Released December 1966 Recorded 1966 Length 2:51 | Format Vinyl Genre Pop, vocal | |
B-side "I'm Begging You (Take Me Home Again)" (non-LP track) | ||
"Colour My World" is a song written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent recorded by Petula Clark in 1966.
While overall conforming to the hit formula Hatch had come up with for Clark with "Downtown" - and being especially reminiscent of Clark's 1965 #1 hit "My Love - "Colour My World" acknowledged the sound of the later 1960s by featuring a riff played on the sitar.
Recorded in New York City, "Colour My World" was rush released in December 1966 in an attempt to counteract the disappointing performance of Clark's preceding single "Who Am I?" which had fallen short of the US Top 20 and more seriously had become the first Petula Clark single since "Downtown" (1964) to not rank in the UK Top 50.
Although it did return Clark to the US Top Twenty with a #16 peak and was also an Australian Top Ten hit, "Colour My World" became the second consecutive Petula Clark single release to fall short of the UK Top 50 with a #52 peak. The album named for this failed UK single: Colour My World (US title even Color My World/Who Am I?) was similarly overlooked upon its January 1967 release. However, after a month the original edition of the album was withdrawn in the UK, but later became one of Clark's highest charting UK albums, bolstered by the inclusion of Clark's smash hit "This Is My Song" in the reissued album's revised track listing. This boosted the Colour My World album to a #16 UK chart peak.
In addition "Colour My World" gained a high UK profile by virtue of being used by BBC Television as the theme song for the July 1967 launch of colour service on BBC2.
Billboard magazine's original review of the song predicted it would make the top 20 of the Hot 100. "Chalk up another chart topper in this intriguing Hatch-Trent rhythm number featuring the popular Indian sitar sound and exceptional Clark vocal work."
Tony Hatch would later produce a recording of "Colour My World" for Two of Each, a group whose lead vocalist Mally Page was the sister of the song's co-writer Jackie Trent to whom Hatch was then married. The Two of Each version of "Colour My World" was issued in January 1970 on a single featuring a version of "Here Comes the Sun" with neither track charting.
A #38 C&W hit for Barbara Fairchild in 1972 as "Color My World", the song was also rendered as an inspirational number by Sierra who included the song - as "Color My World" - on their 1998 Story of Life album.
"Colour My World" has been rendered in Croatian by Višnja Korbar as "Svijet za nas" (The world for us) and also by Anica Zubović (hr) as "Moja Jedina Ljubav" (My only love), in French by Renée Martel (fr) as "Viens Changer Ma Vie" (Just change my life), in Italian as "Dipingi un mondo per me" (Paint a world for me) by Milva and in Spanish as "Pinta mi mundo" (Paint my world) by Angélica María and also by Gelu (es).
In 2004 "Colour My World" - referred to as "Color My World" - was utilized as a jingle in US television commercials for M&M's being rendered in various versions including as a languid ballad; the vocal on the last named version was by Reneé Cologne. UK furniture retailer DFS used the Petula Clark version in a UK television commercial campaign run in 2008.
"Colour My World" is featured - with some additional lyrics - in the stage musical Priscilla Queen of the Desert which debuted 6 October 2006. The song appears on the 2007 cast recording performed by Daniel Scott, Tony Sheldon, Jeremy Stanford and the Company.
"Colour My World" was used as the title for a BBC Radio 2 documentary on Tony Hatch broadcast in June 2009.