| "Wheel of Fortune" | |
|---|---|
| Song | |
| Published | 1951 |
| Songwriter(s) | |
| "Wheel of Fortune" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Kay Starr | ||||
| from the album The Hits of Kay Starr | ||||
| B-side | "I Wanna Love You" | |||
| Released | February 11, 1952 | |||
| Recorded | 1952 | |||
| Genre | Traditional pop | |||
| Length | 3:04 | |||
| Label | Capitol | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss | |||
| Kay Starr singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"Wheel of Fortune" is a popular song written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss and published in 1951. It is best remembered in the 1952 hit version by Kay Starr.
The song was originally recorded in 1951, for RCA Victor by Johnny Hartman, and about the same time for Crescendo Records by Al Costello with the Walter Scott Orchestra.[1][2] Several hit versions of "Wheel of Fortune" were released in 1952. The first chart hit was by the Eddie Wilcox Orchestra featuring Sunny Gale, whose version reached number 2 on the R&B chart and number 13 on the pop chart. The most successful version was by Kay Starr, whose recording reached number 1 in the US pop chart in March 1952, staying there for ten weeks. Other hit versions in 1952 came from Dinah Washington (number 3, R&B), Bobby Wayne (number 6, pop), The Cardinals (number 6, R&B), and The Bell Sisters (number 10, pop).[3][4]
The song was also used as the theme to the television series Wheel of Fortune.
In 1998, the 1952 version by Kay Starr was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. [5]