Sir Thomas HicksOBE (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star.[1][2]
Steele was born Thomas Hicks in Bermondsey, London, in 1936.[3] His father, Thomas Walter Hicks, was a racing tipster and his mother, Elizabeth "Betty" Ellen Bennett, worked in a factory; they had married in 1933, in Bermondsey.
As a child, Steele spent time in hospital for porphyria. He dreamt of being a star performer after his parents took him to the London Palladium, but "didn't think you could be English and be a star".[4] In 1952, at the age of 15, Steele joined the Merchant Navy, working on the Cunard line.[5] He was not eligible for national service because of a diagnosis of cardiomyopathy.[6]
Through his paternal line, the full family name (Still-Hicks) influenced his future stage name, as he adapted it to become known professionally as Tommy Steele.[7]
Whilst working as a merchant seaman, Steele learned to play guitar and began performing country and calypso music, inspired most by Hank Williams.[3][9][10] He has claimed that when a ship he was serving on docked in Norfolk, Virginia, U.S., he saw Buddy Holly perform and fell in love with rock and roll.[4][11] The story conflicts with the known performances of Holly, making it appear impossible that it could have occurred as described.[12]
Steele's first single, "Rock with the Caveman", was one of the first British rock and roll hits, reaching number 13 on the UK Singles Chart in November 1956.[5][18] He promoted the single with his first television appearance, on bandleader Jack Payne's BBC series Off the Record, and quickly became a national teen idol.[8][nb 1] Steele's success saw him dubbed "Britain's Elvis", though his appeal has been characterised as less provocative than Presley's.[5][19] A 1957 concert review by Trevor Philpott of Picture Post described Steele's act as possessing "not a trace of sex, real or implied",[14][20] whilst Stephen Glynn has written that Steele's voice "was genial before threatening, his stage demeanour more playground skip than bedroom thrust".[21] Steele's live performances were marked by frenzy from the teenage audience.[22][23] His first album, Tommy Steele Stage Show, was recorded at a London concert the night before his twentieth birthday and issued in March 1957.[8]
"Doomsday Rock", Steele's second single, failed to chart after its apocalyptic theme drew controversy.[5][8] His third, "Singing the Blues", reached number 1 in January 1957, staving off a recording by Guy Mitchell for one week.[18][25] Steele was among the first British pop stars to be heavily merchandised, with tie-in sweaters,[26] shoes[27] and toy guitars.[28][29] Only a few months after his first chart presence, the singer was filming his life story; The Tommy Steele Story (1957) featured twelve new songs, written hastily by Steele, Bart and Pratt, that expanded the singer's repertoire to incorporate ballads and calypso music.[1][30][31] The film's soundtrack was the first UK number one album by a British act,[31] and the hit single "A Handful of Songs" received the 1958 Ivor Novello Award for Most Outstanding Song of the Year, Musically and Lyrically.[32] By the end of 1957, Steele had bought a four-bedroomed house in South London for his parents[33] and was reported to be earning more than British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.[34]
Steele made several appearances on the BBC programme Six-Five Special (1957–58), though agent Ian Bevan restricted the singer's bookings in the belief that television "tends to cheapen an artist of that nature".[35] He performed at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the BBC's Third Annual Festival of Dance Music in April 1957[36][37] and topped the bill at the Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium in November 1957.[38] In 2008, theatre producer Bill Kenwright alleged that Elvis Presley was taken on a tour of London by Steele in 1958, challenging Glasgow Prestwick Airport's accepted status as the only place in the United Kingdom where Presley set foot.[39][40] The unverified claim caused controversy, with Steele telling the media "I swore never to divulge what took place and I regret that it has found some way of 'getting into the light'. I can only hope he [Elvis] can forgive me."[41]
