Petula was the oldest of the British girl singers, she was 35 when this was released. She had a wonderful voice and the songs that she chose to sing were outstanding. Like this. I've just noticed that she's 89 now.
When I was a little 9 year old Petula was the first British girl singer I ever heard and saw on TV. I got big crush on her. she was an important sound of the 1960's along with producer / song writer Tony Hatch's help. Phil Spector had nothing to do with Petula Clark, lucky for her. When we first heard her sing that line take off your coat and close the door" we thought she sang "take off your clothes and close the door" and couldn't stop laughing until we heard it a few times more. such a beautiful voice! Clark was always a singer since childhood and a child actress. You really should look up this stuff ahead of time rather than guess. it's just a click away....
Spectacular singer. I love Petula's voice. I was sold after hearing "Downtown" So crisp and clear. She started out as a child entertainer on the BBC. Thanks Harri. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
This great lady made a few more albums in recent years including on one a remake of Downtown Harri. She also played the lady from Mary Poppins who sings Feed the Birds tuppence a bag !"on stage in the West End. Her career has spanned the decades. I bought those 2 albums. They were great. Cut copy me was one of the tracks. Very 21st century And you thought she was a singer from the past lol
Love Petula Clark's music! This is another great singer from the 60's British Invasion. She has had a string of great songs such as "Downtown", "I Know A Place", "My Love", "A Sign Of The Times", "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "Who Am I", "Colour My World", "This Is My Song" (by Charles Chaplin), "The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener", "Kiss Me Goodbye" etc. Petula Clark also starred alongside Fred Astaire in the musical fantasy film "Finian's Rainbow" in 1968.
As a child, I watched with my parents and sisters Ms. Clark's live performance of her hit "Broadway" - fresh of the plane from the UK - on the Ed Sullivan Show. I saw her last at a performance of the play "Sunset Boulevard" with my late mother at the Bass Concert hall on the University of Texas campus. She played the aging, and mostly forgotten, silent film star, Norma Desmond. What a long long and illustrious career she has had. This was good stuff, Brandon - great selection!
Childhood memories!! Okay, actually much better than okay, right boomers?! Love it. Much more restrained and judicious use of space than Spector, imo, despite some beautiful lush touches in the winning arrangement.
MORE "British invasion", sir, & a real charmer this time! Ms. Petula Clark is just a delight to listen to. If you haven't already, you may want to check out another of her songs, "A Sign Of The Times", another hit for her. You mentioned you heard some Beach Boys influence here. Well, your fave band AND mine, The Beatles, got together with that California crowd on one of their USA tours, & actually wrote songs for each other. Listen to "Back In The USSR", by the Fab 4, & you can hear Beach Boys all OVER it. Thanks for this nostalgic reaction, sir!
Petula is a favorite of mine. She still going, was on tour before COVID hit and she's playing the bird lady in a stage show of "Mary Poppins." She has plenty more great songs too: I Know a Place, You'd Better Come Home, A Sign of the Times.
Believe it or not, she's still performing at 89. On 25 June 2019 The New York Times Magazine listed Petula Clark among hundreds of artists whose material was destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire. She's been singing since 1940 at 7 years old, that is one long career!
Great pick Brandon, Always liked her songs. My favorite of hers was " I couldn't live without your love" But all her other hits are a close second. Thanks Brandon and you too Harri. 🙃👍🇬🇧🇺🇸🇨🇦
Such a wonderful voice! Like others here have said, I was fortunate enough to hear and follow Petula when I was a kid. Still find her voice to be AWESOME!!! Thanks Harri! Great job!!
Great reaction Harri - you're quick on the uptake! Remember hearing this on the radio as a child, but don't think I ever really listened to the words, or if I did, wouldn't have understood the concepts. Listening properly now ( like you!) I'm surprised to realise it's actually a very powerful ego-deflating message, but tenderly done as a deceptively lightweight song in Petula's sweet, clear, non-nonsense voice. Unisual song; thanks for making me listen and appreciate it.
Petula Clark was gorgeous, successful, and incredibly accomplished. I was going to recommend Downtown, until the end when you said you played it to dearth, so you know it! How about trying her The other man's grass is always greener. -? Good reaction Harri.
