Are you getting excited about Christmas yet? I am just a little excited, but the lovely Catwoman is ecstatic and there’s still just under a week to go! Our Christmas tree is up and decorated now and we’ve officially opened Christmas in our house. So before it get’s too late it’s time to open another little cardboard door on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar. It’s now 19th December so obviously it’s day 19 and today I really am taking you right back in time, to a Christmas that took place just over six years before even I was born. You would have first heard this song in 1952, it is “Here In My Heart” by Al Martino.
It was not only the first UK Christmas number one it was also the first ever UK number one single. The first UK charts were published on 14th November 1952 and Mr Martino was on top that day where it remained for 9 weeks. This also means that Al Martino was the only person to be at number one in the UK for 1952, no one else has ever achieved this feat and it is unlikely that anyone will. The song was also a US number one.
Al Martino as Johnny Fontane in the Godfather
Al Martino was named Jasper Cini by his parents when he was born in 1927, he died in 2009 aged 82. He went on to have many more hits in the US and was last seen in the UK charts in 1973 with a reissue of “Spanish Eyes“. I seem to remember that one being a staple of all hotel bands when I went on holiday to Spain with my parents when I was just a young lad. He also turned his hand to acting and appeared as Johnny Fontane in ‘The Godfather’ in 1972 a role he reprised in ‘The Godfather Part III‘. He also sang the them song for the movie “Speak Softly Love”
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 