk Right Back - Everly Brothers (#1[2]) -- ( 25 ) Don't Treat Me Like A Child - Helen Shapiro (#20) -- ( 27 ) The Watusi - Vibrations (#21) -- ( 28 ) (I Wanna) Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney (#23) -- ( 29 ) On The Rebound - Floyd Cramer (#8) -- ( 30 ) Lazy River - Bobby Darin (#14)
-- ( -- ) Mr Guitar - Bert Weedon -- ( -- ) The Great Snowman - Bob Luman -- ( -- ) Billy Boy - Dick Charlesworth And His City Gents
Our new entries this week all come from the USA and one of them enters at #5. It's a battle of the singer-songwriters now as Del Shannon who holds on and Roy Orbison who enters high both write all their own songs. Roy Orbison has peaked at #2 in both eras. Will this finally be his #1?
The Shirelles get the 2nd highest entry of the week with "Mama Said", their 3rd entry. This song wouldn't be a UK hit until Dionne Bromfield covered it in 2009, around the same time that the Noisettes had the wonderful "Never Forget You" in the chart. The song has entered at #21 but actually had a higher score than the Tokens did last week when they entered at #19. It will be hard-pressed to make a lot of progress though as there's a ton of big entries coming in next week.
Jerry Lee Lewis enters - yes he did other songs aside from Great Balls Of Fire. And Chubby Checker dances the "Mess Around" - it's a bit like the last dance. You have to dance it with him... While Elvis gets what was probably a B-side into the lower end of the chart.
Between those we have B Bumble & The Stingers. Actually named due to this cover version of Flight of the Bumblebee and yeah, another classical piece given the treatment, but we know what's coming up from this lot next year.
Meanwhile Bert Weedon fails to chart with the follow-up to the massive #2 hit "Ginchy" and Bob Luman couldn't get himself a 3rd chart entry but he has had a #1.
I didn't let Johnny Preston's "Billy Boy" anywhere near the chart and was never going to let this version in either. Not sure why I didn't just de-list it.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 22, 2015 13:41:02 GMT 1
Ok, we've reached that explosive week for new songs which is:
13 May 1961:
1 ( 1 ) Runaway - Del Shannon < 3rd week at #1 > 2 ( 5 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison 3 ( 2 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) 4 ( -- ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury 5 ( 4 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon (#4) 6 ( 3 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven (#3) 7 ( -- ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson 8 ( -- ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine 9 ( 11 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens 10 ( -- ) Frightened City - Shadows
11 ( 10 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws (#10) 12 ( 21 ) Mama Said - Shirelles 13 ( 6 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers (#4) 14 ( -- ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan 15 ( 7 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott (#5) 16 ( 9 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe (#9) 17 ( -- ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra 18 ( 8 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard (#6) 19 ( -- ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen 20 ( -- ) Lullaby Of The Leaves - Ventures
21 ( 23 ) What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis 22 ( 14 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka (#14) 23 ( -- ) That Lucky Old Sun - Velvets 24 ( 24 ) (Dance The) Mess Around - Chubby Checker 25 ( 15 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee (#15) 26 ( 13 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles (#11) 27 ( 12 ) Blue Moon - Marcels (#4) 28 ( 26 ) Bumble Boogie B Bumble & The Stingers (#26) 29 ( 27 ) Flaming Star Elvis Presley (#27) 30 ( 19 ) Daddy's Home - Shep And The Limelites (#19)
-- ( 16 ) I Told You So - Jimmy Jones (#8) -- ( 17 ) Happy Birthday Blues - Kathy Young & The Innocents (#12) -- ( 18 ) Find Another Girl - Jerry Butler (#16) -- ( 20 ) My Blue Heaven - Frank Sinatra -- ( 22 ) Easy Going Me - Adam Faith -- ( 25 ) Theme From Dixie - Duane Eddy (#24) -- ( 28 ) Till There Was You - Peggy Lee (#8) -- ( 29 ) My Kind Of Girl - Matt Monro (#1[3]) -- ( 30 ) Samantha - Kenny Ball And His Jazzmen (#3)
-- ( -- ) Girl Of My Best Friend - Ral Donner -- ( -- ) You'll Never Know - Shirley Bassey -- ( -- ) Travelin' Man - Ricky Nelson -- ( -- ) Hello Walls - Faron Young
Del Shannon remains on top and Roy Orbison is running scared now as he may not make #1. This song did reach #1 in the USA and #9 in the UK. Only one of two US #1s for Roy Orbison, the other being (Oh) Pretty Woman. In the UK he reached #1 three times, with Only The Lonely, It's Over and (Oh) Pretty Woman.
