December 8, 2023      —–     Chart #223

Hello Music Friends,

Hey folks, welcome to another edition of Chart of the Week. I am going way back to the 60’s today. I don’t know why this song makes me smile, maybe is childhood memories. The song is quite sappy, even for it’s time, but I still find it catchy. “Downtown” is a song written and produced by English composer Tony Hatch. The 1964 version recorded by British singer Petula Clark became an international hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart.

In the autumn of 1964 Hatch made his first visit to New York City, spending three days there in search of material from music publishers for the artists he was producing. He recalled, “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.”

Hatch envisioned his embryonic composition “as a sort of doo wop R&B song”, which he thought to eventually pitch to the Drifters. He had scored his biggest success to date with the Searchers’ “Sugar and Spice” modelled on the Drifters’ hit “Sweets for My Sweet”, and had also produced a cover version of the Drifters’ “Up on the Roof” for Julie Grant. It has been said that Hatch gave Julie Grant the opportunity to record “Downtown” which Grant turned down, 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. Hatch has also said that prior to Clark’s expressed interest in “Downtown”, “it never occurred to me that a white woman could even sing it.” Hatch has subsequently denied originally offering “Downtown” to the Drifters.

“Downtown” was recorded on 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 said of his arrangement: “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.” Hatch insisted that all session personnel on his productions be recorded performing together. The session personnel for the recording of “Downtown” were assembled in Studio One of Pye Recording Studios and 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.

Dean Martin Show 1967:  https://youtu.be/k4d_0EJRFIM?si=nv4DxuZq5_XuFTjA

Also playing on the session were guitarists Vic Flick, Jimmy Page and Big Jim Sullivan, as well as drummer Ronnie Verrell, while the Breakaways provided the vocal accompaniment. Bobby Graham was also credited as being the drummer on the session. Brian Brocklehurst stated in 1995 that he played upright bass at the session. Hatch’s assistant Bob Leaper conducted. 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, consisting of an instrumental and backing vocal track most likely from a session tape, makes this claim questionable.

And Petula Clark in 2018 at age 86:  https://youtu.be/9H1WfeZE2k0?si=KCgq8n0FM9BEugBP

Well if you are old enough to remember this song it will surely bring back some memories for you too. Have fun reminiscing.

Keep Rockin’,

Stan Bradshaw