Number of Weeks? 4
What else was going on? Nikita Khrushchev becomes first secretary of the Communist Party after Stalin's death, 1953 Western Turkey Earthquake, Jonas Salk announces Polio vaccine
Download She Wears Red Feathers
from amazon.com
from amazon.com
Well... this is a strange one. A song which tells the story of an English banker falling in love and marrying a hula girl. It certainly qualifies as one of the more unique number ones (and not only of these first 6!). To this extent, we probably have here the first "novelty" hit to get to the top spot. Mitchell was no stranger to the chart before his first number 1, as he had already scored a number 2 hit in these fledgling chart days with Feet Up (at the end of the Youtube video).
The song is... well... I found it pretty awful sadly. For a start, the lyrics are at best anachronistic but at worst uncomfortable in these modern times. The song itself is fairly bouncy and trundles along quite well, and once again, Guy's voice is very strong and has a nice tone to it. Sadly, the whole package fails to come together, and when compared to what it knocked off the number one spot, it falls fairly flat for these ears. But having said that, if it's one thing that a lot of these songwriters were able to do is create a catchy hook. The chorus is surprisingly addictive, even if it's perhaps not up to much musically.
What happened next? We'll see Guy a few more times on this journey, as he would go on to top the charts three more times (once with a song which simply hung on and clawed its way to the top spot with alarming fervour). In contrast to Perry Como, however, Guy's charting career will be contained entirely within the 1950s.
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