Let the stormy clouds chase everyone from the place

I've got a new list!  As suggested by my lovely wife - and it's something (only) slightly different!  To celebrate 70 years of the charts, the Official Charts Company (you've got to be pretty insecure to call yourself the Official anything, surely?) have released the most streamed songs from each year so I thought I'd work my way through them (probably quite slowly), listening to them (there are some I don't think I've heard) and doing a bit of investigation as to how they've made it to the top of the pile for that year.  

So - let's start at the very beginning (it's a very good place to start, I've heard)

1952 : Singin' In The Rain - Gene Kelly

Ah - 2:37 of some singin' in the rain, which everyone knows, surely?  Well - I certainly knew it, but that didn't stop me being surprised at how few lyrics the song actually has.  And at one point even they run out and he's left going "da de da da" - I assumed I just did that because I didn't know the words, but it turns out that maybe I knew them all along.

It's obviously famous because of the film of the same name, but what I didn't know was that the song came first and the film is "suggested" by the song.  It's actually from 1928/29 and was originally introduced by Doris Eaton Travis in The Hollywood Music Box Revue.  And Doris Eaton Travis was a fascinating character - she made her Broadway debut at the age of 13 in 1917, was dancing as part of the Ziegfeld Follies at 14, made her film debut at 17, retired from dancing at the age of 64 to run a ranch, graduated from university at the age of 88, took up acting again at 95 and died at the age of 106 in 2010 (the last surviving Ziegfeld girl), a MONTH after her last public appearance.  I think it's fair to say she lived a full life!

Back to the song, it has been covered a FEW times - Judy Garland, Dean Martin, Adam Faith, Sammy Davis Jr, Morecambe & Wise, Elton John, John Martyn, Frankie Vaughan, Gwyneth Paltrow and, probably my favourite, Westlife.  However, one of the main reasons it's top for this year is the Mint Royale version which was released in 2005 after the song was used in a VW advert.  It reached #20 in that year, but George Sampson danced to it on Britains Got Talent in 2008 which resulted in it getting to #1 for a couple of weeks.

Another reason it's top for 1952 is that, well, there isn't a lot of competition.  The best selling single of the year in the UK was apparently either Vera Lynn's "Auf Wiedersehen Sweetheart" or Al Martino's "Here In My Heart" (depending upon which Wikipedia page you believe) - they are both available on my streaming platform of choice but I struggle to imagine either of them being played too often these days.  Looking across the pond at the top 30 selling singles of the year, the only two I recognise were by Jo Stafford - "You Belong To Me" (which I know from the Kate Rusby cover) and "Jambalaya (On The Bayou)" (which I know from The Carpenters cover).  But, we are talking 70 years ago, so it's probably not all that surprising I don't recognise too many.

I still struggle to imagine that too many people sit down and consciously make the effort to stream this song, but, all things considered, it's pretty impressive that a song from 1928/9 featuring in a 1952 film still has the cultural impact it does.  It obviously helps that the film is charming and the scene is iconic and much copied/parodied, but compared with a lot of stuff that I dipped into from this year, this has got a very fresh sound to it and it was a pleasure to learn a bit more about both it and Doris Eaton Travis.

1953 - Yet another Doris!