"Don't Sleep in the Subway" is a song written by Tony Hatch

Tony Hatch

Anthony Peter "Tony" Hatch is an English composer, songwriter, pianist, music arranger and producer.-Early life and early career:...

 and Jackie Trent

Jackie Trent

Jackie Trent is an English singer, songwriter, and actress.-Career:Trent's first stage appearance was as a ten-year-old ingenue in the pantomime Babes In The Wood, but her primary interest was a career in pop music...

 and recorded by Petula Clark

Petula Clark

Petula Clark, CBE is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II...

. Released in April 1967, it peaked at #5 on the US charts that June. It was Clark's final US top-ten single and the second of two #1 hits on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Easy Listening chart, following "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love

I Couldn't Live Without Your Love

"I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" is a 1966 single written by Tony Hatch and Jackie Trent and recorded by Petula Clark. It was inspired by the affair the songwriters were having at the time....

". The song reached #3 in Rhodesia

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...

, #5 in Canada, #7 in New Zealand, #10 in South Africa and #16 in Germany. In Australia, it was at #1 on the charts dated 16 and 23 September 1967, marking Clark's final appearance at #1 on an official national chart.

The song was constructed from three different sections of music previously composed by Hatch and changes in musical style from pop to symphonic and then to a Beach Boys-like melody for the chorus. It uses a chord progression most familiar from the baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 piece Pachelbel's Canon.

In the lyrics the narrator advises her sweetheart against storming out after an argument due to his "foolish pride". If he does, he will "sleep in the subway" or "stand in the pouring rain" merely to prove his point. Although in the UK the term "subway" refers to a pedestrian underpass rather than an underground transit system, Hatch employed the term in the latter American sense.

Cited by Clark as her favourite Hatch composition, "Don't Sleep in the Subway" has also been recorded by Matt Monro

Matt Monro

Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...

, Patti Page

Patti Page

Clara Ann Fowler , known by her professional name Patti Page, is an American singer, one of the best-known female artists in traditional pop music. She was the best-selling female artist of the 1950s, and has sold over 100 million records...

, Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra

Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...

 and Caterina Valente

Caterina Valente

Caterina Valente is a singer, dancer, and actress. She was born into an Italian artist family; her father Giuseppe was a well-known accordion player, her mother, Maria Valente, a musical clown...

. A Spanish rendering: "No duermas en el metro", was recorded by both Gelu and Los Stop. Siw Malmkvist

Siw Malmkvist

Siw "Siwan" Gunnel Margareta Malmkvist is a Swedish singer who is popular in Scandinavia and Germany...

 recorded the Swedish rendering "Sov Inte På Tunnelbanan" in 1970.

The song's title was used as part of a candidate's name in "Election Night Special

Election Night Special

"Election Night Special" is a Monty Python sketch parodying the coverage of United Kingdom general elections, specifically the 1970 general election, on the BBC by including hectic actions by the media and a range of ridiculous candidates....

", a sketch on Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

: another of that series' episodes featured Cardinal Richelieu (Michael Palin

Michael Palin

Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....

) lip-synching to Clark's record on the show-within-a-show Historical Impersonations.

Charts

Chart (1967)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	1
Canadian Singles Chart	5
German Singles Chart	16
New Zealand Singles Chart	7
South African Singles Chart	10
US Billboard Hot 100	5
US Billboard Easy Listening	1