Creator / Anthony Newley

"Birds flyin' high, you know how I feel..."

Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English singer-songwriter, actor, and musical theatre playwright, all of which he is very famous as, which makes categorizing him on This Very Wiki either under the Music or Creator namespaces woefully unfair. He started out his career as a child actor in the 1940s, notably portraying The Artful Dodger in the 1948 film adaptation of Oliver Twist.

Newley is perhaps best known for writing the songs (alongside his partner Leslie Bricusse) for Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory as well as the lyrics to the title song from the James Bond film Goldfinger. In addition, he's also penned quite a few Broadway musicals with Bricusse, notably Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd. For a while, he was the husband of Joan Collins.

In addition to his songwriting and acting career in film and theater, Newley also had a successful—albeit, in the UK moreso than the US—career as a rock and pop musician. In fact, he actually recorded a few of his songs from the aforementioned musicals as pop songs, although they were largely more successful when covered by other artists—notably Sammy Davis Jr., with “What Kind Of Fool Am I” and “The Candy Man”. Much like Paul Anka and Bobby Darin, Newley started his music career as a jazz-influenced Rock & Roll singer in the late '50s, but started to record more orchestral pop music in the early '60s, although several of his other later songs still have Rock elements, usually still easy listening and jazz-influenced Soft Rock in the vein of the aforementioned Paul Anka and Barry Manilow. Some examples of his early notable songs include “I've Waited So Long”, “Idle on Parade”^note Both of which originated from the film, Idol On Parade, in which Newley starred, “Why”, “What Kind of Fool Am I?”,^note  Originally from his musical Stop The World, I Want To Get Off “The Joker”,^note  Originally from his musical, The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd and “Feeling Good”.^note  Also from the same musical Some of his later songs include “Bye Bye Brown Eyes”, “Ain't It Funny”, and “Lunch with a Friend”. Newley also created The Strange World of Gurney Slade and starred as the title character.

Despite his long acting and musical career, Newley didn't have much success in the United States. While the songs he wrote remain pop standards, only five of his own recordings even remotely became hits: his four Billboard 100 songs never reached above #67, and his one Top 40 hit, "Teach The Children" from his 1977 album, The Singer & His Songs, only became a hit on the Adult Contemporary chart. In addition, even his more well-known acting career took hits—his own directing and starring Vanity Project, Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? was a rather controversial X-Rated film that cost Universal millions, lead to Joan Collins divorcing him, and years after his death, lead to one of his children with Collins, Alexander Newley, to accuse him of pedophilia, although his sister, Tara Newley, and Joan Collins herself both denied the allegations. In addition, he also starred as Captain Manzini in The Garbage Pail Kids Movie, listed on This Very Wiki's So Bad, It's Horrible film page and near-universally regarded to be one of the worst films ever made, to the point where everbody else involved with the film regards it as an Old Shame. The result was the Creator Killer of both its distributor, Atlantic Releasing Corporation, and Newley's own film acting career. He spent the rest of his life only in television roles.

Despite this, Anthony Newley's music and roles remain appreciated and influential. In particular, Newley was a huge influence on David Bowie.

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Discography:^note Not including compilations

• Love Is a Now and Then Thing (1960)
• Tony (1961)
• In My Solitude (1964)
• Who Can I Turn To? (1965)
• Newley Delivered (1966)
• Newley Recorded (1966)
• The Genius of Anthony Newley (1966)
• Anthony Newley Sings the Songs from Doctor Dolittle (1967)
• The Romantic World of Anthony Newley (1969)
• For You (1970)
• Pure Imagination (1971)
• Ain't It Funny (1972)
• The Singer and His Songs (1977)
• Mr Personality (1985)
• Too Much Woman (1992)
• The Last Song – The Final Recordings (2012) (released posthumously)

Musicals:^note Also includes musical films he wrote the songs for

• Stop The World – I Want to Get Off
• The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd
• Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
• The Good Old Bad Old Days
• Mister Quilp (A musical film adaptation of The Old Curiosity Shop, also starring Newley himself as the titular Big Bad.)

Some films Anthony Newley has appeared in:

• Vice Versa (1948) - Dick Bultitude/Paul Bultitude
• Oliver Twist (1948) - the Artful Dodger
• Idol On Parade - Jeep Jackson - A film about a rockstar getting conscripted into the army, based on a novel of the same name, and loosely inspired by Elvis's own conscription, this film is what kickstarted Newley's musical career.
• Doctor Dolittle - Matthew Mugg
• Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? - Heironymus Merkin, director
• Summertree (director)
• Mister Quilp - Mr. Daniel Quilp
• The Garbage Pail Kids Movie - Captain Manzini

Television Roles:

• The Strange World of Gurney Slade - Gurney Slade, creator.
• Alice In Wonderland - The Mad Hatter
• EastEnders - Vince Watson (final role)

Theatre Roles:^note Including those Newley himself did not pen.

• Stop The World – I Want to Get Off - Littlechap
• The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd - Cocky
• Scrooge (A Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of the 1970 film) - Scrooge

In addition to Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness?, Newley also directed one other film, Summertree.

