Hello, my friends, old and new! During the last few weeks, we have presented three actors that truly left their mark in the 1950s. They were Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. But they weren't the only ones: there were a few others who had an equally impressive career and a (slightly) more conventional lifestyle than the aforementioned three. The best among them: Paul Newman.
Screen legend, superstar, and the man with the most famous blue eyes in movie history, Paul Leonard Newman was born on January 26, 1925, in Cleveland, Ohio, the second son of Theresa (Fetsko) and Arthur Sigmund Newman. Paul's father was Jewish, the son of emigrants from Poland and Hungary; he owned a successful sporting goods store. Paul's mother was a practicing Christian Scientist of Slovak descent, who was born in Homonna, Pticie, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother and uncle Joe had an interest in creative arts, and it rubbed off on him. He acted in grade school and high school plays. The Newmans were a well-to-do family, and Paul grew up in a nice home in Shaker Heights.
By 1950, the 25-year-old Newman had been kicked out of Ohio University for unruly behavior, served three years in the United States Navy during World War II as a radio operator, graduated from Ohio's Kenyon College, married his first wife, Jackie, and had his first child, Scott. 1950 was also the year that Paul's father died. When he became successful in later years, Newman said if he had any regrets it would be that his father wasn't around to see it. He brought Jackie back to Shaker Heights and he ran his father's store for a short period. Then, knowing that wasn't the career path he wanted to take, he moved Jackie and Scott to New Haven, Connecticut, where he attended Yale University's School of Drama. While doing a play there, Paul was spotted by two agents, who invited him to come to New York City to pursue a career as a professional actor. After moving to New York, Paul acted in guest spots for various television series. One of those was Suspense (1952). This is the whole episode. Newman appears around the 13:15 mark:
In 1953 came a big break. He got the part of the understudy of the lead role in the successful Broadway play "Picnic". Through this play, he met actress Joanne Woodward, who was also an understudy in the play. While they got on very well and there was a strong attraction, Paul was married and his second child, Susan, was born that year. During this time, Newman was also accepted into the much admired and popular New York Actors Studio, although he wasn't technically auditioning.
Another TV appearance was in Danger (1954). This is a short scene from the episode "Knife In The Dark":
His first appearance on the silver screen also happened in 1954. The film was one of the many Bible-based films that appeared after the huge success of Quo Vadis (1951), called The Silver Chalice. This is a scene with Pier Angeli:
Newman considered his performance in this costume epic to be so bad that he took out a full-page ad in a trade paper apologizing for it to anyone who might have seen it. He had always been embarrassed about the film and reveled in making fun of it.
The film that established Paul Newman as a star came in 1956. It was Robert Wise's Somebody Up There Likes Me, the story of boxer Rocky Graziano with Newman in the lead role. In this scene, his mother is portrayed by Oscar-winning character actress Eileen Heckart:
My favorite British solo artist, David Bowie, recorded a song titled Somebody Up There Likes Me, inspired by the movie:
Paul worked with Wise again in 1957. The film was called Until They Sail. This is Paul Newman with Jean Simmons:
1958 was a great year for Paul: he acted in one TV show and four very successful movies, one of which landed him an Oscar nomination. The Long, Hot Summer is the film in which he established the Paul Newman star persona: dangerously attractive but not dangerous, slightly mischievous but not a total rebel, and an idealist with a cynic strip. Here he acts against the great Orson Welles:
The female lead in The Long, Hot Summer was his old acquaintance from the theatre, Joanne Woodward. They fell in love during the making of the film - and one of Hollywood's legendary couples was born: Paul divorced Jackie and married Joan. They remained together for 50 years, until his death. Here is a scene from the film with the two of them together:
He portrayed Billy The Kid in The Left Handed Gun. This is a scene from the film:
This is Billy The Kid's death scene:
Another one of Paul's films in 1958 was a comedy: Leo McCarey's Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys! Joanne Woodward was his co-star once again, as well as a very attractive Joan Collins. Here's the trailer, presented by Bob Hope and the director himself:
Newman's most famous part in 1958 was the one that gave him his first Oscar nomination. It was Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. He co-starred with a ravishing Elizabeth Taylor and an intimidating Burl Ives. This is an important scene with Newman and Ives, where the play's gay subtext is kind-of, sort-of implied:
This is the film's final scene:
In 1959, Newman starred in The Young Philadelphians. In this scene, Paul explains the benefits of donating appreciated stock:
In the 1950s, Paul Newman managed to become a star win an Oscar nomination and marry Joanne Woodward, becoming one of Hollywood's "it" couples. In the 1960s, he would rise to even greater heights. But more of that, next time...
