Downtown (Petula Clark song)

"Downtown" is a pop song composed by Tony Hatch which, as recorded by Petula Clark, became an international hit – No. 1 in the US and No. 2 in the UK – at the end of 1964.

Original recording

Tony Hatch recalls: "'Downtown' was written on the occasion of my first visit to New York. 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 song came to me very, very quickly."^[1]

Hatch had originally intended to present "Downtown" to The Drifters, but when British singer Petula Clark heard the incomplete tune, she proposed that if he could write lyrics to match the quality of the melody, she would be interested in recording it.

"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. Hatch always insisted on recording all the personnel on his productions actually performing together as would be heard on the finished track: the large number of personnel contributing to the "Downtown" session necessitated that two studios be utilized for the track's recording, with a closed-circuit television connection allowing Hatch to conduct the personnel in both the studio in which he was physically present and the auxiliary studio.^[2] The session personnel on "Downtown" included guitarists Vic Flick, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan,^[3] and also drummer Bobby Graham^[4] and the Breakaways vocal group.^[5]

"Downtown" entered the UK Top 50 dated the week 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", #39 the spring of 1963, had appeared in even the lower charts. "Downtown" rose to #2 that December 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) and Norway (#8).

However "Downtown" had its greatest significance in the reception it was afforded in the US. Warner Bros. A&R man Joe Smith was scouting in London for records with American hit potential, the musical British Invasion of the US then going strong. Smith wanted to release Clark's "Downtown" in the US and when a surprised Hatch asked if Smith didn't consider "Downtown" to be "a very English record" he recalls Smith's reply as: "It's perfect. It's just an observation from outside of America and it's just beautiful and just perfect."^[1]

Warner Bros. released "Downtown" in the US in December 1964: the track appeared near the bottom of the national charts the week before Christmas and despite the Christmas season traditionally being the worst time to break a new hit "Downtown" shot up to the Top Ten in five weeks and the next week - 23 January 1965 - was #1. "Downtown" retained that position a further week before being overtaken by the ascendancy of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". Clark 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.

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") and Spain ("Chao Chao") which respectively charted at #6, #2 and - for three weeks - #1. "Dans le temps" also reaching #18 in the Wallonia region of Belgium. The title and lyric "Downtown" was retained for an otherwise German version which was the most successful foreign language version reaching #1 in Germany and also reaching #3 in Austria and #11 on the charts for the Flemish region of Belgium.

Petula Clark has re-recorded the "Downtown" four times, in 1976 (with a disco beat), in 1984 (with a new piano and trumpet intro that leads into the song's original opening), in 1988 with Dutch producer Eddy Ouwens for the album "My Greatest" for release in the UK, Germany and Benelux only, and in 1996. In addition, the original 1964 recording was remixed and re-released in 1988, 1999, and 2003. The 1988 remix - entitled "Downtown 88" - reached #10 in the UK also charting in Australia (#62), Germany (#13) and Ireland (#14). In October 2011 Clark recorded several lines of "Downtown" for inclusion in the remake by Irish band the Saw Doctors which was credited to the Saw Doctors featuring Petula Clark - click here for details.

Following 9/11, New York City adopted Clark's version of "Downtown" as the theme song for a series of commercials encouraging tourism to Lower Manhattan. The song has been used by other metropolitan areas — including Chicago, Indianapolis, and Singapore — for promotional purposes as well.

Awards

• Grammy Award for "Best Rock and Roll Song" 1965
• Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Song of the Year" 1964
• Silver Record (1964) Awarded for 250,000 UK sales
• Gold Record (1965) Awarded for 400,000 UK sales
• Gold Record (1965) Awarded for One Million US sales^[6]
• Cash Box International Gold Award (1965)
• Radio Caroline Bell Award (UK) (1965)
• Festivalbar 1965 winner ("Ciao ciao")
• Grammy Hall of Fame (2003)
• Film & TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Program (2007)

Dolly Parton version

"Downtown" has been covered numerous times by other artists since Clark's original recording, notably by Dolly Parton in 1984. After she recorded the track in December 1983, "Downtown" appeared on Parton's album of covers of hits from the 1950s and 1960s, The Great Pretender. It was followed by a single release of the track on RCA Records in April 1984 and proved to be a moderate chart success, peaking at number eighty-seven on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart and number twenty-seven on the Hot Country Songs chart in the United States. 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".

Chart positions

Emma Bunton version

Emma Bunton's remake of "Downtown" was released in 13 November 2006. Bunton, whose admiration for Petula Clark was evident on the 2004 Free Me album, had recorded "Downtown" at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst) with Simon Franglen producing; the orchestra for the track was recorded at Angel Studios with Gavin Wright conducting. Bunton's "Downtown" was selected as the 2006 BBC Children in Need single, with all proceeds from the release going to the charity and Bunton performed "Downtown" on the 2006 Children in Need telethon which began broadcast that 17 November. The single debuted on the UK singles chart dated 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 #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 #1 but by the previous week's #1 "Smack That" by Akon which outsold "Downtown" by fifty-seven copies.^[7] While affording Bunton her highest charting single since her #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.

