The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde

"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde"
Single by Georgie Fame
B-side "Beware of the Dog"
Released 1967
Format 7"
Recorded 1967
Genre R&B
Length 3:03
Label CBS (CBS 3124)[1]
Writer(s) Mitch Murray
Peter Callander[1]
Producer(s) Mike Smith[1]
Georgie Fame singles chronology
"Try My World"
(1967)		 "The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde"
(1967)		 "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"
(1968)

"The Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde" is a song recorded by the English R&B singer Georgie Fame.[1] Released as a single, the song reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on 24 January 1968, remaining for one week.[2] The song reached number seven in the United States later the same year. [3]

Song profile

The song was written by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander.[4]

Fame recorded the song after seeing the (then) controversial release of the now considered classic gangster film Bonnie and Clyde starring Warren Beatty (as Clyde Barrow) and Faye Dunaway (as Bonnie Parker).[5] The song, in the style of the 1920s and 1930s, features the sounds of gun battles, car chases, and police sirens, including the climactic gun battle that takes place when both Bonnie and Clyde meet their fate. The instrumentation of the song includes a piano, banjo, drums, trumpets, trombones, and a bass.

The song is geographically inaccurate in that in the first verse they meet in Savannah, Georgia. In reality, both were from East Texas and there is no evidence the couple ever ventured that far east.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Rice, Jo (1982). The Guinness Book of 500 Number One Hits (1st ed.). Enfield, Middlesex: Guinness Superlatives Ltd. p. 113. ISBN 0-85112-250-7.
  2. ↑ "Official Singles Chart UK Top 100". Theofficialcharts.com. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  3. ↑ Whitburn, Joel (2004). The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits: Eighth Edition. Record Research. p. 219.
  4. ↑ "Details for Ballad of Bonnie and Clyde - featuring Georgie Fame". The Sheetmusic Warehouse. Retrieved 2014-04-06.
  5. ↑ Philip French (2007-08-26). "Philip French: How violent taboos were blown away | Film | The Observer". Observer.guardian.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-06.

External links

Preceded by
"Hello, Goodbye"
by The Beatles		 UK number one single
24 January 1968
(One week) 		Succeeded by
"Everlasting Love" by Love Affair


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