THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

745-Adam Faith-What Do You Want?

1959-Number 1 single.

Best Bit-At 0.46. Blink and you’ll miss it. At 1.34, this is the shortest UK Number 1 song ever.

Adam Faith was born Terence Nelhams Wright, on June 23rd, 1940, in Acton, Middlesex, England. In 1986, he had open heart surgery, and then in 2003, he became ill after his evening stage performance in the touring production of ‘Love and Marriage,’ in Stoke-on-Trent, England, and he died of a heart attack early the next morning, on March 8th, 2003, at the age of 62. Adam Faith was a teen idol, actor, and a journalist, taking his stage name on the advice of the British television producer Jack Good, (1931-2017) who showed him a book of names, he picked ‘Adam’ from the boys list, and ‘Faith’ from the girls list. Adam Faith is remembered by many as much for his acting as well as his singing. He appeared in eight films between 1960-1980. including ‘Stardust,’ (1974) and ‘McVicar (1980.) His television work included 26 episodes of ‘Budgie’ between 1970-1972, and 30 episodes of ‘Love Hurts,’ between 1992-1994. In the early 1970’s he went into music management, managing the English singer Leo Sayer, among others. He also co-produced, along with David Courtney, the debut solo studio Album from Roger Daltrey, called ‘Daltrey,’ from 1973.

Adam Faith who became the first British artist to make the UK top five with each of his first seven hits, released seven studio Albums between 1960-1993, and 42 singles between 1958-1994, there are also 20 official compilation Albums, and one live Album available. In the UK, 23 of his singles have reached the top 40, with ‘What Do You Want?’ (1959) and ‘Poor Me,’ (1960) both making the Number 1 spot. In America on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, his only top 40 entry was ‘It’s Alright,’ which reached Number 31 in 1964.

‘What Do You Want?’ was the fourth single release from Adam Faith, and his breakthrough hit from October 1959. The song was written by Les Vandyke, (1931-2021) (see also best songs 997) and produced by John Burgess, (1932-2014) with the songs arrangement being by John Barry (1933-2011.) John Edward Burgess was born on March 8th, 1932, in London, England, he died in March 2014, at the age of 82. Burgess began his career in music working in the promotion and publicity section of ‘EMI’ records in 1951. When that company took over ‘Capitol Records,’ he became responsible for promoting its artists, including Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee and Dean Martin. In the mid 1950’s Burgess had become the assistant to the record producer Norman Newell, (1919-2004) it was when Newell was unavailable for the recording session, that Burgess was given responsibility for producing the then unknown Adam Faith’s fourth single, ‘What Do You Want?’ In the 1960’s Burgess would go on to produce hits for ‘Freddie and the Dreamers,’ including ‘If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody,’ (1963-UK Number 3) and “I’m Telling You Now”, (1963-UK Number 2 & Billboard Number 1) and also for ‘Manfred Mann,’ on their early hits, including ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy,’ (1964-UK & Billboard Number 1) and “Pretty Flamingo’ (1966-UK Number 1 & Billboard Number 29.) John Burgess was also the producer of the ‘James Bond Theme’ in 1962, which was one of the many recordings he produced for the ‘John Barry Seven.’

”What Do You Want?’ was arranged by John Barry, who was born John Barry Prendergast, on November 3rd, 1933, in York, England, he died of a heart attack on January 30th, 2011, at the age of 77. John Barry will always be best remembered for his work on the ‘James Bond’ films, for which he composed the scores for 11 of those films between 1963-1987, as well as arranging and performing the ‘James Bond Theme,’ for the first film in the series, which was 1962’s ‘Dr. No.’ He also wrote the ‘Grammy,’ and ‘Academy Award’ winning scores to the films ‘Dances with Wolves,’ (1990) and ‘Out of Africa,’ (1985) as well as the scores of ‘The Scarlet Letter,’ (1995) ‘Chaplin,’ (1992) and many others, he also wrote the theme for the television series ‘The Persuaders!’ (1971.) As the ‘John Barry Seven,’ or the ‘John Barry Orchestra,’ he achieved nine UK top hits between 1960-1971, with ‘Hit and Miss’ from 1960, peaking the highest at Number 10.

‘One of these days when you need my kissing, one of these days when you want me too. Don’t turn around coz I’ll be missing, then you’ll want my love baby. Oh well, then you’ll wanta my love baby.’