| "Downtown" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Single by Petula Clark | ||||
| from the album Downtown | ||||
| B-side | "You'd Better Love Me" (non-LP track) | |||
| Released | November 1964 | |||
| Format | Vinyl | |||
| Recorded | 16 October 1964, Pye Studios, London | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 3:05 | |||
| Label | Pye 7N 15722 (United Kingdom) Warner Bros. 5494 (United States) Vogue EPL.8301 (France) Vogue DV 14256 (Netherlands) Vogue DV 14297 (West Germany) Vogue STU 42207 (Denmark) Vogue US-105 (Japan) |
|||
| Writer(s) | Tony Hatch | |||
| Producer(s) | Tony Hatch | |||
| Petula Clark singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
As recorded by Petula Clark
Background
Tony Hatch had first worked with Petula Clark when he assisted her regular producer Alan A. Freeman on her 1961 No. 1 hit "Sailor".In 1963 Freeman had asked Hatch to take over as Clark's regular producer: Hatch had subsequently produced five English-language singles for Clark none of which had charted.
In the autumn of 1964 Hatch had made his first visit to New York City, the purpose being to seek material from music publishers for the artists he was producing. Hatch would recall: "I was staying at a hotel on Central Park and I wandered down to Broadway and to Times Square and, naively, I thought I was downtown.
Forgetting that in New York especially, downtown is a lot further downtown getting on towards Battery Park. I loved the whole atmosphere there and the [music] came to me very, very quickly".[2] According to Hatch he was standing on the corner of 48th St waiting for the traffic lights to change, looking towards Times Square when "the melody first came to me, just as the neon signs went on."[3]
Hatch envisioned his embryonic composition "as a sort of doo wop R&B song" which he thought to eventually pitch to the Drifters:[4] Hatch had scored his biggest success to date with the Searchers' "Sugar and Spice" modeled on the Drifters' hit "Sweets for My Sweet", and had also produced a cover of the Drifters' "Up on the Roof" for Julie Grant.
It has been alleged that Hatch gave Julie Grant the opportunity to record "Downtown" which Grant turned down[5] but this does not accord with Hatch's statement that he played "Downtown" for Petula Clark within a few days of conceiving the melody and only completed the song's lyrics after Clark had asked to record it: also Hatch has said that prior to Clark's expressed interest in "Downtown" "it never occurred to me that a white woman could even sing it."[4]
Within a few days of his New York City junket Hatch visited Paris to present Clark with three or four songs he'd acquired from New York publishers for Clark to consider recording at a London recording session scheduled for 16 October 1964 which was roughly two weeks away: Hatch – "she was not very enthusiastic about [the material] and asked me if I was working on anything new myself.
Reluctantly (because the song was still so unfinished)"[6] – according to Clark besides the title lyric Hatch had only written "one or two lines"[7] – "I played her the tune of my New York inspiration and slipped in the word 'Downtown' in the appropriate places. 'That's the one I want to record,' she said"[6] – "'Get that finished. Get a good lyric in it. Get a great arrangement and I think we’ll at least have a song we’re proud to record even if it isn’t a hit.'" [8]
"Downtown" was recorded 16 October 1964 at the Pye Studios in Marble Arch. Thirty minutes before the session was scheduled, Hatch was still touching up the song's lyrics in the studio's washroom. Of his arrangement for the session Hatch would recall: "I had to connect with young record buyers...but not alienate Pet[ula]'s older core audience...The trick was to make a giant orchestra sound like a rock band."[3]
The session personnel for the recording of "Downtown" who were assembled in Studio One of Pye Recording Studios – Hatch insisted that all session personnel on his productions be recorded performing together – included eight violinists, two viola players and two cellists, four trumpeters and four trombonists, five woodwind players with flutes and oboes, percussionists, a bass player and a pianist: also playing on the session were guitarists Vic Flick, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan and also drummer Ronnie Verrell, while the Breakaways served as vocal chorale.
