To Sir with Love (song)

"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. 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 (Nine to Five) 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.

"To Sir With Love"
US vinyl release (Epic Records)
Single by Lulu
from the album To Sir, with Love
B-side
ReleasedSeptember 1967
GenrePop
Length2:47
LabelEpic
Composer(s)Mark London
Lyricist(s)Don Black
Producer(s)Mickie Most
Lulu singles chronology
"Shout"
(1964)		 "To Sir With Love"
(1967)		 "Shout"
(1967)

The song was featured in the 2019 Netflix film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie.

Chart performance

"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, though the Monkees' "I'm a Believer", which debuted in December 1966 and spent most of its chart life in 1967, was the overall bigger hit. ("I'm a Believer" was ranked No. 5 on the same year-end chart of the same year.) It became a gold record.[1]

Canada's RPM magazine put the song at No. 2 for the year 1967.[2] "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.

Cover versions

Herbie Mann's instrumental rendition charted concurrently with Lulu's run on the pop chart, reaching No. 93 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and No. 11 on the Adult Contemporary chart.[3]

The Jackson 5 covered it during the Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5 sessions in 1969.

Al Green covered the song on his 1978 album, Truth N' Time.

New Zealand singer Ngaire Fuata covered the song which was released as a single in 1990 where it spent 5 weeks at No. 1 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.[4] It was included in her self-titled debut album Ngaire released in 1991.

Soul Asylum sang the song with Lulu on their MTV Unplugged show.

Natalie Merchant, as part of 10,000 Maniacs, recorded a cover with Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.) at the MTV Rock n' Roll Inaugural Ball in 1993 to be released later as part of their Campfire Songs compilation album.

Susanna Hoffs covered the song on her self-titled solo album.

The Trash Can Sinatras recorded a version for their 1996 album A Happy Pocket. It was released later that year as the fourth and final single from the album reaching number 88 in the UK singles chart.

Jann Arden released it on Happy? on September 23, 1997 in Canada and June 8, 1998 in the United States as a bonus track on international release.

Brother-and-sister duo Melky Sedeck covered the song on their album Sister & Brother, released in 1999.

Chaka Khan recorded a version accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra for her 2004 album ClassiKhan.

Scottish singer Midge Ure also did a version from his 2008 cover versions CD 10.

The cast of Glee covered the song in the final episode of the first season of the TV show, which aired on June 8, 2010.

Charts

References
  1. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955–1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 August 2016. Retrieved 1 October 2016.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. "Adult Contemporary Music Chart". Billboard.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  4. "New Zealand Singles Chart". Audioculture.co.nz. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
  5. Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-1990 - ISBN 0-89820-089-X
  6. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 366.
  7. "Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1967". Tropicalglen.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  8. "Top 100 Hits of 1967/Top 100 Songs of 1967". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  9. "Cash Box YE Pop Singles - 1967". Tropicalglen.com. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 14 October 2018.
  10. "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
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