PP Arnold

PP Arnold

PP Arnold is a soul singer who builds a long career in the United Kingdom from the 1960s onwards. Born Patricia Ann Cole, she grows up in a family of gospel singers in the Watts area of Los Angeles and sings as a soloist from the age of four. She marries young and has two children, Kevin and Debbie, before later moving into professional music.

Early career and the Ike & Tina Turner Revue

In 1964, Maxine Smith and Gloria Scott arrange an audition for three singers to replace the original Ikettes in the Ike & Tina Turner Revue. Arnold is offered the job immediately and joins the group after deciding to leave home and place her children with her parents. She leaves the Turner band in 1966 and stays in London to develop a solo career, with encouragement from Mick Jagger.

British solo work

Arnold has major British hits on Immediate Records, including songs written for her by Paul Korda, such as “The Time Has Come”. She also records material by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane of the Small Faces, who back her on several recordings. Her hits from this period include “The First Cut Is the Deepest”, “Angel of the Morning” and “(If You Think You’re) Groovy”.

She works with a succession of backing bands, beginning with the Blue Jays, which she inherits from Ronnie Jones and which includes guitarist Roger Dean. She then works with the Nice, with Keith Emerson on organ, David O’List on guitar, Lee Jackson on bass and Ian Hague on drums. She also tours with the Small Faces in 1967 and 1968, appears on television with them, and sings backing vocals on two of their biggest hits, “Itchycoo Park” and “Tin Soldier”. Other recordings from this period include a duet with Rod Stewart on “Come Home Baby”, produced by Mick Jagger.

Late 1960s and early 1970s work

After Immediate collapses, Arnold signs a production contract with the Robert Stigwood Organisation and issues two singles on Polydor, both produced by Barry Gibb. A planned album with Gibb does not materialise, although she records eleven songs with him between 1969 and 1970; only “Bury Me Down By the River” and “Give a Hand, Take a Hand” are released. She also sings harmony on Gibb’s solo recording “Born”, included on The Kid’s No Good.

In 1970, Arnold moves to musical theatre and appears with P.J. Proby in Catch My Soul. She then forms another backing group that includes future members of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, as well as Steve Howe before he joins Yes. During this time she also works with Humble Pie and records or tours with Steve Marriott again. As a session singer, she contributes to a wide range of recordings, including the original album cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar, Nick Drake’s “Poor Boy”, and sessions by Dr John, Graham Nash, Gary Wright, Manassas, Nektar, Jimmy Witherspoon, Nils Lofgren and Eric Burdon. She also tours with Eric Clapton, who produces unreleased sessions with her.

Return to the United Kingdom and later work

Arnold returns to Los Angeles in 1974 with Fuzzy Samuels, with whom she has a son, Kodzo. After their relationship ends, her daughter Debbie dies in a car accident. She spends time away from public life and reappears in 1978, when she reunites with Barry Gibb, who wants to finish the solo album project begun earlier. She moves to Hollywood in 1981, then returns to England the following year to raise her younger son there.

In the 1980s she works with Steel Pulse and returns to the charts with a 1983 version of “Respect Yourself” recorded with the Kane Gang. The single reaches number 21 in the UK and number 19 in Australia. In 1984 she appears in Starlight Express as Belle the Sleeping Car. She later works with Boy George and on film soundtracks. After a car accident damages her legs during the period before a tour with Billy Ocean, she starts the tour on crutches but leaves after ten weeks and supports herself through advertising jingles.

Arnold returns to rock and soul sessions in the late 1980s. She sings prominently on Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” in 1986 and on the Beatmasters’ “Burn It Up”, which reaches number 14 in the UK in 1988. During this period and into the 1990s she works as a session vocalist with The KLF, Nina Hagen, Roger Waters and Graham Parker. In 1989 she records with Steve Marriott on his solo album 30 Seconds to Midnite, their final collaboration.

1990s and beyond

In 1994, Arnold joins the cast of the musical Once on This Island as Erzulie, Goddess of Love. While the production is in Birmingham, she meets Ocean Colour Scene. In 1995 she records a cover of the Small Faces song “Understanding” with Primal Scream for the tribute album Long Agos and Worlds Apart. She also works with Chaz Jankel and later tours with Roger Waters, singing backing vocals on the In the Flesh tour and on Dark Side of the Moon Live. Her version of “The First Cut Is the Deepest” later appears on the soundtrack of Seven Psychopaths.

Style and associations

Arnold is associated with soul, northern soul and mod, and her career links her to British rock, reggae, disco, musical theatre and session work. She is also known by the alternative spellings P.P. Arnold and P. P. Arnold.