Guide to British Music of the 1960s
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Vocals - PP Arnold
PP Arnold is a native of Los Angeles who became an Ikette as part of the Ike and Tina Turner Revue in the mid-1960s. She sang backing vocals on the classic River Deep Mountain High. After coming to the UK with the Revue to support the Rolling Stones, she decided to stay and was signed as a solo artist on Immediate Records by Andrew Loog Oldham.
Her first single Everything's Gonna Be Alright failed to chart but she hit the jackpot with Cat Stevens' First Cut is the Deepest. She became one of the stars of the new Immediate label, known as The First Lady of Immediate and had a Mick Jagger-produced album of the same title. She had further hits with The Time has Cone, the Marriott/Lane song If You Think You're Groovy and Chip Taylor's Angel of the Morning, arranged by John Paul Jones. The success of the latter led to her playing a series of UK gigs with Chip Taylor in 2002. She was also in demand as a backing singer, contributing to tracks such as the Small Faces' Tin Soldier.
Her second album Kafunta was less successful than the first despite being produced, in parts, by Jagger and Steve Marriott. At the end of the 1960s PP Arnold was much in demand for session work and even appeared on the London stage. After the demise of Immediate Records PP Arnold recorded some tracks with Barry Gibb of the Bee Gees. She supported Delaney & Bonnie on a UK and European tour and this led to her recording tracks with Eric Clapton and the band that would become Derek & the Dominoes. The tracks recorded with Gibb and Clapton surfaced in 2017 as The Turning Tide.
The Nice was formed to back her on live gigs and they began to develop into an act of their own. They were also signed to Immediate and soon developed their unique style. The Nice evolved into one of the leaders of progressive rock in England.
PP Arnold was also backed on some tracks by T.N.T (This 'N' That) which included Eddie Phillips from the Creation playing lead guitar lines on bass. This line-up was featured on the Top Gear sessions on the EP PP Arnold Sings the Hits. On these tracks the backing vocals are provided by Madeline Bell and Dusty Springfield.
In the mid-1970s, Pat put on roller skates and joined the cast of Starlight Express.
After returning to London in the late 1980s she again graced the charts with the Beatmasters' Burn It Up. The growth of Britpop in the 1990s renewed interest in PP Arnold's work and she sang backing vocals on a number of Ocean Colour Scene tracks including Beautiful Day and toured with the band. Steve Craddock also produced her single Different Drum, an excellent version of the Mike Nesmith song. She also performed with Primal Scream on the Small Faces tribute album singing the track Understanding.
More recently, PP Arnold has been touring with Roger Waters and performed backing vocals for Paul Weller. In 2003, she toured with the Manfreds.
The First Cut, a compilation of PP Arnold's solo work provides a broad overview of her best work. However, The Mod Generation includes If You See What I Mean and a duet with Rod Stewart, Come Home Baby, is available on compilation CDs such as The Best of Immediate.
The 1967-1970 tracks were released October 2017 as The Turning Tide. A new album The New Adventures of PP Arnold was released in 2019.
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