Music interview '“ PP Arnold on the release of a lost classic

PP Arnold came to the UK in the mid-60s as an Ikette (a member of the Ike and Tine Turner Revue), then went solo.

As a soloist, she recorded two of the most memorable songs with a female pop voice: The First Cut Is The Deepest (on which The Nice provided musical backing) and Angel Of the Morning. Not long after that her record label – Immediate – folded and since then she has been totally independent.

About to start a short tour to promote her latest CD – more about which later – Arnold tells me how she came to the UK in the first place.

“It was quite by chance, really. I was at my home and I said a prayer to God to save me from an abusive teen marriage I was in. Within an hour I had a phone call from one of my friends.

“It transpired that the girls with Ike and Tina Turner’s Revue show were leaving and Maxine (my friend) and Gloria were going to be Ikettes but a third girl had let them down at the last minute.

“I told my husband that I was going shopping and went up to Fresno to see them. I sang Dancing In The Street and another song at the audition and Tina told me straightaway that I was in.”

Then she had to break the news to her husband.

“Yes, let’s just say that I had an ‘altercation’ with my husband, but I realised that God had answered my prayer. My mom helped me with my kids – after all $200 a week was a lot of money.

“Five days later I was on stage singing, wearing Tina’s shoes – which were two sizes too big but stuffed with toilet paper.”

Of her time with the Revue, Arnold mainly enjoyed it.

“The music side was great, up till the audition I had never thought of being a professional singer; but it was very hard work –I think we worked 87 days out of 90 on the tour.”

“I loved Tina, she really was ‘simply the best’ and I was on a great learning curve.”

When the Revue came to the UK, PP decided to go ‘solo’ and with help from Mick Jagger she was signed to the Immediate label with whom she had a handful of hits – but then disaster struck.

“Between 1968 and 1970 Immediate Records went under and all the fabulous artists scattered and went to different labels. Artists like Humble Pie, Chris Farlowe and The Nice; it was a great shame.

This is where Arnold’s new album comes into the story. ‘The Turning Tide’ was recorded around this time and was produced initially by Barry Gibb and then Eric Clapton. It is her great ‘lost’ album.

Due to music industry politics these recordings were left sitting on a shelf until recently.

Arnold tells me the story of how the album was recorded.