Biography
P.P. Arnold brings a raw, soul-rooted timbre shaped by years of gospel immersion to both foreground leads and behind-the-scenes contributions across decades of pop recordings. Her path opened in the 1960s when she supplied backing vocals for Ike & Tina Turner, quickly leading to her own releases that found an audience in Britain, beginning with the 1967 Top 20 single “The First Cut Is the Deepest.” While continuing session work alongside Small Faces and Nick Drake and pursuing acting roles, she resurfaced in the mid-1980s and early 1990s, lending her voice to Peter Gabriel tracks and the KLF, then fronting the Beatmasters collaboration “Burn It Up,” another U.K. Top 20 entry in 1988. Several years after previously unheard solo tracks appeared as The Turning Tide, she issued her new set The New Adventures of P.P. Arnold in 2019.
Born Patricia Ann Cole into a household of gospel singers, the Los Angeles native began performing at age four. She gained early professional experience supporting Bobby Day before joining the Ikettes behind Ike & Tina Turner, touring with the pair including dates alongside the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger encouraged her to stay in London, where she signed with the Immediate label under Andrew Loog Oldham’s direction. In 1967, the same year she cut sides with label mates Small Faces, her debut LP The First Lady of Immediate appeared, helmed by Loog Oldham, Jagger, and Mike Hurst; it contained the number 18 U.K. hit “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” penned by Cat Stevens. The following year Kafunta arrived, mixing original Arnold material with renditions of songs by the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, and Rolling Stones, the most successful being Chip Taylor’s “Angel of the Morning,” which reached number 29 on the U.K. chart.
Toward the end of the 1960s Arnold launched an acting career with the musical Catch My Soul and maintained stage and screen work well into the 1980s, appearing in television series such as Fame and Knots Landing plus Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. Session contributions persisted throughout, encompassing dates with Nick Drake, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills among others, until her profile lifted again in 1984 with the title track to the film Electric Dreams. She released “A Little Pain” in 1985 under Dexter Wansel’s production with assistance from Loose Ends members, then featured on Peter Gabriel’s 1986 singles “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time.” The decade closed with the number 14 U.K. hit “Burn It Up” produced by the Beatmasters, followed by several 12-inch releases alongside Pressure Point. Further performances and recordings extended across subsequent decades, highlighted by her prominent hook on the KLF’s “3 A.M. Eternal,” a worldwide success that topped the U.K. chart and climbed to number five in the United States.
Immediate-era material resurfaced in 2001 as the anthology The First Cut: The Immediate Anthology. Arnold maintained active touring and recording commitments through the 2000s, most notably alongside Roger Waters. In 2017 the long-shelved album completed in 1971 finally emerged as The Turning Tide, carrying production and songwriting input from Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton together with contributions from the Delaney & Bonnie Band and Rita Coolidge. She remained on the road into 2019, marking more than fifty years in music, and that year delivered her fourth official album The New Adventures of P.P. Arnold, produced by Steve Cradock, formerly of Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller’s band.
Born Patricia Ann Cole into a household of gospel singers, the Los Angeles native began performing at age four. She gained early professional experience supporting Bobby Day before joining the Ikettes behind Ike & Tina Turner, touring with the pair including dates alongside the Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger encouraged her to stay in London, where she signed with the Immediate label under Andrew Loog Oldham’s direction. In 1967, the same year she cut sides with label mates Small Faces, her debut LP The First Lady of Immediate appeared, helmed by Loog Oldham, Jagger, and Mike Hurst; it contained the number 18 U.K. hit “The First Cut Is the Deepest,” penned by Cat Stevens. The following year Kafunta arrived, mixing original Arnold material with renditions of songs by the Beatles, Beach Boys, Bee Gees, and Rolling Stones, the most successful being Chip Taylor’s “Angel of the Morning,” which reached number 29 on the U.K. chart.
Toward the end of the 1960s Arnold launched an acting career with the musical Catch My Soul and maintained stage and screen work well into the 1980s, appearing in television series such as Fame and Knots Landing plus Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Starlight Express. Session contributions persisted throughout, encompassing dates with Nick Drake, Graham Nash, and Stephen Stills among others, until her profile lifted again in 1984 with the title track to the film Electric Dreams. She released “A Little Pain” in 1985 under Dexter Wansel’s production with assistance from Loose Ends members, then featured on Peter Gabriel’s 1986 singles “Sledgehammer” and “Big Time.” The decade closed with the number 14 U.K. hit “Burn It Up” produced by the Beatmasters, followed by several 12-inch releases alongside Pressure Point. Further performances and recordings extended across subsequent decades, highlighted by her prominent hook on the KLF’s “3 A.M. Eternal,” a worldwide success that topped the U.K. chart and climbed to number five in the United States.
Immediate-era material resurfaced in 2001 as the anthology The First Cut: The Immediate Anthology. Arnold maintained active touring and recording commitments through the 2000s, most notably alongside Roger Waters. In 2017 the long-shelved album completed in 1971 finally emerged as The Turning Tide, carrying production and songwriting input from Barry Gibb and Eric Clapton together with contributions from the Delaney & Bonnie Band and Rita Coolidge. She remained on the road into 2019, marking more than fifty years in music, and that year delivered her fourth official album The New Adventures of P.P. Arnold, produced by Steve Cradock, formerly of Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller’s band.
Albums
The Immediate Sessions
2025
The New Adventures of... P.P. Arnold
2019
The Turning Tide
2017
Kafunta
1970
The First Lady of Immediate
1967
Singles
