Throwing back to the week of Oct. 3, 1956, Elvis Presley claimed #1 on the Billboard singles chart with ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ the song’s fifth of seven straight weeks in the top spot.
Just behind it was the jazz instrumental ‘Honky Tonk’ by organist Bill Doggett. And if (like me) you think you don’t know it, press play below and you’ll realize you know it quite well. In addition to spending three weeks at #2 on the Top 100, ‘Honky Tonk’ topped the R&B chart for 13 weeks.
The 50s were such an interesting decade for popular music. Throwing back to the week of September 19, 1956, we find Elvis Presley topping Billboard’s singles chart with ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’ and his ‘Hound Dog‘ at #3. In between is R&B vocal group The Platters with ‘My Prayer.’
Then at #4 we shift gears completely, with an instrumental version of the song ‘Canadian Sunset’ performed by Hugo Winterhalter & His Orchestra with Eddie Heywood on piano. And closing out the top five is Doris Day’s ‘Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera).’ It’s wild to imagine those two tracks battling two of Elvis’ biggest hits for airplay.
Throwing back to the week of September 5, 1956, we find Elvis Presley atop the Billboard Top 100 with ‘Don’t Be Cruel.’ This was the first of seven straight weeks at #1 for the song.
This was Presley’s top-performing song of 1956, a year that saw the release of ‘Hound Dog,’ ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ ‘I Want You, I Need You, I Love You,’ ‘Blue Suede Shoes,’ ‘Love Me Tender,’ and many more.
Throwing back to the week of August 22, 1956, we find The Platters’ ‘My Prayer‘ hanging on to the top spot of the Billboard singles chart.
Tied for #2, where it would surprisingly peak on the Top 100, was Elvis Presley’s ‘Hound Dog.’ ‘Hound Dog‘ would top the ‘Best Sellers in Stores’ chart for a then-record 11 weeks, but it was outperformed by Presley’s ‘Don’t Be Cruel’ on the Top 100, which accounted for radio and jukebox play in addition to sales.
Throwing back to the week of August 8, 1956, we find the doo-wop group The Platters atop the Billboard singles chart with ‘My Prayer.’
The song was written in 1939 by Romanian violinist Georges Boulanger as an instrumental titled Avant de Mourir, with lyrics later added by Carlos Gomez Barrera and Jimmy Kennedy. It found some success in the U.S. that year as ‘My Prayer,’ including in a recording by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra.
