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Downtown (Petula Clark song)

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"Downtown"
Solid centre edition of 1964 UK single
Single by Petula Clark
from the album Downtown
B-side"You'd Better Love Me"
ReleasedNovember 1964
Recorded16 October 1964, Pye Studios, London
GenreSoul
Length3:05
Label
Songwriter(s)Tony Hatch
Producer(s)Tony Hatch
Petula Clark singles chronology
"True Love Never Runs Smooth"
(1964) 		"Downtown"
(1964) 		"I Know a Place"
(1965)
Official audio
"Downtown" on YouTube

"Downtown" is a song written and produced by Tony Hatch. The 1964 version recorded by Petula Clark became an international hit, reaching number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and number two on the UK Singles Chart. Hatch received the 1981 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.[1]

The song has been covered by many singers, including Dolly Parton, Emma Bunton and The Saw Doctors.

Composition

Clark in 1960
"Downtown" sample
Problems playing this file? See media help.

Tony Hatch first worked with Petula Clark when he assisted her producer Alan A. Freeman on her 1961 No. 1 hit "Sailor". In 1963 Freeman asked Hatch to take over as Clark's regular producer. Hatch subsequently produced five English-language singles for Clark, none of which charted.

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".[2] 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."[3]

Hatch envisioned his embryonic composition "as a sort of doo wop R&B song" which he thought to eventually pitch to The Drifters:[4] 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,[5] 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."[4] Hatch has subsequently denied originally offering "Downtown" to the Drifters.[6]

Within a few days of his New York City trip Hatch visited Paris to present Clark with three or four songs he had acquired from New York publishers for Clark to consider recording at a London recording session scheduled for 16 October 1964, which was roughly two weeks away. Hatch said of the meeting: "She was not very enthusiastic about [the material] and asked me if I was working on anything new myself."[7] According to Clark, besides the title lyric, Hatch had only written "one or two lines."[8] Hatch recalled: "Reluctantly, I played her the tune of my New York inspiration and slipped in the word 'Downtown' in the appropriate places."[7] Clark, who first heard "Downtown" from her kitchen, having stepped away to make a pot of tea, told Hatch: "That's the one I want to record."[7] "Get that finished. Get a good lyric in it. Get a great arrangement and I think we’ll at least have a song we’re proud to record even if it isn’t a hit."[9]

Recording

"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."[3] 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.[10]

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.[10] Brian Brocklehurst stated in 1995 that he played upright bass at the session. Hatch's assistant Bob Leaper conducted.[9] 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.[11]

Impact

Tony Hatch would recall playing the completed "Downtown" track for Pye Records executives saying: "Nobody knew what to make of it and no release date was set. Then Pye's general manager called and said Joe Smith – Warner Bros.' head of A&R – was in London looking for British material. When Joe heard Pet[ula]'s record, he loved it and scheduled the single for urgent release in the [United] States".[3] When Hatch, surprised by Smith's enthusiasm for releasing "Downtown" in the US, asked if Smith didn't consider "Downtown" to be a "very English record" Smith replied: "It's perfect. It's just an observation from outside of America and it's just beautiful and just perfect."[2]

In the wake of Smith's interest "Downtown" was released in the UK in November 1964. It entered the UK Top 50 dated 14 November 1964, ending a virtual two-year UK chart absence for Clark; of the ten singles she had released in the UK during that period only one, "Chariot", had appeared in even the lower charts (No. 39 the spring of 1963). "Downtown" rose to No. 2 UK in December 1964, remaining there for three weeks, kept out of the No. 1 position by the Beatles' "I Feel Fine". Certified a Gold record for sales in the UK of 500,000, "Downtown" also reached No. 2 in Ireland and No. 1 in Australia, New Zealand, Rhodesia and South Africa, and was also a hit in Denmark (No. 2), India (No. 3), the Netherlands (No. 4) and Norway (No. 8).

