33. “CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE” – EDDIE CALVERT

Weeks at number one: 4 (27th May – 24th June 1955) / Length: 2m24s / Label: Columbia Notable for…The previous version of these hit was a Cuban band doing a song written by a Frenchman soundtracking an American film), so here’s Englishman Eddie Calvert to mustard it right up… MELODY & HARMONY ~ 4 : […]

31. “CHERRY PINK AND APPLE BLOSSOM WHITE” – PEREZ “PREZ” PRADO AND HIS ORCHESTRA

Weeks at number one: 2 (29th April – 13th May 1955) / Length:  3m02s / Label: HMV Notable for…being the first (and last?) Cuban number one….aaaaAND for being number one on the date 5/5/55…..if I was a bit more conceptual, and wrote for Pitchfork, I would probably rate it a ‘5’ for everything. But I’m […]

16. “OH MEIN PAPA” – EDDIE CALVERT

Weeks at number one: 9 (8th January – 12th March 1954) / Length: 2m49s / Label: Columbia Notable for… being the first no.1 recorded at Abbey Road…and also being the soundtrack to this adorably self-absorbed video: MELODY & HARMONY ~ 2 : two chords, five notes, zero enjoyment. The way skilled songwriters write such panderingly […]

11. “THE SONG FROM THE MOULIN ROUGE” – MANTOVANI

Weeks at number one: 1 (26th June – 3rd July 1953) / Length: 2m33s / Label: Decca Notable for… being the first instrumental number one MELODY & HARMONY ~ 3 : It’s no more musically interesting than any of the previous songs, and they had words. I’m not saying instrumentals are crap, I can think […]