10th September, 1954 (1 week)
Kitty Kallen...
Kitty Kallen...
Rings a bell? No? Wondering just who is this Kitty Kallen? Good question. She's a nobody. But one of the most important nobodies in the history of the UK chart. The first of many. The ennobler of a rich tradition of popular UK music. The trailblazer for a varied history of people who nearly were, but never would.
Yes, Kitty Kallen, who, in 1954, reached Number 1 with Little Things Mean A Lot, is officially the first UK One Hit Wonder. An honour as prestigious as coming last in Eurovision with nul points.
A one hit wonder can only be scored by someone who releases one single and then never charts again (according to the Guinness Book of World Records) and, using this definition, Kitty Kallen was the first person to achieve the (slightly dubious) honour in the UK.
For the American Kitty Kallen, her sole song to chart in the UK came at just the wrong time. She had been popular across the Atlantic throughout the 1940s, singing with a string of big bands. But there was no UK single's chart in the 1940s and, alas, this genre wasn't what it once was and Kallen was unable to sustain her star power and translate it in to a chart career in the UK.
But, in a way, being the UK's first one hit wonder probably gives her a more special legacy.
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