1952 – Top 20 singles, Billboard

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see also:

• Top 20 singles, Billboard – 1950 (closed for repair)
• Top 20 singles, Billboard – 1951

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1. Blue Tango » Leroy Anderson
2. Wheel Of Fortune » Kay Starr
3. Cry » Johnnie Ray
4. You Belong To Me » Jo Stafford
5. Auf Wiederseh’n, Sweetheart » Vera Lynn
6. Half As Much » Rosemary Clooney
7. Wish You Were Here » Eddie Fisher & Hugo Winterhalter
8. I Went To Your Wedding » Patti Page
9. Here In My Heart » Al Martino
10. Delicado » Percy Faith
11. Kiss Of Fire » Georgia Gibbs
12. Anytime » Eddie Fisher & Hugo Winterhalter
13. Tell Me Why » Four Aces
14. The Blacksmith Blues » Ella Mae Morse
15. Jambalaya » Jo Stafford
16. Botch-a-me » Rosemary Clooney
17. A Guy Is A Guy » Doris Day
18. The Little White Cloud That Cried » Johnnie Ray
19. The Ballad of High Noon » Frankie Laine
20. I’m Yours » Eddie Fisher & Hugo Winterhalter

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1. Blue Tango (Leroy Anderson) – music composed in 1951; song published in 1952

Leroy Anderson

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2. Wheel of Fortune (Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss) – published in 1951

Kay Starr

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3. Cry (Churchill Kohlman) – published and first recorded in 1951

Wikipedia excerpts:

The song was first recorded by Ruth Casey on the Cadillac label. The biggest hit version was recorded in New York City by Johnnie Ray and The Four Lads on October 16, 1951.

It was a No.1 hit on the Billboard magazine chart that year, and one side of one of the biggest two-sided hits, as the flip side, “The Little White Cloud that Cried,” reached No.2 on the Billboard chart.

Johnnie Ray and the Four Lads

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4. You Belong to Me (Chilton Price, Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart)

From Wikipedia:

[“You Belong to Me”] is credited to three writers: Pee Wee King, Chilton Price, and Redd Stewart. Miss Price, a songwriting librarian at WAVE Radio Louisville, had written the song in its virtual entirety as “Hurry Home to Me” envisioning the song as an American woman’s plea to a sweetheart serving overseas in World War II. Afforded songwriting credit on the song mostly in exchange for their work in promoting it, King and Stewart did slightly adjust Price’s composition musically and lyrically, shifting the focus from a wartime background “into a kind of universal song about separated lovers” and changing the title to “You Belong to Me”. Price had previously had success with another hit which she had written, “Slow Poke“, under a similar arrangement with the two men.^{[1] [2]}

The original version of the song was recorded by Sue Thompson on Mercury’s country label. It was soon covered by Patti Page, whose version was issued by Mercury as catalog number 5899, with “I Went to Your Wedding” (a bigger Patti Page hit, reaching #1) on the flip side. It entered the Billboard chart on August 22, 1952, and lasted 12 weeks on the chart, peaking at #4.^[3]

A cover version by Jo Stafford became the most popular version. Issued by Columbia Records as catalog number 39811, it was Stafford’s greatest hit, topping the charts in both the United States and the United Kingdom (the first song by a female singer to top the UK chart). It first entered the US chart on August 1, 1952 and remained there for 24 weeks.^[3] In the UK, it appeared in the first ever UK chart of November 14, 1952 (then a top 12) and reached number 1 on January 16, 1953, being only the second record to top such chart,^[4] remaining in the chart for a total of 19 weeks.^[5]

Sue Thompson

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Jo Stafford 

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5. Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart (m. Eberhard Storch, w. English: John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons)

Wikipedia says:

Auf Wiederseh’n Sweetheart is a popular song and a cover version of “Auf wiedersehen, auf wiedersehen” written by German composer Eberhard Storch. Storch wrote the song in the hospital for his wife Maria as he was ill for a long time. The English language lyrics were written by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons. The best-known version of the song was recorded by English singer Vera Lynn. The story goes that Vera was on holiday in Switzerland and heard people singing the song in beer parlours,^[1] and when she got back she felt she had to record it, so found the music and had lyrics written.

Vera Lynn

.

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6. Half as Much (Curley Williams)

Rosemary Clooney

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(below) Colgate Comedy Hour, an episode hosted by Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. I believe it’s episode #1 of the show’s third season, original air date: 21 September 1952.

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7. Wish You Were Here (Harold Rome) – from the 1952 musical of the same name

Eddie Fisher

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8. I Went to Your Wedding (Jessie Mae Robinson)

Patti Page

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9. Here in My Heart (Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson, and Bill Borrelli) – published in 1952

Al Martino

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10. Delicado (m. Valdir Azevedo, w. Jack Lawrence) – published in 1952; a version by Percy Faith reached #1 that year.

Percy Faith

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