Category: Petula Clark

A gigantic thank you goes to my twin sister Jean for spotting this video on YouTube. And thanks to “MrNatashaRostov” for posting it! But having learned the hard way to not depend upon anything staying on YouTube, I’ve grabbed it and will put it on my server.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/PetChildStar.flv 400 300]

Seeing this, I think I can now understand why the English were so reluctant to see their little Pet as a grown-up.

A Pet Clark video that’s readily available online is “A Sign of the Times,” a perfect piece of Mod Sixties exuberance. I’m relatively sure it’s from “Where the Action Is,” an ABC-TV show produced by Petula Clark’s brother Dick. Kidding! The transfer on YouTube isn’t bad, but it’s not good enough to really appreciate the quality of the original source material, so I’ve made a better one.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/SignOfTheTimes.flv 400 300]

Great stuff! The recording seems to be a different take from the studio release, and the sound quality is outstanding for a TV show. The British sports cars are a nice touch. Besides the fabled Jaguar XKE there’s an Aston Martin DB5, the James Bond car.

In the documentary This Is My Song, Pet says she enjoyed being on a set with dancers, and this video has a wild bunch of them doing some crazy moves! The choreography bears the unmistakably distinctive style of Toni Basil. Below is a video clip of Toni dancing with somebody that I assume you recognize. He was in a band with a guy named Mickey.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/DaddysSong.flv 400 300]

I’ll toss in the studio recording of “Daddy’s Song,” taken from a Japanese import LP I bought many years ago. Once again I point out that vinyl, at its best, sounded not too bad at all.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/DaddysSong_Monkees.mp3]

…and this is the song recorded by the guy who wrote it.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/DaddysSong_Nilsson.mp3]

In 1982 Toni Basil had a hit single of her own, called “Mickey.” It went like this.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/AUG07/Mickey.mp3]

ADDENDUM: Mr. D.F. Rogers points out that the Petula Clark number is actually from, of all things, The Ed Sullivan Show. Although it seems a little too groovy for old Ed, it makes sense given the lavish production and the quality of the video tape and audio. This photo is from Sunday, April 17, 1966.

The Ed Sullivan Show was produced in New York, of course (David Letterman now originates from the same studio). This puts doubt into the choreography being that of Toni Basil, who primarily worked in California. Never let it be said the DogRat blog isn’t interested in getting the facts right!

A while ago I posted a video of Petula Clark on a Dean Martin show from, I’m pretty sure, 1970. It was after Goodbye Mr. Chips, because there are a couple of references to the movie.

I was bugged by the poor quality of the video that I’d snagged from YouTube. I tend to get obsessive about such things, and I like to fix them when I can. So here is “Call Me” again, but this time the transfer was done right, by yours truly, complete and without cuts, edits, or distracting overlays. This is silly fun, and what a time capsule it is! The influence of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In — a show I absolutely loved — is apparent.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/PetCallMe.flv 400 300]

My mother’s old chum Ernie is in there. Ernest Borgnine.

As promised in a comment I made yesterday, here she is, Miss Petula Clark, in Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Enjoy. I’ll post some more a little later.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/AUG07/GoodbyeMrChips.flv 450 225]

Thanks go to Cactus Lizzie for pointing out that Ovation TV — which, yes, I have on FiOS — is showing Petula Clark: This Is My Song. The FiOS DVR is all set to record it.