Blog

An exciting week as we hit November, 1952 – the month the UK launched its official charts. Let’s see how different they sound from the USA.

The songs of November, 1952

A trio of new songs and one version of a previous charting hit on the USA charts this month:

November, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Because You’re Mine” – Mario Lanza
“Blue Violins” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Heart And Soul” – Four Aces
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“I” – Don Cornell
“It’s In The Book” – Johnny Standley
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Keep It A Secret” – Jo Stafford
“Lady Of Spain” – Eddie Fisher
“Lady Of Spain” – Les Paul
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Les Paul
“Outside Of Heaven” – Eddie Fisher
“Takes Two To Tango” – Pearl Bailey
“The Glow-Worm” – Mills Brothers
“Trying” – Hilltoppers
“Why Don’t You Believe Me” – Joni James
“Why Don’t You Believe Me” – Patti Page
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page
“Yours” – Vera Lynn

So yes, as we noted a few weeks back, the UK charts started in November 1952 and here we are. You can see the full chart detail for the w/c 14 November, 1952 here. But we’ve added the novel tunes from the top ten to this week’s playlist:

“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat ‘king’ Cole
“The Isle Of Innisfree” – Bing Crosby
“Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-po)” – Guy Mitchell
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Forget Me Not” – Vera Lynn
“High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)” – Frankie Laine
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Blue Tango” – Ray Martin

For the same week there were only 3 songs crossing over with the USA charts but number of the songs had previously charted in across the Atlantic and its primarily American artists. The “British invasion” is still a decade away..

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

It’s all about the UK Charts kicking off this month, so I’ll leave it to t the Official Charts Company:

The story of the UK’s Official Charts began back in November 1952, when the then publisher of the New Music Express Percy Dickins decided that he needed some method to encourage advertisers to his new music paper. Dickins compiled the very first charts by phoning around to a handful of his retailer friends, totting up the number of copies sold of their biggest sellers to create an aggregated chart.

As you’ll see, if you look at the first chart in full, that method meant there were multiple “equal” places. So the top 10 we used this month actually only gets to 8, because of double-ups on position 7 and 8.

You can read more here. Including a decade by decade story of how they changed.

What’d Sadie think?

In the USA we have the sightly bitter, “I Went To Your Wedding” by Patti Page in the top slot for the first two weeks. A good song but not one we’d elevate to those heights.

Then somehow the stand-up comedy track, “It’s In The Book” by Johnny Standley makes it to number 1 for a week. For us it did not get any funnier on second listening.

Patti Page enters the charts with another version of “Why Don’t You Believe Me” which isn’t bad at all. But Joni James, who had the original charting version, must have been fine with that when her own version made it to number 1 for the last week of November, 1952

It’s a good song yes, but in looking into it, most interestingly it looks like it has been covered at some point by nearly half the artists we’ve encountered on the charts so far this decade Vic Damone, Bing Crosby, Guy Lombardo, Dean Martin, Margaret Whiting… check it out.

As mentioned back in the May issue when it hit the USA charts, the first UK number one was “Here In My Heart” by Al Martino so here it is in our charts this week, still a good son.

“Somewhere Along The Way” by Nat King Cole, “Sugarbush” by Doris Day And Frankie Laine and “Blue Tango” by Ray Martin in the UK charts all also previously charted in the USA.

Leaving “The Isle Of Innisfree” by Bing Crosby, “Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-po)” by Guy Mitchell and “Forget Me Not” by Vera Lynn as the only songs we’ve not encountered. I didn’t bother to look (read: it’d take a bit of digging) to see if the Bing and Guy songs charted below the top 20 in the USA which seems likely. Vera Lynn is of course British so this is the sole novel contribution by the Brits to their own charts.

Though in fairness “The Isle Of Innisfree” was composed by Irish songwriter Dick Farrelly in 1950 and it was Bing who made it famous after it was on the sound track of the John Wayne film, “The Quiet Man”. A familiar and decent tune. Here’s the film trailer:

“Feet Up (Pat Him on the Po-Po)” is also a nice, but slightly oddly named and themed song. To quote the wiki:

The narrator of the song is a former lowlife who is reforming so he can set a good example for his newborn son, whom he loves. The title refers to the tradition of spanking a newborn baby just after birth, to ensure it draws breath.

This is probably a good time to begin teasing Sadie about how she was a breach birth and came out bruised purple bum first. 😉 Love you Sadie!

