Customer Reviews

Colour My World/the Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener

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This is a wonderful coupling of two of Pet's most commercial Pye albums, recorded at the height of her international popularity in 1967 and 1968, with her remarkable vocal consistency and range of song material well in evidence. Apart from the albums' hit title songs, there are great versions of ENGLAND SWINGS, WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL and WHO AM I? which vie with more eclectic numbers like WHILE THE CHILDREN PLAY, ISLE DE FRANCE, THE CAT IN THE WINDOW and THE BALLAD OF THE SAD YOUNG MEN. Contemporary 60's arrangements up-date BLACK COFFEE, ANSWER ME and I COULD HAVE DANCED ALL NIGHT and there is a sprinkling of Hatch / Trent compositions, as well as a few which display Pet own writing talents. The Lennon and McCartney songbook is represented by a lovely romantic version of HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE. A trio of bonus tracks complete this delightful and generously timed collection which hopefully will find new admirers for Pet after they have been entertained by this great reissue.

In my opinion Petula Clark was the best female vocalist of the 1960's. Her unique rich, crystal clear vocals and ability to incorporate elements of jazz in her pop recordings are displayed in this CD. The outstanding quality of the incredible quantity of her 60's recordings is astounding, and she also recorded in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Love Is A Long Journey is a beautiful song in which Pet 's unique vocals create an eerie/haunting mood. What Would I Be is an outstanding dramatic, up-tempo song. Included are excellent covers of Cherish, Winchester Cathedral, Reach Out, I'll Be There, and The Last Waltz. Her version of England Swings is interesting, but not as good as the Roger Miller original. Both the Beatles and Claudine Longet's beautiful version of Here There And Everywhere were markedly superior to Petula's slowed down version, and her recording of I Could Have Danced All Night is weird and funky. Pet's unique interpretative ability is exhibited in The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener, Colour My World, and her playful and dramatic The Cat In The Window.

Petula was one of the best female song writers and included on this album are some excellent selections she co-authored including Please Don't Go, Love Is A Long Journey, Isle De France, and While The Children Play. Her compositions were much less commercially successful than those written by Carol King, but they are generally more sensitive, romantic, and sensual. Fans of Petula Clark will enjoy this CD. If you are reading this review, you should check out Pet's outstanding foreign language CDs.

Petula probably recorded more music in the sixties than anybody else, but never sacrificed the quality. These recordings, mostly from 1967 or 1968, but including four from 1966, are among Petula's finest. There are her own hits (Color my world, Other man's grass, Who am I? and Cat in the window) plus a lot of covers and less famous originals.

Among the covers are England swings (Petula really swings on this, in a way that Roger Miller never did), Cherish (The Association), Winchester cathedral (New vaudeville band), Reach out I'll be there (Four tops), Here there and everywhere (Beatles), Smile (Nat King Cole), Black coffee (Peggy Lee), The last waltz (Engelbert Humperdinck - Petula's French version was a French hit for her), Answer me (Frankie Laine) and I could have danced all night (from My fair lady). The variety of sources is wide, but I would expect nothing less from Petula. You can't tell which are the old songs from Petula's versions, because they've all been suitably updated for the sixties.

What would I be? was written by Jackie Trent, who wrote so many of Petula's great songs. For whatever reason, Val Doonican was allowed to have the British hit, but Petula's version is much more potent. I like Val, but his laid back style doesn't really suit the song. In any case, it's a pity that Petula's version wasn't released as a single in America, where it could have been a massive hit.

Petula wrote, jointly with others, Please don't go, While the children play, Las Vegas, Special people, Isle de France, For love, Love is along journey and I'm begging you. She was a very talented writer, although her songs were often very personal and not hit material - but they stand the test of time well.

This is one of several great twofers covering Petula's sixties music. Enjoy it !

Contains a lot of hard to find songs like Special People. Truly worth you money, especially if you like Petula Clark.

In this Album,I like "What Would I Be? " especially.
There is extremely little information about her in Japan; particularly recently.
However, I understand that she original characteristic is shown when I listen to this CD.
It understands a good point surely slowly.

If you are Petula Clark fan, you must have the songs she sang at the height of her popularity. These are them. These are two cornerstone albums that make up the cherished dozen. You can easily hear why she had such broad appeal from the very young to the older crowd - they all liked Pet. She was that rare phenomenon - a singer that appealed to the widest gamut. The reason is easy to understand - her vocal gift is easy on the ears and she uses her voice well with great vocal taste. So without any further delay - get it and start listening. Her gift of song is a gift of love.