But "Downtown" had its greatest significance in the reception it was afforded in the United States, where it was released by Warner Bros. in November 1964: after early regional break-outs, notably in Detroit, Miami, and Washington D.C., "Downtown" debuted at No. 87 on the Hot 100 chart in the Billboard issue dated 19 December 1964. Despite the Christmas season typically being the worst time to break a new hit, "Downtown" shot up to No. 41 in its second week on the Hot 100 chart ascending in its third and fourth charting weeks to respectively No. 12 and No. 5; then after a subsequent single point advance to No. 4 "Downtown" leapt to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 dated 23 January 1965, retaining that position a further week before being overtaken by the ascendancy of The Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'". The song became the first No. 1 hit for the year 1965.[12]

Petula Clark thus became the first UK female artist to have a US No. 1 hit during the rock and roll era and the second in the annals of US charted music, Vera Lynn having hit No. 1 in the 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. On Billboard's annual Disk Jockey poll, "Downtown" was voted the second best single release of 1965 and Petula Clark was voted third most popular female vocalist.[13] "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.

Petula 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", winning the Festivalbar, a juke-box contest) and Spain ("Chao Chao") which respectively charted at No. 6, No. 2 and – for three weeks – No. 1: "Dans le temps" also reaching No. 18 on Belgium's French-language chart. The title and lyric "Downtown" was retained for an otherwise German version which was the most successful foreign-language version, reaching No. 1 in Germany, No. 3 in Austria, and No. 11 on the charts for the Flemish region of Belgium.

In the 1996 Seinfeld episode "The Bottle Deposit", the song is referenced by George Costanza's supervisor Wilhelm when discussing a project Costanza is in the dark about, prompting George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld to analyze the song's lyrics for clues.[14][15][16]

The song is on the soundtrack of the 1999 film Girl, Interrupted[17] and is sung in character by Winona Ryder.[18]

The song plays on a loop in a scene from the 2019 film Escape Room.[19][20][21]

Immediately before the 2020 Nashville bombing, the song was played from the vehicle which exploded, followed by an audio warning to "evacuate now".[22][23][24] Clark released a statement expressing her "shock and disbelief" at the explosion in Nashville.[25]

The song is featured in the Edgar Wright horror film Last Night in Soho performed by actress Anya Taylor-Joy.[26]

Charts and certifications

Accolades

Downtown '88

"Downtown '88"
Single by Petula Clark
from the album My Greatest
Released6 June 1988 (1988-06-06)
Genre
Length3:25
LabelPRT
Songwriter(s)Tony Hatch
Producer(s)Peter Slaghuis, Eddy Ouwens
Petula Clark singles chronology
"Life's a Game"
(1988) 		"Downtown '88"
(1988) 		"I Couldn't Live Without Your Love '89"
(1989)

In addition, the original 1964 recording was remixed and released in 1988 as "Downtown '88": a Top Ten UK hit, the track also charted in Australia (No. 58),[43] Belgium (Dutch chart No. 19), Finland (No. 3), Germany (No. 13) and Ireland (No. 14). Clark recalled: "The first time I heard the '88 remix of 'Downtown' I was in my car. I thought: 'This sounds familiar. I wonder who's singing this?' and it turned out to be me! They'd wiped out the orchestra and put on some kind of ticka-ticka-tick thing. I don't know what the hell it was, but it turned into a hit. They don't have to ask my permission, if you know what I mean. But it's fine. I find it rather flattering, actually. And quite amusing."[44]

Clark in fact promoted "Downtown '88" in a live performance on the Top of the Pops (TOTP) broadcast of 15 December 1988[45] – the track had been aired on the preceding TOTP broadcast of 8 December 1988 and had moved from No. 37 to No. 24 on the UK singles chart dated (i.e. for the week ending) 12 December 1988: Clark's live TOTP performance evidently facilitated the rise of "Downtown '88" to No. 13 on the UK chart dated 17 December 1988, while the track reached its No. 10 peak on the UK chart dated 24 December 1988, that being the singles rankings for the first full week after Clark's TOTP live performance of "Downtown '88".[46]

Charts

Chart (1988−1989) Peak
position
Australia (ARIA)[43] 58
Belgium Ultratop[47] 19
Ireland (IRMA)[48] 14
UK Singles (OCC)[36] 10
West Germany (GfK)[49] 13

