"Streets of London" is a song by

Ralph McTell Ralph McTell (born Ralph May, 3 December 1944) is an English singer-songwriter and acoustic guitar player who has been an influential figure on the UK folk music scene since the 1960s. McTell is best known for his song " Streets of London" (19 ...

, who first recorded it for his 1969 album ''

Spiral Staircase Stairs are a structure designed to bridge a large vertical distance between lower and higher levels by dividing it into smaller vertical distances. This is achieved as a diagonal series of horizontal platforms called steps which enable passage ...

.'' It was not released in the United Kingdom as a single until 1974. McTell himself noted that there were 212 known recorded versions of the song. The song was re-released, on 4 December 2017, featuring McTell with

Annie Lennox Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the New wave music, new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician D ...

as a

charity single A charity record or charity single is a song released by musicians with most or all proceeds raised going to a dedicated foundation or charity. George Harrison's " Bangla Desh" single in 1971 is commonly acknowledged as the first ever purpose-mad ...

for CRISIS, the Homelessness Charity.

Roger Whittaker Roger Henry Brough Whittaker (born 22 March 1936) is a British singer-songwriter and musician, who was born in Nairobi to English parents. His music is an eclectic mix of folk music and popular songs in addition to radio airplay hits. He is bes ...

also recorded a well received version in 1971.

Background

The song was inspired by McTell's experiences

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

and

hitchhiking Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads hav ...

throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, especially in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and the individual stories are taken from Parisians. McTell was originally going to call the song "Streets of Paris"— but eventually London was chosen, because he realised he was singing about London; also, there was another song called "

The Poor People of Paris "The Poor People of Paris" is a US pop song that became a number-one instrumental hit in 1956. It is based on the French language song "La goualante du pauvre Jean" ("The Ballad of Poor John"), with music by Marguerite Monnot and words by René R ...

". McTell's song contrasts the common problems of everyday people with those of the homeless, lonely, elderly, ignored and forgotten members of society. In an interview on Radio 5 with

Danny Baker Danny Baker (born 22 June 1957) is an English comedy writer, journalist, radio DJ and screenwriter. Throughout his career he has largely presented for London's regional radio and television. Baker was born in Deptford to a working-class fam ...

on 16 July 2016, McTell said that the market he referred to in the song was

Surrey Street Market Surrey Street Market (also known as Croydon Market) is a street market located in Surrey Street, Croydon, south London. Records of a market on the site date back to the 13th century. It operates six days a week, Monday to Saturday, and mainly ...

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

Composition

McTell left the song off his debut album, '' Eight Frames a Second'', since he regarded it as too depressing, and did not record it until persuaded by his producer,

Gus Dudgeon Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, "Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US No ...

, for his second album in 1969. A re-recorded version charted in the

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in April 1972, notching up to No. 9 the next month. McTell re-recorded it for the UK single release in 1974. McTell played the song in a

fingerpicking Fingerstyle guitar is the technique of guitar picking, playing the guitar or bass guitar by plucking the strings directly with the fingertips, fingernails, or picks attached to fingers, as opposed to flatpicking (plucking individual notes with ...

style with an AABA song structure. Similarities of the composition have been noted (along with many others) with certain patterns found in

Pachelbel's Canon Pachelbel's Canon (also known as the Canon in D, P 37) is an accompanied canon by the German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. The canon was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue, known as ''Canon and G ...

Commercial performance

The song was McTell's greatest commercial success, reaching No. 2 in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

, at one point selling 90,000 copies a day and winning him the 1974

Ivor Novello Award The Ivor Novello Awards, named after the entertainer Ivor Novello, are awards for songwriting and composing. They have been presented annually in London by the Ivors Academy (formerly the BASCA) since 1956, and over 1,000 statuettes have been a ...

for Best Song Musically and Lyrically and a

Silver disc Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

for record sales. This was kept out of the high position, by a combination of "

Lonely This Christmas "Lonely This Christmas" is a Christmas song by the English glam rock band Mud, that topped the UK Singles Chart in 1974, selling over 750,000 copies and reaching Christmas number one. Song Written and produced by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, ...

" of

Mud A MUD (; originally multi-user dungeon, with later variants multi-user dimension and multi-user domain) is a Multiplayer video game, multiplayer Time-keeping systems in games#Real-time, real-time virtual world, usually Text-based game, text-bas ...

, and "

Down Down "Down Down" is a song by English rock band Status Quo. Written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young and produced by Status Quo, "Down Down" was Status Quo's only number one single on the UK Singles Chart. The single spent a week at the top of the cha ...

" of

Status Quo is a Latin phrase meaning the existing state of affairs, particularly with regard to social, political, religious or military issues. In the sociological sense, the ''status quo'' refers to the current state of social structure and/or values. W ...

, for two weeks.

Other versions

Roger Whittaker version

In 1971,

released his version making the song gain great popularity internationally. It appeared in his album ''

New World in the Morning ''New World in the Morning'' is a studio album by Roger Whittaker released in 1971. It featured some of his most popular songs, including "The Last Farewell", "A Special Kind of Man", the title track "New World in the Morning" (#12 US Easy Listeni ...

''. The single "Streets of London" was the B-side to his own song "Why" with the radio stations promoting his version of McTell's song. It was also B-side to his huge hit "

The Last Farewell "The Last Farewell" is a song from 1971 by British folk singer Roger Whittaker. Whittaker hosted a radio programme in The United Kingdom in 1971, backed by an orchestra with arrangements by Zack Lawrence. Whittaker says "one of the ideas I had wa ...

" also in 1971.

Finnish language version

Finnish musician

Hector In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

made a Finnish translation of the song, ''Kuinka voit väittää'' ("How can you claim") of the song in 1972. It tells the stories of a homeless war veteran, a prostitute and a neglected child.

Anti-Nowhere League version

Punk band

Anti-Nowhere League Anti-Nowhere League are an English punk rock band, formed in 1979 by lead singer Animal (Nick Culmer), guitarist Magoo (Chris Exall), Bones (Tony Shaw) on drums and Chris Elvy on bass. Career Early days The band first played at the 1980 Cha ...

recorded a version of the song on their debut album in 1982. Ned Raggett of

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

referred to it as "the undisputed highlight" of the album in a retrospective review.

2017 Crisis single

In 2017, Ralph McTell re-recorded the song with

(who sings the song's second verse, and some support vocals close to the end) and clients of UK national charity

Crisis A crisis ( : crises; : critical) is either any event or period that will (or might) lead to an unstable and dangerous situation affecting an individual, group, or all of society. Crises are negative changes in the human or environmental affair ...

(who sing the chorus vocal behind McTell.) The performance was issued as a charity single, with proceeds to help

homeless people Homelessness or houselessness – also known as a state of being unhoused or unsheltered – is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and adequate housing. People can be categorized as homeless if they are: * living on the streets, also kn ...

. This was to mark the 50th anniversary of both the song and of the Crisis charity. Though the track peaked at #92 on the UK charts, the CD single of this release was Number 1 in the Christmas 2017 Official Physical Singles Chart (for CD sales).

2020 updated verse

In March 2020, Ralph McTell agreed to write another verse to the song, inspired by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

gripping the world at the time.

References

{{Authority control 1969 songs 1974 singles British songs Street performance Irish Singles Chart number-one singles Ralph McTell songs Anti-Nowhere League songs Song recordings produced by Gus Dudgeon Songs about homelessness Songs about London