“Young Love,” a cover of Sonny James’s hit song, was Tab Hunter’s debut record. “Young Love” speaks of the singer’s first love and the devotion with which the two conducted their relationship. At the time of the song’s recording, Hunter was secretly dating fellow actors Anthony Perkins, but he was not Hunter’s first boyfriend: Olympic figure skater Ronnie Robertson was.

Meeting in the early 1950s, Hunter soon became infatuated with the talented ice skater. They would conduct a secret relationship from the early 50s to 1956. Hunter would fund Robertson’s training, and while Hunter’s mother was admitted in a mental hospital, Robertson’s family offered support to him.

Perhaps aided by Hunter’s star status due to his acting career, the song sold 100,000 copies within a number of days, something huge for the time. The song would knock Elvis Presley’s “Too Much” from its number one spot on the Billboard charts, going on to become the fourth bestselling song of 1957.