Jan. 23, 1965 -Taking the stop spot on the Billboard Hot 100 today was “Downtown,” a single by British singer Petula Clark (pictured).
The song was written by English composer Tony Hatch. Its lyrics speak of going to spend time in an urban downtown as a means of escape from everyday life.
Last autumn, 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.
As 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.”
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.”
“Downtown” was recorded on Oct. 16 at London’s Pye Studios. Thirty minutes before the session was scheduled, Hatch was still touching up the song’s lyrics in the studio’s washroom. Now, it is a hit.

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