Al Bowlly

Al Bowlly
Born	Albert Allick Bowlly (1898-01-07)7 January 1898 Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique
Died	17 April 1941(1941-04-17) (aged 43) London, England, UK
Nationality	South African, British
Occupation(s)	Singer, guitarist, songwriter, composer and bandleader
Years active	1927–41

Albert Allick Bowlly (7 January 1898 – 17 April 1941) was a Mozambican-born South African/British singer, songwriter, composer and band leader, who became a popular jazz crooner during the British dance band era of the 1930s and later worked in the United States. He recorded more than 1,000 records between 1927-41.

His most popular songs include "Midnight, the Stars and You", "Goodnight, Sweetheart", "The Very Thought of You", "Guilty", "Love Is the Sweetest Thing" and the only English version of "Dark Eyes" by Adalgiso Ferraris as "Black Eyes" with words of Albert Mellor.

Biography

Early life and career

Bowlly was born in Lourenço Marques, in what was then the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, to Greek and Lebanese parents who met en route to Australia and moved to South Africa.

Bowlly was brought up in Johannesburg. After a series of odd jobs across South Africa in his youth, including being a barber and a jockey, he gained his musical experience singing for a dance band led by Edgar Adeler on a tour of South Africa, Rhodesia, India and Indonesia during the mid-1920s. However, he fell out with Adeler and was fired from the band in Surabaya, Indonesia. After a spell with a Filipino band in Surabaya he was then employed by Jimmy Liquime in India. Bowlly worked his passage back home by busking.

Just one year after his 1927 debut recording date in Berlin, Germany, where he recorded Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies" with Edgar Adeler, Bowlly arrived in London for the first time as part of Fred Elizalde's orchestra, although he nearly didn't make it after foolishly frittering away the fare money sent to him by Elizalde.

That year, "If I Had You" became one of the first popular songs by an English jazz band to become well known in America as well, and Bowlly had gone out on his own by the beginning of the 1930s. First, however, the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 resulted in Bowlly being made redundant and returning to several months of busking to survive. In the 1930s, he signed two contracts—one in May 1931 with Roy Fox, singing in his live band for the Monseigneur Restaurant in London, the other a record contract with Ray Noble's orchestra in November 1930.

During the next four years, he recorded over 500 songs. By 1933 Lew Stone had ousted Fox as bandleader, and Bowlly was singing Stone's arrangements with Stone's band. After much radio exposure and a successful British tour with Stone, Bowlly was inundated with demands for personal appearances and gigs—including undertaking a subsequent solo British tour—but continued to make the bulk of his recordings with Noble. There was considerable competition between Noble and Stone for Bowlly's time as, for much of the year, Bowlly would spend all day in the recording studio with Noble's band, rehearsing and recording, only then to spend the evening playing live at the Monseigneur with Stone's band. (Many of these Noble sides were issued in the United States by Victor, which meant that by the time Noble and Bowlly came to America, their reputation had preceded them.)

Move to the United States and return to Britain

A visit to New York City in 1934 with Noble resulted in more success, and their recordings first achieved popularity in the United States; he appeared at the head of an orchestra hand-picked for him and Noble by Glenn Miller (the band included Claude Thornhill, Charlie Spivak and Bud Freeman, among others).

During the mid-1930s, such songs as "Blue Moon", "Easy to Love", "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "My Melancholy Baby" were sizable American successes—so much so that Bowlly gained his own radio series on NBC and traveled to Hollywood in 1936 to meet Bing Crosby, one of his biggest competitors.

He had appeared with his own band, the Radio City Rhythm Makers, but they had split by late 1937 when his vocal problems were traced to a wart in his throat, which briefly caused him to lose his voice. Separated from his wife and with his band dissolved, that year he was once again down on his luck. He was forced to borrow money from friends for a trip to New York for the surgery of which he was so in need. In 1938, he finally returned to the United States to undergo successful major throat surgery for the removal of his vocal wart, but still had difficulties later in his career.

Later career

His absence from the UK in the early 1930s damaged his popularity with British audiences, despite his association with the gifted pianist, Monia Liter, as his accompanist. His career began to suffer as a result of problems with his voice from around 1936, which affected the frequency of his recordings. He played a few small parts in films around this time, yet never professed to be an actor. The parts he did play were often cut, and scenes that were shown were brief. Noble was offered a role in Hollywood although the offer did not, unfortunately, include Bowlly, as a singer had already been instated. Bowlly moved back to London with his wife Marjie in January 1937.