The weekend is here, which means it's time for our countdown and our statistics: At #155 of our Motown countdown, we find On Bended Knee, by the last of Motown's superstars, Boyz II Men. On Bended Knee, written and produced by the very talented duo of Jimmy Jam (James Harris III) and Terry Lewis. It followed their huge #1 hit I'll Make Love to You, actually replacing it at the top of the Hot 100 on December 3, 1994. It spent 6 weeks there.
In the lyrics, the speaker begs "on bended knee" for his ex-lover to come back to him, and apologizes for his wrongdoing. The music video featured the band members and their breakup and eventual reconciliation with four famous actresses: Kim Fields, Renée Jones, Lark Voorhies, and Victoria Rowell. Here it is:
This is the acapella version of the song:
At #154 is a song that is part of Gay History: I Was Born This Way was written by Chris Spierer and Bunny Jones, who wanted to write a Gay anthem and make the plight on Gay issues known and bring it to the forefront. The song's lyrics are about a man who proclaims that he's gay and that he was "born this way". It was one of the first gay disco songs written specifically for the Gay community, before the Village People wave.
The record was first released on the Motown-distributed Gaiee Records and performed by Valentino (real name Charles Harris). Frankie Crocker of WBLS Radio in New York first aired the song and it was an instant hit. Here it is:
In 1978, the Carl Bean version on Motown Records became a club hit on the Billboard Club Play Singles at #15. This is it:
The song was remixed by Shep Pettibone and Bruce Forest in 1986, and along with a mix by Timmy Regisford was re-released on Next Plateau Records. The "Better Days" mix became a huge club anthem during the 80s:
It was also sampled in 1999 by Stuart Price, using the alias Pour Homme, as Born this Way. It was a tremendous hit in Europe:
Two versions of I Was Born This Way (Bean's, and a newer recording by Jimmy Somerville) were featured in the 2006 independent film "Another Gay Movie". In 2008, Magnus Carlsson, Sweden's popular gay male vocalist re-recorded 3 versions of I Was Born This Way. This is the Flying Handbag Version:
At #153, we find Love's Gone Bad (1966) by Chris Clark. A 6-foot blonde teenager, Clark didn't look like a typical Motown artist. But one spin of Love's Gone Bad shows why the label signed Clark, who's been called Motown's answer to Dusty Springfield. This rollicking Holland-Dozier-Holland single only charted at #41 on Billboard's R&B chart (#105 on the Hot 100), but crazy has never sounded so compelling. After her Motown career faded away, Clark, a California girl, didn't stop living a fascinating life. She co-wrote Lady Sings the Blues, the Billie Holiday biopic starring Diana Ross, and married the writer of the Shaft novels. She also photographed the Masai in Africa and owned a pet cougar. This is the song:
The Underdogs recorded the song in 1967:
The song was also recorded by The Jackson 5 in the 70s:
At #152 is another Holland-Dozier-Holland classic called It's the Same Old Song, as recorded in 1965 by The Four Tops. The single peaked at #5 on the Hot 100 and at #2 on the US R&B chart. It also peaked at #34 in the UK.
The song has an interesting history. After I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) hit #1 for Motown in June 1965, The Four Tops' former label, Columbia Records, wanting to cash in on the group's success, re-released the Tops' 1960 Columbia single Ain't That Love. Berry Gordy ordered that a new Four Tops single had to be released within a day's time.
At 3:00 PM that afternoon, the Holland brothers and Lamont Dozier wrote It's the Same Old Song. Four Tops tenor Abdul "Duke" Fakir recalled:
"Lamont Dozier and I were both a little tipsy and he was changing the channels on the radio. He said, 'It sounds like the same old song.' And then he said, "Wait a minute." So he took "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)" and reversed it using the same chord changes. The next day, we went to the studio and recorded it, and then they put it on acetate, shipped it out to disc jockeys across the country."
