Tuesday, 21 January 2014
10. Hello Jimmy Young - Faith Can Move Mountains
Chart entered : 9 January 1953
Chart peak : 11
Number of hits : 11
Jimmy is the first male artist to make the chart who is still alive at the time of writing. His singing career is most often recalled, usually with a chuckle, for the fact that he was the first person to take "Unchained Melody" to the top spot.
Jimmy served with the RAF as an engineer during World War Two and then in India up to 1949. As a civilian he worked as a singer and pianist on the radio until snapped up by Polygon Records where he worked with conductor Ron Goodwin. Their version of "Too Young" took it to the top of the sheet music charts in 1951. In 1952 he switched to Decca
This one was in a chart battle with rival versions by Johnnie Ray and the Four Lads and Nat King Cole. Though they cancelled each other out to some extent Ray won and Jimmy got the wooden spoon with a single week at number 11. Unsurprisingly Cole's is the best version.
Despite the title "Faith Can Move Mountains" is not an overtly religious song but a pleading love ballad which is why Cole's intimate version works best. By contrast Jimmy belts out the title like he's delivering the Sermon on the Mount himself with a blast of brass and strings before settling down to the song. Unlike Ray, Jimmy was an old-style crooner and here he's lingering on every note he can in a style that seems prehistoric today.
Jimmy's chart career lasted a bit longer than you'd think so let's hope he's still around when we say goodbye.
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I just checked young Jimmy's chart record out, and his second hit ("Eternally") had music by Charlie Chaplin. Weird! You learn something every day. Seems it was originally written for a film Chuck had made - but still, I never knew the guy wrote music.
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