With his diminished success in Britain, he toured regional theatres and recorded as often as possible to make a living, moving from orchestra to orchestra, including those of Sydney Lipton, Geraldo and Ken Johnson. He underwent a revival from 1940, as part of a double act with Jimmy Messene (whose career had also suffered a recent downturn), with an act called Radio Stars with Two Guitars, performing on the London stage. It was his last venture before his death in April 1941.

The partnership was an uneasy one, as Messene suffered from a serious drinking problem by this stage, and was known to turn up incapable on stage, or to not turn up at all, much to Bowlly's consternation. His last recorded song, made two weeks before his death, was a duet with Messene of Irving Berlin's satirical song on Hitler, "When That Man is Dead and Gone".

Personal life and death

In December 1931, Bowlly married Constance Freda Roberts (died 1967) in St Martin's District, London; the couple separated after a fortnight, and sought a rapid divorce. He remarried in December 1934, to Marjie Fairless; this marriage lasted until his death.

On 16 April 1941, Bowlly and Messene had just given a performance at the Rex Cinema in Oxford Street, High Wycombe, now demolished. Both were offered the opportunity of an overnight stay in the town, but Bowlly opted to take the last train home to his flat at 32 Duke Street, Duke's Court, St James, London. His decision proved to be fateful. He was killed by a Luftwaffe parachute mine that detonated outside his flat at ten past three in the morning.

His body appeared unmarked: although the massive explosion had not disfigured him, it had blown his bedroom door off its hinges and the impact against his head proved fatal. He was buried with other bombing victims in a mass grave at what is today known as Hanwell Cemetery, Uxbridge Road, Hanwell, where his name is given as Albert Alex Bowlly.

Legacy

Bowlly is sometimes credited with inventing crooning, or "The Modern Singing Style", releasing a book of the same name. He experimented with new methods of amplification, not least with his Melody Maker advert, showing him endorsing a portable vocal megaphone. With the advent of the microphone in 1931, he adapted his singing style, moving away from the Jazz singing style of the 20s, into the softer, more expressive crooning singing style used in popular music of the 1930s and 1940s.

A Blue Plaque commemorating Bowlly was installed, in November 2013, by English Heritage at Charing Cross Mansion, 26 Charing Cross Road, described as "his home at the pinnacle of his career".

American horror film The Shining included two Bowlly compositions, "It's All Forgotten Now" and "Midnight, the Stars and You."

