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Cliff Richard captured the
number one spot twice in the year - early on with the title song of
his first move, "The Young Ones" (the third biggest single
of 1962) and at the end of the year with "The Next Time".
The singer also had a couple of number two hits with "I'm Looking Out The Window"
and "It'll Be Me". The Shadows were now a major act on their
own and managed to hit the top of the charts twice. Their biggest
single was "Wonderful Land" (second biggest hit of the
year). "Dance On" was another number one and "Guitar Tango"
was a top five hit.
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the Greatest Hits
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| It was another successful year for Elvis
Presley, the second biggest performer of 1962. His biggest single was "Good Luck Charm" (number five hit of the year) but he also had number one hits with three other singles: "Can't Help Falling in Love", "She's Not You" and "Return To Sender" (the Christmas number one). Now into film-making in a big way, Elvis released two big-selling soundtrack albums during 1962 - both "Blue Hawaii" and "Pot Luck" spent a long time at the top of the UK album charts.
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Elvis Hits |
| Number three act for 1962 was Frank Ifield. The Australian had the biggest hit of the year with "I Remember You", a million seller in the UK and originally from a 1940s film soundtrack. He followed this up with another revival of an old American classic "Lovesick Blues" and reached number one again.
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| At number four on the star list for 1962 was Del
Shannon, real name Charles Westover. He followed his huge 1961 hit "Runaway" with a couple of big number two records "Hey Little Girl" and "Swiss Maid".
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| American country star Brenda Lee - "Little Miss Dynamite" - captured the number five performer position for the year. Although she never had a UK number one, Brenda had a steady stream of top five singles in 1962 including "Speak to Me Pretty" (her biggest UK hit), "Here Comes That Feeling" and
"Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree".
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| Among the other big selling acts of 1962 were British instrumental group the
Tornados. Initially the backing group for Billy Fury, the Tornados had a massive world-wide hit with
"Telstar" (the number four UK single of the year and also the first US number one for a British act). The number was named after the recently launched communications satellite - at the time seen as very high technology - and producer Joe Meek created a techie sound to go with the melody (despite, it is said, having to work in an upstairs bedroom rather than a studio).
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the Greatest Hits |
| Other big artists of the year included Ray
Charles, who followed up his chart topping "I Can't Stop Loving You" with top ten hits "You Don't Know Me" and "Your Cheating Heart".
Joe Brown and the Bruvvers also had a couple of top ten hits including number two hit "A Picture of You". And
Adam Faith continued to record a stream of top ten hits during the year. Finally, the tail end of the year saw the first single from the
Beatles - "Love Me Do" - reach the top twenty.
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Copyright
© 2007 Backdate
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