Other re-recordings

Petula Clark has re-recorded "Downtown" several 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 1996 and in 2013.[citation needed] 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 – (see below). Clark's 2013 album release Lost in You features a new version of "Downtown": Clark said she was uninterested when it was first suggested she again record "Downtown", then "I was played this beautiful [instrumental] track ...And I said it was lovely, and they told me it was [intended for] 'Downtown.' I got to the microphone and I didn't know how I was going to sing it, and it really feels like a new song."[50] Reviewing Lost in You for MusicOHM.com, Philip Matusavage writes of the "Downtown" remake: "already a song loaded with melancholy, the stately version here acquires new meaning with its weary but amiable delivery summoning forth powerful nostalgia and the sense of someone fondly remembering their youth."[51]

Reportedly an overture was made to Petula Clark to sing on "Cheltenham" a 2010 charity single recording of a lyrically abridged version of "Downtown" referencing Cheltenham Festival and featuring a chorale of British and Irish horse-racing personalities: however Clark did not participate in the recording of "Cheltenham" which was released in March 2010 credited to the Favourites and featuring Laura Critchley as lead vocalist.[52]

Dolly Parton version

"Downtown"
Single by Dolly Parton
from the album The Great Pretender
B-side"The Great Pretender"
Released12 March 1984
RecordedDecember 1983
GenreCountry, Pop
LabelRCA
Songwriter(s)Tony Hatch
Producer(s)Val Garay
Dolly Parton singles chronology
"Save the Last Dance for Me"
(1983) 		"Downtown"
(1984) 		"Tennessee Homesick Blues"
(1984)

Dolly Parton recorded "Downtown" in Nashville in October 1983 in the sessions for her covers album The Great Pretender, a Val Garay production which focused on hits from the 1950s and 1960s. "Downtown" served as the album's second single release in March 1984 reaching No. 36 on the Billboard C&W chart and crossing over to No. 80 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart: to date "Downtown" marks Parton's final solo Hot 100 appearance. 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". Petula Clark has described Parton's take on "Downtown" as "cute, because she didn’t even try to sound like my recording."[53]

Chart positions

Chart (1984) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot Country Singles 36
US Billboard Hot 100 80
US Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks 20
Canadian RPM Country Tracks 20

Emma Bunton version

"Downtown"
Single by Emma Bunton
from the album Life in Mono
B-side
Released13 November 2006
Recorded2006
GenreSoul
Length3:24
LabelUniversal
Songwriter(s)Tony Hatch
Producer(s)Simon Franglen
Emma Bunton singles chronology
"Crickets Sing for Anamaria"
(2004) 		"Downtown"
(2006) 		"All I Need to Know"
(2007)
Music video
"Downtown" on YouTube

Background

BBC News announced 20 October 2006 that Emma Bunton would record a remake of the Petula Clark hit "Downtown" to be the 2006 official BBC Children in Need single, with Bunton quoted as saying: "I've always loved 'Downtown'...and I'm really looking forward to putting my own stamp on it. The track's good fun and one everyone will know."[54] Bunton, whose admiration for Petula Clark was evident on the 2004 Free Me album, recorded "Downtown" at AIR Studios (Lyndhurst) with Simon Franglen producing; the orchestra for the track was recorded at Angel Recording Studios with Gavin Wright conducting. The track was released on 13 November 2006 and Bunton premiered her version of "Downtown" on the 2006 Children in Need telethon which began broadcast 17 November 2006.

Although Bunton said that she knew "Downtown" composer Tony Hatch "quite well",[55] Petula Clark said that neither she [i.e. Clark] nor Hatch had prior knowledge of Bunton's remake.[56] Clark also stated that she considered Bunton's remake to be an "outright copy"[53] of Clark's original recording: "I could ask: 'What's the point'...but Emma's recording is wonderful and...for a great cause"[56] (i.e. Children in Need).

