Songfacts®:

• Al Martino's friend Mario Lanza dropped his plans to record this when Martino told him he'd set his heart on recording this. Martino's first single, it went on to become a transatlantic #1.
• This was the first song ever to hit #1 on the UK charts. Al Martino knew this was a UK #1, but had no idea it was the first until someone told him he'd made The Guinness Book of Records. >>

  Suggestion credit:
  Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for above 2
• Martino died on October 13, 2009 at age 82. Born Alfred Cini in south Philadelphia in 1927, Al worked as a bricklayer before joining the Marines (where he was wounded in the invasion of Iwo Jima), all the while hoping to be a singer like his friend Mario Lanza. Upon his return he adopted his grandfather's surname and began work in New York nightclubs, eventually winning Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts program and a recording contract with Capitol Records in 1952. "Here In My Heart" topped the charts that year and was followed by "Take My Heart" (#12 - 1952). Unfortunately, this drew the attention of organized crime figures, who bought out his management contract. Al fled to England and had no American chart records for the next seven years, until a friend was able to work out his safe return in 1958. Over the next twenty years, Al had six top 20 hits, including "I Love You Because" (#3 - 1963), "Painted, Tainted Rose" (#15 - 1963), "I Love You More And More Every Day" (#9 - 1964), "Spanish Eyes" (#15 - 1966) and "To The Door Of The Son" (17 - 1975). He is best remembered for the role of Johnny Fontane in The Godfather trilogy of movies, which many say was based on Frank Sinatra, a claim Al always denied.