Newley, Anthony - Music, Songs, and Lyrics



		Performed by: Newley, Anthony Coventry Carol, The

Born George Anthony Newley, 24 September 1931, London, England, Died 14 April 1999, Jensen Beach, Florida, USA. One of the UK's most highly successful songwriters, actors and singers of the 60s. Born in Hackney, east London, Newley was evacuated to Hertfordshire during World War II. He attended the Italia Conti Stage School in London before working as a child actor in several films, including The Little Ballerina, Vice Versa, and David Lean's acclaimed version of Oliver Twist (1948) in which he played the Artful Dodger. A brief spell of national service ended after six weeks on psychiatric grounds. He made his London theatrical debut in John Cranko's revue, Cranks in 1955, and had character parts in well over 20 films before he was cast as rock 'n' roll star Jeep Jackson in 1959's Idle On Parade.

Newley's four-track vocal EP, and his version of the film's hit ballad, Jerry Lordan's "I've Waited So Long", started a three-year UK chart run that included "Personality", "If She Should Come To You", "And The Heavens Cried", the novelty numbers "Pop Goes The Weasel" and "Strawberry Fair" and two UK number 1 hits, "Why" and Lionel Bart's "Do You Mind?". Newley also made the album charts in 1960 with his set of standards, Love Is A Now And Then Thing. He made further appearances in the charts with Tony (1961), and the comedy album Fool Britannia (1963), on which he was joined by his wife, Joan Collins, and Peter Sellers. In 1961 Newley collaborated with Leslie Bricusse on the book, music and lyrics for the offbeat stage musical, Stop The World - I Want To Get Off. Newley also directed, and played the central role of Littlechap. The show, which stayed in the West End for 16 months, ran for over 500 performances on Broadway, and was filmed in 1966. It produced several hit songs, including "What Kind Of Fool Am I?", "Once In A Lifetime" and "Gonna Build A Mountain".

In 1964 Bricusse and Newley wrote the lyric to John Barry's music for Shirley Bassey to sing over the titles of the James Bond movie, Goldfinger. The team's next musical show in 1965, The Roar Of The Greasepaint - The Smell Of The Crowd, with comedian Norman Wisdom in the lead, toured the north of England but did not make the West End. When it went to Broadway Newley took over (co-starring with Cyril Ritchard), but was not able to match the success of Stop The World, despite an impressive score that contained such numbers as "Who Can I Turn To?", "A Wonderful Day Like Today", "The Joker", "Look At That Face" and "This Dream". In 1967 Newley appeared with Rex Harrison and Richard Attenborough in the film musical Doctor Dolittle, with script and songs by Bricusse. Despite winning an Oscar for "Talk To The Animals", the film was considered an expensive flop, as was Newley's own movie project in 1969, a pseudo-autobiographical sex-fantasy entitled Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness? Far more successful, in 1971, was Willy Wonka And The Chocolate Factory, a Roald Dahl story with music and lyrics by Bricusse and Newley. Sammy Davis Jnr. had a million-selling record with one of the songs, "The Candy Man". Bricusse and Newley also wrote several numbers for the 1971 NBC television musical adaptation of Peter Pan, starring Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye.

The Good Old Bad Old Days! opened in London in 1972 and had a decent run of 309 performances. Newley sang some of the songs, including "The People Tree", on his 1972 album, Ain't It Funny.

In 1989, a London revival of Stop The World - I Want To Get Off, directed by Newley, and in which he also appeared, closed after five weeks. In the same year, he was inducted into the Songwriters' Hall Of Fame, along with Leslie Bricusse. In 1991, Newley appeared on UK television with his ex-wife, Joan Collins, in Noel Coward's Tonight At 8.30, with its famous "Red Peppers" segment. In the following year, having lived in California for some years, Newley announced that he was returning to the UK, and bought a house there to share with his 90-year-old mother. In the early 90s he presented Once Upon A Song, an anthology of his own material, at the King's Head Theatre in London, and occasionally played the title role in regional productions of the musical Scrooge, which Leslie Bricusse had adapted for the stage from his 1970 film. During the remainder of the 90s Newley continued to perform his accomplished cabaret act (in which he amusingly bemoaned the fact that he had not had a hit with one of his own songs) at venues such as the Rainbow & Stars in New York and London's Cafe Royal. In 1998 he worked in a rather less sophisticated environment when playing crooked car dealer Vince Watson in one of the UK's top-rated television soap operas, EastEnders. Tara Newley, the daughter of Newley and Joan Collins, has worked as a radio and television presenter, and in 1994 released her first record entitled "Save Me From Myself". Newley lost his battle with cancer and died in April 1999.

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