Pop Trivia

The first No.1 single in the British charts was Here In My Heart by Al Martino

 You Belong to Me by Jo Stafford was the first No.1 by a female.

 The first No1 by a British group was Broken Wings by The Stargazers.

Sixteen Tons by Tennessee Ernie Ford was No1 in Britain despite a BBC ban for mentioning St Peter.

Britain’s answer to Elvis’ Tommy Steele topped the charts with Singing The Blues and was the only one of manager Larry Parnes’ stable of acts to reach No.1 

Elvis Presley’s Jailhouse Rock was the first record to enter the UK charts at No.1.

 What Do You Want? Written by Les Vandyke and recorded by Adam Faith was the UK’s shortest No.1 (1.35) 

The first of many No.1s for The Beatles producer George Martin was You’re Driving Me Crazy by The Temperance Seven. 

The Young Ones by Cliff Richard and The Shadows was the first UK disc to enter at No.1.

 Telstar by The Tornados was the first record by a British group to top the US chart.

The first Mersey Beat No 1, How Do You Do It? was originally written for Adam Faith and previously recorded by The Beatles.

It’s Not Unusual, which topped the charts in 1965 for Tom Jones featured Jimmy Page on guitar.  The song was originally written for Sandie Shaw.   

Get Away written and song by Georgie Fame was originally written as a TV jingle to advertise Esso petrol.

Shortly after recording Three Steps to Heaven Eddie Cochran was killed in a car crash in Wiltshire, England. The song became a posthumous number one single in the UK.

 Rolling Stones guitarist, Brian Jones, played oboe on Baby You're A Rich Man by the Beatles

Tony Blackburn was the first D.J. on BBC Radio One. The first song played was Flowers In The Rain by The Move.

Elton John's original name was Reginald Kenneth Dwight. The name Elton comes from Elton Dean, a Bluesology sax player. John comes from Long John Baldry, British R&B singer and founder of Blues Inc. Eventually, he made Elton Hercules John his legal name. Hercules was the name of the horse in the BBC comedy series Steptoe and Son.

In 1961 the BBC Radio banned the song "100 Pounds of Clay" by Gene McDaniels because it has a reference to women being created from building materials, which the network considered to be blasphemous! 

At the same time that Ringo Starr received an offer from Brian Epstein to join the Beatles, he was also asked to join another Liverpool group called Kingsize Taylor and The Dominoes. Ringo chose the one offering the best wage - £25 a week.

The Animals 1964 single House Of The Rising Sun was the first Number 1 to have a playing time of more than four minutes.

When Steve Winwood left the Spencer Davis Group in the summer of 1967, one of the rejected applicants to be auditioned was Reginald Dwight, who would later launch a solo career, re-naming himself, Elton John. 

Before they were famous 

Reg Presley was a bricklayer before enjoying great success as lead singer of The Troggs 

Spencer Davis worked in the Civil Service as a clerical officer at the Post Office Savings Bank in Hammersmith and for HM Customs and Excise before going to the University of Birmingham to study German.  In music circles he was know as “Professor”. 

Rolling Stone Bill Wyman worked for a bookmaker after his father found him the job and insisted that he take it. 

Dave Clark worked as a stuntman on over 40 films before finding fame with his band the Dave Clark Five.

Tommy Steele 1952, joined the merchant navy at the age of fifteen, and for the next four years worked on the Cunard line before hitting the big time with Rock With The Caveman.

Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits was a child star and had a number of acting roles including that of Stanley Fairclough in Coronation Street.