Official Chart 70th Anniversary Flashback: Al Martino's Here In My Heart becomes the UK's first Official Number 1 single in 1952

Celebrate 70 years of the UK's first ever Official Number 1 on the Official Singles Chart with us.

This coming week we're celebrating the 70th anniversary of the UK's Official Singles Chart - and what better way to do that than a look back at the first song to ever reach Number 1 officially in the UK?

The song that holds this distinction is Al Martino's Here In My Heart, which ascended to Number 1 on November 14, 1952.

For a little context: until this point, a song's popularity in the UK was not measured by physical sales, but by sales of its accompanying sheet music. But it was in 1952 that Percy Dickins, of the founders of NME (then known as the New Musical Express) decided to produce a sales-based chart.

Therefore, the first-ever Official Singles Chart was published on November 14, 1952. Its results were compiled by Dickins ringing up 20 record shops up and down the country every week, tallying up their biggest-sellers. Don't worry, our methods are a lot more robust now.

You may also notice that the Top 12 of the first Official Singles Chart is technically a Top 15, given that positions at Numbers 7, 8 and 11 were tied.

The top spot was taken by Italian-American crooner Al Martino and his track Here In My Heart. It would remain at the top for nine consecutive weeks, a UK chart record that would go un-broken until the current record-holder, Bryan Adams, came along in 1991 with Everything I Do (I Do It For You), whose run of 16 consecutive weeks at Number has yet to be overcome.

You can discover the longest-running Number 1 singles o n the Official Singles Chart here.

At Number 2 was US singer Jo Stafford with You Belong To Me. This track would also go on to make history, as Jo would become the first female artist to score a UK Number 1 single.

The artist most dominant in the chart this week, however, was none other than the Forces Sweetheart, Dame Vera Lynn, with an impressive total of three entries; Forget Me Not (7), The Homing Waltz (9) and Auf Wiederseh'n Sweeetheart (10). In May 2020, Dame Vera would set an Official Charts record for the oldest person to appear on the Official Albums Chart Top 40, just one month before her death aged 103.

The first-ever Official Singles Chart: November 14, 2022

POS	TITLE	ARTIST
1	HERE IN MY HEART	AL MARTINO
2	YOU BELONG TO ME	JO STAFFORD
3	SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY	NAT KING COLE
4	THE ISLE OF INNISFREE	BING CROSBY
5	FEET UP (PAT HIM ON THE PO-PO)	GUY MITCHELL
6	HALF AS MUCH	ROSEMARY CLOONEY
7	FORGET ME NOT	VERA LYNN
7	HIGH NOON (DO NOT FORSAKE ME)	FRANKIE LAIN
8	SUGARBUSH	DORIS DAY & FRANKIE LAIN
8	BLUE TANGO	RAY MARTIN
9	THE HOMING WALTZ	VERA LYNN
10	AUF WIEDERSEH'N SWEETHEART	VERA LYNN
11	BECAUSE YOU'RE MINE	MARIO LANZA
11	COWPUNCHER'S CANTANA	MAX BYGRAVES
12	WALKIN' MY BABY BACK HOME	JOHNNIE RAY

Article Image: Hart/ANL/Shutterstock

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Chris Alcroft

13th November 2022

Well spotted re: records set and weeks at no 1.
Thanks to David Eve - for pointing out the OCC's anomaly!

David Eve

11th November 2022

"It would remain at the top for nine consecutive weeks, a UK chart record that would go un-broken until the current record-holder, Bryan Adams, came along in 1991 with Everything I Do (I Do It For You), whose run of 16 consecutive weeks at Number has yet to be overcome."
I think you meant to say until 1954 when David Whitfield spent 10 weeks at no.1 with Cara Mia, followed by 11 weeks for Slim Whitman with Rose Marie in 1955.

Estranged Liberal

10th November 2022

“But it was in 1952 that Percy Dickins, of the founders of NME (then known as the New Musical Express) decided to produce a sales-based chart.” Surely a mistake here, as the sheet music chart was also based on sales!

Also, listeners should be aware that several of the songs on the Spotify playlist are not the original recordings that were issued on 78 at the time of that chart. This is a hazard when looking for recordings of hits from the 1950s and 60s. I’m pretty sure that Here in My Heart, Somewhere Along the Way and High Noon are all later re-recordings by the original artists. The BBC made the same mistake with the Al Martino track on Sixty Years of the Top 10.

TimisD