1955

120. 25 June 1955

Crew Cuts (with David Carroll & His Orchestra)     

Earth Angel

Written by Curtis Williams

No.2 for 1 week (Record Mirror)

No.1 at the time Al Hibbler – Unchained Melody

The Crew Cuts were a Canadian four-piece vocal group featuring the brothers John and Ray Perkins, Rudi Maugeri and Pat Barrett, all born in the early-1930 and members of the St. Michael’s Choir School in Toronto, the same choir that also produced The Four Lads. They hit the top ten in the USA for the first time with a song they had written themselves, Crazy ‘Bout You Baby but they then turned to covering R&B hits and the first one that really hit big was their cover of the Chords Sh Boom which had peaked at no.9 on the sales chart. The Chords were a black five-piece from The Bronx, all of whom had contributed to the writing of the R&B song Sh Boom which even gained its own genre name as a close harmony offshoot of rhythm and blues called Doo Wop. The Chords were backed by just a rhythm section whereas the Crew Cuts had the services of the whole of David Carroll’s orchestra and something about the Crew Cuts version sounded less raw as if they had cleaned the song to appeal to a white pop audience and indeed they had as The Crew Cuts were a wholesome white group, much better for conservative radio stations to play which provided the band with a nine week run on top of the retail sales charts and multiple weeks at no.1 on the other two charts too. In the UK, Sh Boom was not that successful, only peaking at no.12 and they followed this hit with the lesser selling song Earth Angel which in the UK, worked better for them as it hit no.4 on the NME charts and no.2 for one week in Record Mirror, giving that magazine’s chart a completely different top two compared to the NME. Earth Angel was another cover of a black R&B record, this time by The Penguins which included Curtis Williams who had composed the song. In the various Billboard charts, Earth Angel hit no.8 by both the Penguins and The Crew Cuts although the latter performed better on the radio airplay charts, peaking at no.3. In the UK, the Penguins version did not chart at all and The Crew Cuts could not follow Earth Angel even with several other US top ten singles.

121. 27 August 1955

Frank Sinatra (with Nelson Riddle & His Orchestra)

Learnin’ The Blues

Written by Dolores Vicki Silvers

No.2 for 5 weeks (NME)

No.1 at the time Slim Whitman – Rose Marie

Frank Sinatra had achieved eleven number one singles and six of his records had also stopped at no.2, Learnin’ The Blues a much more famous song than his previous number two hit London By Night. The six Sinatra number two singles placed him level on the all-time list with The Andrews Sisters and Flanagan & Allen but still miles behind Bing Crosby who had achieved seventeen. This was also the fifth time that Nelson Riddle had provided the backing orchestra on a no.2 hit, three with Nat King Cole and one with Ella Mae Morse and now on the Frank Sinatra hit Learnin’ The Blues which was a song that described how you know that you have the blues, the feelings of loneliness and realising that at a dance, everybody’s gone home and you are left listening to the same love song over and over again. You light one cigarette after another and it doesn’t matter whether you’re at home or out in a crowd, you can’t sleep at nights for constant crying, you walk the floor until you wear out your shoes and all these things will show you that you’re learnin’ the blues.

122. 22 October 1955

Cyril Stapleton & His Orchestra (featuring Julie Dawn)

Blue Star (The Medic Theme)

Written by Victor Young & Edward Heyman

No.2 for 2 weeks (NME)

