“To Sir With Love” provided one of the earliest examples of how the inclusion of a pop song could enliven a major motion picture. It not only figured into the plot, but it also served as excellent promotion for the 1967 film of the same name starring Sidney Poitier.
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The song’s success owed to both the solid writing behind it and the tender performance by Lulu, a UK singer/actress who earned her big U.S. breakthrough hit with the song. Let’s open up those closing books and take another long last look at “To Sir With Love.”
The Rise of Lulu
While we’re labeling this a British Invasion smash, we’re cheating just a bit because Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie, the artist who would eventually take the stage name Lulu, was actually born and raised in Scotland. Like many who came up in that heady era for music in the UK, she was already well established on her home turf before American audiences took note.
She was performing on stage by the time she was only 12 years old, and by 16 had signed to Decca Records, famous for singing The Rolling Stones (and infamous for turning down The Beatles). At age 16, she was in the Top 10 in the UK with her cover of The Isley Brothers’ classic “Shout,” and a string of other hits followed in the next few years.
Concurrent with this success, Lulu also gained popularity as a television presenter. In 1967, she began her acting career by nabbing a role in To Sir, with Love, which starred Sidney Poitier as a teacher who rises to the occasion at a school for troubled kids. The fact that she was also a singer came in handy when it came to the movie’s theme song.
The Perfect Closing Song
The script for the film included a scene near the end of the movie where Lulu’s character sings a song to thank Poitier’s character for all that he’s done for the students. But none of the songs that were originally presented to Lulu were up to snuff.
Getting desperate, she asked Mark London, who was married to her manager Marion Massey, to give writing the song a shot. London’s gentle melody hit the spot, as did the lyrics provided by Don Black. Mike Leander, who worked with The Beatles in that same magical, musical year of 1967 on the song “She’s Leaving Home,” added the string arrangement.
To give the song more of a pop feel, The Mindbenders, who scored a couple of big hits in their own right, played the backing music. Lulu, just 18 when the song was release, delivered a tender vocal performance that exudes all the warmth and gratitude of the lyrics, and enjoyed a U.S. No. 1 single as a result.
Examining the Lyrics of “To Sir With Love”
“To Sir With Love” manages to tiptoe the line between expressing thanks to someone who means a lot and saying a fond farewell to that person. We’re notified that a transition is happening in the narrator’s life in the opening lines: Those schoolgirl days / Of telling tales and biting nails are gone. This transition comes with a tinge of sadness: And as I leave / I know that I am leaving my best friend.
The lyrics make clear that any efforts to reciprocate everything this person has done for the narrator are futile: A friend who taught me right from wrong and weak from strong / That’s a lot to learn / What, what can I give you in return? She imagines skywriting or roping the moon as a way to say thanks, but finally settles on something intangible: But I would rather you let me give my heart / “To Sir with love.”
The combination of the formal address and the emotional expression makes for quite the killer line, and Lulu delivers it beautifully. “To Sir With Love” remains her signature song, even after a long, successful career in music. It also stands out for how well it combined a movie’s plot with a universal theme that anybody listening could appreciate, even without seeing the film.
Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images
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