Chart entered : 26 July 1962
Chart peak : 34
We now move into 1962, the first year which has more departures than arrivals, almost as if the decks were being cleared for someone. The second half of the year saw another mini-cull of fifties detritus starting with this one.
Anthony's is the shortest chart span we've encountered since Bill Haley, just over 3 years. Every single he put out prior to this had charted ( including two number ones in 1960 ) although the last two had failed to make the Top 20 perhaps because he couldn't promote them effectively while starring in a hit musical..
"That Noise" is a novelty song co-written with his usual partner Leslie Bricusse concerning a day in the life of a man being driven mad by a strange noise and not getting much help from those around him. It's essentially a Cockneyfied Lonnie Donegan skiffle tune with appropriate silly noises . I was going to describe it as totally unfunny until he pulled the old trick of swerving away from a rude word at the last second and I confess to a chuckle.
In fairness to Anthony his departure from the charts was partly his own choice. In October 1962 his and Bricusse's successful musical Stop The World -I Want To Get Off crossed over to Broadway and he went over to reprise his lead role for the next few months. The main song "What Kind Of Fool Am I ? " was a massive hit for Sammy Davis Junior and earned its writers a Grammy Award in 1963.
Anthony's first flop was "There's No Such Thing As Love" in April 1963, a straight ballad with a lovely string arrangement from Billy Mure but an eccentric vocal performance with sudden leaps in volume on single words which strangely calls to mind David Byrne.
He then married already- pregnant Joan Collins as soon as his divorce came through. She collaborated with him and Peter Sellers on the hit comedy LP "Fool Britannia" based on the Profumo scandal. Their daughter Tara was born in October which probably inspired his next single, "The Father Of Girls" released the following month. Written by Ervin Drake it's a touching song of parental concern. Anthony does it straight as a quiet acoustic ballad with nice guitar work and it's probably his best recording. In January 1964 he released "Tribute/ Lament For A Hero" two songs he'd written in response to the Kennedy assassination. I haven't heard the former but "Lament" is maudlin tripe that seems to last for at least twice its actual length.
1964 was another busy year for Anthony. He and Bricusse wrote that year's Bond theme "Goldfinger" , a hit for Shirley Bassey and took their next musical The Roar of the Greasepaint - the Smell of the Crowd to Broadway despite its failing to make the West End here. He found time for a single in April, "I'll Teach You How To Cry" a dreary, over-acted jazz ballad which marked the end of his association with Decca
Anthony's theatrical commitments kept him busy in 1965 so his next single on RCA was in May 1966. I haven't heard "Why Can't You Try To Didgeridoo" but it doesn't sound too promising does it ?
In 1967 he made his Hollywood debut as the titular character's sidekick in Dr Dolittle for which Bricusse, working by himself, had come up with the songs. His next single "Something In Your Smile" was from that. It's a tasteful ballad but funereally slow. What is striking about it, more than on any other of his records , is just how similar Bowie sounds to him.
At the end of the decade Anthony's career hit its first serious bump in the road courtesy of his self-indulgent semi-autobiographical directorial debut Can Hieronymous Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe And Find True Happiness ? a legendarily bad film that finished him as a Hollywood player. What's more the proliferation of sex scenes, despite Collins's presence on set, exposed him as not just pretentious but personally odious to boot. It seems to have exacted a personal as well as professional toll as they were divorced the following year. Collins's subsequent triumphs as a voracious cougar in The Stud and The Bitch can be read as a riposte to her ex-husband's farrago. Anthony's 1969 single "I'm All I Need" was from the film , a self-written ode to himself which has little musical merit either.
The film didn't finish Anthony's career as a composer or stage performer. In 1971 he and Bricusse wrote the music for Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. In 1972 he came back to the West End with a new musical "The Good Old Bad Old Days" and that was the title of his last UK single on Columbia in 1972 , a knees-up music hall number that probably works well as a stage finale. His last new album was "The Singer And His Songs in 1978 but no singles were taken from it
The musical had reasonable reviews but was very expensive to stage and so had a relatively short run after which Anthony turned his back on Britain for many years. He lived in California performed in Las Vegas and regularly acted on American TV. In 1985 he had a cancerous kidney removed and touchingly moved back in with his elderly mother to recuperate. The following year he successfully managed to revive Stop The World I Want To Get Off in America.
In his final years Anthony worked more often in Britain, taking smaller character roles in theatre productions. Although they no longer wrote together he had a last starring role in Bricusse's Scrooge. In 1998 he joined Eastenders for a few months ( some of the younger cast members probably had no idea what a big deal he had once been ) but the schedule became too much for him . His last role was as the slimy Bishop in the second series of The Lakes. He died in Florida of renal cancer in April 1999 aged 67.
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