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Anthony Newley's music (and acting) provides examples of:

• Adam Westing:
  • His role as Captain Manzini in The Garbage Pail Kids Movie has elements of this, such as him using musical spells played on a toy piano in order to send the titular characters back into the trash can they were imprisoned in. During one such scene, he name-drops Mary Poppins, which Newley himself was considered for the role of Bert the chimney sweep.
  • His role as Hieronymus Merkin, which also doubles as an Author Avatar, as he directed the semi-autobiographical film.
• Anti-Love Song: "There's No Such Thing as Love"
• Award-Bait Song: Many, many of the songs he and Bricusse wrote for their musicals, such as "What Kind of Fool Am I?" from Stop The World, I Want To Get Off!, "Feeling Good" and "Who Can I Turn To (When Nobody Needs Me)" from The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd. Much like the many Breakaway Pop Hit versions of the more familiar variant of this trope in Disney and Don Bluth films, Newley himself recorded many of them as pop rock and soft rock songs on his studio albums, such as this recording of "Pure Imagination".
• Baroque Pop: Much of his music outside of show tunes includes Classical-influenced traditional pop, jazz, and soft rock.
• British Rock Star: Well, for a given definition of "rockstar", but along with Cliff Richard and Tommy Steele, he was one of the Ur Examples of British rock musicians.
• Break Up Song:
  • "It's All Over" is both about the singer breaking up with his lover after he finds out she cheated on him.
  • "Lunch with a Friend" is a variation: it's about the singer ending a friendship over his former friend "chasing other men's wives for fun", including the singer's own wife.
• The Casanova: Newley himself was in a relationship with five women in his life, three of whom he was married to (including Joan Collins), and one whom, Anneke Wills, he had a child with out of wedlock, so needless to say, this trope shows up in a few of his songs:
  • The narrator of "There's No Such Thing As Love" is implied to be this:
    To me they're all the same
    They're just an hour's fun and then I run
    To me it's just a game
  • The subject of "Lunch With A Friend", who also doubles as a Serial Homewrecker.
• The Chew Toy: "The Joker", from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, is about someone who is a victim of this trope.
• Christmas Songs: He recorded a few traditional carols for Goodyear Christmas compilation albums in the '60s, and later starred as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation of Bricusse's musical film Scrooge. Later in his life, he also recorded a song titled "Santa Claus Is Elvis", released on The Last Song - The Final Recordings.
• Diss Track: "Easy for You, Captain Candy" from Ain't It Funny is a Downplayed example. The lyrics indicate envy towards the title character's success, possibly inspired by Sammy Davis Jr. covering "The Candy Man" from Willy Wonka.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Newley started his pop career with late '50s and early '60s Rock'n Roll. Many of his later songs do also have Rock elements, but usually on the very soft side of soft rock, and his output afterwards was primarily musical-theatre influenced Baroque Pop and jazz.
• Elvis Lives: "Santa Claus is Elvis", as the narrator discovers one Christmas night.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Many of his songs' themes are made obvious by their title, such as "There's No Such Thing as Love", "Me Without You", "The Fool Who Dared to Dream", "It's All Over", "Santa Claus is Elvis" and many, many more.
• Fake Irish: His portrayal of Matthew Mugg in Doctor Dolittle. The narrator of this YouTube documentary about Newley describes him as "the least Irish person I've ever met in my life" around the 26:10 mark.
• Follow Your Heart: "The Fool Who Dared to Dream" from The Good Old Bad Old Days.
• Freudian Excuse: The narrator of "There's No Such Thing As Love" is implied to be a careless ladykiller who seduces and then dumps women because his own lover left him.
• Genre Roulette: He's performed in genres diverse as Broadway show tunes, Baroque Pop, and easy-listening-type jazz and soft rock, having started out with late '50s and early '60s Rock & Roll and pop, and was primarily focused on musicals by the mid-1960s, but had also continued to record rock songs on his subsequent releases. He's also experimented with Country Music ("Ain't It Funny") and even Michael McDonald-era-Doobie Brothers-style yacht rock (A few of the songs on The Singer & His Songs, such as "Lunch With a Friend" and "Teach the Children").
• Lyrical Cold Open: The song, "Feeling Good" opens with Newley's singing, with only an occasional piano, before the main chorus starts.
• Non-Appearing Title: "Overchewer". What other name could you give to a song about a silent-majority Geritol Rock N'Roll star?
• Pornstache: On the cover of The Romantic World of Anthony Newley.
• Rock & Roll: Much like Paul Anka, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Darin, and Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, his earliest music mainly fits into the Jazz and Doo-Wop influenced Brill Building variety of '50s Rock n' roll. Afterwards, he switched to more muscial-theatre-styled pop, but the Rock elements never fully went away.
• Rock Star Song: Or rather, an aging rock star song, "Overchewer", is about how the singer is a "middle-aged silent majority, Geritol rock n'roll star".
• "Somewhere" Song: "The Beautiful Land" from The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd,
• Spelling Song: "D'Darling", "A, Angel, R, Rare, and L, Lovely, I, I am, N, Nearly, G, Going Out of My Mind."
• Torch Song: "Me Without You" from his 1972 album Ain't It Funny. Joan Collins had recently divorced him at the time. The title track of the album itself also qualifies, although it's more about the loneliness than the lost love itself.
• Totally Radical: Invoked in "Overchewer":
  Will I have to do the boogaloo
  And with each step, say "Man, I'm hip"?
  Will I ever learn to eat organic food?
  Listening to Ravi Shankar in the nude?

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