Number of weeks? 9
What else was going on? Marilyn Monroe marries Joe DiMaggio, the USS Nautilus becomes the world's first nuclear powered submarine, the first mass vaccination against Polio takes place in Pittsburgh.
Taking over from Answer Me, another German song topped the charts in the early months of 1954. Oh Mein Papa was recorded in the US by Eddie Fisher, and at roughly the same time, Fisher's version made an appearance in the UK Top Twenty having secured a number 1 on the US billboard chart. Calvert's version, however, shows off his skills as a trumpet player and thus his version foregrounds the instrument over the choir's vocals.
For the life of me, I can't understand why this was such a commercially successful song. Calvert had built up considerable acclaim earlier in the 1950s after appearing on television with the Stanley Black Orchestra and being named "The Man With The Golden Trumpet". I can only believe that it was this personal popularity which propelled the song to the top spot for so long. Fisher's trumpet playing sounds good (to my untrained ears, anyway), but the wurlitzer-like organ in the background and that droning vocal just make the whole thing sound like a messy cacophony. I prefer Eddie Fisher's version of the track if I'm honest, but it's a little like the number 1 that preceded it: neither songs are particularly improved with another version.
Despite my distaste for the track, it once again has some historic significance. Not only is it another example of an instrumentalist being successful in the early days of the singles chart, this was also the first number 1 single to be recorded at Abbey Road studios. In the decades to come, a fair few more of those are going to be featured here.
What happened next? We'll have to wait another year before we encounter another Eddie Calvert number 1. In between these two hits, however, Calvert didn't release another single. Lazy.
Yes, he did. I suspect you're making the error I once made - if there was no hit listed in the chart books, it means no single. Not so. It wasn't until the dawn of The Beatles that every single by an artist was an event and had to chart. They released far more singles in the 50s, so it was inevitable most wouldn't chart.
ReplyDeleteFYI, these were his single releases at the time
DB 3337 Sep 53 'Oh mein papa / Mystery street'
DB 3409 Jan 54 'Montparnasse / Tenderly'
DB 3444 Mar 54 'Midnight / Margot`s theme'
DB 3462 May 54 'Donna / Faraway'
DB 3491 Jly 54 'Careless / I speak to the stars'
DB 3507 Sep 54 'My son, my son / Sherpa song'
DB 3560 Jan 55 'Open your heart / Waiting for you'
DB 3581 Mar 55 'Cherry pink and apple blossom white / Roses of Picardy'