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Puppet on a String (Sandie Shaw song)

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Wikipedia article




{{Infobox song

| name = Puppet on a String

| cover = Puppet_On_A_String.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Sandie Shaw

| album =

| B-side = Tell The Boys

| released = 7 March 1967

| recorded = 1967

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Pop

| length =

| label = Pye

| writer = Bill Martin and Phil Coulter

| producer = Ken Woodman

| prev_title = I Don't Need Anything

| prev_year = 1967

| next_title = Tonight in Tokyo

| next_year = 1967

| misc =

}}

"'Puppet on a String'" is a song recorded by British singer Sandie Shaw. The song, written by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, was selected to be the at the Eurovision Song Contest 1967, held in Vienna. Shaw won the contest, the first of the United Kingdom's five Eurovision winners. As her thirteenth UK single release, "Puppet on a String" became a UK Singles Chart number one hit on 27 April 1967, staying at the top for a total of three weeks. In the United States, a 1967 version by Al Hirt went to number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart and No. 129 on the 'Billboard' Hot 100.

Eurovision Song Contest



Sandie Shaw had originally performed the song as one of five prospective numbers to represent the in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 on 'The Rolf Harris Show'. She had never been taken with the idea of taking part in the contest but her discoverer, Adam Faith, had talked her into it, saying it would keep her manager Eve Taylor happy. Taylor wanted to give Shaw a more cabaret appeal and felt that this was the right move and also felt that it would get Shaw back in the public's good books as she had recently been involved in a divorce scandal.

Of the five songs performed, "Puppet on a String" was Shaw's least favourite. In her own words, "I hated it from the very first 'oompah' to the final 'bang' on the big bass drum. I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune."Shaw, Sandie: The World at my Feet. HarperCollins Publishers Ltd; 1991. She was disappointed when it was selected as the song she would use to represent the country, but it won the contest hands down, though it has always been felt that this was partly due to her existing popularity on the continent (she had recorded most of her hit singles in French, Italian, German and Spanish). As a result, "Puppet on a String" became her third number one hit in the UK (a record for a woman at the time) and was a big worldwide smash. In West Germany, the single was the biggest seller of the entire year, reaching sales of over 1 million copies. Globally, the single achieved sales in excess of 4 million, making it the biggest-selling winning Eurovision track to date.O'Connor, John Kennedy. 'The Eurovision Song Contest: The Official Celebration'. Carlton Books Ltd, 2015. Some estimates suggest this makes the track the biggest selling single by a British female artist of all time.Kelly, Mike. 'Wot Pop: 50 Years of Hits 1952-2002 - A-Z of Hitmakers Plus the UK's Top 5000 Singles'. Southgate Publishers, 30 September 2002. Shaw also recorded "Puppet on a String" in French ("Un tout petit pantin"), Italian ("La danza delle note"), Spanish ("Marionetas en la cuerda"), and German ("Wiedehopf im Mai").

Re-recording



Shaw re-recorded "Puppet on a String" in early 2007 to mark her 60th birthday. The recording took place after Shaw has visited her friend, the musician Howard Jones, and found him playing some chords on his keyboard and humming a melody. He encouraged her to continue the melody and before long she realised that it was in fact "Puppet on a String". They recorded a new, slow-tempo electronic version of the song and sent it to producer/mixer Andy Gray who put the final touches on the song. Shaw stated that she loved the new version (having spent a great deal of her life hating the original) and released it exclusively for free download from her official website, and Jones's, on 26 February (Shaw's birthday). It was available for free download for 60 days. As a result of its popularity, Shaw continued to put out new songs on her website for download for the remaining months of her 61st year.

Other covers



The song was covered in over 200 versions in over 30 languages.

*Bulgarian: "Kukla na kontsi" , by Margarita Radinska

*Chinese:

**Betty Chung

**Singaporean singer Lara Tan

** Malaysian singer Sakura Teng

*Dutch: "Speelbal in de wind" ("Beachball in the wind") by Reggy van der Burgt, later by Anneke Grnloh

*Finnish: "Stkynukke", by Maarja-Leena Hentunen (single, Philips PF 340 791)

* Hungarian: "Paprikajancsi" (1967), by Zsuzsa Koncz

* Lithuanian: "Lele", by Violeta Riaubiskyte

* Norwegian: "Sprellemann" (1967), by Bente Aaseth with lyrics by Juul Hansen, under His Master's Voice

* Polish: "Ale Marionetka" ("What a puppet"), by Halina Kunicka

* Portuguese: "Marionette" (1967), by Simone de Oliveira; "Feira Popular" (1990), by Ana Faria and children/teenpop group Onda Choc, on their eighth album with the same title

* Russian: "Ya ne kukla" (, "I am Not a Puppet"; 1968), by Emil Gorovets

* Serbian: "Marioneta" ("Marionette", 1967), by Sanjalice

* Slovak: "Ako mal psk" ("Like a puppy", 1967), by Tatjana Hubinsk (0130166 Supraphon, mono); released on the day after the Eurovision Song Contest 'Ako mal psk' was also covered by Jana Prochzkov

* Spanish: "Marionetas en la cuerda" (1967), by Lea Zafrani with the same lyrics as Shaw's, witten by Manuel Clavero

* Swedish: "Sprattelgumma" (1967), by Siw Malmkvist

* Tamil: by Nantha Balan Selvanayagam (1969).

Covers not translated into another language include:

*Mantovani's instrumental version, included in the 1968 release 'The Mantovani Touch'

*the rocksteady version by Ken Boothe under the Studio One label

*Lady Marmalade's version entitled "Puppet on a String (Blueboy Remix)"

*Dutch group Mrs. Einstein's English-language version, released just after appearing in the Eurovision Song Contest 1997.

In popular culture



The song was featured in The 1975 Bulgarian Cartoon Buffo-Synchronists by Proiko Proikov and the soundtrack of the 2021 film 'Last Night in Soho'.

Charts



References




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