Impact

"Downtown" by Emma Bunton debuted on the UK singles chart 25 November 2006 at No. 24. Central FM 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." The Spanish radio station predicted "Downtown" would rise to the Top 3 in its second week and the single did indeed jump to No. 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 No. 2 behind "Patience" by Take That but on the chart for the full week Bunton was bested not only by Take That at No. 1 but by the previous week's No. 1, "Smack That" by Akon, which outsold "Downtown" by 57 copies.[57]

While affording Bunton her highest charting single since her No. 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. Total UK sales for "Downtown" by Emma Bunton were tallied at 77,039 units.

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. According to Mark Ramprakash the video was shot at "a big house near Baker Street".[58]

The video drew negative reaction for evidently skewing the phrase "go downtown" into a sexual term. Bunton would constantly evade or deny this allegation, as when Michael Baggs of Popjustice put to her: "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's response being: "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."[55] Singer Jann Arden who recorded "Downtown" for her 2007 album Uncover Me reacted to Bunton's "Downtown" video with the statement: "Petula Clark would slap [Bunton's] face"[59] though in fact Clark herself would state to being untroubled by Bunton's evidently salacious interpretation of "Downtown": "It's a pop song, for God's sake. It's not a hymn!"[53]

Charts

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. According to Saw Doctors' member Leo Moran the group habitually played snippets of well-known songs during their encore numbers: "One night for no particular reason we did 'Downtown' and you could see people loved it. All ages. You could see it brought joy to people’s faces."[65] Some time later the Saw Doctors learned their producer Philip Tennant was friends with Petula Clark's manager John Williams and an invitation was conveyed to Clark to sing on a Saw Doctors' remake of "Downtown"; Clark being agreeable, a session was booked in a London recording studio to allow the Irish group to liaison with the European-based Clark and "Downtown" was recorded over two days with Clark arriving to record her vocal on the second day. Moran recalls: "We [the Saw Doctors] did a whole lot of work the first day. [Petula Clark] came in the second evening and we discovered that the song was in the wrong key. So we had to scrap all of the first day's work and put down the backing track with Petula because she only had a few hours that evening and wasn’t able to come back the following day. It was exciting, exhilarating, scary and privileged … rolled into one."[66]

Top Irish cinematographer Eugene O' Connor (Father Ted) directed the video for the Saw Doctor's "Downtown" which was uploaded to YouTube on 17 November 2011. Shot on the nights of 9–10 November 2011, the video focuses on the band's members walking through the town center of Galway (lead vocalist Davy Carton is also seen briefly riding in a car). Footage of Clark was shot in Paris and spliced into the completed video in which she mainly appears on the screens of televisions displayed in a shop window (the shop is in fact clothing retailer Anthony Ryans) outside of which the Saw Doctors perform on the street in the company of eight members of the Galway City Cougars cheerleading squad and also a fire juggler.[67]

Radio presenter Ray Foley (Today FM) began a campaign to make the Saw Doctors' "Downtown" the Christmas No. 1 in Ireland for 2011 encouraging sales of the track upon its 16 December 2011 release with the intent of propelling it to the No. 1 position on the Irish Singles Chart for the week ending 22 December 2011 and the Saw Doctors' "Downtown" was indeed No. 1 on iTunes Ireland for the relevant period. However, on the Irish Singles Chart dated 22 December 2011 the track debuted at No. 2 with "Cannonball" by Little Mix retaining the No. 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.[68][69][70]

On the Irish Singles Chart dated 29 December 2011 "Downtown" by the Saw Doctors featuring Petula Clark was ranked at No. 43 in its second and final week on the chart.[70]

