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Petula Clark began as a singing child prodigy. Promoted and tutored by an enthusiastic father, she had started singing professionally at the age of seven and she became a familiar singing voice on wartime radio. By the end of the 1940s she was an established singing artist and she also appeared as an actress in several films of the era. She was still a youthful artist when she made her first hit record, 'The Little Shoemaker' in 1954. A series of UK chart hits followed. This was matched by her popularity in France where she made many concert appearances and recorded in French. By the end of the 1950s she had made a decision to live and work mainly in France because she still suffered from her pre-pubescent image in the UK. She was soon to marry Frenchman, Claude Wolff an executive at the Vogue record company. |
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Petula Clark has had a large number of EPs releases both in the UK and in France. The one shown on the left (NEP24280) is one from the late 1960s and contains some of the best work she produced in conjuction with Tony Hatch. |
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Her series of successful singles continued into the 1960s, though her record sales were still largely in the UK and France. However, in 1964 she teamed up with songwriter Tony Hatch to produce the international smash hit 'Downtown'. This partnership would sustain her record making career for several years during which she developed a new, younger, UK audience who were totally unaware of her precocious beginnings. By the end of the 1970s her production rate of singles had slowed down and the hits had finally ceased. At this point she resumed her acting career, but remained a popular singing star who can look back on an astonishingly successful and lengthy career. |
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