Petula Clark - "A Sign of the Times" (1966)

Petula Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.

Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1960s she became known internationally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown," "I Know a Place," "My Love," "Colour My World," "A Sign of the Times," and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". Clark's official website claims that she has sold in excess of 68 million records throughout her career.

Born to English father Leslie Norman Clark and Welsh mother Doris (née Phillips), both nurses, in Epsom, Surrey, England, she was christened Petula Sally Olwen Clark. Her father Leslie coined her first name, jokingly alleging it was a combination of the names of two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. As a child, she sang in the chapel choir and showed a talent for mimicry, frequently impersonating Vera Lynn, Carmen Miranda, and Sophie Tucker for the amusement of family and friends. Her father introduced her to theatre when he took her to see Flora Robson in a 1938 production of Mary Tudor; she later recalled that after the performance "I made up my mind then and there I was going to be an actress . . . I wanted to be Ingrid Bergman more than anything else in the world."[3] However, her first public performances were as a singer, performing with an orchestra in the entrance hall of Bentalls Department Store in Kingston upon Thames for a tin of toffee and a gold wristwatch, in 1939.

In October 1942, Clark made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and she volunteered a rendering of "Mighty Lak a Rose" to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes designed to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the United Kingdom with her fellow child performer Julie Andrews. Clark became known as "Britain's Shirley Temple", and she was considered a mascot by the British Army, whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for good luck as they advanced into battle.

In 1944, while performing at London's Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director Maurice Elvey, who cast her as precocious orphaned waif Irma in his weepy war drama Medal for the General. In quick succession, she starred in Strawberry Roan, I Know Where I'm Going!, London Town, and Here Come the Huggetts, the first in a series of Huggett Family films based on a British radio series. Although most of the films she made in the U.K. during the 1940s and 1950s were B-movies, she worked with Anthony Newley in Vice Versa (directed by Peter Ustinov) and Alec Guinness in The Card.

In 1945, Clark was featured in the comic strip Radio Fun, in which she was billed as "Radio's Merry Mimic".

In 1946, Clark launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show, Cabaret Cartoons, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply Petula Clark. A second, Pet's Parlour, followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in This is Petula Clark (1966-67) and The Sound of Petula (1972-74).

Petula Clark


Outside the Ed Sullivan Theatre
New York City, October 1966
Background information
Birth name Petula Sally Olwen Clark
Born 15 November 1932 (1932-11-15) (age 77)
Epsom, Surrey, England
Genres Popular music, theatre, film
Occupations Singer/actress/composer
Years active 1939present
Labels Pye Records
Vogue Records
Warner Bros. Records (U.S./Canada)

Category:

Music

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• A Sign of the Times
• 1966
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