UK Number One Singles in the 50s

The ***UK Singles Chart*** (currently entitled Official Singles Chart) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence.

The OCC website contains the Top 100 chart. Some media outlets only list the Top 40 (such as the BBC) or the Top 75 (such as Music Week magazine) of this list. Around 6,500 British retail outlets contribute sales data, as well as most UK online digital-download stores. Unlike charts in the United States, no airplay statistics are used for the official UK Singles Chart. The chart week runs from 00:01 Friday to midnight Thursday, with most UK physical and digital singles being released on Fridays. From August 3, 1969 until July 5, 2015, the chart week ran from 00:01 Sunday to midnight Saturday.

The Top 40 chart is first issued on Friday afternoons by BBC Radio 1 as The Official Chart from 16:00 to 17:45, before the full Official Singles Chart Top 100 is posted on the Official Charts Company's website. A rival chart show, The Vodafone Big Top 40, is based on downloads and commercial radio airplay and is broadcast on Sunday afternoons from 16:00 to 19:00 on 145 local commercial radio stations across the United Kingdom.

The UK Singles Chart began to be compiled in 1952. According to the Official Charts Company's statistics. The precise number of chart-toppers is debatable due to the profusion of competing charts from the 1950s to the 1980s, but the usual list used is that endorsed by the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles and subsequently adopted by the Official Charts Company. The company regards a selected period of the New Musical Express chart (only from 1952 to 1960) and the Record Retailer chart from 1960 to 1969 as predecessors for the period prior to February 11, 1969, where multiples of competing charts (none official) coexisted side by side. For example, the BBC compiled its own chart based on an average of the music papers of the time; many songs announced as having reached number one on BBC Radio and Top of the Pops prior to 1969 are not listed as chart-toppers according to the legacy criteria of the Charts Company.

The first number one on the UK Singles Chart was "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino for the week ending date November 14, 1952

## UK Number One Singles in the 50s

### Harry Belafonte

Harry Belafonte is one of the most successful African-American pop stars in history and was dubbed the "King of Calypso" for popularising the Caribbean musical style (originating in Trinidad & Tobago) with an international audience in the 1950s. His breakthrough album Calypso (1956) is the first million-selling LP by a single artist. Belafonte is perhaps best known for singing "The Banana Boat Song", with its signature lyric "Day-O". He has recorded in many genres, including blues, folk, gospel, show tunes, and American standards.

#### November 28, 1957: "Mary's Boy Child"

* Seven weeks
* US #12
* Released 1956
* From *An Evening with Belafonte* (1957)
* Listen to "Mary's Boy Child" on Deezer.

### The Crickets

The Crickets were an American rock and roll band, formed by singer-songwriter Buddy Holly in the 1950s. Their first hit record, "That'll Be the Day", released in 1957, was a number-one hit single on both sides of the Atlantic. The Crickets helped set the template for subsequent rock bands, such as the Beatles, with their guitar-bass-drums lineup and the talent to write most of their own material. After Holly's death in 1959 the band continued to tour and record with other band members into the 21st century.

#### November 7, 1957: "That'll Be The Day"

* Three weeks
* US #1 (September 23, 1957)
* Released May 1957
* From *The "Chirping" Crickets* (1957)
* Listen to "That'll Be The day" on Deezer.

### Emile Ford & the Checkmates

***Emile Ford*** (October 16, 1937 - April 11, 2016) was a musician and singer born in Saint Lucia. He was popular in the United Kingdom in the late 1950s and early 1960s as the leader of Emile Ford & the Checkmates (his half-brother, bassist George Sweetnam-Ford, electric lead guitarist Ken Street and drummer John Cuffley), who had a number one hit in late 1959 with "What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?". Ford, like Jimi Hendrix, had synaesthesia, a condition where the person who can associate certain colours, or even see certain colours in relation to the sound they are hearing. He was also a pioneering sound engineer, responsible for creating a backing track system for stage shows, first used in 1960, which provided a basis for what became known as karaoke. While living in Sweden, he further developed a new open-air playback system for stage shows, patented as the Liveoteque Sound Frequency Feedback Injection System.

#### December 18, 1959: "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?"

***"What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?"*** is a song written in 1916 and originally released in 1917 by Ada Jones & Billy Murray. A doo-wop version became a number one hit for Emile Ford and the Checkmates over the Christmas and New Year of 1959/60.

