Chart Of All Time - 1958

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by Tom Eames

1958 started off with Harry Belafonte having one more week at the top with "Mary's Boy Child", which was then overtaken by one of the most famous rock and roll anthems of the fifties, "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis, thought to be one of the wildest singles to the top the UK charts. Elvis Presley then got another No. 1 with "Jailhouse Rock", which was the first single ever to enter at No. 1, and the first to have advance sales of 250,000 copies.

Michael Holliday then got to the top with "The Story Of My Life", which was the first No. 1 written by Burt Bacharach. Next was the famous chart topper, "Magic Moments" by Perry Como which stayed at No. 1 for eight weeks, and was a second succesive No. 1 for Bacharach. Marvin Rainwater then had success when "Whole Lotta Woman" topped the charts.

The following No. 1 would belong to not only the most charting song of the year, but the No. 1 charting artist artist of the year. It was "Who's Sorry Now?" by Connie Francis, which spent six weeks at the top of the chart. Other big hits around this time included The Champs's "Tequila", "Good Golly Miss Molly" by Little Richard, "A Wonderful Time Up There" by Pat Boone, "Twilight Time" by The Platters, and the fourth best charting song of the year, Max Bygraves's "Tulips From Amsterdam / You Need Hands".

Vic Damone then spent two weeks at the top with the now famous "On The Street Where You Live", quickly taken over by the second best charting song of the year, the classic "All I Have To Do Is Dream" by The Everly Brothers. After seven weeks at the top for the brothers, the Kalin Twins notched up five weeks at No. 1 with "When", the only twins to hit the top as a duo. Connie Francis then got her second chart topper with "Stupid Cupid" which spent six weeks at No. 1. Tommy Edwards then got to the top with "Its All In The Game", which sold three million copies worldwide.

This was replaced by the first novelty No. 1 in the UK, "Hoots Mon" by Lord Rockingham's XI, based on the Scottish folk song "One Hundred Pipers". Despite selling 500,000 copies, each of the XI only received £6! The year ended with Conway Twitty spending five weeks at the top with "Its Only Make Believe", a song later to reach the top 10 in four other years by Billy Fury, Glen Campbell & Child.

Other famous songs of the year included, "Yakety Yak" by The Coasters, "Lollipop" by The Chordettes, "Return To Me" by Dean Martin, "A Certain Smile" by Johnny Mathis and "Bird Dog" by The Everly Brothers. Also, 1958 was the first charting year for possibly the best charting artist of all time, Cliff Richard, as it was when "Move It" hit the Top 10.

Here are the 20 best charting singles of the year:

Here are the ten most successfully charting artists of 1958: