Happy belated birthday to another of our Patron Saints, Miss Petula Clark - who blew out 90 candles on her cake yesterday!
We saw her [for the second time - we went to see her one-woman show nine years ago] "on stage" earlier this year in the gala Sondheim's Old Friends: a celebration, and she certainly did not look anywhere near such a venerable age. She sang a beautiful rendition of I'm Still Here; most appropriate, given the fact that she is one of the UK's longest-serving singers, with a career spanning an amazing eight decades from WWII to date [she's still singing Feed the Birds in Mary Poppins on stage in the West End eight times a week!]..
Never one to stick to a musical genre, she's tackled French chanson, Music Hall, rhythm'n'blues, musical theatre [her "Norma Desmond" in Sunset Boulevard and "Mrs. Johnstone" in Blood Brothers were much-lauded], and of course pop - but in 2013 she surprised everyone with this very cool number:
Of course, it is for her string of classics from the 1960s that everyone loves her most - so let's have a wallow, shall we?
...and, bien sûr, this:
Many happy returns, Our Pet!
Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15th November 1932)
Oh, I rather like "Cut Copy Me" - I'd never heard it before.
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to remember whether it was Philip Schofield or Andi Peters who championed "Downtown" while they were in the CBBC Broom Cupboard. Surprisingly, Wikipedia doesn't list it in the 'popular culture' section of their article. For shame.
Anyway, a belated Happy Birthday to Petula!
I was too old to be an avid viewer of the "Broom Cupboard" continuity segments on Children's BBC, but it turns out it was (inevitably) Philip Schofield who championed Downtown - even mounting a campaign to get the song to #1. How did anybody (least of all his - ahem - wife) not know he was GAY??? Everybody in the world knew. Jx
DeletePS I am surprised you never caught Cut Copy Me the first time around. Evidently you weren't a "follower" of mine at the time, because I raved about it! - see here and here. Jx
DeleteI love Downtown! My family had the use of my Uncle's car for a holiday in Wales in the 70's - it had a fancy cartridge player with only two cartridges, one was Tammy Wynette, the other Petula Clark! Also, my cousin used to walk to school with Petula [my cousin was older than my mum who was his aunt!].
ReplyDeleteSx
Gosh. A cartridge player! The 70s really was a different world. Jx
DeleteOne wonders why Miss Scarlet's uncle chose those two particular singers, and nobody else.
Delete"Funny he never married". Jx
DeleteSo much talent, but thanks for finishing with Downtown!
ReplyDeleteIt's her greatest hit. I could hardly exclude it. 😎 Jx
DeleteYes...a spin down Memory Lane. Ye gods! That must, surely, be a holloway now! Thanks for trip. The lovely Petula featured at most of our parties back in the day...at one flat we'd put on Don't Sleep in the Subway as a signal that sleeping arrangements would be made for those who'd "missed the last bus."
ReplyDeleteWhat did you play if you wanted that bed to be shared, I wonder? Jx
DeletePS "Holloway"? That's round the corner from my office.
If that's her taste in curtains (pic2) I wonder what her taste in wallpaper is like.
ReplyDeleteLove Sailor, my mother had it on her "cleaning up" tape.
As you sail across the sea
All my love is there beside you...
Vymura.That plasticky wallpaper that you could get a nasty Chinese burn from if you rubbed against it.
DeleteSailor was Our Pet's first #1 single, and it was six years before she had her second, with This Is My Song. Even Downtown only got to #2 - held off by I Feel Fine by The Beatles! Jx
Oh, what a relief. When I saw her picture at the top of the post I thought she was another one who had slipped off to Fabulon. I am so glad to see I was wrong.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it does feel like this blog is a virtual obituaries column - thankfully Pet's still hanging in there, and Fabulon's just going to have to make do. There have been quite a few who arrived there this year already. Jx
DeleteWhen you mentioned the Grand Dame which is Petula Clark I thought of many things but not the opening track which is shocking because I loved it then as now.
ReplyDeleteEvery track that followed is a true classic. She was to good for us Brits and that is why the French snapped her up and took her to their hearts but she is always in mine.
Chanteuse Anglaise Incroyable
She was adopted by the French after she married one...
DeleteBut yes - she is our "national treasure" regardless, and always will be! Jx
Have always adored her. Good-bye Mr. Chips? Amazing.
ReplyDeleteI can't remember if I ever saw that film. If I did, it was when I was still a child. Jx
DeleteMy daughter loves Downtown!
ReplyDeleteDon't we all? Jx
DeleteIt's a masterpiece, it's just a surprise when a seven year old loves it.
DeleteShe love Dusty Springfield too, though she thinks Aretha Franklin's I Say A Little Prayer is a Judy Garland song called Give Me a Little Bread