Rant #1,699: Have Faith

Today is the 175th day of the year, so we are approaching the mid-point of 2016.

This has been an interesting year thus far, with a lot of highs, a lot of lows, and a lot of in betweens.

For me, it has been a very interesting year, with the second half of 2016 promising to be extremely memorable, what with my trip to Korea pending.

But now, for a brief few minutes, I am going to ask you to have some faith in what I am going to write about today.

And that faith has to do with Adam Faith, the British singer who passed away 13 years ago at 73 years of age.

Today would be his birthday if he were still alive, and looking at his career shows that not every act is the Beatles, and there have been some singing acts who are popular across the pond in Europe who simply never could translate that popularity to American soil.

Faith was the first British singer--not Cliff Richard, and not the Beatles--to put his first seven singles in the Top 5 on the charts over there.

He became a quick pop star in the pre-Beatles era, years where pretty much nothing being done over there was being heard over here.

He was to British shores what Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell and the like were over here: safe pop idols that even your grandmother could love.

Driven by his good looks, which really translated well to his numerous TV appearances in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Faith had numerous hits in the pre-Beatles era, including "What Do You Want" and "Poor Me," two No. 1 hits in 1959 and 1960.

Through 1966, he placed 24 singles on the British pop charts, with this last major hit being "The First Time," which cracked the Top 5 in 1963.

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home," the old Civil War tune, was re-imagined as a British beat staple back then, and it also became a hit in Europe, and is on the record whose sleeve I ran at the top of this Rant.

But his success simply did not translate to U.S. shores.

He recorded for a few labels here, but it was only after the Beatles became an international phenomenon that he was able to crack the charts in the U.S.

He placed two hits on the Hot 100 in the U.S., "It's Alright," which hit No. 31, and "Talk About Love," which hit No. 97, both in 1965.

He later focused on the stage and screen, and acted in numerous British productions through the early 2000s and up to his death.

He also became a well-known financial advisor, and became a financial journalist, but he later, himself, had numerous financial problems.

He returned to the stage, but had numerous health problems. Faith became ill during a stage production, and the next morning, on March 8, 2003, he died.

Adam Faith was a huge star in Europe, but was virtually unknown on these shores. Like I said before, not every British act could be like the Beatles, and while his Britishness did get him a look here, that was pretty much about it.