The Tommy Steele Story

By the time I became aware of Tommy Steele. He was the guy with a toothy smile who did musicals like Singin in the Rain.

Steele was a pop star who quickly recognised his brand of pop will become outdated and soon turned to the movies and theatre.

The Tommy Steele Story was rushed out while he was still having his first few chart hits.

It starts off with Tommy being hospitalised after a bad judo fall. Learning to play the guitar at hospital. Working in the merchant navy where he also practised his singing and dance moves.

Then entertaining the punters at a Soho coffee bar before he meets an agent.

The Tommy Steele presented here is shown more Elvis lite. Although Cliff Richard did that kind of thing better in the 1950s. Richard also had a longer pop career as well as fitting in a few movies in the 1960s as well.

The movie is frothy, undemanding and I am tempted to add heavily fictionalised. Steele was regarded as a cross between Elvis and George Formby at the time with a more of a skiffle sound.

There is a lot of calypso music and at times it is a revue for other musical acts. It was nice to see a young Humphrey Lyttelton.

It is low budget and has all the hallmarks of being rushe released to capitalise on his teenage fan base.

At Tommy Steele survived as a musical performer and was knighted in 2020.