***This is just a tribute page. PP Arnold does not run this site, nor does anyone associated with her.***
Pat Arnold (born Patrica Ann Cole, on 3 October 1946, in Los Angeles, California), professionally known as P.P. Arnold, is an American-born soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and beyond. With her distictive and powerful voice, Arnold is considered to be one of the finest soul vocalists of her generation, and she has contributed (mainly as a backing singer) to many hits, although her solo career has been regrettably sporadic and she is sadly under-recorded.
Born into a family of gospel singers, Arnold married early and had two children, working a series of menial jobs until the early 1960s, when Maxine Smith, an ex-girlfriend of her brother, contacted her with an amazing offer. Maxine and her friend Gloria Scott had managed to arrange an audition for three girls to replace the original Ikettes, the dancer-singer troupe that provided vocal and dance accompaniement for Ike and Tina Turner Revue. Maxine and Gloria had been stood up by a third girl, and desperate from someone to make up the trio, Maxine contacted Pat, whom she knew to be a fine singer.
At the audition the three girls were offered the job on the spot, but Maxine convinced Pat to attend a concert in Fresno that night before making a final decision. When she arrived home at 6am the next morning, Arnold's furious husband struck her. Pat left him immediately and, placing her children in the care of her parents, she joined the Turner Revue at once.
After several years touring around the USA with the Revue, she came to England in 1966 when the Revue toured there in support of The Rolling Stones. Impressed by her powerful and soulful voice, Mick Jagger convinced Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham to sign Arnold to a recording contract with his newly founded Immediate Records label and Arnold quit the Turner band to remain in London and establish a solo career.
She enjoyed several major British hits on Immediate, including songs written for her by Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane from labelmates The Small Faces, who also backed her on several recordings. Arnold also memorably provided backing vocals on the group's major hit "Tin Soldier" as well as touring with them during 1968.
Her first backing backing band, The Blue Jays, had been inherited from American soul singer Ronnie Jones. This was followed by The Nice, led by Keith Emerson. During this period Pat toured alongside Jimi Hendrix, The Who, The Kinks, Blind Faith, David Bowie and many others and she scored several major hits including the original version of the oft-covered "Angel of the Morning" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest", and the Marriott-Lane song "(If You Think You're) Groovy".
After the messy collapse of Immediate in the late 1960s, Arnold signed a production contract with the Robert Stigwood Organisation and released two singles on the Polydor Records label, produced by Barry Gibb of The Bee Gees, but a planned album with Gibb was never completed.
In 1970 she moved to the musical stage, appearing alongside P.J. Proby in the rock musical Catch My Soul. She then formed a new backing band that included the future members of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, plus Steve Howe, who would soon join Yes. During this period she contributed backing vocals to many notable UK sessions (including the classic Nick Drake song "Poor Boy") and she toured with Eric Clapton, who also produced a number of unreleased sessions with her. During these sessions she met American bassist Fuzzy Samuels of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, and they subsequently married and had a son.
Feeling out of place in the rapidly changing British music scene of the mid-1970s, Arnold and Samuels returned Pat's hometown of Los Angeles. While living there, Pat's marriage to Fuzzy Samuels ended and, just two weeks after the split, her daughter Debbie was killed in a car accident.
After her daughter's tragic death Arnold withdrew from public life for some time, not re-emerging until 1978. At this time she was reunited with Barry Gibb, who wanted to complete the never-finished solo album for her. Again this did not eventuate, but Arnold was eventually teamed up with Barry's youngeest brother Andy Gibb for a duet recording of the Carole King song "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow". Pat subsequently formed a new band, Inner Circle, but this was not successful.
In 1981 she moved to Hollywood, where she won minor roles in popular TV series including St Elsewhere and Knot's Landing. She returned to England in 1982, wishing to raise her younger son there. She soon began working with leading British reggae band Steel Pulse and returned to the UK charts with her dynamic contribution to "Respect Yourself", the 1983 the hit cover version of the Staples Singers classic recorded with Pat by electro-pop band The Kane Gang.
In 1984 she returned to the stage in the cast of the hit musical Starlight Express, after which she worked with a number of noted British acts inlcuding Boy George as well as working on several movie soundtracks. Weeks before beginning a tour with Billy Ocean, Pat's legs were badly injured in a car accident, although she went ahead with the Ocean tour, at first appearing on crutches, her injuries eventually forced her to leave the tour after ten weeks.
Without a record contract and unable to play live, Arnold survived by doing sessions for advertising jingles. This eventuall led to a successful association with The Beatmeasters, and her contributions to their song "Burn It Up", which reached 12 in the UK charts, as well as working with KLF on the track "3am Eternal".
Growing dissatisfied with her session singer role, she returned to the musical stage with work in a theatre workshop project. In 1994 she joined the cast of the award-winning musical Once On This Island. While the production was playing in Birmingham she met leading UK band Ocean Colour Scene, one of the new wave of latter-day "Mod" groups who (like their mentor Paul Weller, idolised The Small Faces.
Her friendship with OCS led to her singing the lead vocal, backed by Primal Scream, on a cover of The Small Faces' "Understanding", which was included on a successful Small Faces tribute album. She also worked extensively with Ocean Colour Scene on their 1997 album Marching Already. This was followed by numerous TV appearances including Later with Jools Holland and touring with Ocean Colour Scene in 1997-98.
This success led to plans for her to record her first solo album in decades, but once again it was not completed. Deciding to put together a new band to promote her material, Pat joined forces with Chaz Jankel, former pianist with Ian Dury & The Blockheads. This was followed by an invitation to tour with Roger Waters, with whom she has toured widely.
(Biography from Wikipedia)
