Number of Weeks? 9
What else was going on? "The Mousetrap" begins the longest run ever on the West End, The Great Smog Of London
from amazon.comThe UK's first official number 1 was born when the advertising editor of the New Musical Express called around 20 record major record stores and averaged their sales figures to create an inaugural Top 12 (the first chart actually contained 15 records due to ties, which were a not infrequent feature of the early singles charts). What started out as a gimmick to boost circulation, eventually morphed into a top 20, then 30, then 50, and then finally the top 75 which is compiled by the Official Charts Company today. Prior to the NME's survey, charts were compiled on the basis of the sales of a song's sheet music. The singles chart, therefore, was the first real move towards an appreciation of the sale of physical (and later digital) units.
Topping this very first chart is Al Martino with "Here In My heart". This was the first of over a thousand songs to be considered the UK Number 1 over the ensuing 50+ years. We'll also never know just how many weeks Here In My Heart was the biggest selling single in the UK. The sheet music charts indicate that Al was number 1 in that medium for 8 weeks, but sadly, until the NME chart came along, we just don't have any data about the actual physical single sales. It's perhaps, therefore, an accident of history that Number 1 #667 is the longest-reigning chart-topping single in the history of the charts.
So what is this historic single actually like, then? Well from the outset it's a bold and brassy number, kicking off with a powerful vocal declaring (somewhat tautologously) "here in my heart, I am alone and so lonely". The first ever chart-topping love song is underpinned by not-entirely subtle orchestration and with a vocal which remains strong throughout, modulating nicely as the verses progress. Martino's voice never loses its boisterousness but managed to convey a tenderness and vulnerability in the song's quieter sections. In this author's (utterly unknowledgable) opinion there's something very old about this song, sounding like something which could have quite comfortably come out of the music halls of any preceding decades.
I can't help feeling that this song will be remembered simply for the very fact that it was the first UK Number 1. It's very of its time and I think a modern listener will find it difficult to connect to a ballad which is presented in this way. It does remain, however, a very touching and well-performed love song and given the sheer prevalence of the theme matter across the next half-century of number 1s, it's perhaps a highly appropriate song to kick this journey off.
What happened next? This marks Al's only trip to the top of the pops. In fact, he had two tracks on this inaugural chart with "Take My Heart" reaching number 9 in this same month. Al would enjoy 4 more top 10 hits through the rest of his career (including his version of "Spanish Eyes" which reached number 5 in July 1973). Here In My Heart, remains, however, his most successful single and therefore this is the last we'll see of Al on this journey. Al didn't just occupy an important place in music history, though. He also played the singer Johnny Fontaine in The Godfather.
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