A recording by Louis Armstrong released in 1964 was a widely popular success, winning the Song of the Year and Male Vocal Performance awards at the 7th Annual Grammy Awards. Armstrong’s rendition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2001.
In January 1964, the same month Hello, Dolly! opened in New York City, Kapp Records released Armstrong’s publishing demo as a commercial single. His version reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, ending the Beatles’ streak of 3 chart-topping hits in a row over 14 consecutive weeks.
“Hello Dolly!” became the most successful single of Armstrong’s career, followed by a Gold-selling album of the same name. The song also spent nine weeks atop the adult contemporary chart shortly after the opening of the musical. The song also made Armstrong the oldest artist ever to reach No. 1 on the Hot 100 since its introduction in 1958. Billboard ranked the record as the No. 3 song of 1964, behind the Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You”.
“Hello, Dolly!” is the title song from the Tony Award-winning 1964 musical which featured Carol Channing in the lead role. In 1969 it was made into a film starring Barbra Streisand. Although the contemporary score was composed in its entirety by Jerry Herman, the play can be traced in one form or another as far back as 1835, in outline at least. In spite of the immediate success of the stage production, the song was released as a single only reluctantly. In its May 23, 1964 edition, the English music paper Melody Maker carried an article “HELLO DOLLY! The hit no one wanted,” which included an interview with Louis Armstrong. Herein it was revealed that although the song had reached #1 in the US charts selling more than a million copies, no one wanted to record it. In retrospect, Satchmo was an obvious choice.
“Hello, Dolly!” – Single by Louis Armstrong from the album Hello, Dolly!
Released January 1964
Songwriter Jerry Herman
Producer Michael Kapp
Charted No.1 in US