The highest of the bunch of new entries is by Billy Fury who got to #2 last year with "A Wondrous Place". The song is written by Carole King & Gerry Goffin who have already written one #1 this year, the Shirelles song that was on top at the start of this year. (They manage to climb to #12 in all this).
Ricky Nelson gets the 2nd highest entry but also misses out with Travelin' Man which was considered separately. We missed out (thankfully) on "I Believe" in 1953 but Frankie Laine's previous single "Rawhide" peaked at #2 in a very early chart in 1960 (and was in the first chart). "Gunslinger" was the theme to a US TV series in 1961. It is also one of those UK #50 for 1 week hits and his last ever in the UK chart.
Another twangly hit from the Shadows, followed by Lonnie Donegan with a "drinking" song and more of the old skiffle style. Lower down are Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen, whose last song was "introduced" by Lonnie Donegan. In between we get the theme from Bonanza.
And don't confuse the Ventures and the Velvets. But they both enter.
The highest placed one not to enter is Ral Donner with what was the only hit version of this song (US #19) until 1976 when it belatedly became a hit for Elvis Presley although he had already recorded it by 1961. It actually came in at #34, Adam Faith fell from his peak of #22 to #31, Frank Sinatra also fell having climbed the previous week. He was at #32 and Jerry Butler #33.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 26, 2015 3:32:02 GMT 1
20 May 1961:
1 ( 4 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury < 1st #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison 3 ( 1 ) Runaway - Del Shannon (#1[3]) 4 ( 7 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson 5 ( 8 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine 6 ( 10 ) Frightened City - Shadows 7 ( 3 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) 8 ( 14 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan 9 ( 5 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon (#4) 10 ( 12 ) Mama Said - Shirelles
11 ( 9 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens (#9) 12 ( 17 ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra 13 ( 6 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven (#3) 14 ( 19 ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen 15 ( 20 ) Lullaby Of The Leaves - Ventures 16 ( 11 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws (#10) 17 ( -- ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka 18 ( 23 ) That Lucky Old Sun - Velvets 19 ( 21 ) What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis 20 ( -- ) Love Or Money - Blackwells
21 ( 13 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers (#4) 22 ( 16 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe (#9) 23 ( 15 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott (#5) 24 ( 24 ) (Dance The) Mess Around - Chubby Checker 25 ( 18 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard (#6) 26 ( -- ) Can This Be Love - Matt Monro 27 ( 22 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka (#14) 28 ( 28 ) Bumble Boogie B Bumble & The Stingers (#26) 29 ( 29 ) Flaming Star Elvis Presley (#27) 30 ( 25 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee (#15)
-- ( 26 ) One Mint Julep - Ray Charles (#11) -- ( 27 ) Blue Moon - Marcels (#4) -- ( 30 ) Daddy's Home - Shep And The Limelites (#19)
-- ( -- ) Why Not Now - Matt Monro -- ( -- ) Words - Allisons -- ( -- ) Half Of My Heart - Emile Ford & The Checkmates -- ( -- ) Tragedy - Fleetwoods
Billy Fury never had a UK #1 but beats Roy Orbison to the spot this week, the latter of whom has not yet had a formal #1 but has now 3 number twos to his name, including one in 1989.
After last week's excitement, only 3 new entries. Neil Sedaka's follow-up to "Calendar Girl", the Blackwells with a song about being wanted for love or money, and Matt Monro's follow-up to "My Kind Of Girl", a double A-side from which we chose "Can This Be Love" over "Why Not Now". Although he charts, this looks set to do poorly compared to his previous two. (My Kind Of Girl reached #1!).
