Adam Faith
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Adam Faith
- Genres: Rock
Biography
The late '50s in England saw a legion of young teen idols, groomed for music stardom by managers eager to see their clients land a chart hit or two on their way to careers as all-around entertainers, or even television or movie actors. A few of them, like Cliff Richard and Billy Fury, were genuinely exciting rock & rollers when they started out, although most were just playing at rock & roll, and lacked the talent to make much lasting impact in any area of entertainment.Adam Faith was one of the better ones, a late-'50s/early-'60s singing star who went on to a respectable acting career in television, movies, and theater. Born Terence Nelhams in Acton, West London, he made his first appearances in public at the legendary 21's Coffee Bar in London's Soho. He came to the attention of producer Jack Goode, which, in turn, introduced Faith to bandleader John Barry (the music director of Goode's music showcase series Oh Boy! and the music director of the Drumbeat series), which resulted in the invitation to audition for a role in Drumbeat. Faith first emerged on the music scene on the Top Rank and HMV labels, but he saw little chart success until Drumbeat came along in 1959.
Faith became an immediate star, with his matinee-idol looks and charismatic screen presence. He was signed to EMI's Parlophone label soon after he began work on Drumbeat. In November of 1959, he cut the single "What Do You Want," which soared to number one on the British charts in the course of a 19-week run. With a pleasing, upbeat arrangement built around pizzicato strings and a sort of peppy variation of Elvis' scowling, mumbling demeanor, Faith's career at this point was closer to teen pop than rock & roll, although his stuff is eminently listenable. His next single, "Poor Me," was a better song and also reached number one, while his third, "Somebody Else's Baby," got to number two. Although hardly cutting-edge rock & roll (and one has to ignore singles like "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"), it was all pleasant, rather reminiscent of Buddy Holly songs like "True Love Ways." The best of his singles was the John Barry co-authored "Made You," which owes a bit to songs like "Nervous Breakdown" -- it also showed what Faith could do with a real, straight-ahead rock & roll number.
He placed six songs in the Top Ten during 1960, and three more in 1961. His string of major hits was pretty much exhausted by the summer of 1962, just before the Beatles and the other Liverpool bands came along and changed the entire musical landscape, but he made one more run into the Top Ten in late 1963 with "The First Time." Listening to this stuff, it's easy to understand why acts like the Beatles, not to mention ballsier, older rock & rollers from Liverpool like Tony Sheridan and the Big Three held performers like Adam Faith in such contempt -- he could be lethally "cute" on novelty songs like "Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop)," a number four single over Christmas of 1960, and had no compunction about it.
Despite his shortcomings as a rock & roller, Faith left the post-Beatles era with one major gift in the form of his superb backing band, the Roulettes -- featuring future Argent members Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit -- who recorded some of the best music of the early British Invasion era. Beginning in 1963, they had a separate recording and performing career as well, including a series of superb recordings for EMI (available on BGO Records). Their records with Faith were also exceptionally good, and were among the last of his major hits. In 1965, Faith released his last new album, the concert recording Faith Alive, featuring him and the Roulettes, a surprisingly exciting and unretouched account of their work on-stage together.
Faith's handful of early film appearances generally enhanced his musical image, most notably Beat Girl (1961), a fairly gritty British delinquency drama. He turned increasingly to acting on the stage during this period, and by the '70s he'd moved on to a career in business, with a successful finance company and a directorship of the Savoy Hotel. He returned to repertory theater work in the '70s and created the title role of the series Budgie, which he later brought to the stage. Faith also resumed his film career, most notably with a major supporting role in the 1975 Michael Apted movie Stardust, starring David Essex, the Roger Daltrey-starring vehicle McVicar (1980), and the television version of Murder on the Orient Express (1985). He also went into music management during the '70s, and the most important of his clients was Leo Sayer. Adam Faith died of a heart attack at age 62 on March 8, 2003, the day after becoming ill following a stage performance of Love and Marriage at Stoke-on-Trent, North Staffordshire, England. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
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| Adam Faith | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Terence Nelhams-Wright |
| Also known as | Terry Nelhams |
| Born | 23 June 1940 Acton, London, England |
| Origin | London, England |
| Died | 8 March 2003 (aged 62) Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupations | |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1957–2003 |
| Labels | |
| Associated acts | The Worried Men (1957), The Roulettes, Bobby Vee, Cliff Richard, Billy Fury, Lonnie Donegan, Buddy Holly |
Terence "Terry" Nelhams-Wright, known as Adam Faith (23 June 1940 – 8 March 2003), was a British teen idol, singer, actor, and financial journalist. He was one of the most charted acts of the 1960s.[1] He became the first UK artist to lodge his initial seven hits in the Top 5.[1] He was also one of the first UK acts to record original songs regularly.[1]
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Contents
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Early life and education
Terence Nelhams-Wright was born at 4 Churchfield Road, Acton, London, England. He was unaware his surname was Nelhams-Wright until he applied for a passport and obtained his birth certificate. He was known as Terry Nelhams. The third in a family of five children, Nelhams grew up in a council house in a working class area of London, where he attended John Perryn Junior School. He started work at 12, delivering and selling newspapers while still at school. His first full-time job was odd-job boy for a silk screen printer.
