EVERY UK NUMBER ONE: ‘The Garden of Eden’ – Frankie Vaughan

What was the number one song in the UK on 25th January 1957?

By Hayley Beasley Dye

English singer Frankie Vaughan was number one with The Garden of Eden for 4 weeks.

When this song first started playing, I wasn’t convinced. I thought it was going to be terrible, but actually as the song continues it gets better and better. It’s a song that builds and builds and will have you swaying and kicking your legs in the air by the end of the song. Also, Frankie’s vocals are incredibly impressive. As the saying goes “they don’t make ’em like that anymore”.

Wikipedia

“The Garden of Eden” is a song written and composed by Dennise Haas Norwood, and first recorded by Joe Valino, which reached Number 12 on the Billboard chart in October 1956. Valino recorded the song at his second session with Vik, a subsidiary of RCA Records. “I knew it would be a hit, even as I was recording it,” he told Wayne Jancik in The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders.

In the UK the most popular version was recorded by the singer Frankie Vaughan, and gave him his first No. 1 hit in the United Kingdom in early 1957. The song first entered the UK Singles Chart on 11 January 1957, spent four weeks at the top, and 13 weeks in the charts altogether.

Other versions of the song have also been recorded by Dick James, Gary Miller, and Paul Raven.

Lyrics