Those missing out include the Allisons and Emile Ford.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 26, 2015 21:11:41 GMT 1
27 May 1961
1 ( 1 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury < 2nd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison 3 ( 4 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson 4 ( 5 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine 5 ( -- ) Stand By Me - Ben E King 6 ( 6 ) Frightened City - Shadows 7 ( 8 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan 8 ( 3 ) Runaway - Del Shannon (#1[3]) 9 ( 10 ) Mama Said - Shirelles 10 ( 17 ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka
11 ( -- ) Pablo - Russ Conway 12 ( 12 ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra 13 ( 14 ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen 14 ( 20 ) Love Or Money - Blackwells 15 ( 7 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) 16 ( 15 ) Lullaby Of The Leaves - Ventures (#15) 17 ( -- ) That Old Black Magic - Bobby Rydell 18 ( 11 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens (#9) 19 ( 9 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon (#4) 20 ( 18 ) That Lucky Old Sun - Velvets (#18)
21 ( 26 ) Can This Be Love - Matt Monro 22 ( -- ) We Will Never Be As Young As This Again - Danny Williams 23 ( 19 ) What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis (#19) 24 ( 13 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven (#3) 25 ( 16 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws (#10) 26 ( -- ) I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley 27 ( 24 ) (Dance The) Mess Around - Chubby Checker (#24) 28 ( 28 ) Bumble Boogie B Bumble & The Stingers (#26) 29 ( 22 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe (#9) 30 ( 29 ) Flaming Star - Elvis Presley (#27)
-- ( 21 ) Warpaint - Brook Brothers (#4) -- ( 23 ) I've Told Every Little Star - Linda Scott (#5) -- ( 25 ) Gee Whiz It's You - Cliff Richard (#6) -- ( 27 ) Tonight My Love Tonight - Paul Anka (#14) -- ( 30 ) Staying In - Bobby Vee (#15)
A week with only 5 songs and all of them enter. One of them is a classic that enters at #5. If "Pablo" by Russ Conway sounds a bit like Pepe it's because the same composer wrote it. Russ recorded Pepe too but I only charted one version and Duane Eddy's is the biggest hit of the year so far. Bobby Rydell is back. He had a #1 near the start of 1960. Two ballads in a row by UK male singers as Danny Williams enters just below Matt Monro and yet another entry for Elvis, already peaking higher than his previous hit. I suspect there are bigger ones to come from him yet though.
(In the USA however he's had his last #1 for 8 years. "Surrender" has been and gone and his next US #1 will be "In The Ghetto" in 1969).
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vastar iner
Member
I am the poster on your wall
Posts: 17,430
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Post by vastar iner on May 27, 2015 7:30:27 GMT 1
Strong set of vocalists in the chart. Which is to be expected - couldn't rely on studio trickery to hide incompetence. The first singer who really, really, really couldn't sing was probably Billy J Kramer.
My dad was in a group that played at Billy Fury's 21st birthday party, which was basically a fan club get-together. My dad spent the downtime watching how Fury operated with his fans - said he was very impressive; generous and patient.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 27, 2015 9:10:17 GMT 1
I have seen one act from my chart up there live: Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen in 2010. Kenny Ball was 80 years old at the time and in his final years and his son was also in the band. They were playing a gig in Stevenage with the Jive Aces.
All the vocalists in the top 8 in the chart above are now all dead. The only act still alive in there is Hank Marvin although Bruce Welch has also passed away now.
