I'm conscious that I use (and will go on to use) the descriptor 'acquired taste' quite frequently in my discussion of certain vocalists (by which I generally mean "well I don't like it much but somebody obviously does"), but I think if I had to cram one foot into this particular glass slipper then it would be Anthony Newley's. Mr Newley was North London born and bred and my lord he didn't try to hide it, so much so that it's tempting to view his cockney singspeaking as a harbinger of the swinging Carnaby Street, London scene to come.
Tempting, but a bit too easy and way too inaccurate - whilst Newley and his singing/acting/writing runs through the sixties like the 'Blackpool' runs through a stick of confectionery from that resort, he always (in his music at least) stood somewhat aloof and apart from whatever was going on around him and in so doing created his own space and played by his own rules to the extent that his version of 'Why' could just as easily have been released in the closing weeks of 1969 as the opening ones of 1960.
Ah yes, 'his version' - 'Why' was originally written for and recorded by Frankie Avalon in 1959. Frankie's cut was stalled back in the mid twenties on this 1960 chart, begging the question as to why (no pun intended) Newley's own take proved so popular while the original got lost in the long grass, especially as the musical arrangements for both are apple crisp and virtual carbon copies of each other.
Obviously, Frankie is American and sounds American, so a preference for home talent could have been no small factor, but I think it goes deeper than that to the actual mode of delivery itself. No matter who's singing, 'Why' (let's be honest) is a fairly drippy statement on the virtues of being in love. "I think you're awfully sweet, Why? Because I love you. You say I'm your special treat, Why? Because you love me"; Avalon sings this straight, no chaser with a mature vocal that brutally exposes the saccharine overload of the lyric while on the other hand, Newley's idiosyncratic twang delivers it in a manner more akin to an adult spouting baby talk to make a grizzling toddler smile.
Whilst this doesn't mine any hidden layer of depth or meaning from it, it's a style that is more fitting for the goo goo lyrics in the same way that it's always better to recite nursery rhymes in a sing song voice than to dryly orate them from a podium like a lecturing professor (it's no coincidence that Newley would go on to record 'Pop Goes The Weasel' in 1961). In so doing, Newley taps into the same vein of sentimental 'ahhhhh' as, say, 'There's No One Quite Like Grandma'. Both songs share similar DNA, but Newley's 'Why' is at least honest about what Avalon's version tries to hide (had Frankie tackled 'Grandma' in the same way then like as not he'd have been met with a level of derision that would make that heaped on St Winifred's School Choir seem like high praise indeed).
Not that this makes everything alright; there remains something slightly uncomfortable and everso 'wrong' about hearing a thirty year old man sounding like an adolescent lovefool, and the backing chorus that repeat his vocal in a patronising 'there there' tone doesn't help supply a backbone either. True, Newley couldn't help the way he sang and his voice was his fortune, but in his mouth 'Why' is the musical equivalent of the proud father pointing out a dog as a 'waggy bow wow' to the delight of his gurgling infant child. Cute as far as him and his family go, but to the more cynical of us standing outside that little sphere of emotional involvement then he just looks a bit of a cock.
Tempting, but a bit too easy and way too inaccurate - whilst Newley and his singing/acting/writing runs through the sixties like the 'Blackpool' runs through a stick of confectionery from that resort, he always (in his music at least) stood somewhat aloof and apart from whatever was going on around him and in so doing created his own space and played by his own rules to the extent that his version of 'Why' could just as easily have been released in the closing weeks of 1969 as the opening ones of 1960.
Ah yes, 'his version' - 'Why' was originally written for and recorded by Frankie Avalon in 1959. Frankie's cut was stalled back in the mid twenties on this 1960 chart, begging the question as to why (no pun intended) Newley's own take proved so popular while the original got lost in the long grass, especially as the musical arrangements for both are apple crisp and virtual carbon copies of each other.
Obviously, Frankie is American and sounds American, so a preference for home talent could have been no small factor, but I think it goes deeper than that to the actual mode of delivery itself. No matter who's singing, 'Why' (let's be honest) is a fairly drippy statement on the virtues of being in love. "I think you're awfully sweet, Why? Because I love you. You say I'm your special treat, Why? Because you love me"; Avalon sings this straight, no chaser with a mature vocal that brutally exposes the saccharine overload of the lyric while on the other hand, Newley's idiosyncratic twang delivers it in a manner more akin to an adult spouting baby talk to make a grizzling toddler smile.
Whilst this doesn't mine any hidden layer of depth or meaning from it, it's a style that is more fitting for the goo goo lyrics in the same way that it's always better to recite nursery rhymes in a sing song voice than to dryly orate them from a podium like a lecturing professor (it's no coincidence that Newley would go on to record 'Pop Goes The Weasel' in 1961). In so doing, Newley taps into the same vein of sentimental 'ahhhhh' as, say, 'There's No One Quite Like Grandma'. Both songs share similar DNA, but Newley's 'Why' is at least honest about what Avalon's version tries to hide (had Frankie tackled 'Grandma' in the same way then like as not he'd have been met with a level of derision that would make that heaped on St Winifred's School Choir seem like high praise indeed).
Not that this makes everything alright; there remains something slightly uncomfortable and everso 'wrong' about hearing a thirty year old man sounding like an adolescent lovefool, and the backing chorus that repeat his vocal in a patronising 'there there' tone doesn't help supply a backbone either. True, Newley couldn't help the way he sang and his voice was his fortune, but in his mouth 'Why' is the musical equivalent of the proud father pointing out a dog as a 'waggy bow wow' to the delight of his gurgling infant child. Cute as far as him and his family go, but to the more cynical of us standing outside that little sphere of emotional involvement then he just looks a bit of a cock.
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