Music career
Faith became one of Britain's significant early pop stars. At the time, he was distinctive for his hiccupping glottal stops and exaggerated pronunciation. He did not write his own material, and much of his early success was through partnership with songwriter Les Vandyke and John Barry, whose arrangements were inspired by the pizzicato arrangements for Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore".
Faith began his musical career in 1957, while working as a film cutter in London in the hope of becoming an actor, singing with and managing a skiffle group, The Worried Men. The group played in Soho coffee bars after work, and became the resident band at The 2i's Coffee Bar, where they appeared on the BBC Television live music programme Six-Five Special. The producer, Jack Good, was impressed by the singer and arranged a solo recording contract with HMV under the name Adam Faith.
His debut record "(Got a) Heartsick Feeling" and "Brother Heartache and Sister Tears", in January 1958, failed to make the charts. Good gave him a part in the stage show of Six-Five Special, along with the John Barry Seven but the show folded after four performances. His second release later that year was a cover of Jerry Lee Lewis's "High School Confidential", backed with the Burt Bacharach and Hal David penned "Country Music Holiday", but this also failed.
Faith returned to work as a film cutter at National Studios at Elstree until March 1959, when Barry invited him to audition for a BBC TV rock and roll show, Drumbeat. The producer, Stewart Morris, gave him a contract for three shows, extended to the full 22-week run. His contract with HMV had ended, and he sang one track, "I Vibrate", on a six-track EP released by the Fontana record label. Barry's manager, Eve Taylor, got him a contract with Top Rank, but his only record there, "Ah, Poor Little Baby"/"Runk Bunk" produced by Tony Hatch, failed to chart due to a lack of publicity caused by a national printing strike.
Despite the failure, Faith was becoming popular through television appearances. He became an actor by taking drama and elocution lessons, and appeared in the film Beat Girl. The script called for Faith to sing songs and as Barry was arranging Faith's recordings and live Drumbeat material, the film company asked him to write the score. This was the beginning of Barry's career in film music.
Faith's success on Drumbeat enabled another recording contract, with Parlophone. His next record in 1959, "What Do You Want?", written by Les Vandyke and produced by Barry and John Burgess, received good reviews in the NME and other papers, as well as being voted a hit on Juke Box Jury. This became his first number one hit in the UK Singles Chart,[1] and his pronunciation of the word 'baby' as 'bay-beh' became a catchphrase.[2]
"What Do You Want?" was the first number one hit for Parlophone, Faith the only pop act on the label.[2]
With songs like "Poor Me" (another chart topper), "Someone Else's Baby" (a UK #2) and "Don't That Beat All", he established himself as a rival to Cliff Richard in British popular music.
A UK variety tour was followed by a 12-week season at Blackpool Hippodrome and an appearance on the Royal Variety Show.
His next release was a double A-side single, "Made You"/"When Johnny Comes Marching Home". Both made the Top Ten, despite a BBC ban for "Made You" for 'a lewd and salacious lyric'. His 1960 novelty record "Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop"), to coincide with his Christmas pantomime, gained a silver disc.
His debut album Adam was released on 4 November 1960 to critical acclaim for the inventiveness of Barry's arrangements and Faith's own performances. The material ranged from standards such as "Summertime", "Hit The Road to Dreamland" and "Singin' in the Rain" to more contemporary songs, such as Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman's "I'm a Man", Johnny Worth's "Fare Thee Well My Pretty Maid", and Howard Guyton's "Wonderful Time".
Still 20 and living with his parents, he bought a house in Hampton Court for £6000, where he moved with his family from their house in Acton. In December 1960, he became the first pop artist to appear on the TV interview series Face to Face with John Freeman.
Faith made six further albums and 35 singles, with a total of 24 chart entries. In the early 1960s, his backing group was The Roulettes.
