Adam Faith

Next to Cliff Richard, Adam Faith was arguably the U.K.'s most important early rock & roll star who never had matching American success. Faith's good looks and smoother sound made him for of a teen-idol pop star, and his business savvy made him a behind-the-scenes success later on. Raised in Acton, Faith (born Terence Nelhams-Wright) set his sights on breaking into show business as a teenager; he played in a skiffle group and worked in London as a film editor. These efforts made him two important connections in Jack Good, the TV producer and manager who gave Faith his new name, and John Barry, the composer-arranger (best known in America for his James Bond music). Though his first two singles didn't hit, the third "What Do You Want" in 1959 did the trick: Vaguely reminiscent of Buddy Holly's "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" (and unusually short for a hit single at 1:41), it made 19-year-old Faith an instant star. The next three years would bring another dozen pop-slanted hits (including an unlikely version of "When Johnny Comes Marching Home"), while launching his film career. His first star vehicle, 1961's "What a Whopper," worked the Loch Ness Monster story for laughs.The rise of the Beatles didn't put Faith out of business; instead he embraced the guitar-driven beat-group sound and formed a backup group, the Roulettes, with guitarist Russ Ballard and drummer Bob Henrit (both later cofounded Argent, the latter going on to the Kinks). With this group Faith cut the raucous "It's Alright"-his only American hit and a minor one at that, hitting the lower reaches of the Top 40 despite its quality. As the hits dried up in the UK he made a couple more attempts, working with the Bee Gees on the light psych "Cowman, Milk Your Cow" and then recording a ballad with the daring title "To Hell With Love." Both missed the charts in 1967. In the '70s he wound his recording career down and moved into management, handling the career of Leo Sayer-this ironically was Faith's biggest success in the US. Faith also secured Sayer the gig of cowriting Roger Daltrey's first solo album, which Faith coproduced. Through the '70s and '80s, Faith appeared in numerous British movies, the most famous of which were 1974's "Stardust" (the glitter-era cult classic starring David Essex) and 1980's "McVicar" with Daltrey. In later years Faith left music behind and went into finance; he became an investor/advisor and helped launched British TV's Money Channel. This proved less successful than his showbiz career and he declared bankruptcy in 2002. He returned to the theater despite failing health, having undergone heart surgery in 1986. In March 2003 he had a heart attach shortly after a stage performance and died the next morning.