Alfie (Burt Bacharach song) in release in the US: besides the Cher version from the film and the Cilla Black original which had been issued in the US that July to peak at No.95 on the "Billboard" Hot 100, "Alfie" had been recorded by Vikki Carr, Jack Jones, Tony Martin, Carmen McRae, Joanie Sommers and Billy Vaughn. The five last-named singers had recorded "Alfie" in hopes of taking the song into the "Billboard" Easy Listening chart rather than scoring a mainstream Pop hit and both Joanie Sommers and Carmen McRae did score an Easy Listening hit with their respective versions of "Alfie" (Sommers -
Michael Caine (1963) and "Ping Pong" on the BBC Third Programme (1964). A big break came for Caine when he was cast as Meff in James Saunders' Cockney comedy "Next Time I'll Sing To You", when this play was presented at the New Arts Theatre in London on 23 January 1963. Scenes from the play's performance were featured in the April 1963 issue of "Theatre World" magazine. When this play moved to the Criterion in Piccadilly with Michael Codron directing, he was visited backstage by Stanley Baker, one of the four stars in Caine's first film, "A Hill in Korea", who told