EDDIE CALVERT- "Oh Mein Papa"

If I was being crass (never!) I’d say this was a dance record – steady beat, cycling melody, simple repeated lyrical hook. And it is a dance record: a lazy, slow, respectable sort of dance record. The entry of the organ at 1’30” is the most ‘fifties-evocative’ thing I’ve heard yet – except it evokes an imagined 50s, learned from Hi-De-Hi and English murder mysteries, last dances in the Hawaiian ballroom and the gentle tap of heel on lacquer. I cannot imagine any circumstances in which anyone today would want to or get to hear this record unless they were embarked on some idiotic scheme like this one.

Score: 4

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FRANKIE LAINE – "Answer Me"

THE STARGAZERS – "I See The Moon"

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koganbot

28 September 2006 13:54

[ed: was this meant to be a stork?]

Doctor Mod

14 October 2006 21:00

19 February 1954:

Doctor Mod’s third birthday, the first in California. (“Mein Papa” was still in Hawaii, though, so I imagine we had a good time.)

Lena

19 October 2006 22:12

For what it’s worth, I don’t think it’s an idiotic scheme, though 1953/4 does look pretty brutal…

R. A. Neill

17 March 2007 16:37

A forgotten classic from the Man with the Golden Trumpet(even if he later grew to hate it). For me it is pure nostalgia. It was released two days before my eighth birthday, and was one of the most frequently played tracks on the Radio at that time(must have been the BBC Light Programme). I have not heard it for years, but have never forgotten the sound of that trumpet. I’m glad to hear that it has been re-released on CD.
The fact that it was the first ever number 1 to be recorded at Abbey Road gives it a special place in pop history.

intothefireuk

10 November 2007 14:19

Another Germanic flavoured piece complete with piercing trumpet (which seems to rather stray towards Spain) and quivering organ. A less exciting piece of music would be difficult to find (although the 50s is a very good place to start). It is, apparently, a mostly instrumental version of a song mourning the death of a beloved Father. Which could explain why, in post war Britain, it struck a chord with a nation, still in mourning for it’s lost loved ones.

Keith W

21 March 2008 09:55

I’m 34, and this is the first of the UK No 1s. that I actually like. It’s been doing the rounds in my random playlists for a few years now. It’s a nice enough tune, I reckon, which is more than the previous number ones had.

Matthew

10 January 2009 20:46

I am also 34 and I pretty much agree with the above comment. Great trumpetwork! Mind you, I can’t listen to 50s music without imagining it soundtracking some kind of vile psychosexual Dennis Potter scene, so I may not be hearing in the manner the original creators intended.

wichita lineman

17 January 2009 20:28

Redolent of bottle green paint and utility furniture – I don’t think it’s the sound of an ‘imagined’ 50s at all, Tom. I imagine it on Housewives Choice, mirroring a yearning for romantic ballroom clinches (maybe with The Man With The Golden Trumpet and the Brylcreemed hair himself!) or something, anything, to aid escape from austerity Britain. It has an other-worldliness – that the village hall organ aggressively attempts to ground – which stems from Eddie C’s rather wayward blowing; not exactly jazz but still straying into dreamy, lonesome bullfighter territory. It is quite an obtuse take on a tribute to a dead father. I’ll bet Joe Meek had a copy.

Later in ’54 Dylan Thomas read Under Milk Wood on the radio for the first time, and Kingsley Amis’s Lucky Jim was published. Just to put this in some kind of British cultural perspective, German origins or not!

Presumably closer to the original was the vocal version by Eddie Fisher, a Top 10 hit at the same time and comically cloying: “O mein papa, so funny in his way”.

I love that “in his way”, a tribute to Dad jokes. Praise as lukewarm as “you are so beautiful, to me.”

Billy Smart

19 March 2009 12:50

Light Entertainment Watch: Eddie Calvert maintained a television presence well into the 1960s. None of these shows survive;

THE KEN DODD SHOW: with Eddie Calvert and the ‘C’ Men, Jula De Palma, Mirko De Yorke, Denny Bettis, Joan Hurley, Joyce Adcock, Anastasia, Sonny Day, Carl Von Wurden, Barbara Sibley (1962)

THE KEN DODD SHOW: with Petula Clark, Arthur Worsley, Eddie Calvert (1966)

THE NEW LONDON PALLADIUM SHOW: with Frankie Vaughan, Eddie Calvert, Ray Fell, Jim Dale, Michael Allport (1965)

SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM (VAL PARNELL’S …..): with The London Palladium Girls, The London Palladium Orchestra, Bruce Forsyth, The Daily Mirror Disc Festival, Max Bygraves, Eddie Calvert, Alma Cogan, Ted Heath and his Music, Ruby Murray, Joan Regan (1955)

SUNDAY NIGHT AT THE LONDON PALLADIUM (VAL PARNELL’S …..): with Bruce Forsyth, The Daily Mirror Disc Festival, Winifred Atwell, Eddie Calvert, Alma Cogan, Lonnie Donegan With His Skiffle Group, Ted Heath, Ronnie Hilton, Ruby Murray, Anne Shelton (1956)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Adam Faith, Marty Wilde, The Springfields, Eddie Calvert and the ‘C’ Men, Kenny Lynch, Dave Cones, Christine Campbell, Don Moss (1962)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Billy Fury, Eddie Calvert, Bernard Cribbins, Nicky Henson, Peter Jay and the Jaywalkers, Dick Kallman, The Vernons Girls, Bobby Vee and the Crickets, Muriel Young (1962)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Brian Matthew, Cilla Black, The Walker Brothers, The Mindbenders, Eddie Calvert (1966)

Eli

19 December 2010 23:57

I much prefer the vocal versions – Eddie Fisher’s hit the top in the USA. I find myself agreeing with Tom’s assertion that “I cannot imagine any circumstances in which anyone today would want to or get to hear this record unless they were embarked on some idiotic scheme like this one”. The fact that people made this #1 for NINE weeks baffles me, but even in 2010, it has its fans, as we can see above…

slideyfoot

16 May 2020 17:29

Fans in 2020 too: like the other 30 somethings (though I’m only just clinging to that group, at 39), I found this one appealing too. Albeit in the same “this sounds like it could be in a weird film” type of way as previous commenters. 😉

Gareth Parker

8 June 2021 18:46

I still rather like this. A generous 6/10 from me.

NumberOnesBlogGuy

3 February 2023 12:09

Is this the number one single that most represents the pre-rock era? Eddie Calvert parping out a very unsexy trumpet-based tune… That stayed on top for 9 ruddy weeks(!!!) And, yes, the organ. It brings to mind tea dances in shabby church halls, the week’s rations having been spent on a new pair of nylons (I don’t think that this is quite how rationing worked, but hey ho). Calvert’s next #1 is much better, but is still outdone by its chart-topping clone. 2/10.

Rodmey Lewis

24 March 2023 06:31

I was just a student trumpet player in 1959 and when I first heard Eddie Calvert`s
“O Mein Papa” I fell in love with it. I had never heard such a beautiful, rich tone and lyrical expression from any trumpet player… I am 86 now and still playing, and still this version of the song is my favourite..I have played it many times at retirement villages and it still stirs the oldies…such music will never die…a 10/10 from me

PAPAT

1 April 2023 12:12

Thank you for your post, always nice to hear first hand reminiscences about decades earlier than the usual internet nostalgia cut-off points.

wpDiscuz

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EDDIE CALVERT- "Oh Mein Papa"

FRANKIE LAINE – "Answer Me"

THE STARGAZERS – "I See The Moon"

Latest comments on Popular