Track listings and formats

These are the formats and track listings of major single releases of "Downtown".

• EP Children in Need^[8]

1. "Downtown"
2. "Something Tells Me (Something's Going to Happen)"
3. "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"

• UK CD 1

1. "Downtown"
2. "Downtown" (Elements Club Mix)

• UK CD 2

1. "Downtown"
2. "Something Tells Me (Something's Going to Happen)"
3. "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"
4. "Downtown" (video)

Charts

UK Sales: 77,039

Music video

Directed by Harvey & Carolyn, (the directors who also directed her video for her single "Maybe") the sexually suggestive music video for the single is set in a hotel bedroom featuring Bunton as a maid. It includes appearances from contestants from the BBC's reality television show Strictly Come Dancing and features cameos from Matt Dawson, Louisa Lytton, Carol Smillie, Spoony, Mark Ramprakash, Claire King, Peter Schmeichel, Craig Revel Horwood, Anton du Beke, Brendan Cole, Erin Boag, Lilia Kopylova, Karen Hardy, and Darren Bennett. Though the lyrics are innocuous, in the video Bunton's body language clearly twists the song title into a euphemism for sexual activity. Bunton, however, has denied this repeatedly, for example in this interview with online music magazine Popjustice:^[10]

Popjustice: "The dancers in the 'Downtown' video seem to know you very well indeed. So well that they are all pointing at your fanny. Was this your idea?"
Bunton: "I don't understand where this has come from. It is a dance routine and it is nothing to do with anything like that. It is everyone else's dirty little minds. Especially yours. It worries me because it is a classic and you can't make classics rude."

Saw Doctors version

In October 2011 Irish band the Saw Doctors remade "Downtown" with Petula Clark singing some lines: the track is credited to the Saw Doctors featuring Petula Clark. For about a year the Saw Doctors had been including "Downtown" in a concert set piece comprising snippets of well-known songs and their audiences' particularly enthusiastic reaction to "Downtown" led to the band's decision to remake the song. The Saw Doctors' producer Philip Tennant was friends with Petula Clark's manager John Williams and an invitation was conveyed to Clark to sing on the Saw Doctors' version of "Downtown" with Clark resultantly joining the Saw Doctors in the London studio where their version of "Downtown" was recorded. Top Irish cinematographer Eugene O' Connor (Father Ted) directed the video for the Saw Doctor's "Downtown" which was shot on the nights of November 9 and November 10 2011, focusing on the band's members walking through the town center of Galway: footage of Clark was shot in Paris and spliced into the completed video which was uploaded on YouTube on November 17 2011. Radio presenter Ray Foley (Today FM) began a campaign to make the Saw Doctors' "Downtown" the Christmas #1 in Ireland for 2011 encouraging sales of the track upon its December 16 2011 release with the intent of propelling it to the #1 position on the Irish Singles chart for the week ending December 22 2011 and the Saw Doctors' "Downtown" was indeed #1 on iTunes Ireland for the relevant period. However on the Irish Singles chart dated December 22 2011 the track debuted at #2 with "Cannonball" by Little Mix retaining the #1 position largely because of "Cannonball"'s greater availability as a CD single - 10,000 units as opposed to "Downtown"'s 2000 - making "Cannonball" a more attractive prospect for gift-buyers.^[11][12][13]

Other versions

• Sandie Shaw (for her debut 1965 album Sandie)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks (for their 1965 album Chipmunks à Go-Go)
• Marianne Faithfull (for her debut 1965 album Marianne Faithfull)
• The New Christy Minstrels (for their 1965 album Chim Chim Cher-ee)
• Chris Connor (for her 1965 album Sings Gentle Bossa Nova)
• Danny (as "Kauan" - long [time] - 1965 Finnish rendering)
• Gelu (1965 Spanish rendering retaining "Downtown" title)
• Renata (as "Cantant" - singer - 1965 Catalan rendering)
• Helena Vondráčková (as "Pátá" - the fifth - 1965 Czech rendering)
• Allan Sherman (a parody version: same melody, comedy lyrics, called "Crazy Downtown")
• Frank Sinatra (for his 1966 album Strangers in the Night)
• Connie Smith (for her 1966 album Downtown Country)
• Mrs. Miller (for her 1966 album "Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits")
• Christine Lavin (for her 1988 album "Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind")
• The B-52's
• Rx (aka Ritalin), one-off collaboration project by Skinny Puppy vocalist Nivek Ogre and Invisible Records owner Martin Atkins
• Holly Cole Trio (a version with updated lyrics on the 1998 album Yesterday & Today)
• Kaori Iida (cover of the French version of this song on her album, Osavurio: Ai wa Matte Kurenai, in 2003)
• The Killer Barbies
• Jann Arden (for her 2007 album Uncover Me)
• Tina Arena (as a bonus track on the digital release of her 2008 studio album Songs of Love & Loss 2)
• Ina Martell (for release in the former German Democratic Republic, using the same lyrics as on Clark's version for the Western German market)
• Michaela Prunerova (ditto)
• Siw Malmkvist (in Swedish)
• Wendy Van Wanten (as "Nachtblauw" - blue night - on her 1998 album Denk aan mij)
• Celly Campello (in Portuguese as "Não me abandone")
• Sarah Cracknell (b-side of "Desert Baby")
• Irene Cara (for the Downtown soundtrack)
• The Osmonds (as The Osmond Brothers) Mid 1960's LP Track, Also on compilation MGM PARADE OF STARS
• On March 8, 2010, a charity version of the single was released in the UK called "Cheltenham", with the lyrics adapted to be about the Cheltenham Racing Festival. The recording group, made up of various jockeys and commentators, were called 'The Favourites'.
• Bill Bruford's Earthworks (an instrumental version on the 1989 album Dig?)

