MICHAEL HOLLIDAY – "The Story Of My Life"

Light Entertainment Watch: Michael Holliday was a frequent presence on British Television, but only three performances survive;

OH BOY!: with Jimmy Henney, Michael Holliday, Cherry Wainer, Lord Rockingham’s XI, Peter Elliott, Cliff Richard, The Dallas Boys, Neville Taylor and the Cutters, The Drifters, ‘Cuddly’ Dudley (1958)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with The Deep River Boys, Spike Milligan, Eric Delaney and his Band, Chris Barber and his Jazz Band with Ottilie Patterson, Michael Holliday, Don Lang and his Frantic Five, Freddie Mills (1957)

VAL PARNELL’S SPECTACULAR: The Michael Holliday Show (1960)

These shows are all lost to posterity;

THE SHOW BAND SHOW: with The Stargazers, Michael Holliday, Shirley Wilson, Winifred Atwell (1956)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Dennis Lotis, Michael Holliday, Terry Dene, Jim Dale, Ken Mackintosh And His Orchestra, Chris Barber and his Jazz Band with Ottilie Patterson, Don Lang and his Frantic Five (1957)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Denny Boyce and his Band, Desmond Lane, Michael Holliday (1957)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Josephine Douglas, Pete Murray, Freddie Mills, Michael Holliday, Mike and Bernie Winters, Terry Wayne, Don Lang and his Frantic Five, The Don Rendell Jazz Six, Sonny Stewart and his Skiffle Kings (1957)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Kenny Baker and his Dozen, Michael Holliday, The King Brothers, Pollishnof (1957)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Michael Holliday, Maria Ryan, Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys, Graham Stark, Laurie Gold and his Pieces Of Eight, Jim Dale, The Five Dallas Boys, Johnnie Gray, Freddie Mills, Don Lang and his Frantic Five (1957)

SIX-FIVE SPECIAL: with Michael Holliday, Rosemary Squires, Humphrey Lyttelton and his Band with Marie Knight, Johnny Duncan and the Blue Grass Boys, Frantic Five (1958)

SUMMER SERENADE: with Anthony Oliver, Peter Yorke And His Orchestra, Lizbeth Webb, Michael Holliday, Peter Darrell (1956)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Petula Clark, Alma Cogan, Tommy Cooper, Freddie Earlle, Michael Holliday, The Kaye Sisters, The Mudlarks, The Temperance Seven, Jeannie Lambe, Helen Shapiro (1961)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Petula Clark, Michael Holliday, Mark Wynter (1961)

THANK YOUR LUCKY STARS: with Petula Clark, Russ Conway, Michael Holliday, The Brook Brothers, Mike Cotton Jazzmen, Mike Sarne, Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, Keith Fordyce (1962)

One of my record dealer friends is Michael Holliday’s nephew (or second cousin). Apparently he was in the closet in an era when you had to be, and ended up taking his life in 1963.

He was clearly indebted to Bing Crosby and Perry Como, but I’m very fond of Holliday’s voice. Beyond his brace of number ones, The Runaway Train will be familiar to anyone around my age as a Junior Choice favourite. And the last 45 he recorded, the intriguingly titled Drums, was a Brill Building effort IIRC that was good enough for me to pick up a year or two back.

If cowboy country is your meat, Pete, his first hit, 1956’s Nothin’ To Do, is a particularly bleak acoustic effort – you wait for the punchline and there isn’t one. Which maybe explains why the story of his life can be summed up a couple of years later in just over two minutes.

I really like his voice on this – it sounds so effortless and unaffected against the ‘vocal stylings’ of the backing singers which make an effective contrast. The dovetailing of music and lyric from Bacharach and David helps immensely.
The melody reminds me of ‘Singing the Blues’ a bit.

Could be. Just Walking In The Rain and Magic Moments pinched its whistling bonhomie too.

Goodbye to Hal David. 91 isn’t a bad innings at all.

Did Hal ever get to write the story of his life? It seems we know so much more about Burt. Songs like The Last One To Be Loved, Any Day Now, A House Is Not A Home and I Wake Up Crying are a pefect mesh of music and lyric – Bob Hilliard was Burt Bacharach’s writing partner on Story Of My Life and Magic Moments, and I think that Hal’s more thoughtful* lyrics must have driven Bacharach to write music and arrangements to match.

*which isn’t to do down the Jimmy Stewart-esque American simplicity and playfulness of Hilliard’s efforts.

Sorry, I was talking out of my hat. Hal was behind this AND Magic Moments, and Bob Hilliard wrote the lyric for Any Day Now.

So bang goes my theory. Burt and Hal both upped their game simultaneously.

Re 17 – good point. It seems curious that they stayed in Mitch Miller-land when everyone else was fast leaving town. Still, their songs were strong enough to chart. I really recommend the recent El compilation Long Ago Last Summer which captures their writing in transition from ’59 to ’61.

Music for yoghurt adverts. 4/10

And it’s farewell to Burt Bacharach, whose contribution to UK charts over the years, along with his partner Hal David (see above) can’t possibly be overestimated. It all began here, as far as Popular is concerned, for both of them. It continues with the next one.

I make it seven number ones for BB in fact, unless I’ve missed one or more. There’s not that many can claim anything similar.

On the BBC chart it was one of about four songs that tied for the number one slot that week. I remember whoever was presenting TOTP at the time (it wasn’t HIM, at least I don’t think it was) being rather baffled by that. Wonder if those BBC charts were ever archived.