Dot 5359
Arrangements: Larry Gordon, Bill Fontaine, George Wyle, Bob Ballard, George Cates, Milt Rogers, and Joe Rizzo
Track listing: Calcutta / Sailor (Your Home Is the Sea) / Perfidies / April in Portugal / Humoresque Boogie / Corrine Corrina / Bombay Mam’selle / Mountain King / Blue Tango / Ruby / Save the Last Dance for Me
March 13, 1961
11 weeks stereo, 8 weeks mono (nonconsecutive)
When veteran German-born band-leader Lawrence Welk first heard “Calcutta” he wasn’t impressed. “I listened to it and I thought it was interesting, but when I played it for Lawrence, he wasn’t so sure,” says Welk’s musical supervisor, George Cates. When Cates, who was also a recording artist at the time, said that he would record the song, Welk relented. “If it’s good enough for you to do, then it’s good enough for me,” Welk told Cates.
“Calcutta” was a German tune composed by Heino Gaze and originally titled “Tivoli Melody.” It marked a change for Welk, who had been leading bands since the middle of the 1920s. “Instead of the ‘champagne music’ we decided that we would do something a little different,” Cates says. “We decided to use a harpsichord.” Originally, the track was set to be the B-side of “My Grandfather’s Clock,” but then radio picked up on the song, featuring Frank Scott on the harpsichord.
While critics often attacked Welk’s music for its blandness, he was certainly popular with the public. Even in the rock era, he had charted 13 albums prior to Calcutta! While the majority of his albums peaked in the mid-teens, Last Date, his 1960 album, peaked at number four.
Undoubtedly contributing to Welk’s resurgence was the exposure he received on television. In 1952, Welk made his television debut on KTLA in Los Angeles. Three years later, on July 2, 1955, The Lawrence Welk Show was picked up by the ABC television network. Welk’s popularity was so great that ABC gave the bandleader a second hour on October 8, 1956, for Lawrence Welk’s Top Tunes and New Talent.
The TV exposure and radio play of “Calcutta” sent the single climbing the Hot 100. Quick to cash in on his rising popularity, Welk rushed into the studio in between TV shows to cut a full album around “Calcutta.” As the album’s back cover states, “the smash hit single leads a parade of instrumental hits.” In keeping with the feel of “Calcutta,” harpsichord was prominently featured on the album. “We had to use harpsichord on just about every recording after that,” says Cates.
Although none of the other tracks on the album actually became hits, the popularity of “Calcutta” was sufficient enough to drive the album to the top. The single reached Number One on February 13, 1961. Exactly a month later, Calcutta simultaneously topped the stereophonic and monophonic album charts.
It was Welk’s first and last Number One album and single of the rock era. The bubbly-music bandleader continued to prosper on TV until 1982. A decade later, he died of pneumonia.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of March 13, 1961
1. Calcutta!, Lawrence Welk
2. Exodus, Soundtrack
3. Great Motion Picture Themes, Various Artists
4. Camelot, Original Cast
5. Sinatra’s Swingin’ Session, Frank Sinatra