This two-fer CD combines
Anthony Newley's first and third solo albums, Love Is a Now and Then Thing, originally released in 1960, and In My Solitude from 1964. (Vocalion also has combined
Newley's second solo album, Tony, with a compilation LP, Newley Delivered, on another disc.) This matching of discs, while out of chronological order, is justified by the styles of the albums, both of which consist of lovelorn romantic ballads in the manner of
Frank Sinatra's concept albums of the '50s such as Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely. Although
Newley was a British
pop/rock star in 1960 and by 1964 had become best known as the star and author of the stage hit Stop the World -- I Want to Get Off, both of these albums find him assaying pre-rock
standards by the likes of
Harold Arlen,
Cole Porter, and
Jule Styne over
orchestral backings provided by
Eric Rogers (on Love Is a Now and Then Thing) and
Ray Ellis (In My Solitude). He does so with considerable ability. His singing is always effective and carefully articulated. He may not have the style of a
Sinatra or
Tony Bennett, but he has a good tenor voice and a fine understanding of the nuances of the lyrics. There is a noticeable change in his approach between the two albums, however. The changeover appears as of the thirteenth track, a surprisingly slowed down version of
Porter's "It's All Right with Me" that leads off In My Solitude. In the gap between the LPs,
Newley had spent two-and-a-half years singing songs like his "What Kind of Fool Am I?" on the stages of London and New York, and the recordings he made for In My Solitude show off a more confident and more mannered performer who holds notes and phrases dramatically; too dramatically, in places. This CD does not present the
Anthony Newley his early
pop fans or his later theater fans know, but it does presage another
Newley, the one who trod the stages of nightclubs and casinos as a middle-of-the-road entertainer. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