In popular culture

• In a Season 1 episode of Will & Grace, Will (Erick McCormack) meets Val (Molly Shannon) in an elevator when she completes the song after he begins humming it.
• In the 1999 movie Girl, Interrupted, Susanna (Winona Ryder) and Lisa (Angelina Jolie), sing the song together after their friend is confined in a room alone, the original version is played during the closing credits.
• The song is used as the opening number to Priscilla Queen of the Desert – the Musical, a stage musical based on the 1994 movie The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
• In the Season 3 premiere episode of Lost, "A Tale of Two Cities", Elizabeth Mitchell's character Juliet Burke had this song playing in her home in the opening scene. The song was heard again in a flashback sequence in the season 3 episode "One of Us".^[14]
• The song also was used in episode 272 ("Uncle Charley's Aunt") of the television series My Three Sons. Originally aired on February 17, 1968, the episode had Tina Cole as Katie singing the popular song with the rest of the Douglas family. They then decide to perform the song at Uncle Charley's local lodge when he's forced to put together a matinee performance, but all but one member of the family ends up not being able to attend.
• In the 1991 movie Flight of the Intruder, starring Willem Dafoe and Brad Johnson, Defoe and Johnson sing it together in an A-6 Intruder cockpit on their way back from a prohibited bombing run on a Hanoi SAM missile depot. (see the entry for Operation Rolling Thunder below)
• The song is briefly mentioned in the movie Short Circuit 2, as part of a plot device using the names of songs as clues. The Downtown they refer to is Downtown New York.
• In 1987, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later to become better known as The KLF) sampled large chunks of "Downtown" to make their new single "Down Town".
• The pop-punk band Green Day use the melody of "Downtown" for their song "Waiting", on their 2000 album Warning.
• The song was sung by Lucille Bluth to General Anderson to get her son Buster out of military service in the Arrested Development episode "Switch Hitter".
• The song was heard on the soundtrack of the 1993 film Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. The classical pianist considered Petula Clark the best female vocalist of his generation and published several essays praising her talent and achievements.^[15]
• In the 1993 episode of The Simpsons entitled "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", the Be Sharps hold an audition to replace Chief Wiggum. Groundskeeper Willie performs the song in his audition and, with his Scottish accent, pronounces the title as "Doontoon".
• The song was used to introduce a feature on Children's BBC where viewers could send in pictures of themselves in their town (hence "Downtown") to presenter Phillip Schofield.
• The French language version of the song was used in the Canadian movie waydowntown.
• The song was used during the opening scenes of Jaws 2 in 1978.
• Amanda Price sings it to Elizabeth Bennet's peers in Lost in Austen which sees a modern-day Londoner trapped inside Jane Austen's fictional world of Pride and Prejudice. This scene is deleted from some DVD and broadcast versions of the show.
• The song was used in an episode of Coronation Street for the episode where Liam Connor is murdered. This was aired on the 16th October 2008
• Rick Moranis performs a jazz version of the song as lounge singer Tom Monroe on SCTV. The song is arranged to include Petula Clark's other hits, "Don't Sleep in the Subway," "A Sign of the Times" and "I Know a Place".
• A Mad Men character sings a cappella an improvised version of the song to mock a coworker and her lesbian girlfriend (Season 4).
• In Australia, Coles Supermarkets used a version of the song sung by staff members and customers, altering the lyrics to reflect reduced prices throughout the store in 2011.^[16]
• In Seinfeld, George Costanza erroneously believes his boss is sending him a crypted message about an assignment through the lyrics in the song.

See also

• Music portal

References

External links

• Downtown lyrics at Dolly Parton On-Line