Originally Posted by Vabosity:
“Vabosity returns to the 1960’s Appreciation Thread after a very long absence, and not before time.
In the first ten posts I made to this thread I submitted my Top Five UK Number One singles for each year of the sixties. A few weeks later I did something very similar with regard to my favourite U.S. Number One singles from each year of sixties.
I’ve now come up with a slight variation on this theme and from today will be submitting my Top Five UK Number Two singles for each year of the sixties. I’m referring to singles whose highest position in the UK charts was Number Two. Thus, any single that may have occupied that position after previously being at or subsequently getting to Number One will be ignored.”
We’ve now got to 1962. I have to say that I’m rather fond of each and every Number Two single from that year, which has meant that picking a Top Five has been a very difficult task.
A difficult task, perhaps, but not an impossible one, so ...
Here are my five favourite UK Number Two singles (i.e. highest position Number Two) from the year 1962 (in order of preference):-
1. Bobby Darin - Things
Bobby Darin had two Number One singles in the fifties, but could not repeat that feat in the next decade. This almost forgotten Country-flavoured gem was his biggest UK hit single of the sixties.
2. Chris Montez - Let’s Dance
Rock ‘n’ roll dance music at it’s very best - a fabulous track!
3. Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen - Midnight In Moscow
My favourite Kenny Ball track by a country mile. The following year the Beat Boom would bring the early sixties Trad Jazz fad to an abrupt end; a pity really.
4. Cliff Richard and the Shadows - It’ll Be Me
Jerry Lee Lewis was the original bad boy of rock ‘n’ roll and Cliff Richard has always been a bit of a goody-goody, so for the latter to want to cover a song by the former seems unlikely and to cover it as well as this seems even more unlikely. Excellent track.
5. Mr Acker Bilk - Stranger On The Shore
This classic instrumental was biggest selling single of 1962, the twelfth best selling single of the sixties and was in the charts for more than a year, and yet somehow it never managed to reach Number One.
And here’s the full list of UK Number Two singles (i.e. highest position Number Two) from that year:-
Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen - Midnight In Moscow (reaching no. 2 on 4th January 1962)
Mr Acker Bilk - Stranger On The Shore (11th January 1962)
Chubby Checker - Let’s Twist Again (1st February 1962)
Helen Shapiro - Tell Me What He Said (22nd March 1962)
Roy Orbison - Dream Baby (12th April 1962)
Bruce Channel - Hey Baby (26th April 1962)
Del Shannon - Hey Little Girl (3rd May 1962)
Cliff Richard and the Shadows - Im Looking Out The Window/Do You Wanna Dance (31st May 1962)
Joe Brown and the Bruvvers - Picture Of You (28th June 1962)
Pat Boone - Speedy Gonzales (9th August 1962)
Bobby Darin - Things (6th September 1962)
Cliff Richard and the Shadows - It’ll Be Me (27th September 1962)
Little Eva - Locomotion (11th October 1962)
Chris Montez - Let’s Dance (1st November 1962)
Del Shannon - Swiss Maid (29th November 1962)
For a list of all the UK
Number One singles of the year 1962, and my Top Five from that list, please see Post #27 on Page 2 of the thread.