14/11/2012 2:57 pm  #1


Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

It took the UK sometime to catch up with the US., but on 14th November 1952 the official UK Singles Chart was launched.

A report here http://www.contactmusic.com/news/the-official-uk-singles-charts-celebrate-their-60th-anniversary-today_3372600

Though that was already some way past the very peaks of Bing's successes he still managed to appear at number 4 with ''The Isle Of Innisfree'' - not one of the hits instantly called to mind.
(The real runaway success in the chart was Vera Lynn at equal 7, 9 and 10).

Fifteen titles with several finding equal places at numbers 7, 8 and 11.

1. Here In My Heart - Al Martino
2. You Belong To Me - Jo Stafford
3. Somewhere Along The Way - Nat King Cole
4. The Isle Of Innisfree - Bing Crosby
5. Feet Up (Pat Him On The Po-Po) - Guy Mitchell
6. Half As Much - Rosemary Clooney
7= High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me) - Frankie Laine
7= Forget Me Not - Vera Lynn
8= Sugarbush - Doris Day And Frankie Laine
8= Blue Tango - Ray Martin
9. The Homing Waltz - Vera Lynn
10. Auf Wiedersehn Sweetheart - Vera Lynn
11= Cowpuncher's Cantata - Max Bygraves
11= Because You're Mine - Mario Lanza
12. Walkin' My Baby Back Home - Johnnie Ray 

As a personal view I would note that I have and like nearly all of those titles, which would be very far from true in later years. But I can't even remember what ''Cowpuncher's Cantata'' might sound like, and I know Bing never sang it! (As an aside, the music of ''The Homing Waltz'' is the same as ''The Streets of Laredo''.  Not the same as ''The Homecoming Waltz'' also sung by Vera).

 

14/11/2012 5:35 pm  #2


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Richard, How very interesting to find out what the UK pop chart was on the day I turned 10 months old!

 

15/11/2012 9:53 am  #3


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Steve Fay wrote:

Richard, How very interesting to find out what the UK pop chart was on the day I turned 10 months old!

By which time, Steve, I had become very interested in popular music (to my parent's disgust), and had long had an awareness of Bing's songs, though I have to admit that my main interest at the time was inclined to ''country and western''.  It was another three years before I bought any records by Bing.

     Thread Starter
 

15/11/2012 12:39 pm  #4


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Herewith Max Bygraves singing "Cowpuncher's Cantata"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxsQLVf8BgU

I simply can't imagine why Bing never recorded it..!!

 

15/11/2012 3:07 pm  #5


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

jeremyrose wrote:

I simply can't imagine why Bing never recorded it..!!

It parodies almost every ''western'' themed hit song up to that time with side references to ''Shrimpboats'' and ''Sunny Boy''. Ideal material for one of Bing's radio show parody medleys, perhaps with Frankie Laine as the guest. But I don't remember it at all.

     Thread Starter
 

28/6/2017 12:21 am  #6


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

jeremyrose wrote:

Herewith Max Bygraves singing "Cowpuncher's Cantata"...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxsQLVf8BgU

I simply can't imagine why Bing never recorded it..!!

It's a parody, but the label lists it as a medley (of which Bing performed two numbers): Cry Of The Wild Goose, Riders In The Sky (performed on Bing's radio show), Mule Train (performed on radio and recorded commercially by Bing), Jezebel. All Frankie Laine hits of course.

He also sang several other songs from that chart on the radio:

You Belong To Me
Feet Up
Because You're Mine - not sure why Copeman is credited as the songwriter, the 1952 song was by Nicholas Brodszky and Sammy Cahn
Walkin' My Baby Back Home

I note the following in the Bing discography:
Auf Wiederseh'n (Mischa Spoliansky) 
9 October 1952 Radio  
23 October 1952 Radio

Is this definitely the Mischa Spoliansky tune, which was first published in 1930? I note there are no timings, so perhaps the broadcasts don't exist to check. But I suspect it may be the 1952 Vera Lynn hit, given Bing was performing current songs on his shows, and the song had been a #1 hit for Vera on the Billboard chart from July to September of that year. John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons wrote English lyrics to the 1950 German tune by Eberhard Storch.