Steele starred in a dual role in his second film vehicle, The Duke Wore Jeans, released in March 1958.[42] The film's soundtrack topped the UK Albums Chart.[5] In May 1958, Steele was hospitalised after being mobbed by fans at a concert at Caird Hall, Dundee, having had his right arm hurt, chunks of his hair pulled out and his shirt ripped off.[9] Steele subsequently largely withdrew from performing concerts and increasingly worked in the theatre.[9] He continued to record rock and roll over 1958 and 1959, finding chart success with covers of US hits, including "Come On, Let's Go" and "Tallahassee Lassie".[5] In September 1958, he appeared in the first episode of Oh Boy!, Jack Good's ITV series which featured several new British rock and roll stars, including Cliff Richard and Marty Wilde.[5]
In August 1959, Steele undertook a three-day concert visit to Moscow, where The Tommy Steele Story was screened at the Kremlin.[43] In his first colour film, Tommy the Toreador (1959), Steele proved "a real, true Danny Kaye", according to its cinematographer Gilbert Taylor.[44] A hit single from the film, "Little White Bull", became a children's favourite after it was released in aid of a cancer research unit for children.[5][45]
Considered Britain's first rock and roll star,[1][2] Steele has been described by AllMusic as "the English teenager who let the genie out of the bottle, even if he wasn't the genie."[5][14] Steele's rock and roll recordings have often divided critical opinion.[5] In Yeah Yeah Yeah: The Story of Modern Pop (2013), Bob Stanley describes Steele's early singles as "charming and naïve, endearingly amateurish, with odd smudges of echo and strangely slurred vocals".[14] In his 1970 book Revolt into Style: The Pop Arts in Britain, George Melly derided Steele’s films of being emblematic of the "castration of early rock and roll".[20] In 2009, the greatest hits collection The Very Best of Tommy Steele reached the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, the first UK chart entry for Steele in over 46 years.[46]
Actor
The increase in home-grown musical talent during the 1950s and 1960s allowed Steele to progress to a career in stage and film musicals, leaving behind his pop-idol identity. In 1957, he was voted the seventh-most-popular actor at the British box office.[47]
In 1960, a tour of Australia had not been particularly successful and upon his return to England he received two offers, one to star in the play Billy Liar, the other to join the Old Vic Company. He chose the latter.[48]
In April 1971, Steele starred in his own show, Meet Me in London, originating in Las Vegas before a limited run at London's Adelphi Theatre.[51] The London production was troubled when Steele demanded cuts to the first act on opening night. Singer Clodagh Rodgers refused to accommodate the cuts, and walked out fifteen minutes before the first night curtain. She was eventually replaced by Susan Maughan.
In 1983, Steele directed and starred in the West End stage production of Singin' in the Rain at the London Palladium. In 1991, he toured with Some Like It Hot the stage version of the Billy Wilder film. In 2003, after a decade-long hiatus, save his one-man shows An Evening With Tommy Steele and What A Show!, he toured as Ebenezer Scrooge in a production of Scrooge: The Musical, an adaptation of Scrooge. Following this return, he reprised his role at the Palace Theatre, Manchester, over Christmas 2004 and brought the production to the London Palladium for Christmas 2005 and which toured over the next ten years. In 2008, at the age of 71, Steele toured in the lead role of the stage musical Doctor Dolittle.
Tommy Steele, November 1999
In 2015, Steele began touring as Glenn Miller in a new stage production of The Glenn Miller Story" which enjoyed two UK tours before heading for a summer season at the "London Coliseum."
He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1958 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the BBC Television Theatre. In December 2019, he hosted a 'Magic of the Musicals' event at the British Film Institute, where he narrated and spoke about some of his favourite musical theatre film routines.
Sculptor
Steele is a respected sculptor and four of his major works have been on public display. Bermondsey Boy at Rotherhithe Town Hall in London, was stolen in 1998: its whereabouts are unknown.[53]Eleanor Rigby, which he sculpted and donated to the City of Liverpool as a tribute to the Beatles, stands in Stanley Street, Liverpool, not far from the Cavern Club.[3][54]Union, featuring two rugby players, is on display at Twickenham Stadium. Trinity, designed during the regeneration of the docklands area in Bermondsey, stood outside the Trinity building in Bermondsey. When Steele lived in Montrose House, Petersham, Surrey, his life-sized sculpture of Charlie Chaplin as "The Tramp" stood outside his front door.[citation needed] He is also an artist of some note and has exhibited at the Royal Academy.
