If Robbie Leff keeps pointing out videos like this fantastic Petula-Beatles mash-up, I won’t have to think up any more ideas for blog posts!
The official Beatles mash-up is, of course, the Love CD, which has me thinking of the infamous Beachles mash-up of Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper that resulted in a cease-and-desist order for its creator from Capitol/EMI.
Swinging London wasn’t the only place in Europe that was swinging in the Sixties. France had its own brand of Pop music, with a decidedly feminine fragrance. This collection of videos includes Sylvie Vartan, Francoise Hardy, Chantal Goya, and France Gall. It starts with — surprise! — Petula Clark, who was a Pop star in France before returning to recording in English with “Downtown”.
As I’ve said before, I feel that Petula Clark’s career is one of the most impressive ever in popular entertainment. She started as an endearing child star in England, developed into a sexy adult actress, then became an international singing superstar — which was where we caught up with her in the States — and she’s still going strong!
I’ve spliced together about ten minutes of Petula as Lee Nicholls, a perky and resourceful stewardess in a 1954 comic caper flick, “The Runaway Bus”. It’s not the greatest print, but at least it’s available in the U.S., including Netflix.
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Oh, dear. Did I hear Pet ask for some uppers? No wonder she was so perky!
For a much more recent view of Petula, here’s a link recommended by David Moncur. Turn it up!
The A-side of this single by a British band went to #1 in the US in 1966, and it sounds nothing at all like the lovely little ditty on the B-side.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/WaitForMeBaby.mp3]D.F. Rogers says, “Needs more megaphone!” You are correct, sir! The song “Wait For Me Baby” is the flip side of the New Vaudeville Band’s megahit with a megaphone from 1966, “Winchester Cathedral”. I’m always amazed by how a 40+ year old piece of plastic that was beat on when new can sound so good. I doubt there were many original Rudy Vallee records from the 20’s that were playable in ’66.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/WinchesterCathedral.mp3]The YouTube player has the New Vaudeville Band performing the song, with the first tune, “Peek A Boo” being more interesting because it’s not familiar. (From there it’s an easy leap to Tiny Tim and to Robert Crumb’s Cheap Suit Serenaders.) Then Petula Clark sings “Winchester Cathedral” followed by a more familiar performance of her own hit, “This Is My Song.”
The original “Winchester Cathedral” LP, in my hands at this moment, doesn’t have “Peek A Boo”, so I had to find it elsewhere.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2009/JUL/PeekABoo.mp3]
The New Vaudeville Band, 1966
Thanks to my dad’s cousin Lawrie for tipping me off to (yet another) new online music service. This one is theRADIO.com. Type in a song or artist and it takes you to whichever category it belongs to. theRADIO.com is from some outfit called American Media Services Interactive, and at this point I feel almost overwhelmed by the choices available today for music, whether online on cable TV, and I don’t even have XM/Sirius or HD Radio.
What I’d really like is a free-form option — except no rap or hip-hop, thank you very much. I love playing DJ, so I played with theRadio.com for a while and skipped around genres while recording. The selection includes the Turtles, a Johnny Ramone instrumental (I checked the volume in the middle of it), Lucinda Williams (a fave of Carol’s), followed by my all-time #1 favorite Bob Dylan tune, and finishing with “Reason to Believe”, recorded while I was called away, so I’m not sure who it is. Some of the inflections almost sound like Petula, but it isn’t her. Marianne Faithfull, maybe?
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/DEC/RadioDotCom.mp3]Speaking of lovely Petula, Dave Moncur sent a link with some photos of our favourite glamour girl, who was performing in Utreht, Netherlands (K3 country!) recently. Thanks, Dave. She looks even better than when I saw her in May!
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.
