You're the One (Petula Clark song) explained

You're the One
Cover:you're the one vogue.jpg
Type:single
Artist:Petula Clark
Album:I Know a Place
B-Side:Gotta Tell the World
Released:1965
Recorded:1965
Genre:Pop, traditional pop
Length:2:26
Producer:Tony Hatch
Prev Title:Round Every Corner
Prev Year:1965
Next Title:My Love
Next Year:1965
You're the One
Cover:You're_the_One_-_The_Vogues.jpg
Type:single
Artist:The Vogues
Album:Meet The Vogues
B-Side:Some Words
Released:September 1965
Recorded:1965
Genre:Pop rock
Length:2:17
Label:Co&Ce
Next Title:Five O'Clock World
Next Year:1966

"You're the One" is a song by Petula Clark with lyrics by Tony Hatch, recorded in 1965. It was later also included on the 1965 album I Know a Place. "You're the One" was a Top 30 hit on the UK Singles Chart for Clark, but was more successful as a top ten US single release by The Vogues.

History

Petula Clark thus describes the genesis of "You're the One": "we [Clark and Tony Hatch] were making yet another LP, and that's like twelve [or] thirteen songs. He'd written twelve, and he said, 'Listen, I haven't got a number thirteen in me at all. Write something.' And I said, 'Okay. I'll try.' And I wrote the melody of 'You're the One.' And he wrote the lyric."[1] As was standard with Clark's tracks produced by Hatch, "You're the One" was recorded at Pye Studios in Marble Arch. Hatch also conducted for the session whose personnel featured Bobby Graham on drums, Big Jim Sullivan on guitar and The Breakaways vocal group.

Originally there were no plans to issue a follow-up to the "I Know a Place" single off its parent album; instead two newly recorded Petula Clark singles were consecutively released: "You'd Better Come Home" and "Round Every Corner" both of which barely made the UK Top 50. Both singles were substantially more successful in the US where each neared the Top 20 in respectively the summer and autumn of 1965. However the US chart impact of Clark's own singles in the latter half of 1965 paled next to that of a recording of Clark's composition "You're the One" by the Vogues which reached No. 4 in the US and Canada that autumn.[2]

Recorded at Gateway Studios in Pittsburgh, "You're the One" was the first track to be credited to the Vogues although the group had previously recorded as the Val-Aires. Pittsburgh-based record producer Nick Cenci had already cut "You're the One" with a local band called the Racket Squad; after hearing the Val-Aires audition tape, Cenci decided that that group's lead singer Bill Burkette could sing "You're the One" more effectively than Racket Squad vocalist Sonny DiNunzio. Accordingly, DiNunzio's vocals were erased from the master, so that Burkette could record a fresh vocal over the instrumentation played by the Racket Squad's members.[3]

Cenci approached Jim Rook, program director of KQV, with the Vogues' "You're the One" and KQV became the first radio station to play the record,[4] which entered the KQV "Finest Forty" chart in July 1965, and that August broke in Detroit and San Diego. prior to breaking nationally that September.[5] [6]

The burgeoning success of the Vogues' "You're the One" had alerted Petula Clark's UK label, Pye Records, to the track's hit potential with Pye rush releasing Clark's own version as a single which entered the UK chart in November 1965 and peaked at No. 23. According to Chuck Blasco of the Vogues, Clark's US label, Warner Bros., had also intended to issue Clark's version as a single to vie with the Vogues' version in the US, but Clark vetoed the idea saying: "Let the boys have the hit".[7] The Vogues' version did have a UK release on London Records but did not garner enough interest to share the UK charts with Clark's version.

In the autumn of 1965 four versions of "You're the One" charted in Australia with that by Petula Clark becoming the major hit at No. 4. Besides the Vogues version, which reached No. 55, two local covers of "You're the One" charted with that by Col Joye reaching No. 41 while that by Yvonne Barrett—charting in tandem with its B-side "Little People"—reached No. 58.

A No. 30 hit for Petula Clark in the Netherlands, "You're the One" also afforded the Vogues a top ten hit in Canada (No. 4) and New Zealand.

Unique among Clark's hit singles as the only English language hit in which she had a hand in writing, "You're the One" was rendered by Clark in French, German and Italian; the French version was entitled "Un Mal Pour Un Bien" (French No. 6), the German "Deine Liebe ist wunderbar".[8]

Clark performed the song live in the 1965 concert film The Big T.N.T. Show.

The 1967 album release Pet Project by the Bob Florence Big Band features an instrumental version of "You're the One", the album being devoted to songs associated with Petula Clark.

Rocky Sharpe and the Replays remade "You're the One" for a 1981 single (Chiswick Records).

A Finnish rendering of "You're the One", "Sinä Vain", was a 1966 single release for Eero.

Chart history

Petula Clark
Chart (1965)Peak
position
Australia 4
France 6
Netherlands 30
UK Singles (OCC)[9] 23
The Vogues
Chart (1965)Peak
position
Australia 55
Canada RPM Top Singles[10] 4
New Zealand 4
US Billboard Hot 100[11] 4
US Cash Box Top 100[12] 7
Col Joye
Yvonne Barrett

In media

The Vogues' cover was featured in the Netflix limited series The Queen's Gambit (episode "Doubled Pawns").

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Petula Clark . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20130707081211/http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/petula_clark/ . July 7, 2013 . July 4, 2013 . Songfacts.com.
  2. AllMusic
  3. Web site: Friends of Spectropop . Spectropop Group Discussion Archives: #0288 - 03 Jul 1999 . 2012-01-13 . Spectropop.com.
  4. Web site: 1968-10-12 . The Vogues - Inductees - The Vocal Group Hall of Fame Foundation . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20111010144216/http://vghf.com/inductees/the_vogues.html . 2011-10-10 . 2012-01-13 . Vghf.com.
  5. Web site: tim warden . ARSA | The Vogues You're The One . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20120229213348/http://las-solanas.com/arsa/charts_item.php?hsid=12945 . 2012-02-29 . 2012-01-13 . Las-solanas.com.
  6. "You're the One" was originally released on Cenci's Blue Star label; when a copyright dispute with another Blue Star label arose, the label name was changed to Co&Ce
  7. Web site: news.google.com . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20130910220124/http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1129&dat=19841019&id=T1INAAAAIBAJ&sjid=TW4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5593,5134468 . 2013-09-10 . 2016-10-09.
  8. Billboard vol 78 No. 5 (29 January 1966) p.28
  9. Web site: officialcharts.com . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201101212131/https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/1161/petula-clark/ . November 1, 2020 . October 6, 2022 . officialcharts.com.
  10. Web site: Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada . Collectionscanada.gc.ca . 16 April 2013 . October 16, 2022.
  11. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 -
  12. October 30, 1965 . Cash Box Top 100 Singles . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20221017024959/http://cashboxmagazine.com/archives/60s_files/19651030.html . October 17, 2022 . May 23, 2021 . Cash Box.