Top 100 1961

Position	Artist	Title
01	Elvis Presley	Wooden Heart
02	Del Shannon	Runaway
03	Helen Shapiro	You Don't Know
04	John Leyton	Johnny Remember Me
05	Helen Shapiro	Walking Back To Happiness
06	Eden Kane	Well I Ask You
07	The Everly Brothers	Walk Right Back / Ebony Eyes
08	Allisons	Are You Sure
09	Billy Fury	Halfway To Paradise
10	Elvis Presley	Are You Lonesome Tonight?
11	Elvis Presley	Surrender
12	Ricky Nelson	Hello Mary Lou / Travelin' Man
13	Shirley Bassey	Reach For The Stars / Climb Ev'ry Mountain
14	The Everly Brothers	Temptation
15	Elvis Presley	His Latest Flame / Little Sisters
16	Petula Clark	Sailor
17	The Shadows	Frightened City
18	The Temperance Seven	You're Driving Me Crazy
19	The Marcels	Blue Moon
20	Johnny Tillotson	Poetry In Motion
21	Frankie Vaughan	Tower Of Strength
22	Andy Stewart	A Scottish Soldier
23	The Shadows	FBI
24	Clarence 'Frogman' Henry	But I Do
25	The Temperance Seven	Pasadena
26	The Highwaymen	Michael
27	Cliff Richard	Theme For A Dream
28	Helen Shapiro	Don't Treat Me Like A Child
29	Bobby Vee	More Than I Can Say / Staying In
30	The Shadows	Kon-Tiki
31	Shirelles	Will You Love Me Tomorrow?
32	Petula Clark	Romeo
33	Jimmy Dean	Big Bad John
34	Cliff Richard	A Girl Like You
35	Cliff Richard	I Love You
36	Floyd Cramer	On The Rebound
37	Danny Williams	Moon River
38	Duane Eddy	Pepe
39	Matt Monro	Portrait Of My Love
40	Cliff Richard	When The Girl In Your Arms Is The Girl In Your Heart
41	Billy Fury	Jealousy
42	Bobby Vee	Take Good Care Of My Baby
43	Ferrante & Teicher	Theme From 'Exodus'
44	John Leyton	Wild Wind
45	Cleo Laine	You'll Answer To Me
46	Adam Faith	Who Am I? / This Is It
47	Bobby Darin	Lazy River
48	Johnny Burnette	You're Sixteen
49	Johnny Dankworth	African Waltz
50	Shirley Bassey	You'll Never Know
51	Elvis Presley	Wild In The Country / I Feel So Bad
52	Mr Acker Bilk	That's My Home
53	Matt Monro	My Kind Of Girl
54	Cliff Richard	Gee Whiz It's You
55	Karl Denver	Marcheta
56	Roy Orbison	Running Scared
57	Adam Faith	The Time Has Come
58	The Brook Brothers	War Paint
59	Craig Douglas	Time
60	Del Shannon	Hats Off To Larry
61	The Drifters	Save The Last Dance For Me
62	Mr Acker Bilk	Buona Sera
63	The Ramrods	Riders In The Sky
64	The String-A-Longs	Wheels
65	Lonnie Donegan	Have A Drink On Me
66	Clarence 'Frogman' Henry	You Always Hurt The One You Love
67	Joe Loss	Wheels Cha Cha
68	Connie Francis	Where The Boys Are / Baby Roo
69	Anthony Newley	And The Heavens Cried
70	US Bonds	Quarter To Three
71	Lonnie Donegan presents Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen	Samantha
72	Bobby Vee	Rubber Ball
73	Dave Brubeck	Take Five
74	Sam Cooke	Cupid
75	Laurie Johnson Orchestra	Sucu Sucu
76	Tony Orlando	Bless You
77	Neil Sedaka	Calendar Girl
78	Emile Ford & The Checkmates	Counting Teardrops
79	Eddie Cochran	Weekend
80	Connie Francis	Together
81	Buddy Holly	Baby I Don't Care / Valley Of Tears
82	Jerry Lee Lewis	What'd I Say
83	Linda Scott	I've Told Every Little Star
84	Elvis Presley	It's Now Or Never
85	Ray Charles	Hit The Road Jack
86	Karl Denver	Mexicali Rose
87	Bobby Vee	How Many Tears
88	Duane Eddy	Theme From Dixie
89	Kenny Ball & His Jazzmen	Midnight In Moscow
90	Brenda Lee	Let's Jump The Broomstick
91	Lonnie Donegan	Michael Row The Boat / Lumbered
92	Neil Sedaka	Little Devil
93	Eden Kane	Get Lost
94	The Ventures	Perfidia
95	Adam Faith	Don't You Know It?
96	Don Gibson	Sea Of Heartbreak
97	Johnny Burnette	Little Boy Sad
98	Buzz Clifford	Baby Sittin' Boogie
99	Charlie Drake	My Boomerang Won't Come Back
100	Craig Douglas	100 Pounds Of Clay

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A Synopsis of what happened in 1961

In America, JFK was inaugurated as President and was immediately thrown in at the deep end with the Cuban Crisis. Fidel Castro declared Cuba a communist state and banned free elections. The U.S.A. broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. The "Bay of Pigs" attempt to overthrow Castro by Cuban Exiles with C.I.A. involvement went diastrously wrong.

Elsewhere, Russia closed the border between East and West Germany, and started construction of the Berlin wall. In the space race. the Russians continued to show the Americans a clean pair of heels when first Yuri Gagarin, then Gherman Titov were the first two men to successfully orbit the earth. Alan Shepard became the second person and the first American in space, but his was a sub orbital trip only lasting minutes compared to Gagarin’s almost two hours. Needless to say, Gagarin is the name everyone remembers. This stung JFK into asking Congress for $531 million to put a man on the moon.

Aluminium was used for food cans for the first time and Diana Spencer, later to marry Prince Charles and become Pricess Diana, was born.

On UK television, "The Avengers" appeared on screen for the first time with the ever present Patrick McNee as Steed and Honour Blackman as Cathy Gale - the first of several nubile female co-stars. popular shows imported from the US had a stong western influence with shows such as "Gunsmoke", "Wagon Train" and "Bonanza" attracting large audiences

Musically, the charts still reflected a wide range of tastes, with Shirley Bassey, Matt Monro, Frankie Vaughan and Andy Stewart slugging it out with US acts such as Elvis, The Drifters, the Everlys and Bobby Vee. Jazz was well represented with Acker Bilk, The Temperance Seven, Kenny Ball, Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth. The ever popular Lonnie Donnegan was still knocking out the hits and Cliff Richard, Billy Fury and Adam Faith continued to cause female teenage hearts to flutter, while 14 year old singing sensation Helen Shapiro had two number 1 singles. In the US, Motown had their first million selling single with "Shop Around" by The Miracles. It would be another six years before the name was changed to Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

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