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A Picture of You (Joe Brown song)

song

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ11956693 ↗
Source-derived summary

"A Picture of You" is a song by English entertainer Joe Brown. Written by two members of his backing band, guitarist John Beveridge and bassist Peter Oakman, it was a number 1 UK hit single for Brown in the summer of 1962. Brown recorded his version at Pye Records, and the single was released as Piccadilly 7N 35047.

Although "A Picture of You" is designated as the B-side of "A Lay-About's Lament", it was the former song which became the chart hit. The song entered the charts at Number 27 on 24 May 1962, spent nine weeks in the UK Singles Chart Top 5 (from the week of 14 June 1962 through the week of 9 August 1962) during a nineteen-week chart run. The song was placed thirteenth on the chart of overall single sales for the calendar year 1962 in the UK.

The album A Picture of You, Joe Brown's first, was issued on Pye's budget Golden Guinea label (the records were marketed at the price of one Guinea, or one pound and a shilling) in 1962, and entered the NME album chart at number 10 on 25 August 1962. It stayed in the top ten for the next 15 weeks. The album also included the smaller hits Shine (reached No 33 in the UK singles charts in 1961) and What A Crazy World We're Livin' In (reached number 37 in the UK singles charts in 1962, just prior to A Picture of You).

Charts

Covers

The Beatles performed the song on the BBC radio programme Teenager's Turn – Here We Go, broadcast on 15 June 1962.

In 1963 the song was covered by Johnny and his Cellar Rockers, the first band of the Dutch guitar-player Jan Akkerman.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “A Picture of You (Joe Brown song)” as song. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Picture, Brown and song.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1962, 1961, 1963—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Picture, Brown and song providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “A Picture of You (Joe Brown song)”, the useful work is to connect “song” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11956693. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1962, 1961 and 1963.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “A Picture of You (Joe Brown song)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow A Picture of You (Joe Brown song) primary sources, A Picture of You (Joe Brown song) archive and Picture research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “A Picture of You (Joe Brown song)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.