Number of weeks? 8
What else was going on? Hugh Hefner publishes the first issue of Playboy, the very first colour TV sets go on sale, Tangiwai rail disaster in New Zealand claims the lives of 151 people
David Whitfield's version of this song nearly killed this blog, I have to be honest. But after a year off, I come back with refreshed ears ready to tackle Frankie Laine's version of Answer Me. Right off the bat the one thing that strikes me is how much I prefer Laine's vocal. His tone is so warm compared to Whitfield's rendition which left me extremely cold. It's not hard to see why the UK was chomping at the bit to buy Frankie's records during this year.
Even Laine's probably more technically flawed but endearing vocal, however, can't bring me around to liking this song. The lyrics are still maudlin, and whilst the crescendo at the end of the track lifts things a bit, I still find this one extremely heavy going. The record buying public, however, clearly disagreed with me vociferously. I do wonder what people were actually digging in their pockets for though. Was it this song (the fact that it propelled Whitfield's version to the top twice might suggest so)? Or was it continued support for the Frankie Laine juggernaut which had so dominated this first full year of the singles chart? Either way, for better or worse, Answer Me is the second official UK Christmas Number 1 in chart history. I'm just glad I won't have to sit through any more versions in the course of this journey!
What happened next? It will be another three years of number 1s before we encounter Frankie again. Between the beginning of 1954 and 1956 he was far from quiet on the charts, knocking up a total of 13 charting singles in that time.
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