Downtown is an album by Petula Clark (her first album licensed to Warner Bros. Records) following the success of her single of the same title. The album's tracks were all produced, arranged and conducted by Tony Hatch and were recorded at the Pye Studios in Marble Arch with the session personnel including drummer Bobby Graham, guitarist Big Jim Sullivan and the Breakaways vocal group; the "Downtown" track included guitarists Vic Flick and Jimmy Page in addition to Sullivan. Most of the album's tracks pre-dated the title cut, with almost all of the sides Hatch had produced from their inaugural collaboration: the 1963 single "Let Me Tell You Baby", being included.
| Downtown | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 US cover, Warner Bros. | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1965 | |||
| Recorded | 1963–1965 | |||
| Studio | Pye Studies, Marble Arch, London | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 30:20 | |||
| Label | Pye (UK) Warner Bros. (U.S.) Disques Vogue (France,Canada) | |||
| Producer | Tony Hatch | |||
| Petula Clark chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Downtown | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
Downtown entered the Billboard 200 on 13 February 1965 for a 36 weeks chart run with a #21 peak. Despite Clark's subsequent album releases being more focused on the hit sound Hatch had devised for Clark with the "Downtown" single, the Downtown album would remain Clark's most successful US album release. Downtown did not rank in the UK album charts which were then limited to the Top Twenty.[2][3]
- 1 A collection of standards entitled This is Petula Clark! had been released on the Imperial label in 1959 and was reissued as Uptown with Petula Clark after she achieved fame in the States.
| Side One | ||
| Title | Songwriting credit | Background info |
|---|---|---|
| "True Love Never Runs Smooth" | Hal David (lyrics) Burt Bacharach (music) |
Clark's precedent single (UK) to "Downtown" (Pye 7N15668/ 1964), her fifth single (UK) produced by Tony Hatch; US hit (#21) for Gene Pitney in 1963 |
| "Baby It's Me" | Mark Anthony (pseudonym for Tony Hatch) |
Clark's second single (UK) produced by Hatch (Pye 7N15573/ 1963). |
| "Now That You've Gone" | Petula Clark, Hubert Ballay, Norman Newell | Recorded for Downtown album: an English rendering (by Newell) of the Clark/Ballay French language composition "Puisque Tu Pars" (album Les James Dean: Pye VRL 3001/ 1964); released as a single by Connie Stevens (WB 5610: #53/ May 1965) |
| "Tell Me (That It's Love)" | Tony Hatch, Petula Clark | Recorded for the Downtown album |
| "Crying Through a Sleepless Night" | Mark Anthony (pseudonym for Tony Hatch) |
B-side of "Thank You", Clark's third single (UK) produced by Hatch (Pye 7N15606/ 1964) |
| "In Love" | Harvey Fuqua, Bobby Lester | Clark's fourth single (UK) produced by Hatch (Pye 7N15639/ 1964), first recorded in 1955 by the Moonglows |
| Side Two | ||
| Title | Songwriting credit | Background info |
| "Music" | Tony Hatch | Recorded for Downtown album |
| "Be Good to Me" | Tony Hatch, Petula Clark | B-side of "Let Me Tell You Baby" (Pye 7N15551/ 1963), Clark's first single (UK) produced by Hatch |
| "This is Goodbye" | Tony Hatch, Petula Clark, Georges Aber | B-side of "Baby It's Me" (Pye 7N15573/ 1963), Clark's second single (UK) produced by Hatch |
| "Let Me Tell You Baby" | Mark Anthony (pseudonym for Tony Hatch) |
Clark's first single (UK) produced by Hatch (Pye 7N15551/ 1963) |
| "You Belong to Me" | Pee Wee King, Redd Stewart, Chilton Price | Recorded for Downtown album;, #1 US/ UK hit for Jo Stafford in 1952 |
| "Downtown" | Tony Hatch | Recorded 16 October 1964; original release (UK): Pye 7N15722; US release: WB 5494 |
References
edit- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ "US charts at PetulaClark.net". Archived from the original on 2018-05-07. Retrieved 2009-06-05.
- ^ 45 RPM
External links
edit- http://www.petulaclark.net/discography.html official discography
- Downtown at Discogs (list of releases)