References in popular culture

• "Midnight, the Stars and You" and "It's All Forgotten Now" were featured in the Stanley Kubrick film The Shining (1980).
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" is featured as the closing song of The Last Podcast on the Left as a reference to The Shining.
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" is featured in Steven Spielberg's 2018 film version of Ready Player One during a scene that references The Shining.
• Bowlly's music is an integral part of many Dennis Potter teledramas, such as The Singing Detective (1986), Pennies from Heaven (1978) and in particular Moonlight on the Highway (1969). Potter also used Bowlly's song titles for his plays, e.g., Rain on the Roof and Cream in My Coffee.
• In 1978, "Isn't It Heavenly" by Lew Stone and his Band featuring Al Bowlly was used in the award-winning television series Edward and Mrs Simpson made by Thames Television, starring Edward Fox and Cynthia Harris in the lead roles. The couple are seen dancing in their Hotel suite circa 1935. It is a touching moment as they romantically live Bowlly's song message. There were two recordings of this song for Decca Records on 1 August and 25 October 1933, respectively, listing Lew Stone and the Monseigneur Band. It is not known which recording was selected for the television series.
• In 1986, British singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard Thompson paid tribute on his album Daring Adventures with the song "Al Bowlly's in Heaven", about a veteran who reminisces about the days when he used to see Bowlly sing in the clubs of London.
• In 1990, Bowlly's recording of "The Very Thought of You" was used in Australia for the advertising campaign for Dine Cat Food.
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" has been used for many years as the final closing music for Nightline with Bruce Mansfield and Philip Brady on radio 3AW, in Melbourne, Australia.
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" has been the signature piece and the final music cut since 2001 on the John Batchelor Show.
• Played by Danny Huston, Bowlly is a fantasy character in the 2007 film I Really Hate My Job.
• Bowlly is portrayed by Graham McPherson in the 2008 film The Edge of Love. Bowlly's version of "My Hat's on the Side of My Head" is heard later in the film.
• Bowlly's recording of "South of the Border (Down Mexico Way)" was used in Steven Spielberg's 1987 film Empire of the Sun.
• Songs 'Goodnight Sweetheart', 'The Very Thought of You' and 'Love is the Sweetest Thing' appear in the British comedy series Goodnight Sweetheart, The song 'Goodnight Sweetheart' was used as both the shows title and theme music. Al Bowley is referenced heavily throughout the shows run.
• Bowlly's "Guilty" was featured in the soundtrack for the 2001 French film Amélie.
• The song "Guilty" was used by the BBC soap opera EastEnders in 2000, playing over the end credits instead of the programme's usual title music to signify the final appearance of character Ethel Skinner (Gretchen Franklin) who had persuaded her friend Dot Cotton (June Brown) to help her die.
• His rendition of "Love is the Sweetest Thing" was used in the 2004 adaptation of Death on the Nile in the series Agatha Christie's Poirot.
• In 1997, Bowlly's "My Woman" was sampled by the British one-man band White Town, appearing in the song "Your Woman".
• The song "Hang Out the Stars in Indiana" was featured in the cult comedy film Withnail and I.
• In 2005, Bowlly's "Guilty" was used in A Murder Is Announced, an episode of Agatha Christie's Marple.
• In December 2009, Al Bowlly – Megaphone to Microphone had its first performance at the Jermyn Street Theatre.
• Bowlly is mentioned in the novel White Lies by Raymond Wacks, set in the 1960s in South Africa.
• An Al Bowlly version of "Empty Saddles" figures prominently in the novel A Good Clean Fight by Derek Robinson.
• Bowlly's "Shout For Happiness" was used in the 2010 film The King's Speech.
• Bowlly's recording of I Love You Truly can be heard on the radio in the second series of the BBC horror drama Being Human.
• Bowlly's recording of "What More Can I Ask" with Ray Noble's orchestra appears in the 1987 movie soundtrack "Someone to Watch Over Me", with Mimi Rogers.
• Bowlly's version of "Twentieth Century Blues" was used in the Doctor Who episode "The Unicorn and the Wasp". "Love Is the Sweetest Thing" was also used in this episode, 17 May 2008
• Bowlly's version of "The Very Thought of You" was used in a scene from the Upstairs Downstairs TV remake in Season 2, Episode 1: "A Faraway Country About Which We Know Nothing", 7 October 2012.
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" was featured in the DLC pack Burial at Sea for the 2013 video game BioShock Infinite.
• "Midnight, the Stars and You" can also be heard in the 2013 film Snowpiercer.
• Bowlly's rendition of "Close Your Eyes" was used in the 2014 BBC Two film Castles in the Sky, which depicted the fight to invent radar by Robert Watson-Watt and British scientists.
• Bowlly's recording of "Sweet and Lovely" plays during the opening credits of First of the Summer Wine.

Partial discography

See also: Al Bowlly discography

"If I Had You"	1928
"Time on My Hands"	19 February 1931
"Goodnight, Sweetheart"	19 February 1931
"Guilty"	2 December 1931
"Lullaby of the Leaves"	10 June 1932
"Looking on the Bright Side of Life"	1 September 1932
"Love Is The Sweetest Thing"	8 September 1932
"What More Can I Ask?"	23 December 1932
"Hustlin' and Bustlin' for Baby"	16 March 1933
"Isn't It Heavenly"	1 August 1933 and 25 October 1933
"Close Your Eyes"	7 December 1933
"True"	1934
"Midnight, the Stars and You"	16 February 1934
"The Very Thought of You"	21 April 1934
"Isle of Capri"	30 August 1934
"Blue Moon"	12 January 1935
"Dinner for One Please, James"	14 November 1935
"It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow"	15 February 1940

Further reading

• Sid Colin and Tony Staveacre, Al Bowlly (H. Hamilton, 1979)
• Ray Pallett, Good-Night, Sweetheart: Life and Times of Al Bowlly (Spellmount, 1986)
• Ray Pallett, They Called Him Al: The Musical Life of Al Bowlly (BearManor Media, 2010)