The Saw Doctors Featuring Petula Clark - Downtown (2011)

Petula Clark - now ninety-one years old - was already an established star in the UK when the British Invasion hit America like a tsunami in 1964. "Downtown" - her debut single on this side of the Atlantic Ocean - hit #1 on the Hot 100 in January 1965 making Clark the first female, British singer to reach that lofty position after rock and roll became the dominant pop-music force in the USA. She was only the second British woman to ever accomplish that feat in history. (Singer Vera Lynn was the first one to do it in 1952).

Clark's original recording was an exuberant mixture of pop-rock, big band jazz and Broadway that included a muted trumpet solo during the fadeout, something seldom heard in pop music then or now.

In 2011, the celebrated Celtic rockers, The Saw Doctors from County Galway, Republic of Ireland, recorded "Downtown" after witnessing the huge reaction it received during one of their concert's encores.

Band member Leo Moran told the Worcester Telegraph: "One night for no particular reason we did 'Downtown' and you could see people loved it. All ages. You could see it brought joy to people’s faces."  The song went over so well that the veteran band decided to release their own rock version of the tune. It made #1 on iTunes Ireland and debuted at #2 on the Irish singles chart.

The official video for The Saw Doctors' updated version was filmed in downtown Galway with Clark - looking much younger than her age at the time this video was made - singing backup on the television sets in a store's window. The video is as fun as the song. The featured band member is lead singer Davy Carton. It's immediately followed by Clark's original 1965, international chart-topper.

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