Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page Played on 1 of the Biggest Pop Hits of the ’60s
The members of Led Zeppelin were influential before they even formed a band together. For example, Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page played on one of the biggest songs from the British Invasion. He nearly made a pop star fall over with his musicianship.
Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page almost forgot he played on some massive hits
During a 2020 interview with Reverb, Page was asked if he had difficulty remembering all the sessions he worked on. “It’s difficult, yeah, but I’ll tell you what I do know,” he replied. “On BBC2 [television] at the moment, there’s like a weather advert, this song fraction that they’ve got. I think it’s by The Fenmen, they’re singing like, ‘I’ve got everything you need, babe,’ and then suddenly this solo goes on at the end [sings]. And I went: ‘Hey, that’s me!’
“I’d completely forgotten about that, but I knew the minute I heard that guitar who it was,” he added. “And all those Petula Clark things, I was on all of those, ‘Downtown,’ all the big hits. ‘Don’t Sleep in the Subway.’ So every now and again, they come around.” Billboard reports “Downtown” was one of the biggest hits of the 1960s.
Petula Clark ‘nearly fell over’ when Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page played on ‘Downtown’
During a 2016 interview with The Guardian, Clark herself had no issue remembering Page’s connection to her signature song, “Downtown.” She initially heard an embryonic version of “Downtown” by songwriter Tony Hatch. She fell in love with it, hoping Hatch could create lyrics that lived up to his melody.
The “My Love” singer recalled the beat coming together in the studio. It took 40 musicians to create the proper sound. “They were all top guys — the guitarist was Jimmy Page — and when I first heard the orchestration, it was so great I nearly fell over, even though Tony was still finishing the lyrics in the bathroom,” Clark recalled. Little did she know, Page’s legend was only beginning!
The fact that Page helped bring “Downtown” to life when it sounds nothing like a Led Zeppelin song shows how much range he has as a musician. Furthermore, the instrumentation is really what makes the song soar. The 1960s gave us a lot of traditional pop songs that were boring and got discarded very quickly. “Downtown” lives on because its beat has a certain yearning desperation that makes its lyrics and Clark’s vocals sound so much more urgent. Who knows if “Downtown” would be a beloved classic if not for Page’s contributions to the track?
How Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ performed
“Downtown” became the biggest hit of Clark’s career in the United States. The proto-power ballad topped the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks, lasting on the chart for 15 weeks in total. The track appeared on the album Downtown. That record reached No. 21 on the Billboard 200 and stayed on the Billboard 200 for 36 weeks. Like the song of the same name, the album Downtown was Clark’s biggest hit in the U.S.
The Official Charts Company reports that “Downtown” was similarly successful in the United Kingdom. There, the tune peaked at No. 2 and charted for 15 weeks. Meanwhile, the album Downtown didn’t chart. However, a terrible 1980s dance remix titled “Downtown ’88” reached No. 10, making Clark one of numerous 1960s stars who managed to notch a hit in the Reagan era.
On “Downtown,” Clark and Page shine.