* Six weeks
* Listen to "What Do You Want To Make Those Eyes At Me For?" on Deezer.

### Michael Holliday

***Michael Holliday*** (born Norman Alexander Milne, November 26, 1924; died October 29, 1963) was a British crooner popular in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He had a number of chart hits in the pre-Beatles era in the UK, including two number one singles. He also sang "Four Feather Falls", the theme tune to the puppet-based television programme of the same name produced by Gerry Anderson.

Holliday had an ongoing problem with stage fright, and had a mental breakdown in 1961. He died two years later, from a suspected drug overdose.

#### February 20, 1958: "The Story of My Life"

***"The Story of My Life"*** is a popular song written by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and published in 1957, when it became a hit for US country singer Marty Robbins. Holliday's version was replaced at the top of the UK charts by another Bacharach & David song, "Magic Moments", recorded by Perry Como.

* Two weeks
* Released September, 1958
* Listen to "The Story of My Life" on Spotify.

### Jerry Lee Lewis

***Jerry Lee Lewis*** (born September 29, 1935) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and pianist, often known by his nickname, The Killer. He has been described as "rock & roll's first great wild man."

A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis shot Lewis to fame worldwide in the late 50s. He followed this with "Great Balls of Fire", "Breathless" and "High School Confidential". However, Lewis's rock and roll career faltered in the wake of his marriage to his 13-year-old first cousin once removed in 1958.

Lewis was determined to gain back some of his popularity but, in the early 1960s, he did not have much chart success. His live performances at this time were increasingly wild and energetic. His 1964 live album Live at the Star Club, Hamburg is regarded by music journalists and fans as one of the wildest and greatest live rock albums ever. In 1968 Lewis made a transition into country music and had hits with songs such as "Another Place, Another Time". This reignited his career, and throughout the late 1960s and 1970s he regularly topped the country-western charts.

#### January 16, 1958: "Great Balls of Fire"

    ***"Great Balls of Fire"*** was recorded in the Sun Studio in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 8, 1957, using three personnel: Lewis (piano/vocals), Sidney Stokes (bass), and a session drummer, name unknown, instead of the usual Sun backups Jimmy Van Eaton (drums) and Roland Janes (guitar). The song was featured in a performance by Lewis and his band in the 1957 Warner Brothers rock and roll film Jamboree, which also featured Carl Perkins, Fats Domino, Buddy Knox, and Dick Clark.

* Released December, 1957
* Two weeks
* US #2

### Elvis Presley

***Elvis Presley*** (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977) was an American singer, musician, and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King".

Presley's music career began in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was an early populariser of rockabilly, an uptempo, backbeat-driven fusion of country music and rhythm and blues. Presley later added drummer D.J. Fontana to complete the band's lineup. Presley also added gospel, blues, and pop influences into his rock and roll/rockabilly sound. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, who managed the singer for more than two decades. Presley's first RCA single, "Heartbreak Hotel", was released in 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. After a series of successful network television appearances and chart-topping records, he was regarded as the leading figure of rock and roll. His energised interpretations of songs and sexually provocative performance style, combined with a singularly potent mix of influences across colour lines that coincided with the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, made him enormously popular—and controversial.

In November 1956, Presley made his film debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service. He resumed his recording career two years later, producing some of his most commercially successful work.

#### July 18, 1957: "All Shook Up"

* Seven weeks
* With The Jordanaires
* Released June 21, 1957

#### January 30, 1958: "Jailhouse Rock"

***"Jailhouse Rock"*** is a song

written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that first became a hit for Elvis Presley. The song appeared in Presley's motion picture of the same name, Jailhouse Rock (1957).

Presley's performance of the song in the film, choreographed as a dance routine involving himself and a large group of male prisoners, was featured among other classic MGM musical numbers in the 1994 documentary That's Entertainment! III. The film version differs from the single version of the song, featuring backing instrumentation and vocals not heard on the record.

* Three weeks, Silver
* Released January, 1958
* US #1, 2x Platinum
* From *Jailhouse Rock EP*

#### February 5, 1959: "One Night"/"I Got Stung"

* Three weeks
* Released January, 1959

#### May 21, 1959: "A Fool Such As I"/"I Need Your Love Tonight"

* Five weeks
* With The Jordanaires
* Released April, 1959