We have traveled back in time and across the Atlantic. From San Francisco during the late 1960’s to the United Kingdom during the early 60’s. We also go from a rock and roll girl band to a teen idol that went by the name of Adam Faith. Teen Idol’s, like today’s Brittany Spears and I don’t know Hannah Montana, do not usually sing. They appear in movies and television shows and release several albums that are absolutely manufactured. Adam Faith did appear in movies but he actually had a voice and sang his songs. He did not write them but at least he sang them.
While Faith went on to be a financial journalist and mogul we are going to focus on his 60’s music career because this is not a finance blog. If it was I would not be running it. We shall pick up Faith’s career history after he appeared on the show Drumbeat and became well known because of his acting.
Band: Adam Faith
Origin: London, England
Genre: Pop/Rock
Career: 1958-2003
History: The beginning of Faith’s career was defined by failure. Failure of his first three albums, failure to reach the chart, complete failure in releasing an album at the right time (he actually released an album during a national printing strike oops!). Yet, because of his acting career he was invited to sing some songs on the British television show Drumbeat. Finally he succeeded at something and this got him a recording contract with Parlophone where he reached his first musical success.
His 1959 record, “What Do You Want,” written by Les Vandyke became Adam Faith’s first number one hit. Not only was it his first success but it also was Parlophone’s first number one hit. From then on out Adam Faith became a household name. Releases like “Poor Me” and “Someone Else’s Baby” that continued into the 1960’s made him even more popular and he began to rival such accomplished performers like Cliff Richard.
As he gained more fame the hits just kept rolling and he released his debut album Adam on November 4th 1960 to good reviews when he was only 20 years old. After this he went on to make six further albums and thirty five singles with a total of twenty four chart entries.
Album: Check out Faith’s first release entitled Adam. There are many contemporary hits of the time and some enjoyable inventiveness.
Fun Facts:
Did You Know…
1.) With his first 7 hits getting into the top 5 of the contemporary top 40, Faith was the first UK artist to accomplish this incredible feat.
2.) His backing band The Roulettes consisted of Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit who later in their career made an appearance in the band Argent.