Hatch's assistant Bob Leaper acted as conductor.[8]
According to Petula Clark, the session for "Downtown" consisted of three takes with the second take ultimately chosen as the completed track [yet, elsewhere, an "extended" version, instrumental+backing vocal track, most likely from a session tape makes claims questionable].[9]
Impact
Tony Hatch would recall playing the completed "Downtown" track for Pye Records executives saying: "Nobody knew what to make of it and no release date was set.Then Pye's general manager called and said Joe Smith – Warner Bros.' head of A&R – was in London looking for British material. When Joe heard Pet[ula]'s record, he loved it and scheduled the single for urgent release in the [United] States".[3]
When Hatch, surprised by Smith's enthusiasm for releasing "Downtown" in the US, asked if Smith didn't consider "Downtown" to be a "very English record" Smith replied: "It's perfect.
It's just an observation from outside of America and it's just beautiful and just perfect."[2]
In the wake of Smith's interest "Downtown" was released in the UK in November 1964.
It entered the UK Top 50 dated 14 November 1964, ending a virtual two-year UK chart absence for Clark; of the ten singles she'd had released in the UK during that period only one, "Chariot", had appeared in even the lower charts (#39 the spring of 1963). "Downtown" rose to #2 UK in December 1964, remaining there for three weeks, kept out of the #1 position by the Beatles' "I Feel Fine".
Certified a Gold record for sales in the UK of 500,000, "Downtown" also reached #2 in Ireland and #1 in Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa, and was also a hit in Denmark (#2), India (#3), the Netherlands (#3) and Norway (#8).
But "Downtown" had its greatest significance in the reception it was afforded in the United States, where it was released by Warner Bros. in November 1964: after early regional break-outs, notably in Detroit, Miami, and Washington D.C., "Downtown" debuted at #87 on the Hot 100 chart in the Billboard issue dated 19 December 1964.
Despite the Christmas season typically being the worst time to break a new hit, "Downtown" shot up to #41 in its second week on the Hot 100 chart ascending in its third and fourth charting weeks to respectively #12 and #5; then after a subsequent single point advance to #4 "Downtown" leapt to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 23 January 1965, retaining that position a further week before being overtaken by the ascendancy of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'".
The song became the first #1 hit for the year 1965.[10]
Petula Clark thus became the first UK female artist to have a US #1 hit during the rock and roll era and the second in the annals of US charted music, Vera Lynn having hit #1 US with "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" in 1952.
"Downtown" also made Clark the first UK female artist to have a single certified as a Gold record for US sales of one million units. "Downtown" would be the first of fifteen consecutive hits Clark would place in the US Top 40 during a period when she'd have considerably less chart impact in her native UK, there reaching the Top 40 eight times.
Petula Clark, who had been playing to her French speaking fans in small venues in Quebec when "Downtown" entered the US charts, swiftly cut non-English versions of the song for the markets in France, Italy and Germany; the absence in each region's language of a two-syllable equivalent of "downtown" necessitated a radical lyric recasting for the versions aimed at France ("Dans le temps")
Italy ("Ciao Ciao", winning the Festivalbar, a juke-box contest) and Spain ("Chao Chao") which respectively charted at #6, #2 and – for three weeks – #1: "Dans le temps" also reaching #18 on Belgium's French-language chart.
The title and lyric "Downtown" was retained for an otherwise German version which was the most successful foreign-language version, reaching #1 in Germany, #3 in Austria, and #11 on the charts for the Flemish region of Belgium.
Dolly Parton version
Dolly Parton recorded "Downtown" in Nashville in October 1983 in the sessions for her covers album The Great Pretender, a Val Garay production which focused on hits from the 1950s and 1960s."Downtown" served as the album's second single release in April 1984 reaching No. 36 on the Billboard C&W chart and crossing over to No. 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart: to date "Downtown" marks Parton's final solo Hot 100 appearance.
