Throwing back to the week of June 13, 1956, we find Gogi Grant’s ‘The Wayward Wind‘ at #1 and Morris Stoloff’s ‘Moonglow and Theme from Picnic‘ right behind it. This was the week ‘The Wayward Wind’ bounced Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel’ from its seven-week run in the top spot.
‘Heartbreak Hotel’ dropped all the way to #4, falling behind The Four Lads’ recording of ‘Standing On the Corner,’ a tune from the Broadway musical The Most Happy Fella.
Throwing back to the week of May 30, 1956, we find Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel‘ and Morris Stoloff’s ‘Moonglow and Theme from Picnic‘ hanging on atop the singles chart.
Just behind at #3 was the song that would eventually end Presley’s seven-week stint in the top spot: ‘The Wayward Wind’ by pop singer Gogi Grant. This song would go on to spend six weeks at #1.
Throwing back to the week of May 16, 1956, we find Elvis Presley and Perry Como atop the Billboard singles chart with ‘Heartbreak Hotel‘ and ‘Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)‘,’ respectively.
At #3 that week was an instrumental medley by composer Morris Stoloff that combined the 1933 jazz standard ‘Moonglow’ with an instrumental version of the theme from the 1966 film Picnic, which starred William Holden and Kim Novak.
Throwing back to the week of May 2, 1956, we find Elvis Presley holding on to the top spot with ‘Heartbreak Hotel‘ with Perry Como’s ‘Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom)‘ and Les Baxter’s ‘The Poor People of Paris‘ in the second and third spots.
At #4 was a song many associate with Presley but one that was written and recorded by Carl Perkins first: ‘Blue Suede Shoes.’ Presley’s version was recorded around the same time as Perkins’ but wasn’t released as a single until later in 1956 out of respect for the original (at the time, it was very common for multiple versions of a song to be released simultaneously).
We’re throwing back to the week of April 18, 1956, and the 50s just got interesting!
While Les Baxter’s instrumental ‘The Poor People of Paris‘ held on to the #1 spot for the sixth straight week, it was about to be unseated by the song at #2.
That was Elvis Presley’s ‘Heartbreak Hotel,’ the King’s first of 17 chart-topping hits on the Hot 100 (or the Best Sellers in Stores chart, as it was called before 1958).
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