Film and television career
Faith's teen pop became less popular in the mid-1960s in competition with The Beatles. After a final single in 1968 he parted company with EMI and concentrated on acting. While a musician he had appeared in films such as Beat Girl (1960), Never Let Go (1960), and television dramas such as the Rediffusion/ITV series No Hiding Place but now he concentrated on repertory theatre. After a number of small parts, he was given a more substantial role in the play Night Must Fall, playing opposite Dame Sybil Thorndike. In 1962 he co-starred opposite Donald Sinden and Anne Baxter in the film Mix Me a Person, a thriller which was rated X-certificate (the modern equivalent would be a UK 18-certificate) by the British Board of Film Censors. In autumn 1969, he took the lead in a touring production of Billy Liar.
In the 1970s, he went into music management, managing Leo Sayer among others. Sayer claimed in an interview with British newspaper The Daily Telegraph that "He handled everything for me, but although he was a very good mentor, he was less trustworthy with my money. In the end, Adam Faith made more out of Leo Sayer than I did."
He starred as the eponymous hero in the 1970s television series Budgie (LWT/ITV), about an ex-convict, but his career declined after a motor car accident in which he almost lost a leg. He restarted with a role as the manipulative manager of rock star David Essex, in Stardust. He was nominated for a BAFTA award. In 1980 he starred with Roger Daltrey in McVicar and appeared with Jodie Foster in Foxes.
He played the role of James Crane in the 1985 TV movie Minder on the Orient Express - part of the Minder franchise.
From 1992 to 1994, he appeared in another TV series, Love Hurts, starring with Zoë Wanamaker, and in 2002 he appeared in the BBC series The House That Jack Built. In 2003, he appeared in an episode of Murder in Mind.
Later years and death
He married Jackie Irving in 1967 and they had one daughter Katya Faith who became a television producer. In 1986, he was hired as a financial journalist by the Daily Mail and its sister paper The Mail on Sunday.
In 1985, he appeared on a BBC Radio 2 tribute programme to James Dean, written and presented by Terence Pettigrew. You're Tearing Me Apart was aired on the 30th anniversary of Dean's death. Dean had been his idol, and the film Rebel Without a Cause had inspired the teenage Faith to become a singer and actor. "That movie changed my life", he admitted on the programme. In 1986, Faith had open heart surgery.
In the 1980s, Faith became a financial investments advisor. He had a financial involvement with television's Money Channel. But the channel proved unsuccessful and closed in 2001. Faith was declared bankrupt owing a reported £32 million. He also advised and invested monies for Michael Winner via Sir Nicholas Goodison and also with Roger Levitt's financial group. However, both these investments lost money.[3]
He became ill after his stage performance in the touring production of Love And Marriage at Stoke-on-Trent on the Friday evening, and died at North Staffordshire Hospital of a heart attack early on Saturday, 8 March 2003.
British tabloid newspapers reported his last words as "Channel Five is all shit, isn't it? Christ, the crap they put on there. It's a waste of space". Although it is not certain these were his words, it has become an urban myth.[4]
Discography
Singles
| Year | Title | UK Singles Chart[1] |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | "(Got A) Heartsick Feeling" | - |
| 1958 | "Country Music Holiday" | - |
| 1959 | "Ah, Poor Little Baby!" | - |
| 1959 | "What Do You Want?" | #1 |
| 1960 | "Poor Me" | #1 |
| 1960 | "Someone Else's Baby" | #2 |
| 1960 | "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"/ "Made You" |
#5 |
| 1960 | "How About That!" | #4 |
| 1960 | "Lonely Pup (In a Christmas Shop)" | #4 |
| 1961 | "Who Am I!" / "This is It!" | #5 |
| 1961 | "Easy Going Me" | #12 |
| 1961 | "Don't You Know It?" | #12 |
| 1961 | "The Time Has Come" | #4 |
| 1962 | "Lonesome" | #12 |
