Born: 8 December 1925
Died: 16 May 1990 (aged 64)
Real name: Samuel George Davis Jr
Davis was born in Harlem in New York. His father, Sammy Davis Snr, was a performer and tap dancer and his mother, Elvera Sanchez, was a dancer. When he was 3 his parents separated and his father got custody of him and he would learn to dance from his father. He served in the US Army during World War II where he ended up performing to the troops. Returning from the war, he joined his father’s dance troupe and began performing in clubs. The response he got was so positive that he was eventually offered a television show in 1953. Between 1949 and 1953 he had recorded a few singles, but after securing the television show, his recording career took off and he would go on to star in films as part of The Rat Pack, the nickname given to a group of entertainers which included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He would see 16 Hot 100 hits (although the Hot 100 only started in 1955) with ‘Candy Man’ giving him his only chart topper. On the other side of the Atlantic he managed 9 hits with ‘Love Me Or Leave Me’ giving him his only top 10 hit as it went to 8. He would convert to Judaism in 1961 after the singer Eddie Cantor pointed out the similarities between black and Jewish cultures. He would die from throat cancer (possibly linked to the fact that he was a heavy smoker) in 1990.
| Date of entry | Song | Peak (weeks at 1) | Weeks |
| 07-Mar-1969 | I’ve Gotta Be Me | 9 | 8 |
| Total hits | 1 | ||
| Total weeks | 8 |
| Biggest climber awards | 0 |
| Star rater climbs | 0 |
| Biggest fallers | 0 |
| Weeks with oldest in the charts | 0 |
| Longest run in the charts (weeks) | 8 |
| Weeks with more than 1 in the charts | 0 |
| Biggest gap between hits (weeks) | 0 |
| Top 30 points ranking | =916 |
| Top 20 points ranking | =885 |
| Top 30 points | 135 |
| Top 20 points | 55 |
SA Singles Charts 