Fact #111480
When:
Short story:
Leroy Anderson completes writing his instrumental orchestral composition Blue Tango. It will be released as the b-side of the single Belle Of The Ball on Decca Records in the USA. However, public response to Blue Tango will prove so favourable that the disc will be flipped and Blue Tango will reach No1 in the Billboard magazine Popular Singles Chart.
Full article:
Leroy Anderson : Blue Tango was released in the fall (of 1951) and then the Christmas season came along and it dropped down, because of all the Christmas material. Then is started up in January, and by February - I was stationed at the time at Fort Bragg and I got a telegram from Decca Records saying that by the signs, from what they knew, it was now headed up and would probably soon reach the top. It then kept going up and up and finally got up to number 2, where it held and of course the whole thing was completely unbelievable to me because the kind of music I write was not popular music, it was concert music, rather than a pop song, and week after week went and I just kept waiting to see if it would hit number one. It not only did but it held it, then it held number one and for 15 weeks it was on The Hit Parade.
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