One of the Shirelles (Doris) has also died, 2 are still alive and I don't know about the 4th one.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 27, 2015 23:36:22 GMT 1
3 June 1961:
1 ( 5 ) Stand By Me - Ben E King < 1st #1 > 2 ( 1 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury (#1[2]) 3 ( 2 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison (#2[3]) 4 ( 3 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson (#3) 5 ( 4 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine (#4) 6 ( 11 ) Pablo - Russ Conway 7 ( -- ) You Always Hurt The One You Love - Clarence ""Frogman" Henry 8 ( 10 ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka 9 ( 6 ) Frightened City - Shadows (#6) 10 ( 7 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan (#7)
11 ( -- ) Well I Ask You - Eden Kane 12 ( 17 ) That Old Black Magic - Bobby Rydell 13 ( 9 ) Mama Said - Shirelles (#9) 14 ( -- ) Barbara-Ann - Regents 15 ( -- ) Transistor Radio - Benny Hill 16 ( 14 ) Love Or Money - Blackwells (#14) 17 ( 12 ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra (#12) 18 ( 13 ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen (#13) 19 ( 22 ) We Will Never Be As Young As This Again - Danny Williams 20 ( 8 ) Runaway - Del Shannon (#1[3])
21 ( 26 ) I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley 22 ( 21 ) Can This Be Love - Matt Monro (#21) 23 ( 16 ) Lullaby Of The Leaves - Ventures (#15) 24 ( -- ) She She Little Sheila - Gene Vincent 25 ( -- ) Raindrops - Dee Clark 26 ( -- ) Moody River - Pat Boone 27 ( 20 ) That Lucky Old Sun - Velvets (#18) 28 ( -- ) Bells Of Avignon - Max Bygraves 29 ( 15 ) But I Do - Clarence "Frogman" Henry (#1[3]) 30 ( 18 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens (#9)
-- ( 19 ) Muskrat Ramble - Freddy Cannon (#4) -- ( 23 ) What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis (#19) -- ( 24 ) You're Driving Me Crazy - Temperance Seven (#3) -- ( 25 ) Swingin' Low - Outlaws (#10) -- ( 27 ) (Dance The) Mess Around - Chubby Checker (#24) -- ( 28 ) Bumble Boogie - B Bumble & The Stingers (#26) -- ( 29 ) Mother-In-Law - Ernie K-Doe (#9) -- ( 30 ) Flaming Star - Elvis Presley (#27)
-- ( -- ) Lullaby Of Love - Frank Gari -- ( -- ) Triangle - Janie Grant -- ( -- ) The Battle's O'er - Andy Stewart -- ( -- ) Peanut Butter - Marathons
Another week with a lot of new hits, and weeks like these slow down my compilation as my playlists are about the same length each week so last week I had just 4 instead of the usual 5. This week I also have just 4, but with the festival it makes life easier. During the 3 weeks and catch-up I will pause compilation too however I feel like I am making good progress.
1961 is a year of multiple styles. Doo-wop vocal groups from the USA seem to be one of the main styles along with the instrumentals and the swing bands.
Ben E King takes his classic to the top. It would take nearly 26 years to get there in the UK. A peak at my chart of 1987 would show that it fell someway short for me then even though "Reet Petite" had been a #1 for me just a few weeks earlier. I possibly just felt at the time I peferred to keep the top of the chart for newer original songs.
Clarence Frogman Henry is back with another song that sounds moderately similar to his big #1. Eden Kane is one of the Sarstedt brothers. This song managed one solitary week at the top of the UK chart.
Now for 2 songs of note. Firstly the Regents are a doo-wop group and their song was covered by the Beach Boys later. Bet many thought the Beach Boys version was the original... They are of course unrelated to the UK group that had that hit "7Teen".
Next up we have comedian Benny Hill. This is his second attempt to get into this chart following the unsuccessful "Gather In The Mushrooms". The song is about himself in a relationship with a woman who always carries around with her a transistor radio and contains a few parodies of some of the artists around at the time. Max Bygraves also joins him lower down. We won't be hearing from either of these two for a long time now but they do both have efforts at comebacks to come.
Gene Vincent does chart this time (Pistol Packin' Mama didn't), as finally does Pat Boone with yet another US #1 hit about death., and Dee Clark completes the set between them.
And I just list what comes up in the lower section now but I hereby declare "Peanut Butter" by Marathons the worst song I have come across so far. Even worse than "Along Came Caroline" by Michael Cox, my worst encounter of 1960.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 27, 2015 23:40:26 GMT 1
This now means of course that "Stand By Me" holds the record for the longest time between a song reaching NM #1 and UK #1. The previous record was about 5 months for "We Are Young" by Fun ft. Janelle Monae..
