Lady Godiva (song)
| "Lady Godiva" | |
|---|---|
| Single by Peter and Gordon | |
| B-side | Morning's Calling |
| Released | 9 September 1966 |
| Format | 7" |
| Recorded | 1966 |
| Genre | Pop |
| Length | 2:24 |
| Label | Columbia |
| Writer(s) | Mike Leander, Charlie Mills, Gordon Mills |
| "Lady Godiva" | |||||||||
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| Single by Alex Day | |||||||||
| Released | 1 April 2012 | ||||||||
| Format | Digital download, CD single | ||||||||
| Recorded | 2011 | ||||||||
| Genre | Pop | ||||||||
| Length | 2:28 | ||||||||
| Writer(s) | Mike Leander, Charlie Mills, Gordon Mills | ||||||||
| Alex Day singles chronology | |||||||||
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"Lady Godiva" is a 1966 single recorded by British pop duo Peter and Gordon.
The song is a music-hall style number which frivolously references the legend of Lady Godiva, reimagining the legend in the modern day: a director from Hollywood witnesses her legendary ride (with "her long blonde hair" obscuring her breasts and other private parts) and recruits the lady to star in his films, but he turns out to be a director of pornographic films.
A drastic stylistic shift for Peter and Gordon who had specialized in melancholy love songs, "Lady Godiva" in its music-hall style recalled several Herman's Hermits' hits and also "Winchester Cathedral" by the New Vaudeville Band which was rising up the UK charts when Peter and Gordon recorded "Lady Godiva": eventually "Winchester Cathedral" and "Lady Godiva" would share the US Top Ten with the former succeeding the latter at #1 in Canada. Peter and Gordon's producer John Burgess brought the duo "Lady Godiva" which Burgess had recently produced for the Paul Jones album My Way. Peter Asher, who with Gordon Waller comprised Peter and Gordon, recalls that he [Asher] objected to recording the song with Waller resultantly saying: "It'll be funny [so] shut up". The single was recorded at Abbey Road Studios and reunited Peter and Gordon with Geoff Love who after arranging and conducting the duo's first six singles had sat out their last three A-sides: "Lady Godiva" would be Love's final Peter and Gordon A-side collaboration.
Released September 1966, "Lady Godiva" would afford Peter and Gordon a comeback in both the UK and especially the US: in the UK the single with a #16 peak returned Peter and Gordon to the Top 20 after their precedent two singles "Woman" and "To Show I Love You" had fallen short (the latter not having reached the UK Top 50) while in the US "Lady Godiva" rose as high as #6 in December 1966 the duo's first Top Ten showing since "I Go to Pieces" in February 1965. The single sold over a million copies and was awarded a gold disc.
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