Fact #106654
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Tony Hatch (composer) : I made my first short visit to New York in 1964, partly to immerse myself in the 'good vibrations' of one of the world's great entertainment centres, but also to visit some music publishers to try and pick up songs for my stable of Pye Records artists. As a record producer I had fair success covering US hits, but while this gave us some UK hits it didn't provide a continuing source of material.
My first walk down Broadway to Times Square was the inspiration for the song which changed that situation and a couple of lives as well. I couldn't get the word 'downtown' out of my head, and instinctively knew it was a great title for a song. A few days later I was back in Studio 1 at Pye, doodling on the Steinway, whilst balance engineer Ray Prickett re-patched the desk for a mixdown. The melody fell into place in minutes. No words, but the title Downtown knew exactly where it wanted to be. I decided to get it to Ben E. King when it was finished, and thought what a great follow-up to On Broadway it could be.
Meanwhile, there was a Petula Clark session to plan. Her record sales all over Europe were phenomenal, but my first year as her sole producer had yielded no UK chart entries.
I day-tripped to Paris armed with several of those New York publishers' songs and rehearsed with her at her apartment in the Bois de Boulogne. I took none of my own work but, alas, she was not impressed with the American material
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My first walk down Broadway to Times Square was the inspiration for the song which changed that situation and a couple of lives as well. I couldn't get the word 'downtown' out of my head, and instinctively knew it was a great title for a song. A few days later I was back in Studio 1 at Pye, doodling on the Steinway, whilst balance engineer Ray Prickett re-patched the desk for a mixdown. The melody fell into place in minutes. No words, but the title Downtown knew exactly where it wanted to be. I decided to get it to Ben E. King when it was finished, and thought what a great follow-up to On Broadway it could be.
Meanwhile, there was a Petula Clark session to plan. Her record sales all over Europe were phenomenal, but my first year as her sole producer had yielded no UK chart entries.
I day-tripped to Paris armed with several of those New York publishers' songs and rehearsed with her at her apartment in the Bois de Boulogne. I took none of my own work but, alas, she was not impressed with the American material