Anthony Newley...

Making a sweeping statement is not always the best thing to do as likely as not you'll find that you'll change your mind or find exceptions that make your original view obsolete.

But I'll risk doing just that.

In general, I am not a lover of stage musicals. I have probably enjoyed songs from shows when performed by singers as part of a concert or on a recording but few if any cast recordings do anything for me.

Perhaps, I have not seen enough over the years so I can be a good judge of this genre of entertainment but I remember seeing a version of A Chorus Line which I knew some songs from and settled down for a wonderful evening of entertainment and was bored and found myself wanting it to end.

Now, I have to admit to knowing very little about the life and works of Anthony Newley...This is more or less as I remember him.

BBC Radio 2 has just completed a four part series on him. Followed by a concert in celebration of his work.

I am amazed at just how much of the music I have heard over the years was written by him and his writing partner Leslie Bricusse.
Of course I am subjective and have favourites from his early career as a "Pop Star" and I usually think of the Novelty songs like "That Noise" "Pop Goes The Weasel" or simple versions of popular songs(often covers)such as "Why?" to some of the great songs composed for their own productions or other artists.

The Joker
A Wonderful Day Like Today
Feeling Good
Gonna Build a Mountain
What Kind of Fool Am I?
The Good Old Bad Old Days
The People Tree
The Candy Man
Goldfinger

Without going into great depth and concentrating on background detail can become extreme, certain artists have sung songs and you know that they are singing songs composed by others. Matt Monroe sang Gonna Build A Mountain but I bet many thought when Nina Samone sang Feeling Good it was all her own work, I know that I did. Even though I know such artists sing material from anywhere.

Its impossible to do him justice as this is not a dedicated website and only one entry in a blog full of sketches of my opinions. And there are some very good sites out there with lots of information. Images seem harder to come by.

I have to be honest, until this series I had not really thought about him. Does that show a lack of appreciation or is it as so many things in this world depending on your situation some things just pass you by?

I can see that in some ways he was a charismatic performer and there are more things in his favour than against but remember I can only talk from a personal stance and have to believe that his presence is what kept him in the hearts of his fans during his later performances on stage because I have to say that his voice had changed so much, to be honest he reached a point where I would've been disappointed as a member of his audience to hear if I had paid. Some people who knew him even said that he had become a caricature of himself. So it has to have been his personality that kept bringing them back.

Even during his hey day amongst the very powerful works that are worth hearing there is one trait of his singing that spoils some of his own versions of songs...especially noticeable on words such as "say" or "way" etc...

Its difficult to describe but the nearest I can come to explaining what I mean is when the comedian Norman Wisdom in his films when he used to put on the comic tone as he shouted "Mr Grimsdale!" I've never heard that in any other performer.

Bill Kenwright(the theatre impresario)relates a story where Newley in his later years performed at a venue in a Town Hall somewhere in London and probably less than 150 people had turned up but he still went on stage and gave his all.

But Anthony Newley does deserve his place in British Musical entertainment even though like so many he was perhaps appreciated more in the States or had to go there because that's where the money was.