THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

838-Petula Clark-Downtown.

1964-Number 2 single.

Best Bit-At 1.58. In America ‘Downtown’ is the heart of the city where the action happens. The word isn’t used much in Britain, but it generally means the less affluent part of town.

Petula Clark was born Sally Olwen Clark on November 15th, 1932, in Ewell, Surrey, England, her stage name ‘Petula,’ was invented by her father, who joked that it was a combination of the names of his two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. Petula Clark became a child star, at the age of nine while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, she was trying to send a message to an uncle who was stationed overseas, but the broadcast was delayed by an air raid. During the air raid Clark performed to the nervous audience, which caught the attention of the shows producers, which led to her becoming a regular performer, appearing in over 500 programmes which were designed to entertain the troops. In addition to her radio work Petula Clark also toured the country, by the age of 12 she had already performed in front of King George V1, and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. She was nicknamed the ‘Singing Sweetheart,’ and was considered to be a mascot by the British Army, some of whose troops attached her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle. By 1944 Petula Clark’s career had expanded in to film, she made her acting debut in the 1944 British comedy movie ‘Medal for the General,’ in total she would appear in 30 films between 1944-1981. She also began a career in television in 1946, which led to her hosting her own afternoon television series ‘Petula Clark. Pet’s Parlour,’ in 1950.

Petula Clark who has sold in excess of 68 million records worldwide, also recorded many of her songs in different languages including French, German, Italian, and Spanish. During a recording career that has covered six decades, she has released 46 studio Albums between 1956-2018, and approximately 132 singles between 1949-2013. In the UK, 21 of those singles have reached the top 40, with ‘Sailor,’ from 1961, and ‘This Is My Song,’ from 1967, both making Number 1. In America where Petula Clarke is known as the ‘First Lady of the British Invasion,’ she has achieved 15 top 40 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, with ‘Downtown,’ from 1964, and ‘My Love,’ from 1965, both making Number 1.

‘Downtown’ was written and produced by Tony Hatch, and was the third of the three singles released from her 16th studio Album, also called ‘Downtown,’ from 1965. Tony Hatch was born Anthony Peter Hatch, on June 30th, 1939, in Pinner, Middlesex, England. He first entered the music business in the mid 1950’s, when signing up with ‘Top Rank Records,’ as a songwriter, where he initially worked under the name ‘Mark Anthony.’ Tony Hatch began working with Petula Clark in 1961, when assisting with the recording of ‘Sailor,’ following the success of ‘Downtown,’ he would write many more of her best known hits of the 1960’s, including ‘Don’t Sleep in the Subway,’ (1967 UK-Number 12 & Billboard Number 5) and ‘The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener’ (1967 UK-Number 20 & Billboard Number 31.) Tony Hatch is also a prolific writer of film, and television theme tunes, among the many themes he has written, are, the theme from ‘Crossroads,’ (1964) ‘The Champions,’ (1967) ‘Emmerdale Farm,’ (1972) and ‘Neighbours’ (1985.)

Tony Hatch has explained how he first got the idea for ‘Downtown,’ ‘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. I loved the whole atmosphere there, and the music came to me very, very quickly.’ He was standing on the corner of 48th Street 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.’ Petula Clark has also spoken about hearing the song played to her by Tony Hatch for the first time,’My head wasn’t in it at the time, I was totally into French, Italian, German, whatever. I said: ‘Well, you know, if I could find the right song’ and he said he had an unfinished song he wanted to play me, and he played ‘Downtown’ on the piano. I said: ‘Woah, I like that.’ So I asked him to write a lyric up to the standard of the tune, and two weeks later we did it.’ Petula Clarke has also said of the songs lyrics,’I’ve always thought there was this loneliness, and there’s even a slight feeling of desperation in it.’

‘When you’re alone, and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown. When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know downtown. Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city, linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty.’