Stranger on the Shore
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| "Stranger on the Shore" | |
|---|---|
 cover art to the single |
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| Single by Mr. Acker Bilk and the Leon Young String Chorale | |
| B-side | "Take My Lips" |
| Released | October 1961 |
| Format | 7" 45rpm |
| Genre | Easy listening |
| Length | 2:52 |
| Label | Columbia/EMI DB4750 (UK) Atco 45-6217 (US) |
| Writer(s) | Acker Bilk |
| Producer | Dennis Preston |
"Stranger on the Shore" is a piece for clarinet written by Acker Bilk for his young daughter and originally named "Jenny" after her.[1] It was subsequently used as the theme tune of a BBC TV drama serial for young people that was also called Stranger on the Shore.[2]
The track, performed by Bilk (as "Mr. Acker Bilk") with backing by the Leon Young String Chorale, was released as a single on Columbia Records DB 4750 in October 1961, with the label of the single openly proclaiming "Theme from the BBC TV. Series". The B-side was "Take My Lips". The single became a phenomenal success, topping the NME singles chart and spending nearly a year on the Record Retailer Top 50. It was the UK's biggest-selling single of 1962,[3] the biggest-selling instrumental single of all time, and appears fifty-eighth in the official UK list of best-selling singles issued in 2002.
On May 26, 1962, "Stranger on the Shore" became the first British recording to reach number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 where it was issued by Atlantic Records on the Atco label, but it was quickly followed, on December 22, by The Tornados' "Telstar", another instrumental. In the pre-rock era, Vera Lynn's "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" had reached #1 in 1952, on the shorter "Best Sellers In Stores" survey. After "Telstar", the next British performers to top the U.S. charts were The Beatles, with their first Capitol Records single "I Want to Hold Your Hand". "Stranger on the Shore" was Billboard's #1 single of 1962, and it spent seven weeks atop the "Easy Listening" chart, which later became known as the Adult Contemporary chart.[4] The tune became the second of three "one-hit wonders" named "pop single of the year" by Billboard (the others being 1958's "Volare (Nel Blu Di Pinto Di Blu)" by Domenico Modugno and 2006's "Bad Day" by Daniel Powter.
In May 1969, the crew of Apollo 10 took "Stranger on the Shore" on their mission to the moon. Gene Cernan, a member of the crew, included the tune on a cassette tape used in the command module of the Apollo spacecraft.
The composition has been covered by many other artists, most prominently a vocal version by Andy Williams, a group vocal version by The Drifters, and a soprano sax smooth jazz adaptation by Kenny G. It was also sampled (with a writer's credit for Bilk) on "A Melody From a Past Life Keeps Pulling Me Back" by The KLF on their album Chill Out, and on the track "Music For Libraries" by Way Out West.
The song was also featured in the soundtrack to Mr. Holland's Opus, as well as in the 1988 film, Red Heat, the 1998 romantic comedy There's Something About Mary and the 2001 movie The Majestic.
The song was playing in the scene in the 2008 Season 2 finale of Mad Men when Betty Draper was having a drink in a bar.
The song is used as the theme tune to BBC Radio 4 sketch show That Mitchell and Webb Sound. It was also played by Karl Pilkington on his phone while riding a camel across the desert and on his MP3 player when is buried alive in Russia on an episode of An Idiot Abroad.
[edit] Charts
| Chart (1962) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom (Record Retailer) | 2[5][6][7] |
| United Kingdom (NME) | 1[8] |
| United Kingdom (Record Mirror) | 1[9] |
| Preceded by "Soldier Boy" by The Shirelles |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single May 26, 1962 (one week) |
Succeeded by "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles |
| Preceded by "Don't Break the Heart That Loves You" by Connie Francis |
"Billboard" Easy Listening number-one single by Mr. Acker Bilk April 21, 1962 (seven weeks) |
Succeeded by "I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles |
[edit] References
- ^ Wade, Anne. "Stranger On The Shore by Mr. Acker Bilk". Songfacts. http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=2170. Retrieved 2009-05-29. "Originally named "Jenny" (after his daughter) on his LP Sentimental Journey, the song's name was changed when Bilk played it as the theme song for a new children's TV show, Stranger On The Shore."
- ^ Stranger On The Shore | A Television Heaven Review
- ^ "Stranger On The Shore notes". United Kingdom: everyHit.com. http://www.everyhit.com/popup.php?songid=1842. Retrieved 2009-05-29. "The biggest-selling single of 1962."
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (2002). Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001. Record Research. p. 33.
- ^ "Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive: 13th January 1962". The Official Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1962-01-13/. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive: 20th January 1962". The Official Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1962-01-20/. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ "Top 40 Official UK Singles Archive: 27th January 1962". The Official Charts Company. http://www.theofficialcharts.com/archive-chart/_/1/1962-01-27/. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ Rees, Dafydd; Lazell, Barry; Osborne, Roger (1995). Forty Years of "NME" Charts (2nd ed.). Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-7522-0829-2.
- ^ Smith, Alan. "Every No.1 in the 1960s is listed from all the nine different magazine charts!". Dave McAleer's website. http://www.davemcaleer.com/page22.htm. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
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