“Who
Can I Turn To”
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performer:
Anthony Newley, 1965
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performer:
Dionne Warwick, 1965
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performer:
Andy Williams, 1966
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusee
Performer:
Sammy Davis, Jr.
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performers:
Barbra Streisand and Anthony Newley
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performers:
Anthony Newley and Sammy Davis, Jr.
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performer:
Shirley Bassey
Composers:
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
Performer:
Harry Connick, Jr.
The combination of the two, Ritchard and Newley, re-created a kind of Beckettian social satire that spoke to the British hierarchical social system, but was still not a great musical. But there was something about this particular song that attracted singers, who almost insistently performed it with Newley himself, including Sammy Davis, Jr., Andy Williams, and, even after his death, Barbra Streisand—perhaps just because Newley was so very convincing in his presentation of the original. Almost all claimed deeply personal relationships with the apparently difficult Newley himself.
Perhaps the wizard Merrick had negotiated
contractual deals wherein Newley should always appear, yet it appears that the
actor himself had a sort of magic that these great artists needed to embrace.
A bit like a Chaplin figure, Newley
performs the song with a kind of down-and-out clown-like being who has no other
choices but to depend on a love that will truly define his life, and if
refused, will mean he has no reason left to survive:
Who
can I turn to when nobody needs me?
My
heart wants to know and so I must go where destiny leads me
With
no star to guide me and no one beside me
I'll
go on my way and, after the day, the darkness will hide me
And
maybe tomorrow I'll find what I'm after
I'll
throw off my sorrow, beg, steal, or borrow my share of laughter
With
you I could learn to, with you what a new day
But
who can I turn to if you turn away?
It’s a song of desperation, and that’s
what gives it such powerful force. There is no other way the Beckett-like
character can survive if his lover does not respond. And, in that sense, it’s a
pitiable plea that allows the imaginary lover no way out. This is, after all, a
parable. But there is no way but to feel the sad sack figure’s despair; he is
like anyone who has reached their final end, desperately attempting to find a
way back into reality.
The song is so good that nearly anyone who
can sing has interpreted it, Shirley Bassey, Dione Warwick, Barbra Streisand,
Sammy Davis, Jr., and Andy Williams. But there are so many others that anyone
interested should explore. Yet, simply because of the constant need of these
singers to bring Newley into their own productions, makes clear that his is a
singular interpreter of his own song, his London Hackney dialect dominating any
other versions. It ends up simply being an utterly appealing song.
Los Angeles,
December 22, 2017
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