I collected the tracks from this chart about 10-15 years ago and the Bing one was quite hard to track down here at the time, although it turned out to be on the Spectrum Best of the Early 50's CD. This was before digital downloads became readily available. The Irish Collection may not have been easy to get either.

Last edited by Brunswick78 (28/6/2017 11:00 am)

 

28/6/2017 5:32 am  #7


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Auf Wiederseh'n by Bing is indeed the Vera Lynn song and in fact Bing mentions Vera in his introduction.

 

28/6/2017 7:54 am  #8


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Thanks for conforming that. It makes more sense than it being the Mischa Spoliansky song!

 

29/6/2017 1:29 pm  #9


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Brunswick78 wrote:

Thanks for conforming that. It makes more sense than it being the Mischa Spoliansky song!

Spoliansky wrote the music for a film with that title in 1930 and I suspect that the identity was incorrectly linked through another database that I have, onto the Crosby discography. I'll tell David Currington who now maintains the discography.   

There was another song "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear" sung by Bing on radio in the 1930s (recordings of which do not appear to have survived) which I suppose might possibly be connected to Spoliansky. Just to complicate matters, the two songs are listed together, as one, by Timothy Morgereth in his " Discography, Radio Program List and Filmography".


 

     Thread Starter
 

29/6/2017 2:14 pm  #10


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Bing performed "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear" on the "Cremo Singer" shows of 20th January and 19th February 1932, but as Richard says, no recording has survived. There is, however, a lovely performance of it in the last of the six Mack Sennet shorts, "Blue of the Night", from the same year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJ-FPKukFA&list=RDorJ-FPKukFA
 

Last edited by jeremyrose (29/6/2017 2:15 pm)

 

29/6/2017 2:21 pm  #11


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

...and another performance here after a skit with Burns and Allen in a "Hollywood on Parade" short from the same year..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmOg5Gp_BfU

 

29/6/2017 3:55 pm  #12


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

I have "Auf Wiedersehen, My Dear" on a 12" LP along with other songs from his shorts. The cover is yellow with blue printing..

 

21/7/2017 6:49 am  #13


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

I understand that Bing charted in England with "Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree", I guess in 1973. I presume that would have been his last chart record anywhere in the world. Does anyone know what the highest position on the charts that recording hit?

 

21/7/2017 11:23 am  #14


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Jim,

You can see Bing's placings in the Official UK charts by following this link
I too thought that Tie A Yellow Ribbon charted but I can find no reference. 
There are separate figures for duets - with Grace Kelly here, Jane Wyman here, and David Bowie here

     Thread Starter
 

22/7/2017 5:15 am  #15


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Thanks, Richard
It is interesting that "True Love" would rechart in 1983, and in December when Christmas songs are in vogue. I see that Bing charted with "That's What Life is All about", which did not hit the Pop charts in the USA. But, Bing did chart with that record in the USA on the Adult/Contemporary charts up to the number 35 position and charted for 7 weeks.

 

23/7/2017 1:48 am  #16


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

It appears that Tie a Yellow Ribbon (which I didn't even know he'd recorded) made #7 on the "Breakers" chart, a bit like Billboard's Bubbling Under.
http://www.45cat.com/record/das402

Also see my recent topic on Do You Hear What I Hear for a record that isn't listed as a hit by the OCC but did chart.

 

16/8/2017 5:37 am  #17


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Jim, The Australian Chart Book (1970-1992) lists Bing's single 'That's what life is all about' charting for one week at number 99 in February 1976.

 

18/8/2017 4:12 am  #18


Re: Official UK Singles Charts Celebrates 60 Years

Thanks, Graham,

That means we have 3 continents covered so far. I think we can forget Antartica, and South America only has one small English speaking country. Can we hear from Africa and Asia?

 

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