WONDERFUL WORLD OF THE WONDERFUL ONES Page21
The W.O. society saw songs come and go and witnessed the changes in their standings as they followed this through by listening to a program Roll Of Honor. I don't know whether its deejay emcee based his report on Billboard's charts or whether he conducted his own local survey in metro-Manila.
Anyway, what we have here is again based on the book Top Forty Hits by Joel Whitburn.
So, ladies and gentlemen - the hit parade goes on.
On February 9, 1957, Singing The Blues which reigned for 10 weeks as the number one song in America was knocked out by Too Much - an Elvis song. This, in turn, gave up its position to Pat Boone's Don't Forbid Me (1 wk). And then, Sonny James's Young Love captured the limelight for a week and which was followed by the version of the same song by Tab Hunter which stayed put for a span of 6 weeks. Andy Williams' Butterfly was next in line to hold the title, and it was able to place itself on where it wanted to until pushed over by Party Doll by Buddy Knox. The popularity of that song was short-lived and after just a week kowtowed to the strength of Perry Como's Round And Round. Another Butterfly version, this time, by Charlie Gracie climbed up to number one but was blasted a couple of weeks later by Elvis Presley's All Shook Up which stayed in place for 9 weeks. Then another Pat Boone superhit surged to challenge that song and won. It was Love Letters In The Sand, the theme from the movie of the same title starring Pat Boone himself. Then it was a see-saw game between the two giants, Pat and Elvis, and the Pat Boone Fan Club and the Elvis Fan Club in the Philippines were very exited! After 7 weeks on the top, Love Letters In The Sand conceded its loss to Let Me Be Your Teddy Bear by Elvis. That song was number one until its demise with the advent of Tammy, by Debbie Reynolds. But that academy award-winning song lost its glitter after 5 weeks on top of the chart. Diana became the number one top tune, and it was written, composed and recorded by then seventeen year-old Paul Anka. After just a week though, it was replaced by Jimmy Rodgers' Honeycomb which held out for 3 weeks. That Will Be The Day by the Crickets became the next number one song. After a week trying to keep itself in place, it lost out to Wake Up Little Susie by the Everly Brothers (Don and Phil). Then another Elvis song was catapulted up on high. It was his Jailhouse Rock which was the theme of the movie of the same title, starring , of course, Elvis. That movie, by the way, had so many wonderful songs, including Don't Leave Me Now, You're So Young And Beautiful, I Wanna Be Free, Treat Me Nice and Baby I Don't Care - all of which were top hits too in the Philippines. Then, after 7 weeks, Jailhouse Rock went down and gave way to Chances Are by Johnny Mathis (1 wk). You Send Me by Sam Cooke followed, and was on the spot until 3 weeks later when April Love by Pat Boone took over the reins and reigned for almost one and a half months. That song was the theme of the movie of the same title starring Pat Boone. On the next session, we will be covering the song hits of 1958.
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Copyright © 2002 ERNIE TURLA , president, Aguman Capampangan, Northwest USA. All Rights Reserved