Released February 25, 1977 Genre Blues rock, soft rock Label A&M | Recorded 1976 Length 3:39 | |
B-side "You Did Something For Me" | ||
"Pearl's a Singer" is a song made famous by the British singer Elkie Brooks, as taken from her 1977 album Two Days Away which was produced by the song's co-writers Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The original version of "Pearl's a Singer" had been introduced by the duo Dino and Sembello - also the song's co-writers - on their 1974 self-titled album which Leiber and Stoller had produced.
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The song is a ballad, telling the story of a failed singer who still dreams of the success she might have had.
"Pearl's a Singer" afforded Elkie Brooks her debut chart single - thirteen years after she'd recorded her first track - reaching #8 in the UK Singles Chart in spring 1977. It remained her highest placing in that chart until "No More the Fool" reached #5, early in 1987.
Brooks would recall that at a rehearsal session for her Two Days Away album "Jerry Leiber [said]: 'I want to play you this song, I don't think you're going to like it, it's too countryish for you but I'll play it for you anyway.'...I said: 'Go on, I've got an open mind, I like a lot of country [music].' I listened to 'Pearl's a Singer' and told [Leiber & Stoller] I liked it but that they needed to [modify it with] a middle section. To which Jerry said: 'No problem'. And with that he disappeared and came back half an hour later with the [modified] version of 'Pearl's a Singer'" which Brooks recorded. Brooks - "To be honest [in the mid-1970s] I just wanted to enjoy myself in music and I never thought 'Pearl...' was going to be a big hit but [after] it was released on my birthday in 1977 the record company really pushed it, [it] got played on all the radio stations and became very successful. No one was more surprised than me."
"Pearl's a Singer" has also been recorded by Bernadette Peters (album Bernadette/ 1980), by Viktor Lazlo (album My Delicious Poisons/ 1991), and by Annie Schilder (nl) (album Anny En Ik/ 2007). The Czech rendering "Černý Zpěvák" was recorded by Jana Kratochvílová (cs) in 1978; the German rendering "Tingel-Tangel " was recorded by Wencke Myhre for her 1979 album So bin ich; the Swiss German rendering "Pearl tuet singe" was recorded by Toni Vescoli (als) for his 1999 album Tegsass.
"Pearl's a Singer" is featured in the score of the Leiber & Stoller musical revue Smokey Joe's Cafe.
Richard Digance parodied the song as "Earl's a winger", about an inept footballer.