My Love

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When Beatlemania began in 1964, it swept away all other pop music in its path, with a few exceptions. One of those was the British partnership of singer Petula Clark, and her songwriter-producer, Tony Hatch. Starting in 1964, they would release a string of high-energy hit songs, which started with Downtown, and continued with I Know a Place, Don't Sleep in the Subway, A Sign of the Times, I Couldn't Live Without Your Love, Colour My World, and more. Here is my cover of my favorite song of theirs: My Love — one of the most joyous love songs ever written.

BACKGROUND

Petula Clark. Petula Clark was (and is) an amazing singer. She started in 1942, when, at nine years old, she gave her first public performance, singing inspirational songs to cheer on the British troops near the front lines, who were listening to her sing on the radio. She has re-invented herself musically many times over, and in multiple languages! Here, for example, is Lost In You, a song she did in 2013 (at age 80), with a surprisingly modern sound to her voice. She is still singing to this day (at age 90! in 2023), as in this 2023 tribute to Stephen Sondheim and his music, an incredible performance of his song, I'm Still Here. She is also an excellent songwriter, co-writing (with Tony Hatch) hit songs like You're The One (made a hit by the version by The Vogues, though I personally her version).

Tony Hatch. In the history of popular music, 1964 was an amazing year. Three new influential sounds emerged. Of course, everyone is familiar with the Beatles. But also rising to prominence in 1964 was Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" approach to music arrangement, illustrated by the 1964 Righteous Brothers mega-hit, You've Lost That Loving Feeling. And third were the arrangements of Tony Hatch, mostly with Petula Clark. Hatch was not only a great songwriter, but a master producer/arranger, facile with both orchestral instruments (he wrote particularly fine horn parts, as you can hear right from the opening of My Love) and rock instruments. One of his key ideas was to require the orchestra and the rock musicians to play together. This was not usual. If there was any orchestral/rock combining, it was usually through overdubbing a separately recoded orchestral track on top of a rock band's recording. But Hatch had the unique goal of trying to "make the orchestra sound like a rock band", which was greatly facilitated by having all the musicians playing together. In a sense, it was a kind of 60's version of an earlier generation's "big band" sound. This approach also worked well for Petula Clark, who recorded best when singing live with her backing musicians as she was recorded (rather than her laying down vocal tracks in a studio, over pre-recorded instrument tracks).

The Wrecking Crew. In recording My Love at Western Studios in Los Angeles, Clark was backed by the famous Wrecking Crew, incredible session musicians (including Hal Blaine on drums) that provided the instrumentation for many famous songs in the 1960's. (Glen Campbell was a guitarist in the Wrecking Crew at one point, though he was not there for My Love.) Here is Petula Clark talking about the Wrecking Crew backing her on My Love.

Jackie Trent credit? Many years after My Love was released, singer/songwriter Jackie Trent, who co-wrote with Tony Hatch (also her husband at the time) several of Petula Clark's hits (Trent wrote the lyrics) would claim that she had also contributed to the writing of My Love, but hadn't been given credit.

MY COVER

Changes to the lyrics. I do love most of the original lyrics, but I did make a few changes.

In the first verse, I change the line:
And every day it seems
I want you more.
to:
And every day it seems
I love you more.
Conventional word usage often treats the words "love", "want", "need", as synonyms. But in my own understanding, they are quite different: "love" is primarily about "giving" and "want" and "need" are primarily about "taking". Since the rest of the song is such a beautiful expression of love, I felt there was no need to confuse the lyrics by throwing in the word "want"; so I changed "want" to "love" to be consistent with the rest of the lyrics.

I also re-wrote part of the second verse. The original lines were:

Once I thought that love was meant
for anyone else but me
Once I thought you'd never come my way
Now it only goes to show
how wrong we all can be
For now I have to tell you every day

I re-wrote this as:

Once I thought that love was meant
for anyone else but me
Once I thought you'd never come my way
But now you're living here with me
As close as two can be
And now I get to tell you every day. . .

This is more positive and less redundant. Instead of focusing negatively on "how wrong we all can be", it leaves that implied (with the "Once" and "But now") and focuses instead on how right things have turned out instead: she thought she was unloveable, and in particular that the person she loved would never "come my way", but now they're living together and are "as close as two can be." That also spells out the subtext beneath the line, "And now I have to tell you every day" (i.e. because they're living together) — only said more powerfully (and with gratitude) as "I get to tell you every day".

Harmonies. The original song arrangement builds, in energy, by changing/raising the key, starting with the second verse. The song then ends with the chorus repeated twice. I continue the "build" in energy by adding a harmony line in the first repetition of the chorus, and then adding a second harmony line in the final repetition, ending the song with a very full, lush vocal sound.

Key change. The original was in the key of A. I did my cover in the key of C#, because it suited my voice much better.

Interesting song similarity. A week ago, I did a cover of another favorite song, Dan Fogelberg's Longer. As I was writing these notes, it struck me how similar the lyrics of these two songs are, even though they are far apart in time and style. . . I'm noting their use of adjectives (longer, higher, deeper, stronger, warmer, softer, deeper), and natural references (fishes in the ocean, bird ever flew, stars up in the heavens, warmest sunshine, deepest ocean, brightest star). Take a look and see what you think:

Longer
Longer than
there've been fishes in the ocean
Higher than
any bird ever flew
Longer than
there've been stars up in the heavens
I've been in love with you

Stronger than
any mountain cathedral
Truer than
any tree ever grew
Deeper than
any forest primeval
I am in love with you

My Love
My love is warmer than the warmest sunshine,
softer than a sigh
My love is deeper than the deepest ocean,
wider than the sky
My love is brighter than the brightest star
that shines every night above
And there is nothing in this world
that can ever change my love

I guess I like songs that use this kind of poetic device!

COVER ART

The cover art was drawn from the first line of the song:
My love is warmer than the warmest sunshine