‘What Kind of Fool Am I’ is today’s song. This popular song was written by Leslie Bricusse and Anthony Newley and was published in 1962. It was introduced by Anthony Newley in the musical ‘Stop the World-I Want to Get Off’. Bricusse and Newley received the ‘1961 Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically’, and the ‘1963 Grammy Award for Song of the Year’, becoming the first Britons to do so.
The song has been covered by numerous artists such as Tony Bennett: Sammy Davis Junior: Andy Williams: Shirley Bassey and Perry Como to name a few. Because of Newley's high pitched voice, I will need to make a couple of key changes to sing this song.
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Have you ever come across somebody who was always playing tricks on people and acting the fool? Can you remember Harry Secombe, the Welsh actor, singer, performer and comedian? Indeed, his most famous radio programme was being one of ‘The Goons’. Harry was a marvellous singer. He could have entered the operatic field earlier in his life had he so chosen. I will never forget my mother-in-law’s frequent frustration with Harry when he appeared on the television and started singing some operatic number. She would urge him from her armchair, “Go on, Harry. Don’t stop this time, keep on singing!”. And as always, halfway through his perfect rendition of some operatic song, Harry would stop and start ‘fooling around’.
I never did meet Harry Secombe face-to-face, but I did once have the pleasure of hearing his background barracking and fooling around one morning when the late Roy Castle phoned me. Roy (who was dying from cancer at the time) had just been discharged from the hospital after another relapse and was resuming his career at the ‘Crucible Theatre’, Sheffield. He was on the same bill as Harry Secombe, who happened to be in the same room when Roy telephoned me. Prior to his illness, Roy had agreed to read one of my books to an assembly of school children in a Liversedge school on the day that the book was published. Roy’s hospital admission had prevented him being able to keep this engagement, but he nevertheless phoned me before I went into the school that day to wish me good luck with the book launch that the Leeds United and Juventus Footballer, the late John Charles had agreed to stand in as ‘substitute’ celebrity reader.
I was so moved that a famous person like Roy who (mere days after leaving the hospital to die a few months later), could be bothered to phone a relatively unknown author from West Yorkshire and wish him luck on his book launch. I thanked Roy and promised him that I’d write my next book on behalf of his charity, ‘The Roy Castle Appeal’. Roy replied, “I won’t be around to read it, Bill, but the birds will still sing, the grass and the flowers will still grow, the wind will still blow, and the meadow streams will still run”. At that precise moment (I assume that in the background, Harry Secombe could hear every word of our conversation that was probably on speaker mode), Harry could be heard to say to his close friend, Roy, “Don’t be silly, you daft beggar. You’ll be around for some time yet!”
Within two months, Roy had sadly died. The book I wrote for his charity as promised. ’Nancy’s Song’ (a story about a musically talented family and the emotional effects that the death of the father has on his wife and daughter). This story handles the process of bereavement in a book for both children and adults and its reading invariably producers tears in the reader/listener whether adult or child. It proved a commercial success and raised around £10,000 for charity. I will never forget when Hannah Hauxwell and the late Brian Glover and Gorden Kaye (to name but three readers of the book to school assemblies) each had school assemblies of over two hundred people in tears ( Teachers, parents and school children) as they read from the book. My own brother Peter was having the book read to him by a family member as he drove the car. He had to stop the car and cry in a lay-bye after the story had emotionally moved him to unstoppable tears.
I can honestly recommend the book to any parent who wishes to acquaint their 9-year-old child and over, with the reality of bereavement after the loss of a loved one, but would ask them to be present as the child reads the book, or on hand immediately afterwards as it will undoubtedly emotionally upset them.
In my life, I have known many fools. Some were clever men acting the fool, and some were highly accomplished and talented men like Harry Secombe. There were also some, of whom I’m left in no doubt were fools!
Love and Peace Bill xxx
The song has been covered by numerous artists such as Tony Bennett: Sammy Davis Junior: Andy Williams: Shirley Bassey and Perry Como to name a few. Because of Newley's high pitched voice, I will need to make a couple of key changes to sing this song.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Have you ever come across somebody who was always playing tricks on people and acting the fool? Can you remember Harry Secombe, the Welsh actor, singer, performer and comedian? Indeed, his most famous radio programme was being one of ‘The Goons’. Harry was a marvellous singer. He could have entered the operatic field earlier in his life had he so chosen. I will never forget my mother-in-law’s frequent frustration with Harry when he appeared on the television and started singing some operatic number. She would urge him from her armchair, “Go on, Harry. Don’t stop this time, keep on singing!”. And as always, halfway through his perfect rendition of some operatic song, Harry would stop and start ‘fooling around’.
I never did meet Harry Secombe face-to-face, but I did once have the pleasure of hearing his background barracking and fooling around one morning when the late Roy Castle phoned me. Roy (who was dying from cancer at the time) had just been discharged from the hospital after another relapse and was resuming his career at the ‘Crucible Theatre’, Sheffield. He was on the same bill as Harry Secombe, who happened to be in the same room when Roy telephoned me. Prior to his illness, Roy had agreed to read one of my books to an assembly of school children in a Liversedge school on the day that the book was published. Roy’s hospital admission had prevented him being able to keep this engagement, but he nevertheless phoned me before I went into the school that day to wish me good luck with the book launch that the Leeds United and Juventus Footballer, the late John Charles had agreed to stand in as ‘substitute’ celebrity reader.
I was so moved that a famous person like Roy who (mere days after leaving the hospital to die a few months later), could be bothered to phone a relatively unknown author from West Yorkshire and wish him luck on his book launch. I thanked Roy and promised him that I’d write my next book on behalf of his charity, ‘The Roy Castle Appeal’. Roy replied, “I won’t be around to read it, Bill, but the birds will still sing, the grass and the flowers will still grow, the wind will still blow, and the meadow streams will still run”. At that precise moment (I assume that in the background, Harry Secombe could hear every word of our conversation that was probably on speaker mode), Harry could be heard to say to his close friend, Roy, “Don’t be silly, you daft beggar. You’ll be around for some time yet!”
Within two months, Roy had sadly died. The book I wrote for his charity as promised. ’Nancy’s Song’ (a story about a musically talented family and the emotional effects that the death of the father has on his wife and daughter). This story handles the process of bereavement in a book for both children and adults and its reading invariably producers tears in the reader/listener whether adult or child. It proved a commercial success and raised around £10,000 for charity. I will never forget when Hannah Hauxwell and the late Brian Glover and Gorden Kaye (to name but three readers of the book to school assemblies) each had school assemblies of over two hundred people in tears ( Teachers, parents and school children) as they read from the book. My own brother Peter was having the book read to him by a family member as he drove the car. He had to stop the car and cry in a lay-bye after the story had emotionally moved him to unstoppable tears.
I can honestly recommend the book to any parent who wishes to acquaint their 9-year-old child and over, with the reality of bereavement after the loss of a loved one, but would ask them to be present as the child reads the book, or on hand immediately afterwards as it will undoubtedly emotionally upset them.
In my life, I have known many fools. Some were clever men acting the fool, and some were highly accomplished and talented men like Harry Secombe. There were also some, of whom I’m left in no doubt were fools!
Love and Peace Bill xxx
