Chart entered : 14 November 1852
Chart peak : 2
Number of hits : 15
Guy has as good a claim as anyone to be the first pop star. He was neither crooner nor rocker - though he could do both convincingly . Neither had he come out of the jazz scene like Nat King Cole. He was a good -looking young man with a versatile voice ( it's very hard to pick him out at pop quizzes if you don't recognise the song ) who performed whatever came his way. He covered all bases. He was a man's man who'd served in the U.S. Navy ; as someone on Popular ( where Guy has four entries ) pointed out his rise to fame coincided with the Korean War. Many of his hits have a big male-dominated chorus backing him. And of course both girls and their mums loved him.
Guy worked with producer Mitch Miller, who changed his name from Albert Cernik, and Hollywood songwriter Bob Merrill who penned most of his hits ( and a fair number of other peoples' in the fifties ). He'd had a dozen or so hits in the US before this one. The first one "My Heart Cries For You " is a creditable Bing Crosby impersonation. The second "The Roving Kind " is more typical , a jaunty sea-shanty with a tortuous running naval metaphor about a loose-ish woman where Guy sounds more like Perry Como. His third " You're Just In Love " was a duet with Rosemary Clooney on an Irving Berlin song which lost out in chart terms to a rival version by Perry Como and the Fontane Sisters. Guy is well outclassed by his partner and he rarely did duets thereafter. "Sparrow In A Treetop " saw Guy pushing his jack-the-lad persona with its unconvincing denials of adultery. "Christopher Columbus " and "Day of Jubilo " sound like Western themes to compete with his big rival Frankie Laine. "Unless " and "I Can't Help It " are dreary ballads and notably underperformed compared to his upbeat stuff. " My Truly Truly Fair", "Belle Belle My Liberty Belle" . "There's Always Room At Our House " don't mess with the "Roving Kind " formula. "Sweetheart of Yesterday" is a re-tread of "My Heart Cries Out For You". "Pittsburgh Pennsylvania" stands out for its melodic resemblance to the later Little Boxes and is an amusing Merrill song about a guy pawning all his possessions to impress a girl.
Which brings us round to "Feet Up" ,inaugurating a period of British success which was just as well as his fortunes in the US charts took a nosedive until "Singing The Blues" ( they had the good sense to pin down the execrable "She Wears Red Feathers" at number 19 ). It's another Merrill song in which Guy forswears his roving days as a response to the birth of a son. It's impossible to dislike its relentless jolliness despite Miller's corny "Ha ha Ha" and whistling punctuations and I like the barrelhouse piano that underscores the verses. Guy sounds like he's having the time of his life and it's pretty infectious.
Guy's is an early goodbye and we'll discuss the reasons for that at the appropriate time.
Having written all that I've just realised that this one's already been covered here Music Sounds Better With Two. Sorry Lena, no snub intended.
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