To Sir with Love (song)
1967 single by Lulu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
1967 single by Lulu From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"To Sir with Love" is the theme from James Clavell's 1967 film To Sir, with Love. The song was performed by British singer and actress Lulu (who also starred in the film), and written by Don Black and Mark London (husband of Lulu's longtime manager Marion Massey). Mickie Most produced the record, with Mike Leander arranging and conducting. The song peaked at the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and became the best-selling single of 1967 in the United States.
| "To Sir With Love" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
US vinyl release (Epic Records) | ||||
| Single by Lulu | ||||
| from the album To Sir, with Love | ||||
| B-side |
| |||
| Released | September 1967 | |||
| Genre | Pop[1] | |||
| Length | 2:47 | |||
| Label | Epic | |||
| Composer(s) | Mark London | |||
| Lyricist(s) | Don Black | |||
| Producer(s) | Mickie Most | |||
| Lulu singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
At the time, it made Lulu only the second British female artist to top the US charts during the listing's Rock era after Petula Clark's "Downtown" in 1965—and third in the overall history of the US charts after "Downtown" and Vera Lynn's "Auf Wiederseh'n Sweetheart" in 1952—and so far the first of two Scottish female solo artists to achieve the feat. Sheena Easton became the second when she topped the US charts with "Morning Train (9 to 5)" in May 1981.
For 44 years, Lulu and Easton were the only Scottish solo artists to have topped the Billboard Hot 100—a record that ended when Calvin Harris topped the chart alongside Rihanna on their collaboration "We Found Love" in November 2011.
The film's director, James Clavell and Lulu's manager Marion Massey were angered and disappointed when the title song was not included in the nominations for the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 40th Academy Awards in 1968. Clavell and Massey raised a formal objection to the exclusion, but to no avail.[2]
"To Sir With Love" was initially recorded by Lulu (with The Mindbenders, who also acted in the film). It was released as a single in the United States in 1967 and in October reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, where it remained for five weeks. The single ranked No. 1 in Billboard's year-end chart. It became a gold record.[3]
Canada's RPM magazine put the song at No. 2 for the year 1967 although it did not appear on the weekly charts. Instead the A-side The Boat The I Row reached No. 1. Both sides were charted on the CHUM Charts reaching No. 1.[4][5][6] "To Sir with Love" did not chart in the UK, as it appeared only as a B-side to "Let's Pretend" (released in the UK on 23 June 1967), which reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart.
Weekly charts
|
Year-end charts
All-time charts
|
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United States (RIAA)[13] | Gold | 1,000,000^ |
|
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. | ||
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.