Answer Me – David Whitfield

David Whitfield took this track to the top of the UK singles chart for two weeks in 1953.

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Sixty years ago this week, Answer me by David Whitfield replaced Hey Joe by Frankie Laine at the top of the UK singles chart. It had entered the top 12 three weeks previously at number 12 and broke into the top 10 a week later.

After one week at number 1, the single was succeeded by another version of the same song by Frankie Laine. After falling from the top spot, the song spent four more weeks in the top 5, three of them at number 2, and then returned to number 1 to tie for the top spot with Answer me by Frankie Laine. This was the only occasion in UK chart history that two records were at number 1 at the same time.

This second week at number 1 was the song’s last but it stayed in the top 10 for another four weeks, three more of them at number 2. The record then dropped out of the chart but returned after an absence of two weeks for one final week at number 12.

Answer me was released on the Decca record label and was the first of two UK number 1 hits for David Whitfield. In addition to the two versions in 1953, the song entered the top 40 once more in 1976 when Barbara Dickson took it to number 9.

More music from David Whitfield

 

More number ones from 1953

 

UK singles chart for the week ending 7 November 1953

1. Answer me – David Whitfield

2. Answer me – Frankie Laine

3. Hey Joe – Frankie Laine

4. Look at that girl – Guy Mitchell

5. I believe – Frankie Laine

6. Chicka boom – Guy Mitchell

7. Where the winds blow – Frankie Laine

8. Poppa Piccolino – Diana Decker

9. Swedish rhapsody – Mantovani

10. Kiss – Dean Martin