Other versions

1965 • Anina[71] as "Luces de la ciudad" Spanish=Lights of the city
also recorded by • Las Hermanas Navarro[72] • Los Hooligans (es) • Angélica María
• Lourdes Baledón[73] as "Al centro de la ciudad" Spanish=At the center of the city
• Hermanas Benítez (es) as "Chao Chao" Spanish also recorded by • Los Mustang • Los Pekes (es) • Los Sírex
• Hugo Blanco on his album Bailables con Hugo Blanco as "Ciao Ciao" Italian
• Celly Campello (pt) as "Não me abandone" Portuguese=Do not leave me also recorded by • Trio Esperança
• Chris Connor on her album Sings Gentle Bossa Nova
• Dick Contino on his album Dick Contino Plays & Sings the Hits
• (inst.) Xavier Cugat & his orchestra on his album Feeling' Good!
• Danny as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time] Finland No. 1 also recorded by • Ann-Christine
• Marianne Faithfull on her album Marianne Faithfull
• (inst.) Ferrante & Teicher on their album Only the Best
• Eddie Fisher on his album Eddie Fisher Today!
• Gelu (es) as "Downtown" Spanish
• (inst.) Sounds Orchestral on their album Cast Your Fate to the Wind
• The Tony Hatch Sound on their album The Tony Hatch Sound also issued on Downtown with Tony Hatch (1968)
• Ina Martell (de)
• Margot Lefebvre (fr) on album Gala 65 Avec Margot Et Michel as "Dans le temps" French=in time also recorded by • Claude Steben[74]
• The Lettermen on their album Hit Sounds of the Lettermen
• (inst.) Enoch Light & the Light Brigade on their album DiscothequeVol. 2: Dance, Dance, Dance
• Toldi Mária (hu)
• Olivia Molina on her album Juego De Palabras as "Canta" Spanish="sing"
• Jane Morgan on her album In My Style
• (inst.) Gerry Mulligan on his album If You Can't Beat 'Em, Join 'Em
• The New Christy Minstrels on their album Chim Chim Cher-ee
• Gabi Novak on multi-artist EP Melodija Tjedna V as "Down Town" Croatian
• The Osmond Brothers on their album The New Sound of the Osmond Brothers
• Brigitte Petry (de)
• (inst.) Franck Pourcel et Son Grand Orchestre on his album Un Orchestra Nella Sera N. 5
• Billy Preston on his album Early Hits of 1965
• (inst.) Shirley Scott on her album Latin Shadows
• Sandie Shaw on her 1965 album Sandie
• Allan Sherman as "Crazy Downtown" (parody version) Crazy Downtown
• Helena Vondráčková as "Pátá" Czech=the fifth
1965 • Alvin and the Chipmunks for their album Chipmunks à Go-Go[75]
* The Knickerbockers on their debut album Lloyd Thaxton Presents The Knickerbockers .
1966 • (inst.) John Barry on The Quiller Memorandum soundtrack album
• (inst.) Thumbs Carllile on his album Roger Miller Presents Thumbs Carllile
• Ray Conniff Singers on their album Somewhere My Love
• Mrs. Miller Billboard Hot 100 No. 82 Easy Listening No. 9 from her album Mrs. Miller's Greatest Hits
• Frank Sinatra on his album Strangers in the Night
• Connie Smith on her album Downtown Country
1967 • (inst.) Bob Florence Big Band on their album Pet Project which comprises songs associated with Petula Clark
• (inst.) Shake Keane on his album That's the Noise
• Siw Malmkvist as "Downtown" Swedish
• (inst.) San Remo Golden Strings on their album Hungry For Love
• Lita Torelló (es) as "Ciao Ciao" Catalan
• Jackie Trent on her album Stop Me & Buy One
1975• (inst.) Klaus Wunderlich on his album The Hit World of Klaus Wunderlich
1978 • Neoton Familia on their album Neoton Disco as "Belváros" Hungarian=downtown
• The Cuban Heels 7" single
1979 • The B-52's on their album The B-52's
• Stacy Lattisaw on her album Young & in Love
1981 • Bel Ami (de) on their album Großstadtmelodie as "Downtown" German
1985 • Guy Mitchell on his album A Garden in the Rain
1987 • Topi Sorsakoski & Agents on their album Besame Mucho as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time]
1988 • Christine Lavin on her album Good Thing He Can't Read My Mind as a duet with Livingston Taylor
• Anita Meyer on her album The Ahoy Concert
1989 • Bill Bruford's Earthworks on their 1989 album Dig?
• Jo Wyatt on compilation Various – Canzoni da Amare-International
1990 • Hämäläis-Osakunnan Laulajat (fi) on their album Ghosts in Hollywood as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time]
