Episode 042 - Seven Inches Of History 004 - Adam Faith - Poor Me
About this episode
The episode explores Adam Faith's rise to fame with his hit song 'Poor Me' and the creative decisions behind his success.
Two number ones before breakfast. Adam Faith was just getting started. Adam Faith was not an accident. While some artists stumble into the charts through luck or timing, Terence Nelhams-Wright from Acton arrived at number one in the spring of 1960 as the result of a series of very deliberate decisions. The name. The image. The sound. All of it carefully assembled, and all of it working perfectly. "Poor Me" was his second consecutive number one, following "What Do You Want" which had topped the chart at the end of 1959. Back to back number ones before most people had even worked out who he was. The songwriter was Les Vandyke, pen name of Johnny Worth, who had an almost uncanny gift for matching a lyric to a performer. The narrator of "Poor Me" is convinced the universe has it in for him romantically. Faith delivered that conviction with a sincerity that made it completely believable. The sound was John Barry's work. The pizzicato string arrangement, plucked and precise, gave the record an intimacy that set it apart from everything else on the chart. Barry would go on to write the James Bond scores and win five Academy Awards. In 1960 he was a young arranger who understood that…
People in this episode
Host: Scott
Topics covered
- music history
- pop culture
- 1960s music
- songwriting
- chart success
Keywords
- Adam Faith
- Poor Me
- Les Vandyke
- John Barry
- 1960 number one
More episodes of Rainbow Valley
- Episode 043 - The Making Of The Italian Job (1969)
- Episode 041 - Seven Inches Of History 003 - Anthony Newley - Why
- Episode 040 - Seven Inches Of History 002 - Michael Holliday - Starry Eyed
- Episode 039 - Seven Inches Of History 001 - Emile Ford and the Checkmates - What Do Want to Make Those Eyes At Me For?
- Episode 018 - The Making Of Cleopatra (1963)
- Episode 016 - The Hammersmith Nude Murders (1964 - 1965)
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