To Sir With Love – Lulu | Top 40 Chart Performance, Story and Song Meaning
Chart Performance: Pop (#1 for 5 weeks); 1967
Story Behind The Song By Ed Osborne
By age 16 Glasgow’s Marie Lawrie was riding high as Lulu and the Luvvers – a name that came from Marie’s manager who referred to her as “a real lulu of a kid” – with a raucous cover of the Isley Brothers‘ classic rave-up, Shout.
Here Comes The Night, a big ballad version of the tune that would catapult Them featuring Van Morrison to fame, followed along with a role in a laughable British sci-fi film called Gonks Go Beat.
In the spring of ’67 Lulu took Neil Diamond’s The Boat That I Row into the British Top 10. Her U.S. label released it as well, with To Sir With Love, from the Sidney Poitier movie of the same name, on the flip side.
Lulu’s performance on record and on screen powered it to #1. Oddly, Sir, the recording, was not released in England. Lulu, the songwriter, appeared on the chart again in 1993 as co-writer of Tina Turner’s I Don’t Wanna Fight.
This content and the Song Meaning article was created and written by Top 40 Contributing Editor Ed Osborne. © 2025 Ed Osborne. All Rights Reserved. In addition to these song meaning articles, Ed has written our “Year in Music 1960s-1990s” articles.
Produced by:
- Mickie Most
Lyrics Written by:
- Don Black
Ed Osborne
Hi. I got my first record at age two and never looked back, spending a decades-long career in radio and the music business. Even after years of reading about and listening to all types of music, I am still fascinated by it. Apart from that, I’m endlessly intrigued by art, nature, and the inner lives of people (and dogs).