(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Lulu - "To Sir With Love"
Hit Number 1: October 21, 1967
Stay at Number 1: 5 Weeks
One of the better grossing movies of 1967 was To Sir, With Love, a movie dealing with racial issues in a city school. The film, starring Sidney Poitier, is about an immigrant from British Guiana who travels to Britain with hopes to land an engineering job he applied for. It takes a long time for him to hear back on it, so in the meantime, he accepts a teaching job as an intern. However, the part of town he's in is rough, and he has to deal with the crazy behavior of the students. At one point, after reaching the boiling point with the class, he decides to treat them all like adults, and most of the class begins to warm up to him. At one point in the movie, the teacher takes the class on a field trip to a history museum. The trip seems to be a success, and it's at this point in the movie, while we see some still photographs of the class and the trip, that Lulu sings her song "To Sir With Love". (Of course there are some more twists and turns in the movie, but for the sake of not spoiling an entire movie in this blog entry, I won't say any more about the plot)
Lulu, whose real name is Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, had had one stint with Decca Records, and eventually Columbia Records, but To Sir, With Love was her debut in films. Though her role in the movie isn't very large, many people remember her song that shared the same name as the movie's title, that became a massive chart success. It was Lulu's first big hit, topping the charts for 5 weeks, and becoming 1967's best-selling single. Of course, it's obvious that that only happened because of the help from the movie. While "To Sir With Love" possesses a strong chorus, it's kind of an underachieving song in other facets.
It's important to remember that during 1967, racial tensions were still extremely high. If you think today is rough, take a look at some of the documented incidents that happened from the 1950s to the 1960s. We've made progress since then, but the progress was barely beginning at the time "To Sir With Love" hit #1. That's part of what made the movie a box office success, and in turn, helped out Lulu's song a lot. Many people knew the kinds of things going on at this time were wrong, and the movie, more than anything else, showed how things could be if people would quit worrying about what skin color someone has. I honestly believe that's part of the message the movie is trying to send us. That's why it appealed to Americans so much.
So while the movie was pretty damn good, the song? Eh, it's alright I guess. Lulu does have a great singing voice, and she hits some of the harder notes in the chorus effortlessly. But she doesn't have enough support behind her. The strings are kind of shy, and while they are the most recognizable instruments in the song, they fall flat. In fact, that goes for pretty much all the instrumentation. There's some drippy guitar strums, and a steady snare drum beat gives the song a heartbeat. But that all falls flat to me too. It sounds very "low-budget" material to me. Maybe I'm making too big a gripe about something I shouldn't be, but I think if the song could've added a little bit more insrument wise, it would be a lot better.
That isn't to take anything away from Lulu. She's the saving grace of the song, and her performance is probably what appealed to people the most about the song's structure. This may have looked like the beginning to a boatload of stardom for her, and that was the case in her native England. But in the U.S., she was hardly heard from again. As far as Lulu and America goes, she's just connected to this one movie/song. Unfortunately, "To Sir With Love" is a song that had lots of potential, but it just didn't quite live up to it.
GRADE: 5/10
JUST MISSED:
Sam & Dave's powerful and irresistible "Soul Man" peaked at #2 behind "To Sir With Love". It's a 9.
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