Sailor

"Sailor" is a middle-of-the-road-type ballad. According to the January 28, 1961 issue of Melody Maker, Petula Clark "created a new 'record' by becoming the first British female vocalist to shoot so high in the charts on the first entry". The song entered the Melody Maker hit parade at #7 (not the official UK chart) claiming over 100,000 sales. Clark's version was recorded on Pye and backed by "My Heart."

The credits on the actual record are to Scharfenberger, Busch and West. Originally written in German by Werner Scharfenberger and Fini Busch, the English lyrics were in fact written by Norman Newell (and credited as David West). Clark also recorded the song in French (as "Marin"); shortly she married a Frenchman and went on to become as big a star in France as in Britain. The song was also recorded by Anne Shelton on Philips at about the same time as the original Clark English language recording, and was her final chart success.

The original version of this song, "Seemann (Deine Heimat Ist Das Meer)," was originally a #2 hit for Austrian vocalist Lolita in Germany. The record then became a Top 10 hit in the US for the same singer. When Petula Clark decided to record it, EMI producer Norman Newell was asked to pen an English lyric. He recalled in the book 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner & Spencer Leigh: "The publisher phoned me one Friday and said he would like me to do it over the weekend. I agreed and he said that a messenger would pick it up on Monday morning. I don't know why, but I completely forgot about it. I was astonished when I saw the messenger boy on Monday, so I took him to the canteen and wrote the lyrics in about ten minutes. I wondered if it was good enough, but it became a tremendous hit, thank heavens."