British entertainer Anthony Newley (1931-1999) conquered virtually every area of popular culture. Music, theatre, television, film – Newley did it all. He began his career as a child star, appearing as the Artful Dodger in David Lean’s 1948 film version of Oliver Twist.
He continued to perform on screen and on radio in the 1950s, and in 1959, latched onto the nascent rock and roll trend sweeping the U.K. with a series of successful pop singles, including one (“Do You Mind?”) penned by Lionel Bart.
By 1963, he had teamed with another young talent, Leslie Bricusse, to write the musical Stop the World – I Want to Get Off, but more unusually, Newley also directed the show, and starred in it – in both London and New York! Newley and Bricusse picked up a Grammy Award for the instant standard “What Kind of Fool Am I?” and reteamed for various projects including 1965’s The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd (which introduced “Who Can I Turn To?”), the title song to Goldfinger, and the score to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Newley continued to act (appearing in the Bricusse-penned Doctor Dolittle), direct (an X-rated musical Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?), write and star in musicals, and appear onstage in cabaret and concert performances. Along the way, he also provided a significant influence to the young David Bowie, who emulated Newley’s mannered style early in his own career.
Stage Door Records’ The Last Song: The Final Recordings premieres the previously-unissued songs recorded by Newley in London in 1996 and 1997. A joint project of Stage Door and the Anthony Newley Society (endorsed by the performer’s children), The Last Song includes duets with Petula Clark, Marti Webb and Julia McKenzie, as well as live tracks and two Christmas songs written and sung by Newley in 1997 but unreleased (like all of the tracks here) until now.
Clark joins Newley on “The People Tree” from his musical The Good Old Bad Old Days (which had its original cast album reissued by Kritzerland on CD in 2012) and McKenzie joins him on “Are We Having Fun Yet?” from his 1983 Chaplin musical that closed on the road to Broadway. Webb teams with Newley on “Music of the Universe” from another stage vehicle, Once Upon a Song.
Track Listing:
1. My First Love Song (from 'The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd')
2. Me Without You
3. The People Tree (from 'The Good Old Bad Old Days')
4. No Such Thing as Love
5. Are We Having Fun Yet? (from 'Chaplin')
6. Love Songs Don't Come Easy Anymore
7. Music of the Universe (from 'Once Upon a Song')
8. Love Has the Longest Memory (from 'Quilp')
9. My Last Song
10. What Shall We Bring? (Bonus Track)
11. Santa Claus is Elvis (Bonus Track)
12. Beware the Night (Live) (Bonus Track from 'Richard III')
13. What Kind of Fool Am I? (Live) (Bonus Track from 'Stop the World I Want To Get Off')
14. Who Can I Turn To? - Disco (Live) (Bonus Track from 'The Roar of the Greasepaint - The Smell of the Crowd')
15. The Man Who Makes You Laugh (Live) (Bonus Track)
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