We’ll give song of the month though to Vera Lynn for “Forget Me Not” because its a great song and a welcome to the chart world for Great Britain!

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

We’re on the homeward stretch of 1952 which means our 3rd year of time travel is coming to an end. Let’s see what its sounding like.

The songs of October, 1952

A few nice new tracks on the charts this month:

October 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Because You’re Mine” – Mario Lanza
“Because You’re Mine” – Nat King Cole
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Heart And Soul” – Four Aces
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“High Noon” – Tex Ritter
“Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me” – Karen Chandler
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“I” – Don Cornell
“Indian Love Call” – Slim Whitman
“It’s In The Book” – Johnny Standley
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Lady Of Spain” – Eddie Fisher
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Harry Grove Trio
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Les Paul
“Outside Of Heaven” – Eddie Fisher
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Takes Two To Tango” – Pearl Bailey
“The Glow-Worm” – Mills Brothers
“Trying” – Hilltoppers
“Why Don’t You Believe Me” – Joni James
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Dean Martin
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page
“Yours” – Vera Lynn

But we’ll also drop in a top 10 from the R&B charts for the month:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

This month in 1952 Agatha Christie’s play “The Mousetrap” opened in London, which until Covid was still running nearly 70 years later, the longest running play of all time having had more than 28,000 performances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPqpa3eCO-o

And in another, more low-brow, first on the 18th of October, 1952 the first issue of “Mad Magazine” was released.

And finally, Charlie Chaplin’s classic, Limelight was released – though it was heavily boycotted in the United States (due to suspicions Chaplin had communist associations) and failed commercially. Only for it to be re-released in the United States in 1972, which included its first screening in Los Angeles and allowed it to be entered into the 45th Academy Awards where Chaplin won his only competitive Oscar.

What’d Sadie think?

Jo Stafford’s “You Belong To Me” continued its number 1 one run from last month with another two weeks at the top before ceding it to Patti Page’s “I Went To Your Wedding”. Which must have been sweet for Ms. Page, as her own version of “You Belong To Me” never properly cracked the top 10 let alone the top spot.

We liked Mario Lanza’s version last month, but Nat King Cole’s “Because You’re Mine” is even better. Which we seem to be saying a lot about his version of chart hits lately.

Speaking of better, Rosemary Clooney’s “Half As Much” is sounding better every week is sticks around and we really rate it now. It’s one of those songs that sounds like it could be from a film and I look it up hoping to discover something to watch but it was not to be this time.

“It’s in the Book” by Johnny Standley turned out to be a comedy monologue in the manner of a revivalist preacher on the subject of Little Bo-Peep… and I thought pop today was random! Random but not that funny in this case.

“Takes Two To Tango” by Pearl Bailey is our favourite new song on the pop charts this month. Funny and sweet in equal measure.

Joni James’, “Why Don’t You Believe Me” is equally saccharine but if you’re in the mood its another lovely new tune.

Meanwhile on the R&B charts, My Song was the debut release by Johnny Ace and is a cracking song with a great sax solo.

Also great is “Juke”, a harmonica instrumental by Little Walter Jacobs which was released on 1952 but today is considered a blues standard.

“Goodbye Baby” by Little Caesar is an interesting duet but I don’t think its take on domestic violence is exactly necessary. Little Caesar is a pseudonym of Harry Caesar who a few years later would move from music to movies and was best known for his roles in The Longest Yard (1974) and A Few Good Men (1992).

The chart closes out with Lloyd Price’s” Restless Heart” and “Rock me all night long” by The Ravens which are both excellent.

Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

Winter is approaching in September 1952 as summer feels tantalisingly close back here in 2021.

The songs of September, 1952

A nice grab bag of new tunes hit the charts this month. And for the first time it occurred to me it might be useful to indicate in the playlist which those are, so they are bolded below from now on:

September, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Because You’re Mine” – Mario Lanza
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“High Noon” – Tex Ritter
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“Indian Love Call” – Slim Whitman
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Harry Grove Trio
“Meet Mister Callaghan” – Les Paul
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“The Glow-Worm” – Mills Brothers
“Trying” – Hilltoppers
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Walkin’ To Missouri” – Sammy Kaye / Tony Russo / Glee Club
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Dean Martin
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page
“You’ll Never Get Away” – Teresa Brewer / Don Cornell

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

This month saw the premier of the “Adventures of Superman” on TV in the USA. With the classic “faster than a speeding bullet…” intro you can watch an episode with the man of steel himself below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZ9KrNGnF6s

It was also the 13th Venice International Film Festival this month. Best Production Design went to the adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s, The Importance of Being Earnest which by all account is great and available to watch in full on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r6Vw4da6J8

A favourite play of mine so I’ll be sure to watch it soon as I’ve not before.

