Side Saddle

This article is about the piano instrumental. For the riding style, see sidesaddle.
"Side Saddle"
Single by Russ Conway
B-side "Pixilated Penguin"
Released 1959[1]
Format Single
Genre Popular music, piano music
Label Columbia Records[2]
Writer(s) Trevor Stanford[1]
Producer(s) Norman Newell[2]

"Side Saddle" is a hit single which was number one in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks from 27 March 1959.[2]

The honky-tonk style tune, composed and played by British popular music pianist Russ Conway, was written as part of the score for a television musical adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.[3][4] Conway, sitting in the TV rehearsal room, was asked to write a last-minute tune for one small scene set in a ballroom. He wrote 16 bars as an "olde-world gavotte" and hastily titled it "Side Saddle" in the margin.[5]

The song was a staple of the BBC's Housewives' Choice radio program.[6]

Preceded by
"Smoke Gets in Your Eyes" by The Platters		 UK Singles Chart number-one single
27 March 1959 – 23 April 1959 		Succeeded by
"It Doesn't Matter Anymore" by Buddy Holly

References

  1. 1 2 "Russ Conway - Side Saddle (Vinyl) at Discogs". Discogs.com. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  2. 1 2 3 Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 42. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
  3. ↑ Joseph Murrells (1984), Million Selling Records from the 1900s to the 1980s, Batsford, p. 127, ISBN 978-0-7134-3843-7
  4. ↑ Colin Larkin (2002), The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music, Virgin, p. 89, ISBN 978-1-85227-937-0
  5. ↑ Dennis Barker. "Obituary: Russ Conway | News". The Guardian. Retrieved 2014-04-04.
  6. ↑ Adair, Joseph (2011). No.1 Hits of the '50s (Media notes). One Day Music.
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