This Is My Song Petula Clark Yamaha Genos Roland G70 by Rico

This Is My Song Petula Clark Yamaha Genos Roland G70 by Rico

This Is My Song" is a song written by Charlie Chaplin in 1966, and performed by Petula Clark.

"This is My Song" was intended for the film A Countess from Hong Kong, which Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed. Chaplin saw his film as a throwback to the shipboard romances that were popular in the 1930s, and wrote "This Is My Song" with the intent of evoking that era. To reinforce the evocation, Chaplin was determined to have Al Jolson sing the song—so determined that he only accepted the information that Jolson had died on 23 October 1950 when shown a photograph of Jolson's tombstone.[citation needed] Ultimately, the song would be featured in the film only as an instrumental.

After being disillusioned with regard to Jolson, Chaplin considered having "This Is My Song" recorded by Petula Clark, who had a home in Switzerland near his residence. Clark's husband and manager Claude Wolff—who at the time was with Clark in Reno, Nevada—received a copy of "This Is My Song" in September 1966, and liked the song which Clark felt had special potential for success in France. However, Clark's regular collaborator Tony Hatch was not impressed with the song, and refused Wolff's invitation to arrange it for Clark to record. French label Vogue Records then commissioned a then successful French arranger Jacques Denjean whose work was judged unsuitable by Wolff. Ultimately, Vogue's U.S. distributor Warner Bros. records sent Ernie Freeman who flew to Reno to prepare for the song's recording session which was to be produced by Sonny Burke at Western Studios in Los Angeles. Clark recorded the song not only in English, but in French as "C'est Ma Chanson" (lyrics by Pierre Delanoë, who also felt the song a poor choice for Clark), German as "Love, So Heisst Mein Song" (lyrics by Joachim Relin) and Italian as "Cara Felicità" (lyrics by Ciro Bertini). Clark did not even wish to record the song in English, because she disliked the deliberately old-fashioned lyrics, which Chaplin refused to modify; however, after the translated versions of the song had been recorded, some time remained on the session, and Burke coaxed Clark to use this to record Chaplin's lyrics. The recording session featured the backing of the Wrecking Crew.

Clark had assumed her recording of "This Is My Song" with the original quaint Chaplin lyrics would only be used as an album track; on learning of Pye Records' plan to release the track as a single she attempted to block its release. Instead, she found herself atop the UK Singles Chart for the first time in six years when "This Is My Song" reached no. 1 on the chart dated 16 February 1967, a position it retained the next week. Certified Silver for sales of 250,000, the total sales of "This Is My Song" in the UK would exceed 500,000.

The breakout of "This Is My Song" in the UK in February 1967 caused Pye Records to withdraw Clark's current album release Colour My World, which was rush re-released with "This Is My Song" added on to reach no. 16 on the charts.[citation needed] "This Is My Song" was also included on Clark's next album: These Are My Songs, which reached no. 38 UK later that year.

"This is My Song" (in English) is one of four Petula Clark hits for which she has expressed dislike[citation needed], the others being: "Sailor", another UK no. 1 hit; "Monsieur", a German language no. 1 hit which won a gold disc for sales in Germany alone[citation needed]; and "My Love".

Petula Clark's "This Is My Song" was no. 1 for three weeks in Ireland and six weeks in Australia; it also topped the charts in Rhodesia and South Africa, and reached the top of the Dutch charts for both the Netherlands and Belgium. "This Is My Song" also earned hit status in Finland (#8), India (#5), Malaysia (#1), New Zealand (#15), Norway (#6), Singapore (#1), Spain (#8), Thailand (#9) and Venezuela

The North American single release omitted the opening lyrical section, following the instrumental introduction, owing to the length of the song. "This Is My Song" reached #3 in the U.S. and #4 in Canada. The These Are My Songs album peaked at #27 in the U.S., becoming Clark's second—and final—US Top 30 album (Downtown at #21 would remain Clark's top-ranking U.S. album).

"C'est Ma Chanson" reached #1 in France and #3 on the chart for Belgium's French-speaking sector, also reaching #10 on Belgium's Dutch chart where the English version had hit #1; total sales of the French-language version were reported as 350,000 by 8 April 1967. In Germany, the English version competed with the German-language version with the former more successful, reaching #16 while "Love, So Heisst Mein Song" peaked at #23. In Italy, the rendering "Cara Felicità" reached #23. In United Kingdom sales have reached 500,000 mark, while in Belgium 70,000. Sales in Belgium and France by 22 April 1967 have reached 500,000 total sales