THURSDAY BACKTRACK: Music and news from 60 years ago - week ending 26 August 1961

 At #4 this week is Shirley Bassey's 'I Reach For the Stars' (the B side is 'Climb Every Mountain':

Some memorable events (via Wikipedia):

20 August: The Berlin crisis deepens. President Kennedy sends 1,500 troops to West Berlin to show support for the inhabitants. The soldiers are greeted there by Vice-President Lyndon Johnson.

Report in Montreal's 'The Gazette,' 21 August 1961

22 August: soldiers at the Antifaschistischer Schutzwall (the 'Anti-Fascist Protection Wall') are ordered to shoot people trying to flee East Berlin. The first such casualty comes two days later.

23 August: the USA launches its first 'space platform', Ranger 1, as the start of a Moonshot program. A rocket fails and the machine fails to reach high orbit; it falls back to Earth a week later, burning in the air. 

https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/resources/2320/ranger-block-i-design-rangers-1-and-2/

26 August: Burma (now Miyanmar), independent from Great Britain since 1948, amends its constitution to declare Buddhism as the nation's official religion. This attempt to enforce Theravada Buddhism (the religion of c. 90% of the population) on everyone 'failed due to protests by religious minorities'. 

    The military later stages a socialist coup d'état in March 1962 and rules directly or indirectly from then on, with a new Constitution from 1974. 

    From 1988 the situation becomes more fluid, with pro-democracy movements combating State repression. 

    The military junta dissolves in 2011 but in January 2021 there is another military coup d'état, overturning the rule of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD), which won by a landslide (again) in the 2020 general election. 

    BBC news updates for Miyanmar are here: 

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/c302m85q5vzt/myanmar

UK chart hits, week ending 26 August 1961 (tracks in italics have been played in earlier posts)

Htp: Clint's labour-of love compilation https://www.sixtiescity.net/charts/61chart.htm

1	Johnny Remember Me	John Leyton	Top Rank
2	You Don't Know	Helen Shapiro	Columbia
3	Well I Ask You	Eden Kane	Decca
4	Reach For The Stars / Climb Every Mountain	Shirley Bassey	Columbia
5	Halfway To Paradise	Billy Fury	Decca
6	Romeo	Petula Clark	Pye
7	A Girl Like You	Cliff Richard and The Shadows	Columbia
8	Time	Craig Douglas	Top Rank
9	Hello Mary Lou / Travellin' Man	Ricky Nelson	London
10	You Always Hurt The One You Love	Clarence 'Frogman' Henry	Pye
11	Temptation	The Everly Brothers	Warner Brothers
12	Don't You Know It	Adam Faith	Parlophone
13	Quarter To Three	The U.S. Bonds	Top Rank
14	Baby I Don't Care / Valley Of Tears	Buddy Holly	Coral
15	Pasadena	The Temperance Seven	Parlophone
16	Marcheta	Karl Denver	Decca
17	Runaway	Del Shannon	London
18	Cupid	Sam Cooke	RCA
19	Weekend	Eddie Cochran	London
20	Ain't Gonna Wash For A Week	The Brook Brothers	Pye
20	Too Many Beautiful Girls	Clinton Ford	Oriole