We've string beans and onions, cabbages and scallions

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

20/08/61 : Tony - Anthony Newley

And our second visit with Mr Newley - multiple visits are very much the thing this year, aren't they?  I'm expecting more of his cheeky-chappy act we saw on this - I believe it was very popular at the time but I'm not sure it's going to have time-travelled particularly well.

Actually, he's not quite so cheeky-chappy because it's all very night-club cabaret - you can almost imagine couples sat at tables in their best outfits listening to him whilst smoking.  It's very much of the time but it does feel very dated now and a whole album of it is just too much for me.  His voice is quite interesting because it's very expressive and he's got good control, but he doesn't always quite hit the note.  I also wasn't expecting it to open with "Yes! We Have No Bananas" - a song that everyone knows at least one line of, but I'm not sure I've ever actually listened to it before.  

We're at the relatively high position of #7 this week on his eighth week of a twelve week run, with it having peaked at #5 in the previous week.  The top five this week were South Pacific, George Mitchell, Elvis, Barber/Bilk and the London recording of The Sound Of Music and there were no new entries, putting us back to four albums we've not previously met (including two musicals that I'm actually quite looking forward to).

Wikipedia has no entry for the album - somewhat surprisingly it doesn't have an entry for any of Mr Newley's eighteen studio albums, which really shows how much he's fallen out of favour.  His entry is quite interesting though - the man did quite a lot in his time.  He's probably best known for having been married to Joan Collins - apparently one of the main reasons for their divorce was the film they made together which is the snappily titled Can Hieronymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (and is apparently absolutely dreadful).  He also (along with Lesley Bricusse) wrote the songs for the Doctor Doolittle and Willy Wonka And The Chocolate films, was an early favourite of David Bowie and, as everyone seemed to for a bit, played a user car salesman on Eastenders.

"Customers also listened to" Paul Anka, Tommy Steele, Dion and The Allisons - not a group of artists I have a great deal of experience with.  As is also very true for Anthony Newley - it seems strange that someone who was so big in the early 60s is kinda forgotten about now, but unfortunately there's little evidence here that he really deserves to be remembered.

13/08/61 - A bit of a disappointment
27/08/61 - An interesting historical listen

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