From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Thu Aug 1, 2002  1:17 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Lionel Bart
 
LIONEL BART

Born Lionel Begleiter, 1 August 1930, Willesden, London, England
Died 3 April 1999, Hammersmith, London, England

At first I did not intend to include Lionel Bart, but then I realized that
this would mean 5 BTWBY-less days (July 28 and 29, August 1, 5 and 6)
in a 10 day-period and that's a bit much. Also, I always try to keep in mind
that the UK perspective is an essential ingredient of this list, as our list
host has recently emphasized (though it's not my good fortune to have been
born in the United Kingdom). :-)

Lionel Bart is one of the major British songwriters of the 20th century. The
former silk-screen printer was at the very hub of the rock 'n' roll and skiffle
generation that came out of London's Soho in the mid-50s. As a member
of the Cavemen with Tommy Steele, he became Steele's main source of
non-American song material, starting off with "Rock With The Caveman"
(the first home-made R&R hit, # 13 in the UK in 1956). Much of Bart's work
was steeped in the English music-hall tradition with a strong working class
pride and it was no surprise that he soon graduated into writing songs for
full-length stage shows. "Lock Up Your Daughters" and "Fings Ain't Wot They
Used To Be" (the title song was a Top 5 hit for Max Bygraves) were two of his
early successes, both appearing during 1959, the same year he wrote the
classic "Living Doll" for Cliff Richard. Another # 1 was his composition "Do You
Mind" for Anthony Newley (1960).
Lionel Bart's greatest success was the musical "Oliver!". It opened at the New
Theatre (later to become the Albery Theatre) on 30th June, 1960 and received
23 curtain calls. It ran for 2618 performances in London. It opened on Broadway
in 1963 and ran their for 774 performances. The 1968 film version, directed by
Carol Reed, won several Oscars, including Best Picture. The best known song
from "Oliver" is probably the award-winning "As Long As He Needs Me". Other
musicals followed : Blitz!, Maggie May, Twang!, La Strada, some successful,
some flops. Bart also wrote the theme song for the second James Bond movie,
"From Russia With Love" (1963).
He died of cancer at the age of 68 in Hammersmith Hospital in London.