Which artist secured the first posthumous UK number one single?
The history of pop music being compiled into a singles chart predates the invention of rock and roll. In 1953, the New Musical Express polled more than 50 record stores across the UK to see which records were the highest sellers. The results were compiled into a list of 12, creating the first official pop music record chart. Billboard had been compiling popular records onto various charts as early as the 1940s, but NME had the first one-stop pop chart.
The UK Singles Chart would see their tallying methods vary over the next two decades, with 1969 being the first year that the current method of compilation was put into place. Still, there are plenty of songs that have been retroactively included as official number one singles. Six years after Al Martino scored the first number one single in the UK with ‘Here In My Heart’, the UK Singles Chart saw their first posthumous number one.
That was courtesy of rock and roll pioneer Buddy Holly. The Texas rockabilly king managed to make a hell of a legacy for himself in the two short years that he was an active recording artist. After his 1957 single ‘That’ll Be The Day’ topped both the US and UK charts, Holly became one of the most popular artists in the booming genre of rock and roll. Holly recorded more than 20 singles, both solo and with his backing band, The Crickets, before a plane crash brought his life to a premature end. He was just 22 when he died.
The pop music world mourned Holly, along with fellow crash victims Ritchie Valens and J.P. ‘The Big Bopper’ Richardson, by highlighting his still-contemporary hit singles. Just one month before the fateful accident, Holly released ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’, the final single that he would helm himself before his death. Written by Paul Anka, ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ wound up being a bittersweet success, peaking at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.
In the UK, ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ went all the way to number one, becoming the first posthumous number one hit in the chart’s relatively short history. Stricken with grief, Anka opted to donate his songwriting royalties to Holly’s widow, María Elena Santiago. Hit versions by Linda Ronstadt and Mark Williams ensured that ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ would become an intrinsic part of Holly’s legacy.
Over the next decade, three other songs would become posthumous number ones on the UK Singles Chart. Eddie Cochran’s ‘Three Steps to Heaven’, Jim Reeves’ ‘Distant Drums’, and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)’ all topped the chart before 1970 was over. The Billboard Hot 100 wouldn’t have its first posthumous number one until 1968, when Otis Redding’s ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay’ topped the chart four months after his death in 1967.
Check out ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’ down below.
