Category: Petula Clark

The One and Only Miss Petula Clark!

Petula on Steve Wright’s The Big Show

Steve Wright on BBC Radio 2 promised back here that Petula Clark would be on his show, and indeed she was, last Monday. I missed Cilla Black’s appearance, unfortunately, and if you go back to my Cilla post, you’ll notice “Anyone Who Had A Heart” is almost conspicuous in its absence. That’s because Wright played it shortly before chatting with Petula, and I was saving it for now.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/SteveWrightCillaBlack.mp3]

I let the recording run into the next song, to provide some flavor (excuse me, flavour) of the show. BBC Radio 2 is the only place I can go that gives me the same fun feeling I had as a kid listening to the legendary station Musicradio 77WABC in New York.

OK, so there’s Cilla Black’s cover of Dionne Warwick’s “Anyone Who Had A Heart,” produced by George Martin. That’s an excellent piece of work. Whether or not you consider this recording to be too close to the original, as a vocal it easily holds up in comparison to Petula Clark and Dusty Springfield. Clearly, based on this recording Cilla had the vocal chops, and with nothing else to go on I have to assume it was the way George Martin produced her that kept Cilla Black from greater popularity in America.

So let’s get to Petula’s chat with Steve Wright, shall we?

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/SteveWrightPetulaClark.mp3]

She doesn’t like being called “Pet”?? The last thing I said when I had my two minutes with her was, “Thank you, Pet.” Yikes! But… that was my one chance. Saying “Pet” isn’t supposed to convey to her that she’s thought of as a child star, because she never was one here. Well, what’s done is done, and there’s no taking it back. I’ll know better next time.

Two British “Birds”

As the risk of being a little too obviously obsessive here, I’ll follow up on a comment I added to my Cilla Black post, about a video that shows Petula Clark’s style, that you can compare to Cilla Black, who was at the cute and coy end of the sexiness spectrum. The video is a little dark, but serviceable. At this link you can read about the TV special they’re promoting.
[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/DeanPetPromo.flv 440 330]

Cilla Black, British Import

Will the three K’s in the girl group K3 ever find fame beyond Belgium and the Netherlands? I suspect not, with language being the reason why. Do any American network television producers even know about K3? Oh, yes. As of yesterday I am 100% sure of that.

Cilla Black with George MartinBut now let’s go back to 1965, when Petula Clark had a string of hit records that was perhaps unprecedented for any solo female singer. Certainly no other British woman has met with such success before or since. Julie Andrews specialized in musicals, of course.

Dusty Springfield broke onto the U.S. charts some months before Petula, and she was quite successful, although she never had a #1 hit here. But there was also another female English solo singer seeking success in America. Cilla Black was, like the Beatles, from Liverpool, and she was likewise discovered and managed by Brian Epstein.

Cilla Black provides an interesting contrast to Petula Clark. They’re both petite, with strong voices, but where Cilla’s appeal was being cute and coy, Petula’s primary charm was sexiness. With great popularity in England, Brian Epstein behind her, and George Martin producing her records, Cilla had the necessary advantages to succeed in America. But it didn’t happen.

Cilla Black made one appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It was on September 12, 1965, the same night the Beatles made their last live appearance for Sullivan. I featured a bit of it at this link eighteen months ago. And this is Cilla on that night.

[flv:/Video/2008/JUN/CillaBlackEdSullivan.flv 440 330]

In the recording studio, Cilla had the benefit of not only George Martin, but several songs written by Paul McCartney.

The first is “Love of the Love,” from 1963, which I think should have been done in a more laid back style.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/LoveOfTheLoved.mp3]

Then there’s “It’s For You,” from 1964, which I think has Martin making Cilla sound conspicuously like Shirley Bassey, who he had recorded recently singing the famous “Goldfinger” theme.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/ItsForYou.mp3]

… and “Step Inside Love” from much later, in 1968, with production values that point towards George Martin’s work with McCartney on “Live and Let Die.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/JUN/StepInsideLove.mp3]

Petula Clark’s UK Tour

Petula Clark’s UK tour starts Saturday. Details are here (look for “click here”). Dave Moncur, DogRat reader and resident of Scotland, will be seeing Pet live, and maybe he’ll share some details with us after the show.

According to the Petula Clark blog, Pet was scheduled to make a BBC Radio 2 appearance on Steve Wright’s show today (Friday), but that didn’t happen. Wright says in this audio clip that “starlet” (that’s cute) Pet will be “on soon.”

[audio:/2008/MAY/BBC2.mp3]

You’d think a savvy Brit like Wright would know Ms. Paltrow’s name is pronouced “GWYNeth,” and not “GWENyth.” The Petula blog also recently featured this new interview in The Telegraph, with her talking about vacations and travel. Pet certainly does a lot of traveling. I saw her in Connecticut just a few weeks ago!

New Petula Clark CD, Interview

THEN AND NOW - THE VERY BEST OF PETULA CLARKIf you happen to live in England, you’re in for a bit of good luck, because a new Petula Clark CD is about to be released, including five new songs! It’s called “THEN AND NOW – THE VERY BEST OF PETULA CLARK”, and it will be out on June 16th. It’s listed on Amazon’s UK site, but not yet here in America. The new songs are described here, on the new Petula Clark blog.

Petula fan Dave Moncur, our DogRat reader in Scotland, wrote to say that the Times Online has posted a new interview with Pet, Not Just Anybody: Petula Clark. The questions are funny and unusual, and I daresay some of them are the sort that only another woman would ask of her. Unfortunately, at the moment the dimensions of the photo of Pet on that page have been distorted. The JPG is here in its original and unmodified form, just like Pet herself, who assures us she’s never had any plastic surgery.

A New Petula Clark Blog

Last year there was a short-lived Petula Clark blog. There was some synergy between my Petula posts and “Petula Clark: Driven by Emotion,” but that blog met an untimely and abrupt end. Petula Clark’s UK fan club has just started a new Pet blog, that you can see by clicking here.