The Best Film gong went to French war film, Forbidden Games which you can watch the trailer for below:

What’d Sadie think?

Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” eked out one more week at number 1 before being usurped by Jo Stafford’s “You Belong To Me” for the rest of September.

Mario Lanza’s new song on the charts, “Because You’re Mine” is a belting number as his so often are. The intro swell reminds me of the start of a 40’s movie for some reason, probably priming from thinking of movies in the history section though.

There’s quite a few instrumental numbers in the charts this month. Leroy Anderson’s “Blue Tango” is a nice piece that’s grown on us. He was described by some as, “one of the great American masters of light orchestral music.”

Which reminds me to recommend Primephonic to any classical lovers reading – its like Spotify but with a classical catalogue and interface that allows you to easily navigate by composer, work and performances.

“Meet Mister Callaghan” by the Harry Grove Trio also has a Les Paul version, but we went with their version because Mr Paul has enough airtime as it is. I can’t actually find anything about the Harry Grove Trio, but Sadie auditioned to make it a quartet as she sung along to the nice instrumental.

Never fear fans, Les Paul still features with, “Take Me In Your Arms And Hold Me” which is a new tune by him and Mary Ford and is one of our favourite songs by the pairing.

Tex Ritter’s version of “High Noon” that makes it to the charts this month trumps Frankie Lane’s version – its just even more cowboy – yeehaw!

Likewise fun is “The Glow-Worm” by the Mills Brothers. But not as catchy as Sammy Kaye’s “Walkin’ To Missouri” which is one of our favourite newbies of the month.

Also much liked is Dean Martin’s “You Belong To Me”, which benefits from Jo Stafford and Patti Page’s versions having warmed us up for it in previous months. Martin’s version is the best of the three though sorry Ms. Stafford and Page.

We end, fittingly, on our song of the month with the return of young Teresa Brewer doing a fast and fun duet, “You’ll Never Get Away”, with Don Cornell.

Rose, I love you, but don’t count your chickens.
Come dance with me.
I warn you that I’m no Boy Scout.
Relax awhile, come dance with me.
So don’t think that I’m easy pickin’.
The music’s so nice.
Rose, ’cause I just may some day pick up and pack out.
Oh, no you won’t. No, not a chance.
No arguments, shut up and dance.

“You’ll Never Get Away” – Teresa Brewer / Don Cornell

So, shut up and dance! or at least listen to this week’s full playlist on Youtube via this link.

It’s a busy weekend here in 2021 London so we’ll keep it snappy in this week’s dive back to August, 1952.

The songs of August, 1952

A few new tunes hit the charts this month which might raise an eyebrow back in 2021, but let’s have a look at the list before we get into that:

August, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Eddy Howard
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“I Went To Your Wedding” – Patti Page
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Indian Love Call” – Slim Whitman
“Jambalaya” – Jo Stafford
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Rock Of Gibraltar” – Frankie Laine
“Should I” – Four Aces
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher
“You Belong To Me” – Jo Stafford
“You Belong To Me” – Patti Page

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

As I’m saving my words this month, you might find the time to read an excellent article from the August, 1952 issue of The Atlantic – News and the Whole Truth.

Too much of our news is one-dimensional, when truth has three dimensions (or maybe more); we still have inadequate defenses against men who try to load the news with propaganda

Definitely a case of “there’s nothing new under the sun” here as the author explores the commercial and political influences on the role of journalists. It’s written in the era of McCarthyism which makes for an interesting historical comparison to more recent presidencies.

But this is only one of McCarthy’s many self-contradictions; who can keep track of them all? I have a stack of his speeches two feet thick on my office shelf; but when he says something that stirs a vague recollection that he once said something very different, I seldom have time to run through his speeches.

What’d Sadie think?

Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” continues its run at the top, staying number 1 for all of August. Still not particularly sold on it but clearly the USA was in 1952.

Sadie was particularly into the music this week. She started dancing along on the sofa to “High Noon” by Frankie Laine. She’s definitely heard a lot of Frankie by now and like me has acquired a taste for his tunes.

She kept it up when a new Patti Page song dropped next, the excellent “I Went To Your Wedding”.

