The Ultimate ANTHONY NEWLEY Tribute
Name:
Anthony George Newley.
Dates:
1931-1999.
Marital Status:
Married three times, most impressively to Joan Collins, with whom he had two of his four children.
Occupation:
Singer, songwriter, playwright, director, producer, film star and ‘professional Cockney’.
By Amanda Hallay
Brief Bio
Anthony Newley was born in Blitz era London and evacuated to the North, where he was fostered by a vaudeville-style ‘song n’ dance’ man who instilled in the young Tony Newley a desire for ‘the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd.’ Starring as the Artful Dodger in David Lean’s 1947 Oliver Twist, Newley went on to direct and star in West End shows such as Stop The World I Want to Get Off and The Smell of the Greasepaint, The Roar of the Crowd. He did loads of telly in the ‘50s and ‘60s, and had quite a little Vegas following in the ‘70s and beyond. Best of all, during the late ‘50s and early ‘60s, Anthony Newley found fame in the Hit Parade, his string of chart topping songs truly…..something else.
Why We (me n’ The Peach) Dig Him
Anthony Newley had a way with a song. He had a horrible way with a song. Certainly, he had a voice – one of those ‘belter’ voices best heard when sitting in the very back row of an unamplified West End theatre. His was not a pop voice – but pop he did, and it is impossible for us to listen to our Anthony Newley records (of which we have downloaded many) without laughing.
His annunciation is somewhat bizarre, yet definitely unique. The weird hybrid of Cockney rogue and the ‘receded pronunciation’ of a stage school training was quite enough in itself, but Tony also threw in a bit of fake American to show he was ‘hep’, the result being extremely peculiar, very nasty, and utterly compelling.
‘Gonna build a moun-TAIN’, he shrieked in a late ‘50s hit. ‘Gonna build it HAA’
‘There’s always a joke-AH in the pack, there’s alWISE a PYNTED cl-AAN!’
(Say it aloud. It does ‘work’.)
‘Gouwld Fing-AH – He’s the man, the man with the Midas touch, a spAWYDers touch!’
Are you beginning to see the Newley appeal? If all this isn’t fab enough, Tony also brought out ‘jazz’ version of traditional folk song and nursery rhymes. Lots of ‘free form vocals’ and finger-clicking went into his renditions of Strawberry Fair and (our personal favourite) Pop Goes the Weasel.
(‘Alf a pAnd of tupenny ryce – ‘Alf a pAnd a’ treac-OWL, now that is the way that the money goes - Pop, Pop, Pop Goes the Weaz-OWL, Pop, Pop, POP Goes the Weaz-OWL, Pop-itty, Pop-itty POP Goes the Weaz-OWL Naaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhoooow!’)
Tremendous.
There is a very poignant irony to be found in all this. Vile though his music is, with its overblown arrangements and ‘I’m-Trying-Too-Hard’-style vocals, just the briefest listen to Newley is enough to convince one that he was (indeed) The Master. The Master of what is anyone’s guess, but there’s never been anyone who delivers a song in quite the way he does.
Peachy and I have always had a penchant for the musical stylings of Anthony Newley (he cracks us up!), and were genuinely sad to hear that he had died. So, wherever he is, Anthony Newley….
