THE GREATEST SONGS OF THE 1960s THAT NO ONE HAS EVER HEARD
1,786) Dilys Watling — “Have Another Dream on Me”
Sorry Petula, but Dilys Watling, acclaimed British actress on stage and screen, gave us the definitive version of this Tony Hatch/Jackie Trench classic. Listening to this joyous song would put a smile on Ebenezer Scrooge’s face.
Watling, primary an acclaimed actress, recorded six singles between ’64 and ’71. (https://www.45cat.com/artist/dilys-watling) Anthony Hayward writes that:
Dilys Watling . . . was an all-round entertainer on stage and screen. . . . [S]he took her vivacious personality to West End musicals and television appearances in both light-entertainment programmes and dramas. In 1970, she was even on the Broadway stage in Georgy, starring as the awkward, dowdy title character, played by Lynn Redgrave in the film version, Georgy Girl, four years earlier. She received a Tony award nomination as best actress in a musical, despite the production proving a flop . . . . She popped up regularly on television in entertainment and sketch shows alongside some of the biggest stars of the age . . . [including] in the Two Ronnies. Dilys was born . . . [to] two actors, Patricia Hicks, who later performed on Broadway, and Sidney Rhys-Jones, who served as an RAF flying officer during the second world war. She was still a baby when . . . he died after his Lancaster bomber crashed on take-off during flight training. Four years later, her mother married the actor Jack Watling . . . . She trained at the Italia Conti stage school and joined the repertory company at Frinton summer theatre in 1959. Watling first gained good notices in London at the Revuebar (1961-62), performing in between striptease acts. . . . Watling and Brian Lindsay, a tap dancer, then performed in clubs as a double act before her breakthrough in stage musicals in the role of Mary, the maid . . . in the original London cast of Pickwick . . . . She was back in the West End to play Lady Agatha in the satirical Our Man Crichton . . . . Then, she took over the role of Hodel, the milkman’s daughter . . . in Fiddler on the Roof . . . . Five years, later, she . . . step[ped] into the role of Amy in Stephen Sondheim’s Company. . . . [She] play[ed] Anne Boleyn . . . in Kings and Clowns . . . then the pivotal character of the beggar woman in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street . . . . On TV, Watling also showed her talents as a character actor. Early in her career, she had short runs in three soap operas . . . . She later took one-off character roles in episodes of Paul Temple . . . The Bill . . . and Minder . . . . Similarly, she switched from musicals to drama on stage to play Belinda Blair in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off . . . .
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2021/aug/31/dilys-watling-obituary
Richie Unterberger tells us of Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent:
Tony Hatch . . . [will] be best remembered for his work as a producer and songwriter for several British pop and rock stars in the ’60s. As a staff producer at Pye Records, Hatch worked with the Searchers [see #352, 394, 636, 1,278, 1,725], Petula Clark, his wife, Jackie Trent, and on several mid-’60s singles by David Bowie [see #9, 75, 464] . . . . Hatch’s productions boasted a clean and well-arranged sound that, particularly on his collaborations with Petula Clark, displayed some traces of mainstream pop and Broadway. Hatch started notching up successes as a songwriter in the early ’60s . . . . His most significant role in straight British rock music was as producer during the Searchers’ 1963-1966 commercial prime, a span which saw them ring up all of their big hits. . . . Hatch also wrote their second British hit single, “Sugar and Spice[.]” . . . Hatch left his biggest imprint, however, on the big international hits by Petula Clark in the mid-’60s. These had enough mod swing to sell to a rock audience, but also enough show-bizzy horns and theatrical-type piano to bring in older listeners. The arrangements had a grand sweep that recalled stage musicals. In addition to producing, Hatch was vital to Clark as a songwriter, supplying, either as sole author or co-writer . . . much of her best material: “Downtown,” “My Love,” “I Know a Place,” “Call Me,” and “A Sign of the Times[]” . . . are all Hatch compositions. . . . In 1964, Clark was on the verge of giving up on maintaining her stardom in England, in favor of focusing her efforts on France . . . . Hatch went to France to play her some songs to consider recording for the English-speaking market, and wasn’t able to come up with anything Petula liked until, out of desperation, he played a composition . . . he didn’t think Clark was a suitable artist for . . . . “Downtown”[.] Clark loved it . . . and her career revived in England, the single also becoming her first American hit. Hatch had a fair amount of success with . . . Trent. [They] began writing together, getting a number one British hit with “Where Are You Now (My Love)” in 1965. The Hatch-Trent songwriting team couldn’t come up with other big British hits for Trent, but did pen some hits for Clark, such as “Colour My World” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway.” . . . Hatch had a small part in David Bowie’s early career, producing three singles in 1966. . . . [His] stamp is particularly audible from the best track from Bowie’s brief stay with Pye Records, “Can’t Help Thinking About Me,” [see #75] which has a piano sound straight out of . . . “Downtown.” . . . He and Trent wrote a couple of musicals that had London runs, and eventually moved to Australia.
https://www.allmusic.com/artist/tony-hatch-mn0000004893#biography
Here is Petula Clark: “The track . . . was referred to as “my latest” by Clark on her April 1968 NBC TV special. For reasons unclear, the song never came out on single”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petula_(album)
Here is Julie Budd:
Here is Marilyn Powell:
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