Clair (song)

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title: "Clair (song)" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1972-songs", "1972-singles", "gilbert-o'sullivan-songs", "uk-singles-chart-number-one-singles", "irish-singles-chart-number-one-singles", "rpm-top-singles-number-one-singles", "number-one-singles-in-norway", "songs-written-by-gilbert-o'sullivan", "mam-records-singles", "1972-in-irish-music"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clair_(song)" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox song"]

Field	Value
name	Clair
cover	Clair - Gilbert O'Sullivan.jpg
type	single
artist	Gilbert O'Sullivan
album	Back to Front
B-side	"What Could Be Nicer (Mum, The Kettle's Boiling)" (UK release), "Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day" (U.S. release)
released
genre
length	3:03
label	MAM
writer	Raymond O'Sullivan
producer	Gordon Mills
prev_title	Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day
prev_year	1972
next_title	I Wish I Could Cry
next_year	1973
::

| name = Clair | cover = Clair - Gilbert O'Sullivan.jpg | alt = | type = single | artist = Gilbert O'Sullivan | album = Back to Front | B-side = "What Could Be Nicer (Mum, The Kettle's Boiling)" (UK release), "Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day" (U.S. release) | released = | recorded = | studio = | genre = | length = 3:03 | label = MAM | writer = Raymond O'Sullivan | producer = Gordon Mills | prev_title = Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka-Day | prev_year = 1972 | next_title = I Wish I Could Cry | next_year = 1973 "Clair" is a song by Gilbert O'Sullivan, released in 1972 as the first single from his second album Back to Front. It was written by O'Sullivan and produced by Gordon Mills, and is one of O'Sullivan's biggest-selling singles.

On many versions of the album Back to Front, the song has been replaced by "Alone Again (Naturally)".

Song details

The song is a love song from the point of view of a close family friend who babysits a young girl, though for the first part of the song, the ambiguous words lead one to think that it is a romantic song from one adult to another. The brief instrumental introduction is the sound of O'Sullivan whistling before he begins his vocal. The real Clair who inspired the song was the three-year-old daughter of O'Sullivan's producer-manager, Gordon Mills, and his wife, the model Jo Waring. The little girl's giggling is heard at the end of this song. The "Uncle Ray" mentioned in the song is O'Sullivan himself, a reference to his real name of Raymond O'Sullivan.

The harmonica solo in the song, played by Mills, modulates up a semitone, from A to B-Flat, before going back to A.

Chart performance

"Clair" was the number one single on the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1972,{{cite book | first= David | last= Roberts | year= 2006 | title= British Hit Singles & Albums | edition= 19th | publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London | isbn= 1-904994-10-5 | pages= 279–280}} and number one in Canada on the RPM 100 singles chart. In late December, it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US, behind both "Me and Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul and "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon. "Clair" was also O'Sullivan's second and last number one hit on the U.S. Easy Listening chart, after "Alone Again (Naturally)".

Weekly singles charts

::data[format=table] | Chart (1972–1973) | Peak position | |---|---| | Argentina | 8 | | Australia (KMR) | 12 | | Canada RPM Top Singles | 1 | | Canada RPM Adult Contemporary | 1 | | France (IFOP) | 3 | | | | | New Zealand (Listener) | 2 | | Netherlands | 4 | | Norway | 1 | | South Africa (Springbok) | 6 | | Sweden (Kvällstoppen) | 6 | | US Cash Box Top 100 | 3 | ::

Year-end charts

::data[format=table]

Chart (1972)	Rank
Canada Top Singles (RPM)	41
UK	17
::

::data[format=table]

Chart (1973)	Rank
Australia	87
U.S. Billboard Hot 100	73
U.S. Cash Box	13
::

Cover versions

• An Italian rendition in 1973 by the crooner Johnny Dorelli.
• A version by Singers Unlimited was sampled by producer J Dilla for the Slum Village song "Players". This version was also sampled by Logic (rapper) on the song "Upgraded".
• Another cover (in English) was recorded in 2006 by French singer Laurent Voulzy on his album La Septième Vague.
• Another cover was recorded in 2006 by Space Kelly on his album My Favourite Songbook.

References

References

1. (18 April 2010). "When all is far from Clair, Gilbert goes to court". Sunday Independent.
2. "Who Played That?".
3. "The Hot 100 Chart".
4. Whitburn, Joel. (2002). "Top Adult Contemporary: 1961-2001". Record Research.
5. "Billboard - Hits Of The World". Billboard. 24 February 1973. p. 45..
6. Steffen Hung. "Forum - 1970 (ARIA Charts: Special Occasion Charts)".
7. [http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/rpm/Pages/image.aspx?Image=nlc008388.4252&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fwww.collectionscanada.gc.ca%2fobj%2f028020%2ff4%2fnlc008388.4252.gif&Ecopy=nlc008388.4252 RPM 100 Singles, January 13, 1973]
8. (17 July 2013). "Item: 7336 - Library and Archives Canada".
9. "Toutes les Chansons N° 1 des Années 70". InfoDisc.
10. "flavour of new zealand - search listener".
11. "SA Charts 1965–March 1989".
12. Hallberg, Eric. (1993). "Eric Hallberg presenterar Kvällstoppen i P3". Drift.
13. (January 13, 1973). "RPM's Top 100 Singles of '72".
14. "Top 100 1972 - UK Music Charts".
15. [http://www.austchartbook.com.au/ David Kent's "Australian Chart Book 1970-1992"] {{webarchive. link. (March 5, 2016)
16. "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Top 100 Songs of 1973".
17. "Top 100 Year End Charts: 1973". [[Cashbox (magazine).

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