Music interview – PP Arnold on the release of a lost classic
SHE is one of the iconic singers of the 60s, whose voice resonated through the decades as a reminder of how great the decade was – and she is still belting them out.
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.