With the recent release of a previously unreleased version of It's the Same Old Song recorded by the Supremes, the truth of the events on how the song came together for the Four Tops is put into question. Holland-Dozier-Holland originally wrote and cut a track of It's the Same Old Song for the Supremes in May 1965 before the Four Tops' version in July of that year. This first version would remain unreleased until 2017. This is it:
A second version was cut in a very similar style to the Four Tops' version would be released in 1967 on the album The Supremes Sing Holland-Dozier-Holland. Here it is:
Claude Francois released a cover version of the song in French, C'est La Meme Chanson. This is it:
In 1971, Jonathan King covered the song with a completely different arrangement under the name The Weathermen and his version reached the UK Top 20 selling over 250,000 copies. This:
In 1978, KC and the Sunshine Band did a disco-based cover of the song. Anticipated to be a big hit as the leadoff single from the band's Who Do Ya Love album, and on the heels of a succession of hits by the band, the record was a relative flop. It peaked at #35 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart. Bandleader Harry Wayne "KC" Casey cited lack of airplay, especially from R&B outlets, as the source of the record's chart failure. He stated, "[T]he record never got played and… our records go R&B first and then crossover to pop. But this one didn't get the R&B support; it didn't get the airplay." Casey suggested that - perhaps due to T.K. Records distribution problems - the It's the Same Old Song single wasn't easily accessible, saying "[W]e've had a lot of letters, too, from people who couldn't buy the record anywhere." Here it is:
Finally for today, at #151, is a song released in 1986: Lionel Richie's Dancing On The Ceiling. It was written by Richie, Mike Frenchik, and Carlos Rios for his third studio album of the same name, while production was helmed by Richie and James Anthony Carmichael. Released as the album's leading single, it became a worldwide top ten hit, reaching the top five in the United States, Australia, Sweden, and the Flemish region of Belgium as well as peaking on the top spot on the national singles chart in Norway.
Critics were not very kind to the song: "This [sense of swagger] isn't entirely a good thing, since it means he indulges in silliness" said Allmusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, while in the early 21st century, Blender magazine published a list of the "50 worst songs of all time", with Dancing on the Ceiling listed at #20. Despite these negative views, the song remains a regular addition to 80's music nights at clubs and bars.
The music video was directed by Stanley Donen who also co-produced it with Glenn Goodwin through Glenn Goodwin & Associates. Michael Peters choreographed and Daniel Pearl was the director of photography. The shooting took place for three days at Laird Studios in Culver City and one day on location at the LeMondrian Hotel in West Hollywood. The video reportedly cost somewhere between $350,000 and $500,000 (or around $400,000), making it the most expensive short form music video production at the time.
In the video, which premiered on September 8, 1986, Richie and friends attend a party and dance on the ceiling reminiscent of Fred Astaire's routine in Donen's 1951 film Royal Wedding. Donen later said that Richie actually adapted easier and quicker to the rotating room used in the video than Astaire did while shooting Royal Wedding. There is also a reference in the video to The Seven Year Itch when air blows a woman's skirt over her head. In the end, Rodney Dangerfield and Cheech Marin make cameo appearances. The video also features dancer Diane Alexander, who would later become Richie's second wife. Here it is:
Now, let's continue with last week's statistics; there was a 15% rise in the total number of visits compared to last week. Montgomery Clift did great, as well as the three "medical" stories. All four did more or less the same.
As far as countries are concerned, the only major players that actually increased their all-time percentage were the United States and top 10 newcomer Hungary - while France, the United Kingdom, Russia, and Turkey are slightly falling behind. The other major players kept their percentages more or less stable.
Here are this week's Top 10 countries:
1. the United States
2. Greece
3. the United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Spain
6. France
7. Australia
8. Germany
9. Brazil
10. Hungary
Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Aland Islands, Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!
And here's the all-time Top 10:
1. the United States = 31.9%
2. France = 18.6%
3. the United Kingdom = 11.7%
4. Greece = 8.5%
5. Russia = 2.3%
6. Canada = 1.8%
7. Germany = 1.8%
8. Italy = 1.0%
9. Cyprus = 0.93%
10. Turkey = 0.76%
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