Al Martino was born Alfred Cini on October 7th 1927 in Philadelphia, USA and was at the height of his career when Here in my Heart became the very first No 1 on the 14th November 1952. The song set a record that was to stand for 30 years, holding the No 1 position for 9 consecutive weeks, thus securing Al Martino a record deal with Capitol and the record for being the only performer to have had a number one hit in an entire year, a record that you can be almost certain will never be equaled!
Despite this being the first UK number one, it was Al Martino’s second spell at the top of the charts with the song as it spent 3 weeks at the top of the US charts in June of 1952.
The song was written by Pat Genaro, Lou Levinson and Bill Borelli and produced by Voyle Gilmore.
Mario Lanza had also planned to record this song but changed his mind when Martino rang Lanza in Los Angeles and asked him not to so his own recording wouldn’t be neglected. Martino was backed by 52 musicians on the recording of the song which appears on the 1962 album, The Exciting Voice of Al Martino, a No 1 album in both the UK and the USA.
Martino revisited the charts in 1955 with his version of The Man from Laramie which only managed to reach the top 20; he then faded into obscurity chart wise until 1973 when he had a top 5 hit with Spanish Eyes. This makes Martino only one of fourteen acts whose chart career has spanned over 20 years.
Al Martino continued recording both singles and albums until 1978 and 2006 respectively, releasing in that time 52 singles and 34 albums although he never quite achieved the success of Here in My Heart.
Martino also starred as Mafia owned nightclub singer Johnny Fontane in the 1972 movie, The Godfather, as well as singing the films theme song, Speak Softly Love. He played the same character in The Godfather Part III and The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980.
The producer Voyle Gilmore went on to produce hits for Frank Sinatra and in May 1967, The Beatles at The Hollywood Bowl.
Here in my Heart is the first no1 to feature a part of the body in the title, a record that was only to last until February 1953.
Al will be forever written into the record books as the only artist to top the charts in an entire year, 1952 and while this record celebrated its sixth week at number one, a future chart topper, Dave Clark (Dave Clarke Five) was celebrating his tenth birthday.
Al Martino, Italian-American crooner and pop chart record holder, died on 13th October 2009.
Charting The Charts 