"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.
Background
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.
Oscar nomination
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]
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. 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.
King Curtis released an instrumental version on his November 1967 album "King Size Soul", a mere two months after the American release of Lulu's single version
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.[14]
In 1983, American actress Vicki Sue Robinson released a version of the song that peaked at number seven on the Australian Kent Music Report and was the 58th biggest selling single in Australia in 1984.[16][17]
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.[18] It was included in her self-titled debut album Ngaire released in 1991.
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 23 September 1997 in Canada and 8 June 1998 in the United States as a bonus track on international release.
Will Friedle, as Eric Matthews, sings a humorous rendition of the song to a retiring Mr. Feeny (William Daniels) in "Graduation", the season five finale of Boy Meets World which aired May 15, 1998.
