Tommy Steele
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| This youth, thought Bond, makes about twenty pounds a week, despises his parents, and would like to be Tommy Steele. | |
| - | Thunderball by Ian Fleming |
As we know, James Bond could be a little curmudgeonly about the culture that was emerging in the post-war 20th century world. But perhaps we shouldn't pay too much attention to a person who smoked sixty cigarettes a day, knocked down half a bottle of liquor, grumped that women had the right to vote, and didn't even exist.1
Footnote
Sales figures for the original James Bond novels are surprisingly hard to find and one source (without attribution) simply says it's been hundred of millions of copies. The problem is not only that the appearance of later novels by other writers muddies the waters, but the original books by Ian Fleming are still being printed and keep selling in hardback, paperback, and electronic copies.
Not appreciated by many of Bond fans is that the British and American editions aren't identical. It's not just minor editing of British usages ("vacuuming" a carpet in America instead "hoovering" it in England), but the US editors had to alter the slang expressions Ian put into the mouths of American characters to make them more believable. For a bit more about Ian's unintentionally humorous attempts to "talk like an American" just click here.
Tommy Steele, though, does exist and was not - as the disapproval of Agent 007 implied - simply a teenage idol. By 1961 when Thunderball hit the bookstores, Tommy was starring in musicals, both live and cinema, and was quite popular with much of England's adult audience as well.
A Really Big [Shew]
Tommy's cockney accent was not feigned. He was born not two miles from St. Mary Le Bow Anglican Church. So he could easily hear the bells.
After he left school, Tommy worked at odd jobs but he had a natural flair for entertaining. This was the time of the "beatniks", and although the Original Beats like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William Burroughs preferred jazz, the younger generation of hipsters were turning toward folk music and (yes) rock 'n' roll. Tommy's singing ability landed him at the local night spots, and his lively performances guaranteed he would soon be spotted by the impresario Larry Parnes.
Tommy's first appearance on television was in 1956 on Off the Record. He was such a hit that the next year he starred in a movie about his life. Rock Around the World depicts the young English lad learning to play guitar from a hospital bed and his meteoric rise to stardom.
Although it was hoped that Tommy might prove to be the British alternative to the American rock and rollers, this hope ended on September 9, 1956. It was then a young man from Memphis appeared on the American television show hosted by - as one an Englishman put it - "the guy with no neck who can't talk". This "really big shew" pretty much kept the Albion culture out of the colonies for another eight years until a Fabulous Foursome crossed the pond and pretty much took over.
The Young Man from Memphis
Before ...
... and After
By then Tommy had reached well beyond rock and roll. He was a natural for the musical stage and could not only sing but could hold his own with some of the more vigorous professional dancers. He remained popular in England with both kids and their parents.
To those born into a world of instantaneous international communication, it may be a surprise that Tommy remained little known in the United States until the Swinging Sixties were well underway. What has been called his American debut was his prominent role in the 1967 Walt Disney Film The Happiest Millionaire along with Fred McMurray and Greer Garson. That was also the year of San Francisco's Summer of Love that finally pushed out rock and roll songs like "Leader of the Pack" and (bleah) J. Frank Wilson's "Last Kiss". Even Elvis had become old hat. But Tommy has kept on going
The Fabulous Four
In addition to the honor of a knighthood, Tommy has the true distinction of having one of the least known but most notable of the misheard lyrics. We all know the more famous examples. There's Jim Hendrix and "Excuse me while I kiss this guy" ("Excuse me while I kiss the sky"), Bob Dylan's "The ants are, my friend, blowing in the wind" ("The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind"), and Creedence Clearwater with "There's a bathroom on the right" ("There's a bad moon on the rise").
And Tommy? Well, his misheard lyrics are in his famous "Eggs and Chips". It's right there toward the end where it sounds like he says ...
Well, perhaps we should leave finding this as an exercise for the reader.
This is, after all, a family website.
References
"Tommy Steele", Encyclopedia Britannica.
"The Authorized Biography of Tommy Steele To Be Released This May" Westend Wilma, February 25, 2021.
"Tommy Steele", Internet Movie Data Base.
"Off The Record", Jack Payne (presenter), Internet Movie Data Base.
"Commonly Misheard Song Lyrics That Are Way Funnier Than The Real Ones", Andy McDonal, Huffington Post.
The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Johnny Carson (host), Rich Little (guest), August 16, 1973, Internet Movie Data Base.