Picture the scene. It’s November 1952. It’s cold. Smoggy. A real pea-souper. You’ve just popped down to Smiths and bought a copy of New Musical Express, the hot music magazine that’s been hitting newsstands these past few months.
What’s this? A chart? Of the top selling singles in the country? There’s Nat King Cole, and Rosemary Clooney. Bing Crosby’s at number four. Vera Lynn has three songs in the top ten! (And people say the charts these days are dominated by a few big names…)
You think it’d be a cracking idea to pass by the record store on your way home and pick up the number one record on this chart, which you’ve never heard before, but by golly you’ll have to watch your step. How you wish they’d hurry up and sort out all the piles of rubble in the street, it’s been seven blinking years since VE day!
Back home, you pull the record from it’s sleeve. ‘Here in my Heart’, by Al Martino. Some new crooner from the States. His first disc, apparently. The needle crackles and pops.
Here in My Heart, by Al Martino (his 1st and only #1)
9 weeks, from 14th November 1952 to 16th January 1953
Al Martino had no idea, I presume, that his debut single was going to be the first ever UK Number One. I assume that the NME hadn’t been advertising it for weeks: 12 records wanted for the first ever record retailers chart! Can you be the Top-Seller!? Can anyone stop Vera Lynn??
But ‘Here in my Heart’ is the perfect song to have topped the first ever chart. From the minute the intro kicks in, it’s clear that this is a song not ready to settle for second place. A ten second crescendo peaks with Al belting out the title… Here in his heart, he’s lonely…
It’s old-fashioned, sure, but that doesn’t make it unlistenable. The strings (or, rather, the full-blown orchestra) aren’t that far removed from an Adele or a Sam Smith record. The strangest thing about it is actually Martino’s voice. He enunciates every syllable in a way that you just don’t hear anymore, outside musical theatre. Surely, you know, I need your love, so badly… And the way in which, at the start of the song at least, he delivers the second half of each line in a much subtler way, compared to the bombastic first halves, is quite effective. I can imagine my Gran (God rest her) praising the record as one in which you can actually make out the words. Unlike any record released post 1967. Incidentally, my Gran would have been nineteen when this record hit number one. We are talking here about a seriously long time ago.
Looking at pictures of Al Martino in the 1950s, he looks like a standard Italian-American, rat-pack crooner. Louche, grinning, eyes that suggest he’s done a bit of living… But whereas Sinatra, Davis, et al delivered their lines with the minimum of fuss, Martino is going for it here. Nothing is left on the bench. If he belted out the closing line – Please be mine, and stay here… in… my…………… heart ‘neath his lover’s window, she would have no choice but to shout ‘Oh yes, Al. Yes!’
I’d never really heard of Al Martino, beyond it being the name of the guy who had the first ever UK Number One. But, to give him his due, ‘Here in My Heart’ still holds record for the joint-seventh longest stay at the top of the UK charts. Plus, he starred in both The Godfather and The Godfather Part III (singing the theme for the former), and had a huge hit in the mid-70s with ‘Spanish Eyes’ – one of those songs that you think you’ve never heard until you hear it. And one which holds a special place in my heart as the second ever song I mastered on the keyboard (and by ‘mastered’, I mean I made it sound vaguely recognisable), aged eleven. The first ever song I mastered was Rock Around the Clock, the guitars and drums of which sound a world away from this, the first ever UK chart topper.
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What a voice! He was a superb crooner no doubt.
I wouldn’t choose to listen to it very often, but he sings as if he knew it would be the first ever number one single. Absolutely belts it out!
Yes I totally agree! It boomed out as I was listening to it.
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This blog is fantastic!
I’ve recently decided to take on the same challenge of listening to every UK number one and I’ve been ranking them decade by decade on my own blog.
Here is every UK number one of the 1950s ranked: http://www.musicrelatedjunk.com/2024/04/every-number-one-single-from-1950s.html
I’ve also ranked all the 1960s number ones. Currently just started listening to the number ones of the 1970s!
I’ve checked out a few of your posts already and I can tell I’m going to have fun finding out what you thought about all of these number ones. Seems very well researched and very wittily written! Your thoughts on David Whitfield had me in stitches
Thanks for the kind words! And welcome on board – hope you find more to interest you.
You’ve got a great blog too! (I tried to comment, but couldn’t see where to do it. Maybe because I don’t have a Blogger account…?) I did consider scoring each number one myself too, but decided against it. It’s too ‘final’ for me, as I’m probably going to change my mind on a song as time goes by. I do ‘Recaps’ every so often, where I choose the best, the worst, most boring, most interesting, and even then I regret some of my choices. I gave ‘Lonesome Blues’ by Frank Ifield a ‘Worst’ award for example, but now I quite enjoy that song’s manic energy.
As for your 50s choices, I’d say that’s a pretty strong Top 20. Only major quibble would be ‘That’ll be the Day’ being so low… and so close to the God-awful ‘She Wears Red Feathers’! It’s been so long that I can’t remember exactly what I wrote about David Whitfield, but he certainly bored the crap out of me. There was so much earnest balladeering around before Elvis came along and blew some cobwebs away!
I’ll check you 60s list out soon too!
Thanks for checking out my blog. I’ve been doing it for over 10 years now and I write about all kinds of general music-related stuff on there. Yeah, I need to fix the comments feature. It disappeared one day and I haven’t been able to get it back, which is quite annoying.
I can see the reason for not scoring all the number ones as opinions definitely do change over time. In fact, you’ve already got me rethinking my placement of ‘That’ll be the day’ – that probably should have been in the top 20. As for ‘She Wears Feathers’, I find that one to be charmingly goofy. A lot of more interesting than half the dreary stuff that came out in the first half of the decade. Definitely a bit problematic though and probably not a song I’ll return to too often haha.
Here are my 60s rankings for when you get a chance: http://www.musicrelatedjunk.com/2024/11/every-uk-number-one-single-from-1960s.html
Definitely enjoyed this decade a lot more.
Just finished the sixties list, thanks. Again, can’t quibble with the top end of your list. What a great decade, musically speaking. I look forward to your 70s list, as that decade has some of the very worst musical crimes making number one!
Thanks! Yes, I’ve just had a look through the 70s number ones and some of them certainly look interesting haha. Not sure how i’m going to deal with those three Gary Glitter singles
Also I realise I’ve been commenting as ‘anonymous’. If you see a comment on your early 70s recap post and the Temperance Seven post, that was also me! I will sign off as Alasdair from now on to avoid confusion as it doesn’t seem to be letting me log back into my original account
~ Alasdair (the Music Related Junk guy)
Yes a signature is a good idea. You’re not the only one who has problems logging in, so thanks for persisting!
With Gary Glitter, I was suprised in the first place that they’re all still on Spotify, then I ended up enjoying them (the first two at least). I’m a sucker for all things glam, anyway. I was 11 or 12 when he was found out, so had dim memories of the songs, and of him being relevant. I remember him appearing on Saturday morning kids TV in the early 90s, which is worrying in hindsight…
I’ve seen some similar ‘#1 review’ websites that cut him, and Rolf Harris, out altogether. Which is completely the wrong way to go about it, imo. You can’t erase them – they happened – and its interesting to see how you reconcile the music with the artists’ crimes. Same for Michael Jackson, R Kelly, and Puff Daddy most recently…