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Post by Earl Purple on May 28, 2015 22:26:06 GMT 1
10 June 1961:
1 ( 1 ) Stand By Me - Ben E King < 2nd week at #1 > 2 ( 2 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury (#1[2]) 3 ( 7 ) You Always Hurt The One You Love - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" 4 ( 6 ) Pablo - Russ Conway 5 ( 11 ) Well I Ask You - Eden Kane 6 ( 3 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison (#2[3]) 7 ( 4 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson (#3) 8 ( 14 ) Barbara-Ann - Regents 9 ( 5 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine (#4) 10 ( 15 ) Transistor Radio - Benny Hill
11 ( 8 ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka 12 ( 12 ) That Old Black Magic - Bobby Rydell 13 ( -- ) Motorcycle Michael - Jo Ann Campbell 14 ( 9 ) Frightened City - Shadows (#6) 15 ( 10 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan (#7) 16 ( -- ) Boll Weevil Song - Brook Benton 17 ( 24 ) She She Little Sheila - Gene Vincent 18 ( 25 ) Raindrops - Dee Clark 19 ( -- ) Ambush - Outlaws 20 ( 19 ) We Will Never Be As Young As This Again - Danny Williams
21 ( 26 ) Moody River - Pat Boone 22 ( 21 ) I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley 23 ( 13 ) Mama Said - Shirelles (#9) 24 ( 16 ) Love Or Money - Blackwells (#14) 25 ( 28 ) Bells Of Avignon - Max Bygraves 26 ( 17 ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra (#12) 27 ( 18 ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen (#13) 28 ( 22 ) Can This Be Love - Matt Monro (#21) 29 ( -- ) Exclusively Yours - Mark Wynter 30 ( -- ) Tossin' And Turnin' - Bobby Lewis
-- ( 20 ) Runaway - Del Shannon (#1[3]) -- ( 23 ) Lullaby Of The Leaves - Ventures (#15) -- ( 27 ) That Lucky Old Sun - Velvets (#18) -- ( 29 ) But I Do - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#1[3]) -- ( 30 ) Tonight I Fell In Love - Tokens (#9)
-- ( -- ) Little Egypt (Ying-Yang) - Coasters -- ( -- ) The Writing On The Wall - Adam Wade -- ( -- ) I'm A Fool To Care - Joe Barry -- ( -- ) Those Oldies But Goodies (Remind Me Of You) - Little Caesar & The Romans -- ( -- ) Every Beat Of My Heart - Pips
No change at #1. The highest new entry is a female singer, uptempo song about a guy called Michael who rides a motorcycle. Going well other than that she wants him to ditch it for a car. And that she rhymes "automobile" with itself. Later in the year we'll encounter a Michael associated with a totally different form of transport. Incidentally in entering at #13 she's the highest placed female in the chart, the top 12 all being male, 11 of them vocal one an instrumental. Aside from the Shirelles falling, she is the only female in the chart at all. (Dee Clark is male).
The song entering at #30 is an R&B style song and not the same song that the Ivy League would chart with later. (Would be way ahead of its time if it were).
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Post by Earl Purple on May 29, 2015 11:34:16 GMT 1
Sporting winners of 1961
As there is no chart to post now until Sunday when I score-up the latest playlist, and since we have reached the end of the 1960-61 football season now, we'll go through the sporting winners of the year.
In English club football, one team dominated the league from the start: they messed it up late last season but this year didn't give themselves that opportunity. Tottenham Hotspur won their first 11 games, drew their 12th at home against Manchester City, then won the next 4. They finally lost their 17th game away at Sheffield Wednesday, a team who had also lost just once at that point (but had drawn 4 compared to Tottenham's 1).
However Sheffield Wednesday immediately lost 3 games in a row and when they lost at Tottenham in April that was the season over. Spurs had 66 points, a huge total, and Sheffield Wednesday finished with 59.
In the FA Cup, Spurs were given a very tough 3rd round tie by Charlton Athletic. Spurs went 2-0 up then 3-1 up but when Charlton pulled another one back, Spurs were hanging on at the end. They were also given a tough time in their 6th round tie away at Sunderland who, like Charlton, were also 2nd division at the time, but then comfortably won 5-0 at home in the replay and went on to win the cup. Surprisingly the first League and FA Cup double of the century.
However they were not the only English club to win a domestic trophy as the new League Cup was introduced this season. It would appear not every club played in it, as I see no record for either Spurs or Sheffield Wednesday, but it was won by Aston Villa who were newly promoted into the top division this season and they beat Rotherham United in the final, which was played over two legs, home and away. They also beat Burnley, last season's champions, on the way.
Most Scottish leagues are won by either Celtic or Rangers and 1961 was one of those with Rangers victorious. However it was only by 1 point over Kilmarnock, with Celtic only 4th and last season's champions Hearts down in 7th place in a division of 18 clubs. The club in 3rd place was called "Third Lanock". Not sure of their history or what became of them.
In the USA, the superbowl was rather one sided. The New York Giants perhaps shouldn't have bothered turning up as the Green Bay Packers completed a total shut-out, scoring 37 points whilst the Giants failed to score at all. Not even a field goal...