1991 • Karen Mason on her album When the Sun Comes Out medley: "Downtown"/"I Know a Place"
1993 • Yölintu (fi) on their album Yölintu Laskeutuu as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time]
• Dan Castellaneta as Groundskeeper Willie singing "Doontoon" in The Simpsons episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet"
1995 • (inst.) Booker T. & the M.G.'s on their Soul Men compilation of long unreleased tracks (a.k.a. ...Play the Hip Hits)
1996 • Mary Chapin Carpenter: B-side of her single "Let Me into Your Heart"
• Ilona Csáková on her album Pink as "Pátá" Czech=the fifth
• Nancy LaMott on her compilation album What's Good About Goodbye (track recorded 1993)
1997 • The Candyskins: B-side of their single "Hang Myself on You"
• Sarah Cracknell on her single "Desert Baby" also on Japanese release of her album Lipslide
1998 • Holly Cole Trio on their album Yesterday & Today lyrics updated
• Rx on their album Bedside Toxicology
• Jane McDonald on her album Jane McDonald
• Wendy Van Wanten (nl) on her album Denk aan mij as "Nachtblauw" Flemish=blue night
1999 • Ann-Mette Elten (da) on her album Close to You
• Bonnie Langford in the "Sixties Medley" on her Now album
• Menneisyyden Vangit (fi) on their Live! Elossaja lujaa album as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time]
• Björk and The Brodsky Quartet performed an acoustic version of the song at London's Union Chapel in 1999 which has never been released.
2000 • The Killer Barbies
• Andrea Marcovicci on her album Here There & Everywhere
2001 • Liz Callaway on her album The Beat Goes On
• Ireen Sheer on her album Zeitlos which features remakes of "Downtown" with both the English & German lyrics.
2002 • (inst.) James Last on his album New Party Classics
2003 • Kaori Iida on her album Osavurio: Ai wa Matte Kurenai French
• Dana Winner on her album One Way Wind
2004 • Irene Cara for Downtown: a Street Tale film soundtrack
• Michelle Hunziker on multi-artist album Best of Starduell
• Nancy Martinez on her album Downtown
2006 • Erin Crosby & ensemble on the cast album of Shout! The Mod Musical which also includes a dance remix of the track
• Yo La Tengo on their albumYo La Tengo Is Murdering the Classics (track recorded 1998)
2007 • Jann Arden on her album Uncover Me
• (inst.) James Last on his concert album Live in Europe
2008 • Tina Arena on her album Songs of Love & Loss 2 digital release bonus track
• Anke Pietrangeli on her album Tribute to the Great Female Vocalists[76]
• Michèle Torr on her album Ces années-là! as "Dans le temps" French=in time
2010 • Markku Aro as "Kauan" Finnish=long [time] on multi-artist album Reino & Aino – Rakkaustarina also recorded by • Matti Ojala (fi) on his album Opetuslapset
• The Favourites as "Cheltenham" Republic of Ireland No. 14 Lyrics of "Downtown" were tweaked for this charity single saluting Cheltenham Festival sung by Laura Critchley & a chorale of British & Irish horse-racing personalities
• Maria Friedman on her album Maria Friedman Celebrates the Great British Songbook medley: "Georgy Girl"/"Downtown"
2011 • Ann Hampton Callaway/ Liz Callaway on their album Boom! Live at Birdland medley: "I Know a Place"/ "Downtown"
• Maxine Linehan on her album What Would Petula Do? which comprises songs associated with Petula Clark
2012 • Something Big[77] on their Tony Hatch tribute EP Hatched
2014 • Eveline & Filip (nl) as "Kerst voor iedereen" Dutch=Christmas for everyone single, also bonus track on the Eveline Cannoot[78] album AnderSterker
• Cast of Glee for the episode "New New York"[79]
2021 • Anya Taylor-Joy in the film, Last Night in Soho.[80]

References

  1. ^ Lister, David, Pop ballads bite back in lyrical fashion, The Independent, 28 May 1994
  2. ^ a b "Tony Hatch interview". Retrosellers.com. November 2007. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Marc Myers (12 June 2013). "Going Back Downtown". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
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