Writing career
In 1981, Steele wrote and published a novel titled The Final Run about World War II and the evacuation of Dunkirk.[55]
He also wrote a children's novel, entitled Quincy, about a reject toy trying to save himself and his fellow rejects in the basement of a toy store from the furnace the day after Christmas.[56] Released in 1981, it was based on his own television film, Quincy's Quest, from 1979, in which Steele played Quincy and Mel Martin played Quincy's girlfriend doll, Rebecca.
Steele co-wrote many of his early songs with Lionel Bart and Mike Pratt, but he used the pseudonym of Jimmy Bennett[nb 2] from 1958 onwards.[57]
In May 2020, Steele announced a new project which he had been working on titled Breakheart, which was available exclusively online throughout May. Announced via a specially recorded video during the COVID-19 lockdown, Breakheart was a seven-episode audio thriller, written by Steele and set during the Second World War. A new episode was released each day for a week culminating in the full story. Following the re-release of the complete version of Breakheart for the 2020 festive period, Steele also released a specially recorded festive tale, The Christmas Mystery of Muchhope. This story was re-released for the festive period of 2022 with new edits and sound effects and a new story, 'The Magic of Christmas,' was written and recorded by Steele for a limited release for Christmas 2023.
In June 2021, to celebrate his 65 years in the entertainment industry, his authorised biography, A Life in the Spotlight, was published by FontHill Media, written by fan and archivist Sebastian Lassandro.
Steele's teen idol stardom was the subject of several contemporary parodies. On his album The Best of Sellers (1958), Peter Sellers portrays Cockney rock and roll star named "Mr. Iron" in the sketch "The Trumpet Volunteer".[64] Steele's rise to fame was satirised in the 1958 West End musical Expresso Bongo and its 1959 film adaptation starring Cliff Richard.[5]
"Heartbreak Hotel" is a song recorded by American singer Elvis Presley. It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. It was written by Mae Boren Axton and Tommy Durden, with credit being given also to Presley. A newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window inspired the song. Axton presented the song to Presley in November 1955 at a country music convention in Nashville. Presley recorded it on January 10, 1956, in a session with his band, the Blue Moon Boys, the guitarist Chet Atkins and the pianist Floyd Cramer. "Heartbreak Hotel" comprises an eight-bar blues progression, with heavy reverberation throughout the track, to imitate the character of Presley's Sun recordings.
Jailhouse Rock is a 1957 American musical drama film directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Elvis Presley, Judy Tyler, Mickey Shaughnessy, Vaughn Taylor and Jennifer Holden. Adapted by Guy Trosper from a story written by Nedrick Young, the film tells the story of Vince Everett (Presley), a convict who learns the guitar while in prison and later becomes a star following his release.
Joseph Roger Brown, MBE is an English musician. As a rock and roll singer and guitarist, he has performed for more than six decades. He was a stage and television performer in the late 1950s and has primarily been a recording star since the early 1960s. He has made six films, presented specialist radio series for BBC Radio 2, appeared on the West End stage alongside Dame Anna Neagle and has written an autobiography. In recent years he has again concentrated on recording and performing music, playing two tours of around 100 shows every year and releasing an album almost every year.
Ronald Wycherley, better known by his stage name Billy Fury, was an English musician. An early star of rock and roll, he spent 332 weeks on the UK singles chart. His hit singles include "Wondrous Place", "Halfway to Paradise" and "Jealousy". Fury also maintained a film career, notably playing rock performers in Play It Cool in 1962 and That'll Be the Day in 1973.
Thomas Adrian Sands is an American pop music singer and actor. Working in show business as a child, Sands became an overnight sensation and instant teen idol when he appeared on Kraft Television Theater in January 1957 as "The Singin' Idol". The song from the show, "Teen-Age Crush", reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on Cashbox.