Note: nowadays Superbowl games are played in January but back then they were played in December. So this was the Superbowl of December 1961 and the game hadn't happened yet at the point of the charts.
The "World Series" is the final of the baseball tournament although it is mostly teams from the USA with a couple of Canadian ones. In 1961 it was played in October, and unlike on the football field, the city of New York produced a winner this time as the New York Yankees were successful in 4 of their 5 games against the Cincinatti Reds. (It's a best of 7 games series and they won 4 games to 1, losing just the second game).
Wimbledon tennis was not yet an open event, but Australian Rod Laver won the men's singles whilst British player Angela Mortimer won the ladies' singles.
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Post by Earl Purple on May 31, 2015 22:08:48 GMT 1
That last playlist was just 4 weeks, most of them are 5, and the two playlists that follow, i.e. the one I just scored up and the one I just compiled are both 5 weeks. Thus my latest playlist ends with the chart of 19th August. (US chart of that date, UK chart of 17th).
17 June 1961:
1 ( 1 ) Stand By Me - Ben E King < 3rd week at #1 > 2 ( 3 ) You Always Hurt The One You Love - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" 3 ( 2 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury (#1[2]) 4 ( 5 ) Well I Ask You - Eden Kane 5 ( 4 ) Pablo - Russ Conway (#4) 6 ( -- ) Pasadena - Temperence Seven 7 ( 8 ) Barbara-Ann - Regents 8 ( 13 ) Motorcycle Michael - Jo Ann Campbell 9 ( -- ) Weekend - Eddie Cochran 10 ( 10 ) Transistor Radio - Benny Hill
11 ( 16 ) Boll Weevil Song - Brook Benton 12 ( 6 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison (#2[3]) 13 ( 19 ) Ambush - Outlaws 14 ( 7 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson (#3) 15 ( -- ) Quarter To Three - US Bonds 16 ( 12 ) That Old Black Magic - Bobby Rydell (#12) 17 ( 17 ) She She Little Sheila - Gene Vincent 18 ( -- ) Bee Bom - Anthony Newley 19 ( 18 ) Raindrops - Dee Clark (#18) 20 ( 9 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine (#4)
21 ( 11 ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka (#11) 22 ( 21 ) Moody River - Pat Boone (#21) 23 ( 14 ) Frightened City - Shadows (#6) 24 ( 29 ) Exclusively Yours - Mark Wynter 25 ( 15 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan (#7) 26 ( -- ) Temptation - Everly Brothers 27 ( 20 ) We Will Never Be As Young As This Again - Danny Williams (#20) 28 ( 30 ) Tossin' And Turnin' - Bobby Lewis 29 ( 25 ) Bells Of Avignon - Max Bygraves (#25) 30 ( 22 ) I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley (#22)
-- ( 23 ) Mama Said - Shirelles (#9) -- ( 24 ) Love Or Money - Blackwells (#14) -- ( 26 ) Bonanza - Al Caiola & His Orchestra (#12) -- ( 27 ) I Still Love You All - Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen (#13) -- ( 28 ) Can This Be Love - Matt Monro (#21)
-- ( -- ) Rama Lama Ding Dong - Edsels -- ( -- ) Yellow Bird - Arthur Lyman Group -- ( -- ) Once In Every Lifetime - Ken Dodd -- ( -- ) Dance On Little Girl - Paul Anka
Meanwhile, Ben E King gets a 3rd week at #1 with the Frogman claiming a #2 to go alongside his #1. Whilst he was #1 the Temperance Seven were stuck at #3 behind him and now they are having another go themselves hoping to go all the way this time. Their song dates back to about 1923 and Al Jolson recorded it. It isn't however the oldest tune on the week's list although it is the highest to chart. Arthur Lyman's rendition of the old Jamaican traditional song whose English lyrics "Yellow bird sings high in banana tree" were written around 1957 with Harry Belafonte recording that, but this is an instrumental so can claim to be just a copy of the traditional (and of course he didn't need to pay any copyright).
A couple of classic rock 'n' rollers. Eddie Cochran's nice simple song "Weekend". Not his best known and sounds a bit like C'Mon Everybody but it's a nice song. US Bonds must have known his name wouldn't be googlable at sometime in the future so appends the "Gary" for his next single onward. This song adds vocals to an instrumental "A Night At Daddy G". It reached #1 in the USA as does another song that seems to use the same tune later in the year and also reaches #1 in the USA but doesn't credit that it does. That will come up later..
