It’s all in the game
It’s All In The Game · Tommy Edwards · 1958
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In 1912, a Chicago banker named Charles Gates Dawes wrote the music for a tune he called “Melody in A Major.” Dawes was an amateur flutist, but he’s better known (well, not that much better known) for being Vice-President of the United States in the second administration of President Calvin Coolidge (1925-1929).
Source: The Billboard Book of #1 Hits
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In 1951, songwriter Carl Sigman added lyrics to Dawes’ music, and the result was “It’s All in the Game.” It was recorded that year by Sammy Kaye, Carmen Cavallaro, Dinah Shore, and Tommy Edwards. The latter was the biggest hit version, entering the Billboard™ chart on October 5 and climbing to number 18. |
Edwards had already had a hit with “Morning Side of the Mountain,” but after “It’s All in the Game” he found it difficult to maintain momentum. By 1958, MGM Records was ready to drop him from the artist roster. But stereo recording was just coming into vogue, and this new technology helped save Tommy’s career.
With one session left to record under his MGM contract, Edwards was asked by record executive Marty Craft to re-cut “It’s All in the Game” in stereo. Instead of using the 1951 arrangement, he updated it to a rock and roll ballad. MGM liked the new version well enough to release it as a single, and six weeks after it entered the Hot 100, it topped the chart. In November, it also went to number one in Britain.
Edwards had eight more chart records in the next two years, including a new version of “Morning Side of the Mountain” in 1959. His last chart entry was “It’s Not the End of Everything” in 1960. But in chart terms, it was.
It’s All In the Game - The Complete Hits of Tommy Edwards
Morning Side of the Mountain
