Downtown Lyrics Sung by Petulia Clark
When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go – downtown
When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know – downtown
Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
How can you lose?
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
Downtown – no finer place, for sure
Downtown – everything’s waiting for you
Don’t hang around and let your problems surround you
There are movie shows – downtown
Maybe you know some little places to go to
Where they never close – downtown
Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
You’ll be dancing with him too before the night is over
Happy again
The lights are much brighter there
You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
Downtown – waiting for you tonight
Downtown – you’re gonna be all right now
[Instrumental break]
And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
Guide them along
So maybe I’ll see you there
We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
Downtown – don’t wait a minute for
Downtown – everything’s waiting for you
Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown …
Enjoy This Video – Downtown Lyrics – Original Version
Interesting Facts About Downtown Lyrics and Music
“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.
Thirty minutes before the song was scheduled to be recorded, Hatch was still completing the lyrics in the studio’s washroom. “Downtown” was released in late 1964 and became a best seller in English, French, Italian, and German versions, topping music charts worldwide (with 3 million copies sold in the US alone) and introducing Clark, who had been a popular recording artist and actress in Europe for nearly 20 years, 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 and went on to win the Grammy Award for Best Rock and Roll Song. It was enrolled in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2004.
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. Clark, who in the early 1960s maintained a concurrent non-English musical career throughout Europe, also recorded French, German and Italian versions in 1964. While the German version retained the original title, the French version was retitled Dans le Temps and the Italian version was called Ciao Ciao.
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, notably by Dolly Parton in 1984. After she recorded 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. 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”.
Source: Wikipedia
