Songfacts®:

• This was written by Garry Bonner and Alan Gordon. It was a rare Petula Clark single that was not written or produced by her longtime collaborator Tony Hatch, who explained to the Forgotten Hits newsletter in December 2008 how this happened.
  
  Said Hatch: "It was a mutual decision because after a long run the chemistry disappears. I had worked with Petula since 1960, taking over full A&R responsibility in 1962. We had tremendous success together for the next six years and only on one occasion did Petula make a record without me and that was 'This Is My Song,' a rush job recorded in LA. Immediately after that hit we were back together again and came up with 'Don't Sleep In The Subway.' Between 1968 and 1970 we had a couple of near-hits with "American Boys" and "Look At Mine" and two outstanding albums (which included a lot of my songs) but the really big hit singles were getting harder to find. Petula and I agreed that she should try other songwriters and producers whilst I would concentrate on film and TV music and a stage musical. I still wrote and produced her in the early '70s and I really thought we deserved a hit with 'Serenade of Love,' the main song from my score for the 1973 Maggie Smith film Travels With My Aunt. Throughout the '70s we continued to 'try to find the magic again.' Even now (being the best of friends) we occasionally venture into the studio with a few new songs - just to see what happens!"