The Stargazers

The Stargazers were one of the most popular and commercially successful British singing combos in the 1950s with eight top 20 hits (1953 to 1955) . Three of her singles became number one hits.

Band history

Foundation and first successes

Cliff Adams and Dick James formed the combo in 1949. The original cast consisted of Adams, James, Marie Benson, Fred Datchler and Ronnie Milne. (Dave Carey replaced Milne in 1953). They appeared on UK radio which got them some attention. Towards the end of 1949, the Stargazers made their first recordings . They were a popular background choir for various record labels such as Decca , HMV , Columbia and Polygon Records . Stars on whose records the Stargazers can be heard were artists such as Steve Conway , Benny Lee , Petula Clark , Dennis Lotis and Jimmy Young . From 1952 they had their own radio show on Radio Luxemburg (which switched to the BBC in 1957 ).

The first number one hit

The music of the Stargazers is typical of the first half of the 1950s; Easy listening , plus a couple of so-called “Novelty” songs , songs that had a good sense of humor and brought something that had never happened before. Under their band name they recorded songs like "Me and My Imagination" , "Red Silken Stockings" , "A-Round the Corner" or "Sugarbush" .

Among the mostly American songs that they covered was "Broken Wings" , a song by John Jerome and Bernard Grun that Art and Dotty Todd recorded in the USA. The British liked the version of their “own” band better: “Broken Wings” became the first Stargazers hit - and, on April 10, 1953, their first number one in the British charts , which it did not even last six months gave.

More Achievements

Only eleven months later, on March 12, 1954, they were back at the top - and thus became the first British band to lift their first two hits to the top position in their home country. The song was Meredith Wilson's "I See the Moon" .

Some hit parade experts even treat the Stargazers with a third number one hit: On January 7, 1955, “Finger of Suspicion” came top . Most lists indicate Dickie Valentine as the artist - but others also name the background combo : Dickie Valentine & the Stargazers .

Another Stargazers hit in Great Britain was a version of the German travel song " Mein Vater war ein Wandersmann " ( "The Happy Wanderer" , 12th place), which did not compete with a German version of the Obernkirchen Children's Choir (2nd place). The readers of the New Musical Express voted the Stargazers as the “most popular singing group” for five years in a row.

Dissolution and after

In 1955 Marie Benson left the combo to become a solo artist with Philips Records ; Eula Parker - like Benson from Australia - replaced them. Parker had to give way to June Marlow a little later. Bob Brown had come for Dick James, who brought two hits into the British charts under his own name in 1956 and 1957 ( "Robin Hood" , # 14, and "Garden of Eden" , # 18). James later became a successful entrepreneur - he founded a music publisher (DJM = Dick James Music) and a record company of the same name , which released Elton John's first hits .

Fred Datchler went to the polka dots . (His son Clark was part of the pop band Johnny Hates Jazz in the 1980s .) Cliff Adams went all-radio and formed the Cliff Adams Singers, with whom he remained quite successful.

Discography

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
year	Title album	UK	Remarks
1953	Broken Wings	UK1 (12 weeks) UK
1954	I see the moon	UK1 (15 weeks) UK
	The Happy Wanderer	UK12 (1 week) UK
	The Finger of Suspicion	UK1 (15 weeks) UK	Dickie Valentine & the Stargazers
1955	Somebody	UK20 (1 week) UK
	The Crazy Otto Rag	UK18 (3 weeks) UK
	Close the door	UK6 (9 weeks) UK
	Twenty Tiny Fingers	UK4 (11 weeks) UK
1956	Hot Diggity	UK28 (1 week) UK

Web links

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↑ Chart sources: UK

[charts-1] Chart sources: UK