You don't realise what it's like talking to a bird with your class and intellect

Continuing my trip back through the 1961 album charts.

01/10/61 : Stop The World I Want To Get Off - Original London Cast

Before we get to this, I have to report one I skipped over - The Best Of Barber And Bilk, which is one side of Chris Barber's Jazzband and one of Mr Acker Bilk And His Paramount Jazz Band, but doesn't appear to exist anywhere on the internet.  I tracked some of the tracks down and I could have recreated it, but I wouldn't have had anything to say about - it was all twenties style jazz which I find enjoyable, but struggle to differentiate one track from another.  

Which brings us to this - I can't say my expectations are particularly high for a 60s musical that I've never heard of, but you never know quite what you're going to get, do you?

It's not nearly as bad as I was expecting - the lyrics are cliched and dated, but I can forgive them that (although they are repeated considerably more often than necessary).  It sounds like it was written as a vehicle for Anthony Newley who I assume had a "cheeky chappy" personality - either that or it was to enable him to show versatility.  I was surprised to recognise "Typically English" because my grandma used to sing the opening lines ("My mother said, I never should...") and it's a well put together and performed song from Anna Quayle and Anthony Newley.  "Mumbo Jumbo" is also amusingly relevant where someone canvassing to become an MP talks absolute nonsense referring to how Britain isn't as Great as it used to be, whilst also saying "Common market?  Can't go wrong".

We're at #8 in the charts this week on their fifth week on a ten week run with this being as high as it got and the top five this week were The Shadows, George Mitchell, Elvis, South Pacific and the aforementioned Barber and Bilk best-of.  There are no new entries on the chart this week and we're starting to run out of albums - there are only six we've not met before (which of course includes one from Elvis and one from Frank).

Wikipedia explains the plot to me (which I got about 10% of from the album) and tells me it was written by Mr Newley along with Leslie Bricusse, who did quite a lot in his career.  The show did well both in London (485 performances) and New York (555) - a revival in 1989 was a bit too dated for more modern audiences though (which doesn't surprise me in the slightest).  There were also a couple of filmed versions which were not successful - the US version featured Sammy Davis Jr and was absolutely panned, with Wikipedia taking great delight in including a long section on critical comments.  I also checked out Anna Quayle's entry because I thought I recognised her name - she won a Tony for this, but is probably best known for playing Baroness Bomburst in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (and was also Mrs Monroe in Grange Hill, but after my time).

"Customers also listened to" other Anthony Newley albums and other 60s musical soundtracks - no major surprises there.  They're not generally my thing, but I didn't mind this at all - although there's no chance of me ever revisiting it.

24/09/61 - Very dated, but a bit of fun
08/10/61 - A surprisingly successful first