Which song topped the charts three different times in a single year?
The charts are full of massive records, from Bryan Adams’ ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It for You’, spending 16 consecutive weeks at the top in 1991, to ‘Unchained Melody’ clinching the pole position by no less than four different artists. Few can lay claim to their song having got to number one twice, but only one can say their record had a triple whammy at the top spot, all in the space of only a year.
Frankie Laine can proudly claim an unbeaten record of over 70 years with his song ‘I Believe’, which hit number one on three separate occasions over the course of 1953. It was the best-selling single in the UK that year and has since gained seminal classic status in a myriad of starry cover versions from everyone, including Elvis Presley, Louis Armstrong, Gladys Knight, and the Pips. But what exactly made it so special to be laced with this golden touch?
Its role in history certainly does play a significant part. In fact, it bears understanding that Laine’s supersonic version of ‘I Believe’ was not the song’s first shot at the airwaves, as it had been first commissioned and recorded by the then popular singer Jane Froman in 1950, who by performing it on her TV show, made it the first ever hit song to be introduced on television. Her original version charted at number 11 at the time of its release, but it wasn’t until Laine’s turn three years later that the song was sent to new stratospheric heights.
The anthem of hope, initially in the context of the ongoing Korean War, was a feat taken on by crooner Laine so successfully that it spent 18 non-consecutive weeks at number one in the UK, returning to the top spot three different times in 1953 to make it the only song to have ever achieved this accolade to this day.
When did ‘I Believe’ reach number one again?
But even after all that massive stretch, unfathomably, this was not the last time ‘I Believe’ would soar to first place, as Robson and Jerome’s 1995 version of the song would also spend a further four weeks at the top, bringing the total time that the track reigned at number one to a whopping 22 weeks. This was not the only time Robson and Jerome would master a classic, however, as that same year they also became the third of four prized artists to give ‘Unchained Melody’ its chart ruling status.
Laine’s rapture with ‘I Believe’ is impressive within itself, but especially in the knowledge that it occurred in the first year the charts were in existence and has never been matched since in all its 72-year history. Various artists have clinched the top spot with the same song twice in different years – notably, the likes of ‘My Sweet Lord’ by George Harrison, topping the charts first in 1971 and then again in 2002 following his death – but never has the continued popularity of a single song meant it kept returning to number one time and time again in the way ‘I Believe’ did.
It just goes to show that we can lap up rockstars and their supposed mega-hits all we want, but when it comes to truly smashing records, it’s the old-style crooners who still wear the crown.
