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Sammy Davis, Jr. Sings What Kind Of Fool Am I – And Other Show-Stoppers was released just a month after his previous Reprise LP, and contained only five new recordings. Four of those were all from the same musical; this was an album release with a very specific purpose.

When Sammy Davis, Jr. visited London in May 1960, he struck up a close friendship with actor and songwriter Anthony Newley, and composer and lyricist Leslie Bricusse. The two were working together on an upcoming musical – an allegorical piece, full of satire, which featuring stylised set design and a ‘Greek chorus’ of sorts to provide commentary on proceedings. It was new and different, and Sammy was fascinated.

The musical was titled Stop The World – I Want To Get Off, and it opened in Manchester, England, on 20th June 1961. In July, Newley, who both directed and starred in the show, released a single on Decca of the big closing number from Act II, “What Kind Of Fool Am I” (Decca also released a cast album). At the same time in the US, Sammy Davis, Jr. had been provided the score by his friends, and immediately recorded his own version of “What Kind Of Fool Am I”, along with what he considered the next best song, “Gonna Build A Mountain” (both with arrangements by Marty Paich).

In August, Sammy flew to London to begin a seven week run at the Prince of Wales Theatre. He went, of course, to see Stop The World, which had since moved to the West End and become a hit. In an unusual move for a currently-playing musical, Bricusse and Newley granted Sammy special rights to sing songs from the production in his own appearance across town.

Sammy released “What Kind of Fool Am I/Gonna Build A Mountain” on 45rpm Reprise in the UK in February 1962, and by March it had made the UK charts, where it stayed for 8 weeks, peaking at #26. However, because Producer David Merrick had bought the Broadway rights to Stop The World, Sammy’s recordings were embargoed from release in the US and Canada. In the meantime, Sammy recorded two further titles from the production in the studio, “Someone Nice Like You” and “Once In A Lifetime”.

When Stop The World – I Want To Get Off made its way to America in October, Sammy Davis, Jr. became a crucial part of the marketing for its upcoming Broadway debut. To build publicity, this album (containing all four songs Sammy had now recorded from Stop The World’s score) and Sammy’s single of “What Kind Of Fool Am I” were released, both in August. The plan worked to perfection: by the time the show opened, Sammy’s recordings were already hits! On the Billboard charts, the single made it to #17 (#6 in adult contemporary) and the album made it to #14 and remained on the charts for 22 weeks. Stop The World itself ran for 555 performances until February 1964.

Of the eight remaining tracks on What Kind Of Fool Am I – And Other Show-Stoppers, seven had already appeared on other Sammy Reprise LPs (two on The Wham Of Sam, and five on Sammy Davis, Jr. Belts The Best Of Broadway). Only one had not yet seen the light of day: “Begin The Beguine”, which had been left off the earlier albums probably due to stylistic concerns (on it, Sammy sings with only percussion for accompaniment), but certainly not due to quality concerns – it is undoubtedly one of his best singing performances on vinyl.

This success of this album heralded the beginning of a lifelong collaboration between Bricusse, Newley and Davis, which saw Sammy record almost everything the pair wrote (either together or individually) – over 50 titles in total. “What Kind of Fool Am I” became a signature tune for Sammy and he sang it in practically every live performance for the remainder of his career. Furthermore, in 1978 Sammy would star in his own Broadway revival of Stop The World – I Want To Get Off.