Customer Reviews

Songs of My Life: The Essential

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If you're a big fan of Petula Clark like I am, then this collection is for you. Not only does it have her big hits on it, there is a fine selection of some of her best album work. The three CDs show her versatility. I truly believe that Petula can sing anything, whether it be rock, easy listening, blues, or country. I particularly like her cover versions of popular songs. She truly makes them her own. Enjoy!

There must be a million Petula Clark compilations out there but if you are looking for the best of the best, I would recommend "The Ultimate Collection" (2002), Kaleidoscope (2003) and this three disc set which covers mostly her 60s and early 70s work.

All the major hits, including "Downtown", "I Know A Place", "My Love" and "This is my Song" are spread out amongst the three CDs, in addition to the many album tracks and covers featured here. This may be too much for the casual Petula Clark, but if you are burgeoning fan like I am, this is worth adding to your collection.

Petula Clark is more than well represented in this mostly 60's 3 cd set.She shows her romantic and tuneful craftmanship on these A and B sides with some select cuts from her warner years.
I found this 3 cd set broken into themes(each cd),as fresh as pop music comes. Her collaborator Tony Hatch is largely responsible for the creative original song writing. Petulas covers of Charlie Chaplin's "Eternally","Smile",and "This is my song" are romantic and deliciosly produced.You'll be going"uptown" if you buy this beautiful set.It is collector colorful,and any Petula fan should be proud to own it!
This cd set has so many hits it reminds one of Petulas clout as England's most popular female singers of the 60's.She rivals Dusty Springfield in her range and good taste in production.

The essential collection of petula clark...What a range of music.from mellow to soft rock,and pop...With 78 tracks,wow...You really get a super deal...This boxed set includes her hits,cover songs and b tracks...You will get to hear her full range of talent...This album is great for sixties collectors,of all ages...5 star recommended...Thank you.

This triple CD focuses on Petula's most popular years, with a theme for each CD. The first CD shows what the swinging sixties was as all about with plenty of up-tempo rocking songs. It includes the inevitable big hits - Downtown, I know a place, I couldn't live without your love, Don't sleep in the subway, Color my world, A sign of the times, Round every corner, The other man's grass is always greener - but it also includes many minor hits and album tracks. The second CD is described as mellow but is really an easy-listening collection. Some of the songs (including This is my song, Kiss me goodbye and Happy heart) do not fit my definition of mellow. With fewer hits than the first CD, this CD is dominated by album tracks. The third CD is supposed to showcase Petula the diva by including some of her most dramatic performances that don't belong on either of the first two discs. Actually, some tracks would sit comfortably on one or other of the first two discs but I can see what the compiler was trying to do with this set.

Aside from Petula's own hits, the songs are a mix of covers and originals. Some of the originals (You're the one, Call me, I don't know how to love him) later became hits for others and are not generally thought of as Petula's songs. Among the other originals, I particular like 31st of June, which rarely appears on compilations of Petula's music.

Among the covers, there are plenty of song that fans of sixties music will recognize, all of which Petula sings superbly. I was particularly pleased to find Have I the right (Honeycombs) and I want to hold your hand (Beatles). If Petula had recorded faithful covers of these songs, they would have belonged on the first CD, but Petula's very romantic interpretations of these songs belong where they are - on the second CD. Other notable covers include A groovy kind of love, Games people play, San Francisco, Let it be me, Here there and everywhere, Hey Jude, Fool on the hill and Windmills of your mind, but there are plenty of other classic covers here too.

Of course, if you want Petula's pre-Downtown music (including Sailor and Romeo), you must look elsewhere (and it's easy to find), but this outstanding compilation provides a thorough overview of Petula's best years.

I collected over a dozen Petula Clark vinyl Lps back in the 80's during the "1960's Music Renaissance' - mostly Lps from her popular heyday 1964-69, and though I haven't listened to any of those vinyl editions since back then, I recall there were many impressive album tracks - in fact, too many to list here - plus Petula's superb 'covers' of other artists' hits. I'd bought Petula's "Greatest Hits"[Crescendo; 1990] & "Downtown-Greatest Hits Of..."[Buddha;1999] Cds when they were issued, but they were mostly limited to her more popular hits, a dozen or more tracks per set & what I wanted at the time, but over the years since, more of her vintage music has become exposed and rediscovered. I remember seeing Petula on TV variety shows during my childhood, and my older cousins and classmates' older siblings playing her 45's on their phonographs. I was blessed with great musical exposure - vintage 60's Pop-Rock as it was happening during my childhood in the 1960's...Petula Clark, Paul Revere & Raiders; Beach Boys; Dusty Springfield; Johnny Rivers; Bee Gees; Motown-Stax-Chess records artists; among dozens of other cherished favorites to this day. Years later, during my teens I would also begin collecting music and include those coveted artists' recordings from that Golden Decade. There was no escaping Miss Clark's sweet musical offerings - teens loved her and she seemed 'hip', yet much more than a trendy artist. Her music has endured, shines like a beacon from the past, glowing and rising above the present indistinct pop-rock schlock, sustaining a foundation of musical influence and inspiration well into the future. This "Songs Of My Life: The Essential" Mini-Box Set stretches beyond her 60's catalogue and it contains a wealth of great music not to be passed up or missed! Many gems and treasures here! Petula Clark issued her first recording in 1949, scoring a number of major hits in the U.K. during the 1950s, she also released singles in the U.S.A. as early as 1951, but it would take thirteen years before the American public would discover her. Clark released her debut album in 1956, enjoying European success for some time, but none of her LPs charted in either the US or the UK until 1965, beginning with "Downtown", her #21 American LP Chart album. Petula Clark has been long overdue for a Box Set, and this set seems to fill that void, as it covers her post 1963 musical career quite well and then some - deliciously expansive and every track here is a musical delight. This is the Ultimate Petula Clark Collection!

I have been a Petula Clark fan since the piano intro of her first hit, "Downtown." This collection suffers from too much schmaltzy cover songs that were not her hits. Speaking of which, this collection doesn't include all of her chart toppers....omitted are the unique and possibly her most creative single, "The Cat in the Window," along with the infectious, "No One Better Than You" and the country tinged, "Look At Mine.". Instead we get rudimentary covers of "A Groovy Kind of Love", "Smile" and a cringe inducing "I Don't Know How To Love Him"

On the plus side, the absolutely brilliant, "I Can't Remember Ever Loving You" and "Where Did We Go Wrong" are included and that's where the problem lies with this 3 CD set...there are so many more songs like this that should have been included. "When I Was A Child" "The Ad" "Butterfly" "Houses" "Couldn't Sleep" are not here. But the biggest sin is the omission of Petula's own composition, her anti-war song, "On The Path of Glory" a strong, well written song with equally powerful lyrics. The song created a stir in 1968 when Petula decided to sing this song with Harry Belafonte on her NBC television special and during the duet, she grabbed Harry's arm midway through the song...a white woman touching a black man on tv was too scandalous that sponsors threatened to pull out if it aired like that. Petula stood her ground and it aired just as she intended.

But this collection only offers glimpses of the depth and breath of her artistry. Its a shame because there is a bag of riches in her recording career which should have been included. Instead we get too much filler and subsequently, this collection does a disservice to an artist that deserves much better than this.

Buy the Ultimate Petula Clark CD..a far better collection to remember the Downtown Girl!