UK Million Selling Singles (1940s and 1950s)

This is an overview of every song released in the 1940s and 50s in the UK to have reached the Holy Grail target of selling over 1 million copies. There are only 4 verified from these two decades, with the 1950s seeing the gradual birth of the UK Singles Chart. From 1952 until the end of the decade, the records compiled by New Musical Express are seen as the most authoritative. In 1959, the introduction of a 'Gold Disc' award by Disc magazine for songs which reached 1 million sales signalled the general intention of a desire to keep more comprehensive records of which songs had sold what. Until that point, these are the songs thought to have achieved the goal.

These lists will be in order of release date and not the date that a particular song reached its 1 millionth sale. That information will be included in each individual profile. You can click on the title of a song to be taken to a corresponding video.

1940s

White Christmas
Artist: Bing Crosby
Released: 1942
Label: Decca
Written by: Irving Berlin
Bio: There are a few different accounts of when Berlin wrote the song, but 'White Christmas' was submitted amongst others for the 1942 film 'Holiday Inn', which starred Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. It had originally been predicted that the main hit from the film would be 'Be Careful, It's My Heart', but audiences began to respond favourably to White Christmas and the song ended up winning the Oscar for Best Original Song at the 1942 Academy Awards. The producers had intended for the song to be sung by the actress Marjorie Reynolds instead of Crosby and the pair performed it as a duet in the film (although Reynolds' vocals are dubbed by singer Martha Mears). The song was popular enough for another film, 'White Christmas', to be written in 1954 featuring it as the centrepiece. It first officially charted in the UK in 1977, after Crosby's death.
Quiz Essentials: White Christmas has the distinction of being the biggest selling song in the world, with at least 50 millions copies of Crosby's versions verified and over 100 million copies when totalled with other versions. It is unlikely to be seriously challenged for a long time, with 2nd placed 'Candle in the Wind 1997' at 33 million verified sales. It has also been calculated as having earned Berlin $36 million dollars, the second most of any song after 'Happy Birthday' at $50 million.
UK Chart Peak: #5 (1977)
Copies sold: 1.02 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 70 years (2012)
Best Selling Song of 1942: n/a
Opening Lyrics: 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know.'
Chorus: 'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write,
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.'


1950s

(We're Gonna) Rock Around the Clock
Artist: Bill Haley & His Comets
Band Members: Bill Haley (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar), Billy Williamson (Steel Guitar), Marshall Lytle (String Bass), Joey Ambrose (Tenor Saxophone), Johnny Grande (Piano)
Session Musicians: - Danny Cedrone (Electric Guitar), Billy Gussak (Drums)
Released: December 1954
Label: Decca
Written by: Max C. Freedman & James E. Myers (Jimmy DeKnight)
Bio: 'Rock Around the Clock' is another single that largely owes it's massive success to it's inclusion in a movie, this time the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. A slightly different version is played over the film's opening credits. The song was chosen as a representative of what young people were listening to, and its inclusion launched the song to iconic status as one of the world's first hit rock and roll songs, and it has become emblematic of the era. Though Haley was not the first to record the song (Sonny Dae and his Knights got there first), the song's co-author James E. Myers says that it had been written specifically for the group. Enormously influential across the globe, Rock Around the Clock is chronologically the first song to sell over a million copies in the UK and is thought to have sold at least 25 million copies worldwide.
Quiz Essentials: Rock Around the Clock is the best selling song of the 1950s in the UK, despite not actually selling the most copies in a calendar year. The song has reached the Top 20 in the UK 5 times, more than any other non-Christmas song. 10 years after recording the song, Haley performed a 'sequel' called 'Dance Around the Clock' though this did not have nearly as much impact.
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1955) - 5 weeks
Copies sold: 1.43 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 1 year (1955)
Best Selling Song of 1955: No (Tennessee Ernie Ford - 'Give Me Your Word')
Opening Lyrics: 'One, two three o'clock, four o'clock rock,
Five, six, seven o'clock, eight o'clock rock,
Nine, ten, eleven o'clock, twelve o'clock rock,
We're gonna rock around the clock tonight.'
Chorus: 'We're gonna rock around the clock tonight,
We're gonna rock, rock, rock 'til broad daylight,
We're gonna rock, we're gonna rock around the clock tonight.'

Diana
Artist: Paul Anka
Released: August 1957
Label: ABC Records
Written by: Paul Anka & Joe Sherman
Bio: Ottawa born singer Anka says that this song was inspired by a girl whom he had barely met, but attended his church. However, it has also been suggested that the song is about a former babysitter. It is not Anka's first single ('I Confess' - 1955), but is undoubtedly his breakthrough. Anka had many more hits, but 'Diana' represents his peak as well as his beginning. The song is thought to have sold at least 9 million copies worldwide, with around 1/7th of those in the UK. For a while during the early 1960s, Diana was the second best selling single of all time, behind only Bing Crosby's 'White Christmas'. It is also the second best selling song of the 1950s in the UK, after Bill Haley and His Comets' 'Rock Around the Clock'.
Quiz Essentials: Anka was only 16 when the song was released, and consequently became a millionaire while we was still a teenager, and set up his own record label (Spanka) when he was 20.
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1957) - 9 weeks
Copies sold: 1.25 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 4 months (1957)
Best Selling Song of 1957: No (Love Letters In the Sand - Pat Boone)
Opening Lyrics: 'I'm so young and you're so old,
This, my darling, I've been told.'
Chorus: 'Oh, please, stay by me, Diana.'

Mary's Boy Child
Artist: Harry Belafonte
Released: October 1957
Label: RCA Victor
Written by: Jester Hairston
Bio: Hairston originally named the song 'He Pone and Chocolate Tea' after he was asked to write a something for a birthday party. However, Hairston later adapted the tune when he was asked by Hollywood composer Walter Schumann to write a Christmas song. Harry Belafonte heard 'Mary's Boy Child' performed by Schumann's choir and asked to record it for his upcoming 1957 album, 'An Evening with Belafonte'. The song can claim to be the UK's second authentic Christmas No. 1 single after 'Christmas Alphabet' by Dickie Valentine in 1955.
Quiz Essentials: Harry Belafonte's version of the song is the first (and by no means the last) Christmas million seller. The best known version of the song was released 31 years later by Boney M as 'Mary's Boy Child - Oh My Lord', which also sold over 1 million copies and claimed the Christmas No. 1 spot, unsurprisingly marking the only time in UK chart history that this particular feat has been achieved (at least by different artists).
UK Chart Peak: #1 (1957) - 7 weeks
Copies sold: 1.19 million
Time taken to confirm 1 million sales: 2 months (1957)
Best Selling Song of 1957: No (Love Letters In the Sand - Pat Boone)
Opening Lyrics: 'Long time ago in Bethlehem,
So the Holy Bible say.'
Chorus: 'Hark, now hear the angels sing,
A new King born today,
And man will live forever more,
Because of Christmas day.'


That's all of them for these two decades, but watch out as there will (hopefully) be many more of these to come. Until next time then...