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Puppet On A String: Back in the charts, always in our hearts

01 August 2024 at 14:40 CEST
Sandie Shaw performs Puppet On A String at the 1967 Eurovision Song Contest Photo: EBU, Rolls Press, Popperfoto, Getty Images
With Sandie Shaw's 'Puppet On A String' back in the charts via an homage-paying sample, we look back at the song that gave the United Kingdom its very first victory at the Eurovision Song Contest.

If you've been tuning in to the radio recently, or perusing the Hot Hits playlists of your chosen streaming service, then chances are you may well have encountered a Eurovision throwback while listening. And a really retro one, at that!

Sandie Shaw's 1967 Contest winner - Puppet On A String for the United Kingdom - has been sampled on Angel Of My Dreams, the new single by British artist Jade Thirlwall, under her solo artist moniker of JADE. 

In the song, the Eurovision bop of yesteryear has been paired with JADE's own scribings on her thoughts about the wider music industry, particularly about feeling like a puppet in the early part of her career.

The former Little Mix star previously hinted at the Puppet On A String sample when she uploaded a short voice note as the first audio to be released on her official Spotify page. 

One month later and Angel Of My Dreams was released in all its glory, as the popstar's debut single. A slightly distorted edit of the chorus of Puppet On A String serves as the intro to the song.

It brings the Eurovision classic back to radio an incredible 57 years on from its iconic win. And such is its enviable vintage, it will no doubt be being heard for the very first time by many youngsters who are currently blasting Angel Of My Dreams on repeat. 

The original song, however, remains a frequently revisited chapter of Eurovision Song Contest history. One of the more enduring entries of Eurovision's early years, Puppet On A String's participation was grabbing attention even before its triumph in Vienna.

At the time, Sandie Shaw's involvement was considered to be the first time time that the United Kingdom had selected a big name to represent them at Eurovision. One of the most successful British female singers of the 1960s, Shaw had already achieved two number 1s, released plenty of singles, EPs and albums, and was a regular on TV shows such as Top Of The Pops.

Sandie Shaw made her way to the Eurovision Song Contest via a national final, held by the United Kingdom broadcaster the BBC. Shaw was internally selected by the broadcaster to be the artist, and a 5-song pre-selection was televised - with viewers voting on their favourite entry by postcard!

Puppet On A String entered the Eurovision history books at the Contest's 12th edition, which was hosted in Austria for the first time, in the capital Vienna.

The logo for Eurovision 1967

The venue for the 1967 Contest was perhaps one of the most regal in Eurovision history: the Festival Hall of the illustrious Hofburg Palace. 

Inside the grand hall, the main feature of the stage constructed especially for the 12th Eurovision Song Contest was a rotating mirror, the ensuing visuals from which probably lent themselves quite well to Puppet On A String's fairground-themed lyrics and music. 

Viewers watching at home were witnessing the very last Contest to be transmitted in black and white. Sandie's victory took the 1968 Contest to the United Kingdom's BBC, who trialled a broadcast in colour. The Contest has come to us in vibrant colour ever since. 

1968's colourful Contest might have been the third time that the United Kingdom hosted Eurovision, but 1967's victory by Sandie Shaw was the country's first ever win. 

The United Kingdom's long-awaited victory came on its 10th participation at the Contest, and after it had achieved a tantalising second-place finish in no less than 5 of those previous 9 outings. 

The United Kingdom would go on to win the Contest 4 more times. And those 5 runner-up positions achieved in the country's first decade were a sign of things to come - it famously holds the record for most second-place finishes at Eurovision, picking up the silver an impressive 16 times. 

Sandie Shaw's victory in 1967 was a clear one; 47 points placed Puppet On A String first by some distance. The entry actually had one of the widest winning margins we've seen at Eurovision, earning more than twice as many points as the second-placed song - Ireland's If I Could Choose by Sean Dunphy.

Notably, Puppet On A String also ended up winning over an entry that went on to become one of the most internationally successful Eurovision songs of all time. Luxembourg's L'Amour Est Bleu, performed by Vicky Leandros, finished 4th on the night in Vienna. But one year later, and an instrumental version of the song would spend 5 weeks at number 1 in the United States, with several vocal versions - titled Love Is Blue - also charting.

For Puppet On A String, Vienna 1967 wasn't the only place where it achieved great success. 

Back home in the United Kingdom it became a number 1 single, spending three weeks at the top of the British singles chart. It was Sandie Shaw's third UK number 1 hit - a record for a female artist at that time. 

Seeing the Eurovision Song Contest as the ideal launchpad for some international success, Shaw also recorded Puppet on a String in French (Un Tout Petit Pantin), Italian (La Danza Delle Note), Spanish (Marionetas En La Cuerda), and German (Wiedehopf Im Mai). 

One month after the Eurovision Song Contest, fans also got treated to Puppet On A String - a Greatest Hits album of Shaw's work so far. And the artist would go on to release three more studio albums throughout the remainder of the '60s, as well as launching her own fashion label and fronting her own television show, The Sandie Shaw Supplement

Puppet On A String's songwriters, meanwhile, Phil Martin and Bill Coulter, still had the Eurovision Song Contest on their minds. And despite winning it in 1967, they wanted to do the double in 1968 - and they very nearly did!

Martin and Coulter joined forces for London 1968, penning Congratulations for pop megastar Cliff Richard. Victory two years in a row for the United Kingdom - and the songwriters - came so close to happening, when juries awarded the catchy up-tempo 28 points. But it ended up falling just one point short of the win, which was claimed by Spain's arguably even catchier La La La, performed by Massiel. 

Phil Coulter recently told the BBC that he's "thrilled" with the Puppet On A String sample included in JADE's Angel Of My Dreams

And it's a hearty Congratulations that we extend to all involved, on the new lease of life for the evergreen tune.