Laurie London He's Got The Whole World In His Hands (CD)

The year was 1957. In September, a 13-year-old English boy named Laurie London entered London's famous Abbey Road Studios to record a song which like Sputnik, launched by Russia the following month, reverberated around the world. A few months later that song, He's Got The Whole World In His Hands, had sold more than a million copies, topping the American charts along the way. 

With a powerful and naturally musical voice, the young Laurie London went on to record nearly 30 songs for the Parlophone label over a period of several years. This overdue tribute from Bear Family makes available for the first time all of Laurie London's U.K. recordings, and chronicles in detail the extraordinary events which happened in 1957/8 and made Laurie London a household name.

 LAURIE LONDON   He's Got The Whole World In His Hands

Until The Beatles came along in 1964, British artists were a rarity anywhere in the American 'Pop' singles charts, let alone at the top spot. Vera Lynn had first achieved the feat in 1952 when Auf Wiederseh'n, Sweetheart held Number One for two weeks. Ten years later, in 1962, Mr. Acker Bilk's Stranger On The Shore made the same journey, as did The Tornados'Telstar at the end of that year. Then in 1964, The Beatles swept all before them. But something special did happen in the decade between the 'Forces Sweetheart' and the Somerset clarinettist. That year was 1958.

In 1956, the surprise hit of the year, on both sides of the Atlantic, was Lonnie Donegan's Rock Island Line, by any definition a novelty song of American folk origin, nevertheless leading to the 'Great British Skiffle' explosion. It never actually made Number One, peaking at eight on the U.S. 'Billboard' chart, and taking several years to win a gold record for selling more than one million copies. Following in Donegan's footsteps over a year later, skiffler Chas McDevitt charted in the States at a lowly 40 with his, or rather Nancy Whiskey's, Freight Train. This was easily eclipsed by the magnificent fourth place reached by ex-Butlin's holiday camp 'Red Coat' Russ Hamilton with Rainbow in June, 1957. Curiously, the song had nothing like that impact at home, where it had been the flip-side to Hamilton's big hit, the simple but charming (and self-penned) We Will Make Love, which had reached number two on the U.K. chart.

Russ Hamilton's follow-up and only other hit, Wedding Ring, was just exiting the lower reaches of the British Top Thirty when a Negro spiritual recorded by a 13-year-old English schoolboy from a Jewish background made its appearance. The boy was Laurie London (appropriately from North London), the song He's Got The Whole World In His Hands, recorded (again appropriately) on Sunday, 29th September, 1957. Entering the chart dated 8th November, it remained there for almost three months, reaching a peak position of number twelve. That may well have been that, but upon release in America early in 1958, by the end of March it had entered the 'Billboard' Top 100, hitting Number One three weeks later and, soon after that, total world sales had exceeded the magic million mark, thus making it eligible for a Gold Disc. Not bad for a 13-turned-14-year-old - and English to boot! And not only that - like Lonnie Donegan before him, Master London had achieved transatlantic success by exporting back to America one of its home-grown songs...