The Loved One (song)

"The Loved One" is a song by Australian R&B, rock band The Loved Ones and was released in May 1966 as the debut single ahead of their extended play, Blueberry Hill, which appeared in December. The song also featured on their debut Long Play album, Magic Box, in October 1967. "The Loved One", which reached No. 2 on the Australian Top 40 singles charts in 1966.

Background

The Loved Ones were formed in Melbourne in 1965 by Gerry Humphrys, Ian Clyne and Kim Lynch. They had previously been members of a youthful Trad Jazz band, The Red Onion Jazz Band, in which Humphrys and Lynch had played clarinet and tuba respectively. They recruited drummer Gavin Anderson and ex-Wild Cherries guitarist Rob Lovett. The band were renowned as an exciting, if erratic, live act in a Stones–Animals mould and quickly rose to prominence in the local club and dance scene.

The group's visual impact was heightened by their striking mod stage attire and the band had a strong focal point thanks to the charismatic stage presence, saturnine good looks and growling, blues-influenced baritone voice of Humphrys, who is widely acknowledged as one of Australia's finest male pop-rock vocalists. The Loved Ones were one of the first Australian rock bands to use electric piano as part of their regular stage set-up and their distinctive keyboard-based sound set them apart from most of their contemporaries.

The Loved One

The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948) is a short, satirical novel by British novelist Evelyn Waugh about the funeral business in Los Angeles, the British expatriate community in Hollywood, and the film industry.

Conception

The Loved One was written as a result of Evelyn Waugh's trip to Hollywood in February and March 1947. MGM was interested in adapting Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited (1945). Waugh had written that, "I should not think six Americans will understand it" and was baffled and even angered by its popularity in America, referring to it as "my humiliating success in [the] U.S.A."

Waugh had no intention of allowing MGM to adapt Brideshead Revisited, but allowed the film studio to bring him and his wife to California and pay him $2000 a week during negotiations. MGM was offering $140,000 if he granted them the film rights, but Waugh was careful to ensure that the weekly stipend was paid regardless of the results of the negotiation. Waugh was negotiating with MGM producer Leon Gordon, a British playwright and screenwriter, and British screenwriter Keith Winter, whom Waugh had previously known in Europe, who was to write the adaptation. Waugh complained that Winter "sees Brideshead purely as a love story", and that no one at MGM was able to grasp the "theological implication" of the novel. MGM abandoned its pursuit of the novel after Waugh explained to Gordon "what Brideshead was about", and he seemed to "lose heart", citing aspects highlighted by the censor.

The Loved One (film)

The Loved One is a 1965 black and white comedy film about the funeral business in Los Angeles, which is based on The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy (1948), a short satirical novel by Evelyn Waugh. It was directed by British filmmaker Tony Richardson and the screenplay – which also drew on Jessica Mitford's book The American Way of Death (1963)– was written by noted American satirical novelist Terry Southern and British author Christopher Isherwood.

The film stars Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer and Rod Steiger. Among those making appearances in smaller roles are John Gielgud, Roddy McDowall, James Coburn, Milton Berle and Liberace.

Plot

Young Englishman Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) wins an airline ticket and visits his uncle Sir Francis Hinsley (John Gielgud) in Los Angeles. Hinsley has worked as a production staffer at a major Hollywood studio for over thirty years. His employer D.J. Jr. (Roddy McDowall) fires Hinsley, despite the old man's faithful dedication to the company. Hinsley commits suicide by hanging himself.