Petula was a huge star in the '60s. Some of my favorite Petula hits are "Colour My World," " The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener" and "American Boys." But she also had many others.
Another Sixties song that was compared to the Beach Boys/Spector sound was Nino Tempo's "Boys Town," which was so similar to Brian Wilson's style that some people thought he had secretly produced it.
Love this.. And yes if only you'd been 'a few' years older, you'd have had a hit Harri... 😅 I Know a Place is another that doesn't get much recognition.
Nice. She's my dad's favourite female singer... each time my mum was preggers he suggested the name Petula (mum kept shooting him down saying there didn't need to be 2 Petula Clarks in the world). I do love this song, equally a favourite along with Downtown... oh and also I Know A Place.
It's a beautiful record from the swinging 60s London scene. One of my favorite 60s artists. Thanks for the reaction. Check out her hit 'Call Me' if you're feeling sad and lonely.
You were dead right in identifying this as a ‘wall of sound’ type production, but don’t hold that against Petula Clark. She was a fresh breath of British air in the day.
About Petula and wall of sound orchestrations, here my suggestions of two tracks sung by her. "Heart" (the most insane Tony Hatch's work) and "Hello Mister Brown". Some other great English arrangers who did crazy wall of sound arrangements were Charles Blackwell and Ivor Raymonde. For example "Non non ce n'est pas un rêve "for Françoise Hardy by Blackwell or "The sun's gonna shine anymore" by Raymonde for the Walker brothers. A treat.
Some vocalists get really, really lucky when gifted writing teams choose to write hits for them e.g. Dionne Warwick, The Ronettes, etc. but like any hitmaker will tell you there comes the time when THAT sound is no longer commercially successful. The sounds change and along with those sounds so do the writers. THAT singer might get lucky again with someone new but the writers often get left behind once the sounds change. It's so hard to wrap one's head around writing/producing something very different.
ah one of my faves when I was a kid. 61 now and still love it, they don't make this kind of music anymore. Lyrics weren't that important back then - it was all about creating a sound,
Wall of Sound - The UK had two pretty good orchestras - The Tony Hatch Orchestra (effectively Pye's session guys) and Keith Mansfield Orchestra (Same for CBS) would blow away anything with the richness (and double tracking) of them (Tony Hatch did a lot of the Pye Producing, Mike Smith much of the CBS ones)
This is an odd one. I always thought it was like two songs intercut with one another - and maybe that's how it started out! I was never a great fan of her choice of songs, but she has a great voice which double tracks very well.
Face it Harri. You are actually Houdini. Good call on those lyrics...and this artist. I understand it much better now having had a life, and having gone through the charades and self-serving. Ego is a shell beyond which is life with others.
Sir-----------written, arranged & produced here in the USA, at Gold Star Studio, by Petula's husband , Tony Hatch. He did all of her biggest hits. -------------------MJL< 75 y/o
Great to see you react to an iconic singer. An other iconic voice is Judith Durham from the Seeker's, maybe try I am Australian, from Seeker's special farewell perfomance ( shared singing with her band, and ama,ing harmony).
I think it's quite clover how the chorus don't sleep.in , changed so dramatically from the verse And l love the back ground singers parts Love the tune
The baby boomers are very kind. After all Moon repredemts Parvarti who cook for Shiva while he spends the whole day meditating. Shiva has a big ego but a kind heart too like Parvarti. He represents the Sun, Generstion X. That is why for a time the world can still revolve. Until Generstion Y and the subsewuent generation who can't see why they should tolerate with big egos.
A sort of answer record I felt was Mitch Murray and Peter Calendar's Ragamuffin Man recorded by Manfred Mann - landed gentry renouncing their wealth to take an adventure in squats in London
Have you ever given credit to an artist or producer without saying they copied someone else ? I think you have let Cosmo tell you what to think for so long, that you don't have the ability to credit an artist's talent as their own, without attributing it to someone else.. I certainly won't be seeing anymore from you.. good luck
I think Harri for this one forgets the British "Big Band" Tradition, with dance bands around the country in the 1950s, themselves drawing on the 1940s American Big Bands, which in turn came out of the 1920s /30s Jazz and bands, with British and American leaders and members moving back and forth as whole tours or guesting or longer membership of each band.