| 1962 | "As You Like It" | #5 |
| 1962 | "Don't That Beat All" | #8 |
| 1962 | "Baby Take a Bow" | #22 |
| 1963 | "What Now" | #31 |
| 1963 | "Walkin' Tall" | #23 |
| 1963 | "The First Time" | #5 |
| 1963 | "We Are in Love" | #11 |
| 1964 | "If He Tells You" | #25 |
| 1964 | "I Love Being in Love with You" | #33 |
| 1964 | "Only One Such as You" | - |
| 1964 | "A Message to Martha (Kentucky Bluebird)" | #12 |
| 1965 | "Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself" | #23 |
| 1965 | "Hand Me Down Things" | - |
| 1965 | "Someone's Taken Maria Away" | #34 |
| 1965 | "I Don't Need that Kind of Lovin'" | - |
| 1966 | "Idle Gossip" | - |
| 1966 | "To Make a Big Man Cry" | - |
| 1966 | "Cheryl's Goin' Home" | #46 |
| 1967 | "What More Can Anyone Do?" | - |
| 1967 | "Cowman, Milk Your Cow" | - |
| 1967 | "To Hell With Love" | - |
| 1968 | "You Make My Life Worth While" | - |
| 1974 | "I Survive" | - |
| 1974 | "Maybe" | - |
| 1974 | "I Believe in Love" | - |
| 1975 | "Strung Out Again"/ "Steppin' Stone" |
- |
| 1976 | "Vindictive Attack" | - |
| 1978 | "What Do You Want?"/ "Poor Me" |
- |
| 1983 | "What Do You Want?"/ "How About That!" |
- |
| 1993 | "Stuck in the Middle" | - |
Albums
- Adam (Parlophone) (1960) - UK Number 6
- Beat Girl (film soundtrack) (Columbia) (1961) - UK Number 11
- Adam Faith (Parlophone) (1962) - UK Number 20
- From Adam with Love (Parlophone) (1963)
- For You - Love Adam (Parlophone) (1963)
- On the Move (Parlophone) (1964)
- Faith Alive (Parlophone) (1965) - UK Number 19
- I Survived (Warner Bros.) (1974)
- Midnight Postcards (PolyGram) (1993) - UK Number 43
EPs
- Adam Faith (Parlophone GEP 8851)
- The Time Has Come (Vandyke), Watch Your Step (Parker), I've Just Fallen for Someone (Askew) and I'm Coming Home (Johnson-Rado). Produced and conducted by John Berry 1961
- Adam Faith (Parlophone GEP 8852)
- All These Things (Vandyke), It's All Over Now (Whyton), Second Time (Vandyke), Come To Me (Cenci-Carr), If I Had a Hammer (Hays-Seeger, I'm Going To Love you Too (Mauldin-Sullivan-Petty). Produced and conducted by John Berry 1961
Compilation albums
- The Best of Adam Faith (Starline) (1966)
- The Best of Adam Faith (MFP) (1971)
- 24 Golden Greats (Warwick) (1981) - UK Number 61
- Not Just A Memory (Amy Records) (1983)
- The Best of Adam Faith (re-issue) (MFP) (1985)
- The Best of Adam Faith (second re-issue) (MFP) (1989)
- The Singles Collection (Greatest Hits) (1990)
- The Best of EMI Years (1994)
- The Very Best of Adam Faith (MFP/EMI) (1997)
- Greatest Hits (EMI Gold) (1998)
- The Very Best of Adam Faith (EMI) (2005)
- All The Hits (EMI Gold) (2009)
US singles
- "What Do You Want?" / "From Now Until Forever" (Cub 9061)
- "Poor Me" / "The Reason" (Cub 9068)
- "I Did What You Told Me" / "Johnny Comes Marching Home" (Cub 9074)
- "Don't That Beat All" / "Mix Me A Person" (Dot 16405)
- "So Long, Baby" / "The First Time" (Amy 895)
- "We Are In Love" / "What Now?" (Amy 899)
- "It's Alright" / "I Just Don't Know" (Amy 913) (#31)
- "Talk About Love" / "Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself" (Amy 922) (#97)
- "I Don't Need That Kind Of Lovin'" / "I'm Used To Losing You" (Capitol 5543)
- "Here's Another Day" / "To Make a Big Man Cry" (Capitol 5699)
US albums
- England's Top Singer (MGM E/SE 3951)
- Adam Faith (Amy 8005/S-8005)
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. pp. 192–193. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ a b Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 46. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
- ^ The Daily Telegraph: Michael Winner: Im the only man ever to get a discount at M&S 17 December 2008
- ^ The Guardian: Famous last words: Adam Faith joins those who did it in style 13 May 2003
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Mentioned in
The Best of Adam Faith
(1989 Album by The Roulettes)
The EP Collection
(1991 Album by Adam Faith)
On the Move/Faith Alive
(2000 Album by Adam Faith)
The Very Best of Adam Faith
(2001 Album by Adam Faith)
McVicar
(1980 Crime Film)
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