What was the first song to debut at number one in the charts?
We’ve all been told not to gamify music. If anything, understanding its subjectivity is the absolute rule number one of understanding art. But we are humans, aren’t we? Conditioned by generations of Darwinism and Capitalism, whereby we need a standout, a winner for everything. And so, the music charts were born.
As time went on, they became a yardstick for commercial success, and we soon learned not to pay much attention to them. Well, actually, that depends on your inclination. There is, of course, merit in pop music, and if you’re a bona fide bubblegum listener, then it’s a ready-made address book for all the artists you might enjoy.
But we all know, in the undercurrent of successful pop music is a sort of bureaucratic intent that chips away at the integrity of musicianship. There’s a systematic vested interest in certain musicians, for they represent something more lucrative than perhaps the more alternative wallflowers of subcultural genres. And when a higher spot in the chart results in a bigger payout, then of course the system soon becomes an unrealistic representation of the genuine impact music is making on the ground.
If everything I have just said there reads like gibberish, then allow me to direct you back to the UK Christmas number one race of 2009. By that point, it had become a national certainty that by Christmas, Simon Cowell’s rampant X Factor machine would create yet another cookie-cutter popstar who would be thrust to the number one spot with some sort of shoddy recording of a classic ballad.
But music fans had seen enough and launched an assault on the status quo. They decided that Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ would become their protest anthem, and they would rampantly download it to force the next Simon Cowell clone off the top spot. They were successful and, for a brief moment in the winter sun, felt as though they had regained authenticity’s place in the charts.
But perhaps the one flaw in the rebellion of music fans was their decision to resurge an old big hitter. It would have arguably been an opportune moment to give an underlying hero a chance to debut at number 1 and break the trend of decades that preceded it. For the most part, chart debuts have been reserved for newly signed acts, coming in hot with a mega-label marketing plan.
So, what was the first song to ever debut at number one?
Well, in the US, it took a surprisingly long time for it to happen. It wasn’t until 1995 when Michael Jackson released ‘You Are Not Alone’ that the US Billboard charts saw its first-ever song debut at number one. As we all know, that went on to become a mammoth hit for Jackson, selling 1.6 million records in the US and four million records worldwide. But by that time, Jackson was anaesthetised to chart success as in the 1980s he had released what is still the highest selling album of all time, Thriller, while its follow-up, Bad, became the most pre-ordered record of all time with CBS Records shipping 2.25 million copies to stores in the US in 1987.
On UK shores, the first song to debut at the top spot was ‘Here in My Heart’ by Al Martino on November 4th, 1952. A crooning, string-laden ballad that was fitting of the decade and was understandably popular. But perhaps more informative is how the vocal style can be traced to the likes of an oncoming Elvis Presley, who would go on to storm the charts with his debut singles for the remaining decade.
