The Festival of British Popular Songs 1956 was a song contest organised by BBC Television and the inaugural edition of the Festival of British Popular Songs, which became the United Kingdom's national selection process the following year for the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest. Held from May to October, the contest featured 36 songs performed twice through 6 heats. The contest was made to promote British music, as an answer to claims that the BBC favoured American music. The eventual winner was "Everybody Falls in Love With Someone", written and composed by Peter Hart and Norman Newell. Though not recorded by any of its performers at the contest, the winning song went on to be recorded by Matt Monro and Dickie Henderson. The contest is notable for inspiring changes in the Eurovision Song Contest, most notably introducing a scoreboard to the voting sequence.
The competition
Format
The competition consisted of six heats held every four weeks starting on 7 May 1956. Each heat had six songs competing and each song was performed twice by two different singers, one accompanied by an orchestra (directed by either Eric Robinson, Stanley Black, or George Melachrino), and one accompanied by a small band. The George Mitchell singers accompanied each show as backing vocalists. The best placing song in each heat, decided by the votes of different cities across the United Kingdom, qualified to the final.
Competing entries
The BBC selected 36 entries from over 90 songs submitted by British music publishers. The songs were chosen by a committee chaired by Ronnie Waldman. Known song titles, associated performers, and songwriters are shown below:
Performers which are known to have participated but it is not known with what song are: Kenny Baker, Joan Bramhall, Tony Brent, Dora Bryan, Alma Cogan, The Coronets, Diana Decker, Doreen Duke, The Four Grads, Dennis Hale, John Hanson, Ronnie Hilton, Kathie Kay, The Kentones, Lee Lawrence, Benny Lee, Vanessa Lee, Janie Marden, Bill O'Connor, Alan Page, Anne Shelton, Bruce Trent.
Shows
Heat 1
The titles of the 3 other songs are unknown, other known performers are listed below:
Kenny Baker
Alma Cogan
Diana Decker
Dennis Hale
Ronnie Hilton
The Kentones
Vanessa Lee
Bruce Trent
Frankie Vaughan was supposed to compete in this heat but withdrew as he felt he could not do justice to the song he was asked to sing. The orchestra was directed by Eric Robinson, and The Bill McGuffie Quartet was the small band.
Heat 2
The titles of the other 4 songs are unknown, other known performers are listed below:
Anne Shelton
Dennis Lotis
The Keynotes
The orchestra was directed by Stanley Black and the small band was organised by Semprini.
Heat 3
The titles of the other 4 songs are unknown, other known performers are listed below:
John Hanson
Benny Lee
Joan Bramhall
The Coronets
The Orchestra was directed by George Melachrino and the small band was The Max Jaffa Quintet.
Heat 4
Other known performers are listed below:
Dora Bryan
Bill O'Connor
Kathie Kay
Doreen Duke
Alan Page
The Four Grads
The orchestra was directed by Eric Robinson and the small band was The Malcolm Lockyer Quartet.
Heat 5
The titles of the other 5 songs are unknown, other known performers are listed below:
Dennis Hale
Janie Marden
The Kentones
The Orchestra was directed by Stanley Black and the small band was The Bill McGuffie Quartet.
Heat 6
The titles of the other 5 songs are unknown, other known performers are listed below:
Anne Shelton
Lee Lawrence
Tony Brent
The Coronets
The orchestra was directed by George Melachrino and the small band was The Frank Weir Quartet.
Final
Johnny Brandon, who sang "Everybody Falls In Love With Someone" in heat 4, was replaced by Dennis Lotis in the final as he was in America during the time of the final.
Each song used the same orchestra conductor and small band as was used in its heat.
Reception
The songs were seen by the public as of a low quality, with many people criticising the lack of originality and variation in the songs. However, the voting sections of the shows were often regarded as the most entertaining part of the show.