Petula meeting fans on a recent visit to ParisPetula Clark has been around a long time, and for as long as I can remember, she’s been a part of my musical life. She started singing when she was around 5 or 6 at local talent shows, and had her first professional engagement singing with a band at the age of 7 in the escalator hall of Benthalls department store in London. She was “discovered” by the BBC in 1942, around the time of her 10th birthday, and went on to become a child star on the radio and in Rank Organisation films throughout the 40s, and as a teenager in the 50s.
When the bottom fell out of the British film business in the 1950s because television and American films between them had made them redundant, Petula concentrated on her singing career. She became a tv and radio star and indeed had a few hit records. But she had problems shaking off the “little girl” image she had picked up during the war and in the years just after. Older people wanted her to stay “Our Pet”, because the idea that she was growing up also signalled the approach of middle age for them. The teenagers of the 1950s wanted American Rock and Roll, not British copies. As she said herself, she was nowhere. But Petula was a trooper and she kept on singing and touring and waiting for something to happen........
Then one night in 1957 she was engaged to sing at the Paris Olympia on bill of European talent to mark the launch of a new Europe-wide music radio station. She had a stinking cold and could barely speak a word and yet she went out on stage, sang three songs, badly (according to her account of the evening), and in English, although she did attempt a “bonsoir”. Somehow (Petula reckons she will never understand why) she brought the house down. The Parisians loved the little English girl with her strange idea of what to wear and her typically British nasal cold. The next day the Paris newspapers were full of “La petite anglaise”, disregarding the big French stars who had topped the bill.
She was dragged somewhat unwillingly to the offices of Disques Vogue, a French recording company and, long story short, there she met a man, Claude Wolffe, who was to become her manager, and later husband. She hadn’t wanted to have a career in France but Claude persuaded her otherwise. She moved in with him and started to learn French. In France, with none of the baggage of childhood stardom, she was able to be the pop singer she longed to be, and not only in France but all over the French speaking nations of the world, topping the charts in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Canada, African countries and the Middle East too. Her fame spread to other Continental countries and soon she was recording in Spanish, German and Italian as well. Although she continued to have hits like ‘Sailor’, ‘Romeo’ and ‘My Friend the Sea’ in Britain, the main thrust of her work was in French. She even, on a couple of occasions, entered the British charts with French songs.
But soon that was to change too. In 1964, Tony Hatch, who, as her A&R man, was responsible for her recordings, was writing a song based on his first visit to New York. He thought it would be suitable for the Drifters. But on a visit to Paris to rehearse some new French songs (none of which she liked), he played her the music for it. She loved it and told him she wanted some lyrics. Three weeks later “Downtown” hit the charts in the UK and America, and another new career opened up for Britain's 'Pet' and France's 'Petite Anglaise'. Riding on the so-called “British pop invasion” of the 60s, Petula Clark became a huge success in America too with hit after hit in the charts both there and all over the English speaking world, including back home in the UK.
Of course eventually, as they do, the stream of hits dried up, but Pet carried on working. Las Vegas, Hollywood, and in time, the West End and Broadway made her a bigger and bigger star throughout the 70s, 80s and 90s.
Now in what some might call semi retirement in Geneva (and most other people would call a hectic schedule), Petula continues to tour all over the world with her concert act which includes some of the old hits and new songs too. She works tirelessly for charities and as a UN ambassador. She continues to record and write, and she holds records for the longest chart career with new material, having charted first in 1954 and most recently in the UK with “Petula Clark, Then and Now” in 2008, but having an even more recent entry (2009) in the Belgian chart.
I was lucky enough to meet this amazing woman some years ago when she was touring. (A mate of mine is one of her record producers and writers.) She is as charming and lovely as her songs. An international star with an ‘ordinariness’ you would find hard to believe, a crisp dry and self deprecating sense of humour and the ability to make you think that the conversation you are having with her is all about you, and not at all about her.
In Edinburgh a few years ago, at the Festival Theatre, she invited me to step up and sing a bit of “Downtown” with her. I suppose it’s a bit like singing ‘New York, New York’ with Sinatra, or ‘Imagine’ with John Lennon. An awesome experience that I’ll never forget.
The world is a better place for having Petula Clark and her music in it. November 15 is her birthday. Happy birthday or bon anniversaire, Petula. May you have many, many more.
Petula at a recent concert.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pse-DB1tJmA
