NOEL HARRISON
A Young Girl
Noted British actor Rex Harrison had reason to be proud of his son...after all, how many people can claim to have an Olympic athlete in the family? Noel Harrison, born in Kensington, London in 1934, had more than one goal while growing up, first and foremost sports (music and acting came later). His parents were divorced in 1942 after twelve years of marriage (Rex racked up four more bouts of wedded bliss) and at first he remained with his father, taking a trip to Hollywood in 1946 at the time Rex was starring as King Mongkut in director John Cromwell's Anna and the King of Siam with Irene Dunne. The experience was disappointing; Noel didn't meet many movie stars (at least not the kind that would have appealed to a 12-year-old).
A few years later his mother, Collette Thomas, moved to Klosters, Switzerland, a ski resort town in the Swiss Alps. Noel joined her there at age 16 and spent all his spare time on the slopes, eventually gaining a spot on the team representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Alpine Skiing events at the Winter Olympics, held in Oslo, Norway in February 1952. He finished respectably in the men's Downhill competition and Giant Slalom, but did not advance to the main Slalom event. During this time he'd begun playing guitar and performed between events with two other teammates, John Boyagis and Rupert de Larrinaga, also guitarists. Returning to the Olympics in 1956 at Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, he'd noticeably improved his Downhill and Giant Slalom performance, competing as well in the Slalom finals. Impressive...but no medals!
His dad was by that time established as one of the U.K.'s top stage and film actors both at home and in America. He'd caused quite a stir on Broadway starring with Julie Andrews in the Alan Jay Lerner-Frederick Loewe musical My Fair Lady (based on George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion), for which he won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical in the role of pleasingly priggish dialect expert Henry Higgins. The stars appeared together through late '57, then the production moved to London's West End with Rex and Julie headlining throughout most of 1958 and '59. Son Noel got the entertainment bug and with guitar in hand recorded an EP for His Master's Voice (the U.K. equivalent of RCA Victor Records), Noël Harrison, performing traditional folk tunes and songs by the likes of Woody Guthrie and Lionel Hampton; he made the rounds of local clubs doing folk and calypso standards and made an appearance on the BBC-TV show Tonight. In 1959 he married his first wife, Sara, and it seemed as though he might settle into a "normal" routine.
The Citadel, a drama on the ITV network (based on the 1938 film starring Robert Donat), featured Noel in a supporting role in his first TV series, though it lasted only six episodes in late 1960 and early '61. Noel and Sara had moved to the U.S. in 1965 and he'd begun recording there for London Records with "Barbara Allen," a traditional folk song. Decca (London's U.K. affiliate) opted to release his version of another oldie, "Trees." Neither caught on. In April, Rex Harrison, an Oscar nominee the previous year (as Julius Caesar in Cleopatra) won the big one, Best Actor, for reprising his stage role in the film version of My Fair Lady. Noel had numerous reasons to be proud of his father...after all, how many families have a Tony and Oscar winner among them?
Noel's casual vocal style was then fused with a set of unflinchingly powerful, though poetic, lyrics. "A Young Girl," originally a French poem-turned-song ("Une enfant") by Charles Aznavour with music by Robert Chauvigny, was first recorded by Édith Piaf in 1951 and later given English lyrics by Chicago singer-songwriter Oscar Brown Jr., who recorded his version for Columbia Records in 1963. The story tells of a girl who meets a boy who gives her '...vows of love she'd never heard, and she believed his every word...' then leaves her home in a rich neighborhood: '...although she realized she'd sinned, she threw caution to the wind.' Harrison's recording had a more rocking background (though still understated to match his delivery of the lyrics). Then came the unsettling ending: 'A young girl of sixteen...child of springtime, still green...lying here by the road...dead.' Released in the fall of 1965, the record was a very big hit in many radio markets and, not surprisingly, a no-show in many others. Noel's first single to make an impact, it peaked mid-chart on Billboard and reached the Cash Box top 40 in early January '66. Decca put any hesitation aside and released it in the U.K. that same month under the title "A Young Girl of Sixteen." The song was largely ignored.
Relocating to Hollywood paid off handsomely when he landed the role of Mark Slate in The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. A spinoff of the popular Man from... series on NBC, he was a dashing second lead to Stefanie Powers' April Dancer. The third episode served as part one of a crossover with season three, episode three of the first series the same week, partnering them with Napoleon and Illya, mainly for the purpose of promotion. Harrison's spy phase came as the Bond-inspired craze was winding down; In April 1967, after 29 episodes, it ended. The Man from U.N.C.L.E. continued its battle against T.H.R.U.S.H. for one more season.
Signing a new recording contract with Reprise Records, he scored another mid-chart single that autumn with "Suzanne," composed by Quebeck-born poet, writer and singer-without-a-record-deal Leonard Cohen. Noel was drawn to compelling, train-of-thought musical works, and Cohen's song, an intricate portrait of admiration, fit the bill ('...the sun pours down like honey on our lady of the harbor...'), elaborately detailed in under three minutes ('...and you know that she can trust you 'cause you've touched her perfect body with your mind...'). A version by Cohen became the lead track from his debut album for Columbia, Songs of Leonard Cohen, which arrived without much fanfare at the end of the year; a single was issued in January 1968.
Shortly after Cohen had embarked on his outing towards legendary status, Noel Harrison had moved on to his next project: one he gave very little thought to. Marilyn and Alan Bergman wrote the lyrics for "The Windmills of Your Mind" ('round, like a circle in a spiral...') for The Thomas Crown Affair starring Steve McQueen, scheduled to hit theaters in June 1968. Noel was hired to record the song, meeting with the music's composer, Michel Legrand, and banging it out in a few hours. After the picture's release, Dusty Springfield was encouraged to do a version at the upcoming sessions for her debut Atlantic Records album Dusty in Memphis. Her version (produced by Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd and Arif Mardin) sublimely slowed tempo in well-timed spots, achieving a more dramatic effect...unlike Harrison's, which barely gave him time to breathe between lines. The song was not deemed hit-worthy by either team, but months after the film had become a sizeable box office hit, with Oscar buzz growing for the music score and song, the label put out Noel's take. The two nominations were made official in late February '69 and he was invited to perform the song on the televised ceremony...but was stuck on the set of another film and couldn't make it (Jose Feliciano filled in). Atlantic rushed out promos of Dusty's version to radio and it became the hit in America. In England, Noel charted for the first time, taking "Windmills" to the top ten a week after it won for Best Original Song. Dusty's cover reached the U.S. top 40 in May.
With a hit finally under his belt, Decca re-released "A Young Girl" in the U.K., but no dice...Noel never saw his name on the music charts again. His marriage fell apart about the same time; when the Reprise contract ended in 1970, his singing career went on hold indefinitely. He made guest appearances on American TV shows like It Takes a Thief, Love American Style, Mission: Impossilbe, The Mod Squad and Ironside. He sealed the deal with second wife Margaret in 1972 and they moved to Nova Scotia to live a simpler life. From October 1974 to January 1976 he hosted a show on CBC, Take Time with Noel Harrison, filmed at the CBHT channel 3 studio in Halifax. He did a couple of rounds of My Fair Lady, taking on the role his father was famous for, only on smaller stages. Divorce came in 1989; third wife Lori was the keeper. He even recorded a couple more albums in his later years. Noel Harrison had plenty of reasons to be satisfied with his choices in life...after all, how many people can have success as a sportsman, singer, actor and television host?