Anthony Newley's song was part of the double A-side with "Pop Goes The Weasel". You can see why I chose this one. Sammy Davis Jnr also recorded it (apparently later).
The Everly Brothers have had two chart toppers here, both with UK #1s. This one is also a UK #1 but given its entry position doesn't look like it will match it.
The Edsels hit was covered by Rocky Sharpe & The Replays in 1978. But even the original can't save it and it flops. Ken Dodd seems destined never to chart. And Paul Anka seems to flop more often than he charts but he has got in occasionally.
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Post by Earl Purple on Jun 2, 2015 0:28:43 GMT 1
The playlist that ended 19th August had so many songs I removed that I added another week in and had the first week in September not been enormous (even just the US entries) I'd have added another in too.
Anyway we're still in June here:
24 June 1961:
1 ( 1 ) Stand By Me - Ben E King < 4th week at #1 > 2 ( 6 ) Pasadena - Temperence Seven 3 ( 2 ) You Always Hurt The One You Love - "Clarence ""Frogman"" Henry" (#2[1]) 4 ( 9 ) Weekend - Eddie Cochran 5 ( 4 ) Well I Ask You - Eden Kane (#4) 6 ( 3 ) Halfway To Paradise - Billy Fury (#1[2]) 7 ( 8 ) Motorcycle Michael - Jo Ann Campbell 8 ( 5 ) Pablo - Russ Conway (#4) 9 ( 7 ) Barbara-Ann - Regents (#7) 10 ( 15 ) Quarter To Three - US Bonds
11 ( 11 ) Boll Weevil Song - Brook Benton 12 ( 18 ) Bee Bom - Anthony Newley 13 ( 13 ) Ambush - Outlaws 14 ( 10 ) Transistor Radio - Benny Hill (#10) 15 ( -- ) A Girl Like You - Cliff Richard 16 ( 26 ) Temptation - Everly Brothers 17 ( 17 ) She She Little Sheila - Gene Vincent 18 ( 12 ) Running Scared - Roy Orbison (#2[3]) 19 ( 24 ) Exclusively Yours - Mark Wynter 20 ( 16 ) That Old Black Magic - Bobby Rydell (#12)
21 ( 19 ) Raindrops - Dee Clark (#18) 22 ( 14 ) Hello Mary Lou - Ricky Nelson (#3) 23 ( 22 ) Moody River - Pat Boone (#21) 24 ( 28 ) Tossin' And Turnin' - Bobby Lewis 25 ( -- ) Ring Of Fire - Duane Eddy 26 ( 21 ) Little Devil - Neil Sedaka (#11) 27 ( 20 ) Gunslinger - Frankie Laine (#4) 28 ( 23 ) Frightened City - Shadows (#6) 29 ( -- ) Tell Me Why - Belmonts 30 ( 29 ) Bells Of Avignon - Max Bygraves (#25)
-- ( 25 ) Have A Drink On Me - Lonnie Donegan (#7) -- ( 27 ) We Will Never Be As Young As This Again - Danny Williams (#20) -- ( 30 ) I Feel So Bad - Elvis Presley (#22)
-- ( -- ) Marcheta - Karl Denver -- ( -- ) Heart And Soul - Cleftones -- ( -- ) Wild In The Country - Elvis Presley -- ( -- ) I'll Step Down - Garry Mills
As Ben E King's "Stand By Me" is only the 2nd single this week to manage a 4th week at #1 so far it thereby passes its total of weeks at #1 in the UK chart in 1987.
In a quiet week for new entries, Cliff Richard gets the highest. This is not the same song Edwyn Collins had a hit with in 1995. Nor is Duane Eddy's tune a twangy version of the Johnny Cash song one might have expected but an original tune.
The Belmonts have now become an act of their own right, not just Dion's backing group and doo-wop their way into the chart. The next few weeks are full of songs Showaddywaddy and some others covered, actually.
Of those failing to reach the chart, Karl Denver's song is pronounced "Markita". A bit of a yodeller. The Cleftones song is not the same as the Jan & Dean song which appears on my current playlist for this year. Elvis Presley's song was not covered by Bow Wow Wow. No, this one is dull and is his first proper flop in this chart. But don't worry he has some good ones coming up.
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