“Indian Love Call” by Slim Whitman is a tad problematic but has an interesting history when you dig into it. Originally a popular song from “Rose-Marie”, a 1924 operetta-style Broadway musical by Oscar Hammerstein that was the longest running that decade. It was turned into a number of films in the subsequent decades with various cover versions of “Indian Love Call” , which was key to the plot.

Slim Whitman’s version crossed over from the country charts to the pop charts in 1952 and grew him a mainstream audience as a result.

Speaking of cross overs, “Jambalaya” was originally a Hank Williams song that Jo Stafford brings to the pop charts. It’s pretty catchy but obviously a tad appropriative – the tune and title being based on a Cajun song “Grand Texas”.

“Wish You Were Here” by Eddie Fisher has definitely grown on us. But it’s Nat King Cole’s “Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” that has wormed its way into our ears this weeken

Check it out along with the rest of the hits of August, 1952 via this link.

It’s a lovely sunny spring Easter weekend here in London 2021 as we reach the midpoint of July, 1952 in our journey through time.

The songs of July, 1952

As it happens, the previous month’s popular songs start to multiply and we have a number of versions of “Kiss of Fire” and “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” hitting the charts:

July, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Eddy Howard
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Carioca” – Les Paul
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“Here In My Heart” – Tony Bennett
“High Noon” – Frankie Laine
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Jane Froman
“I’m Yours” – Don Cornell
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Kiss Of Fire” – Billy Eckstine
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Smoke Rings” – Les Paul & Mary Ford
“Somewhere Along The Way” – Nat King Cole
“Sugarbush” – Doris Day And Frankie Laine
“Take My Heart” – Al Martino
“Vanessa” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Nat King Cole
“Wish You Were Here” – Eddie Fisher

so we’ll supplement the pop charts with a top 10 country & western chart from the month:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

Shortly before midnight on Saturday, July 19, 1952, air-traffic controller Edward Nugent at Washington National Airport spotted seven slow-moving objects on his radar screen far from any known civilian or military flight paths. He called over his supervisor and joked about a “fleet of flying saucers.”

And so began a flurry of sightings and interest in UFOs in July, 1952. You can read more at the History channel or see a film about it below:

What’d Sadie think?

As alluded to last week, Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” makes it to number 1 for three weeks this month, with Percy Faith’s “Delicado” peaking for the other.

Tony Bennett enters the charts with the second version of “Here In My Heart” to hit the top twenty. Turns out ’52 was early in Bennett’s career and I’m quite the fan of his version.

Not a lot else new in the pop charts but a nice duet, “Sugarbush”, by Doris Day And Frankie Laine is well worth a listen.

A bunch of great, new to us, songs on the Country chart. Though we have to acknowledge the lack of diversity, I mean really….Hank Thompson, Williams and Snow is a lot of Hank for one chart.

Our Hank of the week goes to Hank Thompson though. “Wild side of life” and “Waiting in the lobby of your heart” are both excellent tunes.

The idea of Honky Tonk “Angels” seem to be a theme in the charts currently. “Wild side of life” sings about them and “It wasn’t God who made…” by Kitty Wells has them right up there in the title.

The latter is great too and notable in the playlist for its video. I don’t normally pay much attention to the videos associated with the playlist songs as they’re typically static images or lyrics, but this video is of someone filming the record playing which just struck me as odd and interesting enough not search out a better quality audio version.

“Full time job” by Eddy Arnold is another great tune, which is just one of the 147 he apparently had on the charts over his long and very productive life.

Finally, Hank Snow’s “Married by the Bible, Divorced by the Law” closes out this week’s playlist and a great tune to end on it is. Now go listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link.

Daylight savings has arrived here in London in 2020 and we’re looking forward to our lockdown being loosened in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, we’re up to June 1952 in our adventure through time…

The songs of June, 1952

A few new songs on the USA pop charts this month:

