Tommy Steele

Tommy Steele (1957)

Tommy Steele (1999)

Tommy Steele (born December 17, 1936 in London , England ; actually Thomas Hicks ) is a British singer , actor and entertainer . He was Britain's first domestic rock 'n' roll star.

Life

After a few years in the merchant marine, Thomas Hicks founded the skiffle band The Cavemen in 1956 with Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt . She became aware of John Kennedy and Larry Parnes and became her managers. The name was changed to Tommy Steele & The Steelmen . Steele was the first artist in the stable of the future music manager Parnes. And Parnes made him a star. The singles Rock With The Caveman and Singing The Blues were hits.

In 1957 the film The Tommy Steele Story was shot. The second film, The Duke Wore Jeans , followed that same year, and Steele got his own television show. Tommy Steele was ubiquitous, live, on record, on the radio, on television and in the cinema. And he performed before members of the royal family.

In 1958 Steele went on an international tour that took him through Europe and as far as South Africa. During a gig in Great Britain, he was injured so badly by fans that he had to pause. Steele then began to break away from the rock 'n' roll image. This role was filled by others, such as Cliff Richard and Billy Fury .

In December 1958 Steel had his first musical role in Cinderella at the London Coliseum . Steel starred in the musical Half a Sixpence in 1963 at the Cambridge Theater in London , two years later on Broadway and in 1967 in the Hollywood film adaptation of the same name . This was followed by other musical films such as Walt Disney's The Happiest Millionaire with Fred MacMurray , Lesley Ann Warren and Greer Garson , for which he received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Young Actor , and The Golden Rainbow , along with Fred Astaire , Petula Clark and Don Francks directed by Francis Ford Coppola .

In 1974 Steele released the autobiographical album My Life, My Song . An Evening with Tommy Steele was one of the longest-running one-man shows from 1979-80 at 14 months. In 1983 Steele directed the musical Singin 'in the Rain , in which he also played the lead role. In 2003 he was on tour with the musical Scrooge . Steele's name is closely associated with the London Palladium, where he's now the star with most performances. A plaque in the main foyer honors him for this. In 2005/2006 he last played here in Scrooge .

Tommy Steele is also active as a painter , sculptor and author and is an excellent mime artist .

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1957	Tommy Steele Stage Show	UK5 (1 week) UK
	The Tommy Steele Story	UK-UK	Album for the film of the same name
1958	The Duke Wore Jeans	UK-UK	Album for the film of the same name
1959	Cinderella	UK-UK	Album for the musical of the same name, re-released in 1983
1963	Half a sixpence	UK20 (2 weeks) UK
1965	Tommy Steele Everything's Coming Up Broadway	UK-UK
1974	My life, my song	UK-UK
	Hans Andersen	UK-UK
1995	Singin 'in the Rain	UK-UK	Album for the musical of the same name
1996	Some Like It Hot	UK-UK	Album for the musical of the same name
2009	The very best of	UK22 (3 weeks) UK

Singles

year	Title B side	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements (Year, title, B-side , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)	Remarks
		UK
1956	Rock With the Caveman Rock Around The Town	UK13 (5 weeks) UK
	Singing the blues rebel rock	UK1 (15 weeks) UK
	Elevator Rock Doomsday Rock	UK-UK
1957	Knee Deep in the Blues Teenage Party	UK15 (9 weeks) UK
	Butterfingers Cannibal Pot	UK8 (18 weeks) UK
	Water, Water A Handful Of Songs	UK5 (17 weeks) UK
	Shiralee Grandad's Rock	UK11 (4 weeks) UK
	Hey you! Plant a kiss	UK28 (1 week) UK
1958	Happy Guitar Princess	UK20 (5 weeks) UK
	Nairobi neon sign	UK3 (11 weeks) UK
	The Only Man on the Island I Puts The Lightie On	UK16 (8 weeks) UK
	Come On, Let's Go Put A Ring On Her Finger	UK10 (13 weeks) UK
	It's All Happening What Do You Do	UK-UK
	A Lovely Night Marriage Type Love	UK-UK
1959	Tallahassee Lassie Give! Give! Give!	UK16 (5 weeks) UK	B side Give! Give! Give! at number 28 (2 weeks) also in the charts
	Little White Bull Singing Time	UK6 (17 weeks) UK
	Hiawatha The Trial	UK-UK
	You Were Mine Young Ideas	UK-UK
1960	What a Mouth (What a North and South) Kookaburra	UK5 (11 weeks) UK
	Must Be Santa Boys And Girls	UK40 (1 week) UK
	Happy-Go-Lucky Blues (The Girl With The) Long Black Hair	UK-UK
1961	The Writing on the Wall Drunken Guitar	UK30 (5 weeks) UK
	My Big Best Shoes The Dit-Dit Song	UK-UK
1962	Hit Record What A Little Darlin '	UK-UK
1963	Where Have All the Flowers Gone Butter Wouldn't Melt in Your Mouth	UK-UK
	Flash Bang Wallop She's Too Far Above Me	UK-UK
	He's Got Love Green Eye	UK-UK
	The Dream Maker Egg And Chips	UK-UK
1965	Half a Sixpence If The Rain's Got To Fall	UK-UK
1968	Fortuosity I'll Always Be Irish	UK-UK
1974	King's New Clothes Wonderful Copenhagen	UK-UK

Filmography

• 1957: The Tommy Steele Story ( The Tommy Steele Story )
• 1958: The Duke Wore Jeans
• 1959: Tommy, the Torero ( Tommy the Toreador )
• 1960: Light Up the Sky!
• 1962: Quincy's Quest
• 1964: Richard Whittington Esquire
• 1967: The Happiest Millionaire ( The Happiest Millionaire )
• 1967: Half a Sixpence
• 1968: The Golden Rainbow ( Finian's Rainbow )
• 1969: My friend Ben , TV series, 1 episode
• 1969: Where's Jack?
• 1973: Once Upon a Time, TV series, 1 episode
• 1978: The Yeomen of the Guard
• 1979: Quincy's Quest

bibliography

• Tommy Steele: Bermondsey Boy: Memories of a Forgotten World. Joseph, London 2006, ISBN 0-718-14972-6 .

Web links

Commons : Tommy Steele  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Tommy Steele in the Internet Movie Database (English)

swell

1. ↑ Program and newspaper clippings December 1958 , accessed March 1, 2020
2. ^ Cinderella 1959 , London Coliseum 1959, accessed March 1, 2020
3. ↑ Half A Sixpence by Tommy Steele on songfacts , accessed March 1, 2020
4. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: UK