No.1 at the time Jimmy Young – The Man From Laramie

Cyril Stapleton was born in Nottingham in 1914 and was a violinist and bandleader who started out as a member of Henry Hall’s Orchestra and formed his own orchestra before the Second World War and resurrected it afterwards to continue his career, mainly playing light orchestral music but also when required, classical on his own slots on the BBC. His only top ten hit was with the theme to the TV series Medic which was one of the first medical procedure programs to be aired on television. Also working her way through various dance bands including Carroll Gibbons and Geraldo was Julie Dawn, born Juliana Rosalba Maria Theresa Mostosi in London in 1920. Eventually she too worked as a singer with Henry Hall. The theme to Medic was originally an instrumental composed by Victor Young and lyrics were added later by Edward Heyman and the song was re-titled Blue Star. The first two minutes of Blue Star was a piano and strings led instrumental with a choir singing and Julie Dawn began singing after one minute forty-three seconds, just like a typical song structure from the 1930s. She sang, blue star when I am blue, all I do is look at you, for I seem to find peace of mind, and I never get lonely when you shine from afar, with you away up there, I don’t care to have a care, for I want to show that you glow, let me know that you know, that I’m not blue, blue star. The TV theme, beautiful as it was had absolutely nothing to do with surgeons and operations. Cyril Stapleton’s appearances in the chart were mostly limited to the sheet music era and the 1940s, but he returned with this TV theme, his biggest hit. He died in 1974 aged 59.

123. 29 October 1955

Mitch Miller With His Orchestra & Chorus

The Yellow Rose Of Texas

Written by Don George

No.2 for 1 week (NME)

No.1 at the time Jimmy Young – The Man From Laramie

The Yellow Rose Of Texas was a strange song to become a hit in Britain in the mid-1950s particularly considering the song’s history as a plantation song sung by darkies to cheer themselves up during a long day working out in the burning sun on the cotton fields. Nobody at the time however would have been aware of the dark past of the song as Mitch Miller had commissioned new lyrics which completely destroyed all trace of the original darkey falling in love with a yellow girl, which was itself a euphemism for a white girl in Texas. Miller gave it a Civil War marching band drum intro which he made sound as if it was a military song from the American Civil War, but The Yellow Rose Of Texas was even older than that, coming from the Christy Minstrels Blackface shows of the 1830s and 1840s. The chorus of the new version was extremely cheerful with the lyrics, she’s the sweetest little rosebud that Texas ever knew, her eyes are bright as diamonds they sparkle like the dew, you may talk about your Clementine and sing of Rosa Lee, but the Yellow Rose of Texas is the only girl for me and the verses also included lines such as, I know that she remembers when we parted long ago, I promised to return and not to leave her so, oh now I’m going to find her for my heart is full of woe, we’ll do the things together we did so long ago, we’ll play the banjo gaily she’ll love me like before, and the Yellow Rose of Texas shall be mine for ever more, the playing of the banjo one of the few lines that remained from the original. The solitary week that The Yellow Rose Of Texas was at no.2, it had to share that position with the second week of Blue Star, both behind The Man From Laramie.

124. 26 November 1955

Four Aces (featuring Al Alberts with chorus & orchestra directed by Jack Pleis)

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing

Written by Sammy Fain & Paul Francis Webster

No.2 for 2 weeks (NME)
No.1 at the time Bill Haley & His Comets – Rock Around The Clock
No.2 for 5 weeks (Record Mirror)

The Four Aces had achieved two number one singles and Love Is A Many Splendored Thing was their first single to peak at no.2 having been number one in the USA. They sang, love is a many splendored thing, it’s the April rose that only grows in the early spring, love is nature’s way of giving a reason to be living, the golden crown that makes a man a king, once on a high and windy hill in the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still, then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing, yes true love’s a many splendored thing. The record started with a heavenly choir that was almost identical to the Four Aces version of Three Coins In The Fountain. One can imagine the vocals coming in with make it make, make it make, make it mine instead. They were backed by Jack Pleis & His orchestra who had recently performed on another no.2 hit, Unchained Melody by Al Hibbler and bother the composers Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster had their second no.2 singles, both previously with different partners, Fain with I’ll Be Seeing You and Webster with Blowing Wild. Love Is A Many Splendored Thing hit no.2 for two weeks on the NME charts but on Record Mirror, it remained in the runner up position for five weeks, all of them behind Rock Around The Clock.

1956