June, 1952 Top 20 Hits

“A Guy Is A Guy” – Doris Day
“Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart” – Vera Lynn
“Be Anything” – Eddy Howard
“Blacksmith Blues” – Ella Mae Morse
“Blue Tango” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Blue Tango” – Leroy Anderson
“Botch-A-Me” – Rosemary Clooney
“Carioca” – Les Paul
“Delicado” – Percy Faith
“Forgive Me” – Eddie Fisher
“Half As Much” – Rosemary Clooney
“Here In My Heart” – Al Martino
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Don Cornell
“I’ll Walk Alone” – Jane Froman
“I’m Yours” – Don Cornell
“I’m Yours” – Eddie Fisher
“Kiss Of Fire” – Georgia Gibbs
“Kiss Of Fire” – Tony Martin
“Lover” – Peggy Lee
“Maybe” – Perry Como / Eddie Fisher
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Guy Mitchell
“Pittsburgh Pennsylvania” – Hugo Winterhalter
“Walkin’ My Baby Back Home” – Johnnie Ray
“Wheel Of Fortune” – Kay Starr

But we’ll throw in a R&B chart to supplement:

You can listen to the full playlist on Youtube via this link or embedded below:

This month in history

June 1952 saw the inaugural Miss Universe competition launch in Long Beach, California. Which is the perfect time for me to finally figure out which came first…the World or the Universe.

It turns out that Miss World started in the UK the year before in 1951. So Miss Universe was predictable American oneupmanship, naming wise. But it was also started as a marketing stunt by a California clothing company, Pacific Knitting Mills, after the winner of Miss America refused to wear one of its swimsuits. (Exactly why is unclear and is interesting given Miss America started in 1921 as a “bathing beauty revue”…)

The first event happened the day after the first Miss USA competition at the same venue. 30 contestants from around the world competed, including Miss USA crowned the previous day, but ultimately 17-year-old Armi Kuusela of Finland was triumphant.

My favourite fact: Kuusela was the first, and only, Miss Universe to be crowned with the Romanov Imperial Nuptial Crown – previously owned by Russian monarchy.

You can see some of the event below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4d34kz4ekg

And you can see Armi 60 years later in an interview at another Miss Universe event:

By all accounts she has lived an interesting life since winning. Meanwhile, of course, the attitude to “Beauty” contests has changed somewhat. Sadly it had to get worse before it got better of course, like the period when former President Trump (yes, that still happened) owned the Miss Universe contest for some time in the ’80s:

You know, no men are anywhere. And I’m allowed to go in because I’m the owner of the pageant. And therefore I’m inspecting it… Is everyone OK? You know, they’re standing there with no clothes. And you see these incredible-looking women. And so I sort of get away with things like that…

– The man who was President of the USA in the late 2010s, seriously.

Makes you long for the wholesome ’50s doesn’t it, so let’s get to the music.

What’d Sadie think?

Al Martino’s “Here in my Heart” was number 1 for 3 of the 4 weeks of June, giving it up to “Blue Tango” for the other.

New to the charts is Vera Lynn’s “Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart”. Clearly the war was long enough ago for a German named song to hit the right notes. It was originally composed by German Eberhard Storch around 1950 who wrote it for his wife Maria while he was in the hospital for some time. Cheery!

The English language lyrics were written by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons who were commissioned by Lynn after she heard the original sung in Beer Halls in Switzerland.

Her version, which featured accompaniment by Soldiers and Airmen of HM Forces and the Johnny Johnston Singers, was the first song recorded by a non-American artist to make number one on the U.S. Billboard charts. (Spoiler alert, this happens next month.)

In reaching number-one, it would be almost six years before another British artist would top of the U.S. pop charts.

It’s an alright song, but we prefer the other new entry, Rosemary Clooney’s “Botch-a-me” which you can see her singing below back in ’52:

If, like us, you’re wondering what the “Botching” in “Botch-a-Me” is – apparently the song is from an Italian original, “Ba-Ba-Baciami Piccina”. Baciami in Italian means “kiss me”. Ah huh!

Song of the month for us is Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”. At the time Price was working for New Orleans radio station WBOK provided jingles for various products, including those hawked by DJ James “Okey Dokey” Smith. One of Smith’s catch phrases was “Lawdy Miss Clawdy”, which he used in ad slogans such as “Lawdy Miss Clawdy, eat Mother’s Homemade Pies and drink Maxwell House coffee!”. Price’s accompanying tune proved popular with the radio audience and he developed it into a full-length song. And a great song it is.

Our other fave is ” Moody’s Mood for Love” whose melody is derived from an improvised solo by jazz saxophonist James Moody on a 1949 recording of the 1935 song “I’m in the Mood for Love”. It’s by the awesomely named “King Pleasure” who was a jazz vocalist and an early master of vocalese (where a singer sings words to a famous instrumental solo.)

You can hear the 1949 inspiration below…

…before listening to the full month’s playlist on Youtube via this link.