Francais | English | Espanõl

Downtown (song)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
"Downtown"
Image:Downtownsleeve.jpg
Single by Petula Clark
from the album Downtown
B-side(s) "You'd Better Love Me"
Released November 1964
Recorded 1964
Label Warner Bros (US)
Pye Records (UK)
Writer(s) Tony Hatch
Producer(s) Tony Hatch
Chart positions

1 (United States, Germany, Canada, Rhodesia, Italy, South Africa, Japan, South Vietnam), 2 (United Kingdom, Ireland), 3 (Holland, India), 4 (Australia), 6 (France, in French), 11 (Belgium, in English), 18 (Belgium, in French)

Petula Clark singles chronology
"True Love Never Runs Smooth"
(1964) 		"Downtown"
(1964) 		"I Know a Place"
(1965)

"Downtown" is a pop song composed by Tony Hatch following a first-time visit to New York City. It was his original intention to present it 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.

Literally thirty minutes before the song was scheduled to be recorded, Hatch was completing the lyrics in the studio's men's room. "Downtown" was released in late 1964 and became a best seller in English, French, Italian, and German versions, topping music charts worldwide (with more than 4.8 million copies sold and introducing Clark to the American record-buying public. She continued her success in the United States with a string of fifteen consecutive Top 40 hits.

"Downtown" was the first song by a British female artist to top the Billboard Hot 100 chart<ref name="billboard">Ankeny, Jason. Biography taken from Billboard.com. All Music Guide. Retrieved December 1, 2006</ref> and went on to win a Grammy Award for "Best Rock and Roll Song".

Clark re-recorded the song three times, in 1976 (with a disco beat), in 1984 (with a new piano and trumpet intro that leads into the song's original opening), and in 1996. In addition, the original 1964 recording was remixed and re-released in 1988, 1999, and 2003.

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.

"Downtown" has been covered numerous times by other artists since Clark's original recording, most notably by Dolly Parton in 1984. After recording the track in December 1983, "Downtown" appeared on Parton's album of cover versions, 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 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.

Allan Sherman's 1965 parody (same melody, comedy lyrics) called "Crazy Downtown" was his second-biggest selling single. The B-52's recorded a revamped version for their 1978 debut album The B-52's.

Contents

[edit] Awards

Preceded by:
"I Feel Fine" by The Beatles 		Billboard Hot 100 number one single
January 23, 1965 		Succeeded by:
"You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers

[edit] Appearance in popular culture

  • In the season 3 premiere episode of Lost, "A Tale of Two Cities", Elizabeth Mitchell's character Juliet had this song playing in her home in the opening scene. The show frequently features hit songs from the past, and this case is notable in the fact that it was played from a DualDisc, while all previous music on Lost has been played on traditional records.
  • The song was used in "The Bottle Deposit, Part 1" episode of Seinfeld, where Jerry and George are discussing the meaning of Mr.Whilhelm's instructions (part of some important project that George is in charge of): "Everything you need... is downtown".
  • 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 Simpsons episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet", Groundskeeper Willie sang a Scottish version of it (calling it "Doontoon") as an audition for Homer's quartet.
  • In the movie Girl, Interrupted, starring Winona Ryder and Angelina Jolie, the girls at Claymoore sang it together.
  • In an episode of Will and Grace, Will first met Val when she completed the song after he began humming it.
  • In 1987, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (later to become better known as The KLF) sampled larged chunks of "Downtown" to make their new single "Down Town".
  • Jackson Browne's 1983 album Lawyers in Love contained a Browne composition also titled "Downtown". While an entirely different song, Browne ad-libbed a few lines of his song to the melody of the Hatch/Clark original at the end, as the song faded out.
  • 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 used in a Fido Solutions advertisement.
  • The song was heard on the soundtrack of the 1993 film Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould. The classical pianist considered her the best female vocalist of his generation and published several essays praising her talent and achievements.
  • 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.

[edit] Emma Bunton version

"Downtown"
Image:DowntownEmmaBuntonCover.jpg
Single by Emma Bunton
from the album Life in Mono
B-side(s) "Something Tells Me (Something's Going To Happen)"
"Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps"
Released November 13 2006
Format CD single
Digital download
Recorded 2006
Genre Pop
Label Universal
Writer(s) Tony Hatch
Chart positions

3 (UK)

Emma Bunton singles chronology
"Crickets Sing for Anamaria"
(2004) 		"Downtown"
(2006) 		"All I Need To Know"
(2007)

Emma Bunton released "Downtown" in November 2006. The single was selected as the 2006 BBC Children In Need single, with all proceeds from the release going to the charity. The single is the lead single from Bunton's third studio album entitled Life in Mono.

The 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 Saturday night show Strictly Come Dancing (the format to which has been sold world wide under the name Dancing with the Stars) 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.

Upon release, "Downtown" entered the UK singles chart at number twenty-four on digital sales only; it rose to number three the following week when it recieved its full release, making the song Bunton's highest charting single since "What Took You So Long" in 2001<ref name="bill chart">Sexton, Paul. Article confirming Bunton's 2006 UK chart position. Billboard Magazine. Retrieved December 1, 2006.</ref>.

[edit] Track listing and formats

  • UK CD 1
  1. "Downtown"
  2. "Downtown" [Elements Club Radio Edit]
  • UK CD 2
  1. "Downtown"
  2. "Something Tells Me"
  3. "Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps"
  4. "Downtown" (music video)

[edit] Charts

Chart (2006) Peak
position
UK Singles Chart 3
UK Airplay Chart 34
UK TV Airplay Chart 27
UK Downloads Chart 15
Irish Singles Chart 36

Chart trajectory

UK Top 75 Singles
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Position
24
<center>3 <center>7 <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center>
Irish Top 50 Singles
Week 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10
Position <center>36 <center>41 <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center> <center>

U.K. sales : 49,582 copies[citation needed]

[edit] Notes and references

<references/>

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikivisual.com/index.php/Downtown_%28song%29"
Personal tools