Parton's version altered some of the lyrics: "Listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova" became "Listen to the rhythm of the music that they're playing". Petula Clark has described Parton's take on "Downtown" as "cute, because she didn’t even try to sound like my recording."[15]
| "Downtown" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Single by Dolly Parton | ||||
| from the album The Great Pretender | ||||
| B-side | "The Great Pretender" | |||
| Released | April 1984 | |||
| Recorded | December 1983 | |||
| Genre | Country | |||
| Label | RCA Nashville | |||
| Writer(s) | Tony Hatch | |||
| Producer(s) | Val Garay | |||
| Dolly Parton singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Emma Bunton version
Background
BBC News announced 20 October 2006 that Emma Bunton would record a remake of the Petula Clark hit "Downtown" to be the 2006 official BBC Children in Need single, with Bunton quoted as saying: "I've always loved 'Downtown'...and I'm really looking forward to putting my own stamp on it. The track's good fun and one everyone will know."[16]Bunton, whose admiration for Petula Clark was evident on the 2004 Free Me album, recorded "Downtown" at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst) with Simon Franglen producing; the orchestra for the track was recorded at Angel Studios with Gavin Wright conducting.
The track was released on 13 November 2006 and Bunton premiered her version of "Downtown" on the 2006 Children in Need telethon which began broadcast 17 November 2006.
Although Bunton would allege knowing "Downtown" composer Tony Hatch "quite well",[17] Petula Clark would state that neither she [i.e. Clark] nor Hatch had prior knowledge of Bunton's remake.[18]
Clark also stated that she considered Bunton's remake to be an "outright copy"[15] of Clark's original recording: "I could ask: 'What's the point'...but Emma's recording is wonderful and...for a great cause"[18] (i.e. Children in Need).
| "Downtown" | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||||||||||||
| Single by Emma Bunton | ||||||||||||||
| from the album Life in Mono | ||||||||||||||
| B-side |
|
|||||||||||||
| Released | 13 November 2006 | |||||||||||||
| Format |
|
|||||||||||||
| Recorded | 2006 | |||||||||||||
| Genre | Soul | |||||||||||||
| Label | Universal | |||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Tony Hatch | |||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Simon Franglen | |||||||||||||
| Emma Bunton singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||
Impact
"Downtown" by Emma Bunton debuted on the UK singles chart 25 November 2006 at #24. Centralfm.com noted Bunton's chart debut, declaring "Downtown" "the song she was born to cover...One of the all time great pop songs, ['Downtown'] was long overdue for a revival and Emma Bunton pays it the respect it deserves.
" Centralfm predicted "Downtown" would rise to the Top 3 in its second week and the single did indeed jump to No. 3 on the chart for 2 December 2006 having sold 30,582 units in the relevant week: the mid-week stats had ranked "Downtown" at #2 behind "Patience" by Take That but on the chart for the full week Bunton was bested not only by Take That at No. 1 but by the previous week's No. 1 "Smack That" by Akon which outsold "Downtown" by 57 copies.[19]
While affording Bunton her highest charting single since her No. 1 solo debut "What Took You So Long?" in 2001, "Downtown" would prove to have little staying power, spending only three weeks in the Top 20, performances by Bunton on a Christmas Day broadcast of Top of the Pops and New Year Live failing to significantly buoy its popularity.
Total UK sales for "Downtown" by Emma Bunton were tallied at 77,039 units.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Somebody Come and Play In the Traffic With Me! Earn as You Learn, Grow as You Go!
The Man Inside the Man
from
Sinbad the Sailor Man
A
JMK's Production
Share this page, If you liked It Pass it on, If you loved It Follow Me!
TTFN
CYA Later Taters!
Thanks for watching.
Donnie/ Sinbad the Sailor Man
Somebody Come and Play in "Traffic" with me. If you would like to "Join" A Growing Biz Op! Here is Your Chance to get in an Earn While You Learn to Do "The Thing" with us all here at Traffic Authority.
Simply click this link and Grow as you Go Come and Play In Traffic With Me and My Team at Traffic Authority!
Simply click this link and Grow as you Go Come and Play In Traffic With Me and My Team at Traffic Authority!
P.S. Everybody Needs Traffic! Get Top Tier North American Traffic Here!
No comments:
Post a Comment