Chart entered : 17 August 1961
Chart peak : 30
The last chart casualty of 1961 was "our first Rocker". Despite the title of this one there were no obvious warning signs that Tommy's time was up; he'd had one or two singles in the past couple of years that hadn't made it but the execrable "What A Mouth" had been a Top 5 hit just over a year earlier.
"The Writing On The Wall" doesn't concern anticipated obsolescence but the signs that the narrator's relationship is decaying. Written by the Australian trio of Baron, Barkly and Eddy , it was a Top 5 US hit for the singer Adam Wade. The song's upbeat melody doesn't allow too Gothic an interpretation but Wade does manage to squeeze some pathos out of it. No such luck with Tommy's version which includes some pisspoor whistling, now sounding tired pizzicato strings and the odd "thwack" which sounds like snooker balls crashing. Tommy's over-enunciated vocal doesn't help either. Joe Brown's on it apparently but he's unobtrusive.
By this time Tommy was working on Quincy a children's novel about a rejected toy trying to escape the dumper and it was a full year before he released another single entitled , would you believe it , "Hit Record". A KLF- anticipating discourse on how to have a hit disc in mainly spoken Lonnie Donegan style
The last chart casualty of 1961 was "our first Rocker". Despite the title of this one there were no obvious warning signs that Tommy's time was up; he'd had one or two singles in the past couple of years that hadn't made it but the execrable "What A Mouth" had been a Top 5 hit just over a year earlier.
"The Writing On The Wall" doesn't concern anticipated obsolescence but the signs that the narrator's relationship is decaying. Written by the Australian trio of Baron, Barkly and Eddy , it was a Top 5 US hit for the singer Adam Wade. The song's upbeat melody doesn't allow too Gothic an interpretation but Wade does manage to squeeze some pathos out of it. No such luck with Tommy's version which includes some pisspoor whistling, now sounding tired pizzicato strings and the odd "thwack" which sounds like snooker balls crashing. Tommy's over-enunciated vocal doesn't help either. Joe Brown's on it apparently but he's unobtrusive.
By this time Tommy was working on Quincy a children's novel about a rejected toy trying to escape the dumper and it was a full year before he released another single entitled , would you believe it , "Hit Record". A KLF- anticipating discourse on how to have a hit disc mainly spoken in Lonnie Donegan style it's supremely aggravating and its failure is immensely gratifying.
At the end of 1962 he took on Pete Seeger's "Where Have All The Flowers Gone" a difficult song to ruin and to be fair he doesn't but there's no real reason to recommend this version rather than Peter Paul and Mary or The Searchers. He followed it up quickly with his own song "He's Got Love" ,a Christmas novelty rocker that's palls before the last chorus.
Tommy might have been struggling to get in the charts but he was still doing well in the theatre and his next single "Flash Bang Wallop" came from his hit musical Half A Sixpence.
I soon realised with horror that it was that awful "Wot a picture !" song which I've always loathed and I can only applaud the 1963 public for not buying it. "Egg and Chips" from his film It's All Happening is equally unlistenable but does pose an intriguing question. Does he really sing "I'm going to date her , fellate her " ? "For later" actually makes less sense than the rude reading.
By the mid-sixties Tommy was a genuine film star and his next single wasn't till 1968 the title song from Half A Sixpence now a film . Tommy overdoes the chirpy Cockney on this relentlessly cheery musical number and I'm looking at his discography wondering how much more of this I can take. "Fortuosity" comes from his Disney musical The Happiest Millionaire and brings no relief.
Tommy's film career had largely played itself out by the end of the sixties and he went back to the stage. 1974's "King's New Clothes" is from Hans Christian Anderson and 1984's
"Singin In The Rain" from, well you work it out. That would appear to be his last single.
In recent years he's come under fire for disputing the claim that Elvis only set foot briefly at Prestwick Airport as far as the UK was concerned; instead he and Tommy are supposed to have had a day seeing the sights in London. The "revelation" came out in a radio interview of his friend Bill Kenwright and Tommy has refused to amplify the claim. Personally I think Tommy was just winding Kenwright up but doesn't want to embarrass his mate. The idea that even in 1958 the most famous man on the planet could walk around London with a not exactly unknown face for a guide and not get snapped by someone is preposterous.
Tommy is still going in the theatre at 77 playing the lead role in Scrooge-The Musical for 14 weeks at the end of each year. You have to admire his pertinacity even if his music was never very good.
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