THE HIT HAMMER: Guy Mitchell's "Heartaches By the Number"

Guy Mitchell's "Heartaches by the Number"

Guy Mitchell - "Heartaches by the Number"

Hit Number 1: December 14, 1959

Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks

Guy Mitchell got his start as a child star when he was signed by Warner Bros., and he performed on KWFB in Los Angeles. When he left school, he got a job as a saddle maker to supplement his income by singing. Just like many other performers in Mitchell's day, he spent two years in the U.S. Navy, before coming back to singing. He originally recorded for Decca Records with Carmen Cavallaro's Big Band, but he had to leave due to a bad case of food poisoning. He then started recording at King Records, and won a radio show in 1949 as a soloist on the show "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts".

Shortly after that, he was discovered by Mitch Miller who signed him to a deal with Columbia Records. And it was there that his stage name was created. Yes, Guy Mitchell is not a real person. (At least not a person I know of) He was born as Albert George Cernik. Miller came up with his stage name because he told Cernik how his name was Mitchell and that he seemed like a nice "guy". So thus, the name "Guy Mitchell" was created. And apparently that stage name was somewhat of a good luck charm for Cernik, because that's when his career really started to take off. Along with his singing, Mitchell started acting in movies as well. In 1951, he had his breakthrough hit, "My Heart Cries for You".

After several more hits throughout the 1950s, including a 10-week run at #1 on the Pre-Hot 100 with "Singing the Blues", his lone #1 on the Hot 100 came along. "Heartaches by the Number" is a decent song, and I like the whistling that opens up the song. But that's all it is for me, is ALRIGHT. There is nothing I love about the song, or anything that gives me any sort of urgency to hear it again. It's just an okay little tune that had its two weeks of fame at #1. The song is about a guy who is getting treated like crap from a lover, who can't seem to leave this poor guy alone. She keeps leaving him, and then coming back over and over again. And each time she leaves, it's another "heartache by the number" and the narrator says that the day he stops counting is the "day his world will end".

Mitchell would continue to perform, and even appeared in an episode of Thriller in 1961, until he died in 1999 after complications from cancer surgery.

GRADE: 5/10