The recording took place after Shaw has visited her friend, the musician Howard Jones, and found him playing some chords on his keyboard and humming a melody. Shaw re-recorded "Puppet on a String" in early 2007 to mark her 60th birthday. Shaw also recorded "Puppet on a String" in French ("Un tout petit pantin"), Italian ("La danza delle note"), Spanish ("Marionetas en la cuerda"), and German ("Wiedehopf im Mai"). Some estimates suggest this makes the track the biggest selling single by a British female artist of all time. Globally, the single achieved sales in excess of 4 million, making it the biggest-selling winning Eurovision track to date. In Germany, the single was the biggest seller of the entire year, reaching sales of over 1 million copies. As a result, "Puppet on a String" became her third number one hit in the UK (a record for a woman at the time) and was a big worldwide smash. I was instinctively repelled by its sexist drivel and cuckoo-clock tune." She was disappointed when it was selected as the song she would use to represent the country, but it won the contest hands down, though it has always been felt that this was partly due to her existing popularity on the continent (she had recorded most of her hit singles in French, Italian, German and Spanish). In her own words, "I hated it from the very first 'oompah' to the final 'bang' on the big bass drum. Of the five songs performed, "Puppet on a String" was Shaw's least favourite. Taylor wanted to give Shaw a more cabaret appeal and felt that this was the right move – and also felt that it would get Shaw back in the public's good books as she had recently been involved in a divorce scandal. She had never been taken with the idea of taking part in the contest but her discoverer, Adam Faith, had talked her into it, saying it would keep her manager Eve Taylor happy. Sandie Shaw had originally performed the song as one of five prospective numbers to represent the United Kingdom in the Eurovision Song Contest 1967 on The Rolf Harris Show.