Michael John Pratt was an English actor, musician, songwriter and screenwriter, known for his work on British television in the 1960s and 1970s.
"Butterfly" is a popular song written by Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann and published in 1957. The song is credited to Anthony September as songwriter in some sources. This was a pseudonym of Anthony Mammarella, producer of American Bandstand.
Henry MacLeod Robertson, often credited as Harry Robinson, was a Scottish musician, bandleader, music director and composer. He worked as a musical director on British television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, and also arranged for theatre shows and films, notably those of the Hammer production company.
The 2i's Coffee Bar was a coffeehouse at 59 Old Compton Street in Soho, London, that was open from 1956 to 1970. It played a formative role in the emergence of Britain's skiffle and rock and roll music culture in the late 1950s, and several major stars including Tommy Steele and Cliff Richard were first discovered performing there.
The Duke Wore Jeans is a 1958 British comedy musical film directed by Gerald Thomas and starring Tommy Steele, June Laverick and Michael Medwin. The screenplay was by Norman Hudis.
Terry Dene is a British rock music singer popular in the late 1950s and early 60s. He had three Top Twenty hits between June 1957 and May 1958.
Colin Hicks & The Cabin Boys were a British rock and roll band, led by Colin Hicks, the younger brother of singer Tommy Steele.
British rock and roll, or typeset as British rock 'n' roll, is a style of popular music based on American rock and roll, which emerged in the late 1950s and was popular until the arrival of beat music in 1962. It was important in establishing British youth and popular music culture and was a key factor in subsequent developments that led to the British Invasion of the mid-1960s. Since the 1960s, some stars of the genre, most notably Cliff Richard, have managed to sustain successful careers and there have been periodic revivals of this form of music.
Charles William Harris, better known by his stage name of Wee Willie Harris, was an English rock and roll singer. He is best known for his energetic stage shows and TV performances starting in the 1950s, when he was known as "Britain's wild man of rock 'n' roll".
Tommy the Toreador is a 1959 British musical comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Tommy Steele, Janet Munro, Sid James, Bernard Cribbins, Noel Purcell and Kenneth Williams.
The Tommy Steele Story is a 1957 British film directed by Gerard Bryant and starring Tommy Steele, dramatising Steele's rise to fame as a teen idol. Along with Rock You Sinners, it was one of the first British films to feature rock and roll. In the US, where Steele was not well-known, the film was released under the title Rock Around the World. The film was announced in January 1957, three months after the release of Steele's first single "Rock with the Caveman".
This is a summary of 1957 in music in the United Kingdom, including the official charts from that year.
"Rock with the Caveman" is the debut single by Tommy Steele and the Steelmen, released in October 1956. It peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles Chart, making it one of the first British rock and roll records to chart.
Jim! is the first studio album by the English actor, singer and songwriter Jim Dale, credited to Dale with Ken Jones and his Orchestra and the Michael Sammes Singers. Released as a 10-inch LP on EMI's Parlophone label in March 1958, Jim! was produced by the label's head George Martin and has been cited as "the first British rock and roll LP". It was Dale's only album released during his initial fame as a teen idol; he quit recording to pursue comedy soon after its release.
Tommy Steele Stage Show is a live album by English entertainer Tommy Steele, released as a 10-inch LP by Decca in March 1957. A concert recording of Steele backed by the Steelmen at London's Conway Hall, it was his first album release and features a version of the hit single "Rock with the Caveman" alongside several covers of American songs including three previously recorded by Hank Williams. The album's release followed Steele's swift rise to fame as a teen idol widely considered Britain's first rock and roll star, and the success of his UK Singles Chart number one "Singing the Blues". It received a muted critical reception but was commercially successful, peaking at number five on the UK Albums Chart.
"Tommy Steele Biography". Tommy Steele International Fan Club. Archived from the original on 5 September 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
"Tommy Steele Discography". Tommy Steele International Fan Club. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
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