Petula Clark was born on November 15, 1932 and is still going strong.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petula_Clark

This is cause for celebration:

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Well, this thread should be good for at least four or five pages. And if by "going strong" you mean "hasn't made a movie since 1981" than I suppose Klinton Spilsbury's career is going strong as well.

Never heard of her. I won't celebrate.

My mom likes her as much as the next baby boomer, but shouldn't this be in Music?

Her presence is still felt. She still performs. See: www.petulaclark.net

Her appeal being truly universal, in 2004, her song "La nuit ne finit plus" was featured prominently in the prize-winning Portuguese film A Costa dos Murmúrios (The Murmuring Coast / Le Rivage des Murmures) by Margarida Cordoso (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0406669/combined) about the Portugal-Mozambique war, as being emblematic of both the sixties and... heartache.


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This song is the French version of Bono and Nitzsche's "Needles and Pins" (1961):

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And she still sings it:

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Meet Pet:

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Only if you sweep her 41 films as an actress, 33 soundtrack contributions and three original film scores as composer under the carpet.

does she do porn? bc if not i don't know her.

Here's something that is more at your level: http://avn.com/video/articles/33099.html

From Finian's Rainbow (Francis Ford Coppola, 1968):

With Don Francks:
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With Fred Astaire:
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This is a weird thread.

It gets weirder...

In 1968, Petula became the first white woman to touch a Black man on American television when she put her hand on Harry Belafonte's arm while singing her own anti-war song "On the Path of Glory" during the NBC "Petula" special. It created a controversy and pretty much ended her American career.


Sample: http://mog.com/music/Petula_Clark/Du..._Path_of_Glory

The 40th anniversary of this event is being commemorated here: http://www.petulaclark.net/ipcs/paley.html

The show's producer discusses the event:

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I don't have a problem with a happy birthday to Petula thread, but why start it two weeks early? And why for her 76th birthday. Seems like an odd birthday to mark.

Because she may not have that many birthdays left and I didn't think of it before. It's also nice to plan ahead. I can't believe the number of negatives here: one rude crapper wants this to be about porno, one poster says she's too old to have a birthday, one says this belongs in music, one takes the trouble to say he's never heard of Petula Clark, and now this? What has become of DvdTalk?

I also like the idea that you might learn something you didn't know before.

Soundtracks and scores aren't music?

Only 13 days to go! I'm pumped!

Soundtracks and score contributions are movie-related. So are movies, by the way. D'uh!

The only objections that haven't been raised so far are:
1. Her hair looks funny,
2. She's from a different country than mine and I find that disturbing,
3. She is of Welsh ancestry and the Welsh have cooties,
4. She's still alive, and
5. She touched a Black man on American TV.

But there are still 13 days to go... so you never know. The lengths to which people may go to to say they have nothing to say are always astounding.

On the bright side, her next landmark birthday is in 24 years, so I can always try again.

Fun Fact...

Petula Clark has been eligible to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for "Downtown" and her other megahits since 1982 but has always been passed. See: http://www.futurerockhall.com/artist...d=Petula_Clark

The three main objections are:

1. Shouldn't that be in Adult Contemporary? (See: http://www.rateitall.com/i-724876-petula-clark.aspx)
2. She's from a different country than mine and I find that disturbing,
3. She touched a Black man on American television.

This post is friggin' awesome.

I for one welcome our new Petula overlord. (bowing for birthday)

Composed by Petula:
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With Alec Guinness in The Card (Ronald Neame, 1952):

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The life of Petula Clark is like a history of the XXth Century in miniature and she has touched my life several times. I will always remember that my father Roland Racine told us that, while a Canadian lieutenant training soldiers for D-Day in England in 1944, he was entertained by a funny little child performer who sang French-Canadian songs and whose name was Petula. When she came to his consciousness again, in the late fifties, as a French singer with a cute British accent, he realized there couldn't possibly be two singers called Petula and that it was probably the same individual.

When "Downtown" became a hit in the United States (1964), Pet had pretty much given up any thoughts of an international, let alone American career. She was still recording English songs for the British market but was mostly busy singing the songs that Boris Vian, Pierre Delanoë, Serge Gainsbourg and Jacques Brel were writing for her. As luck would have it, she was actually touring French Canada, which includes my native Quebec, when "Downtown" hit the top of the US charts. I remember the dumbfounded looks on my teenage friends' faces when they heard her singing in English for the first time... on the radio.

In 1969, when John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to hold their historical bed-in at the Hotel Queen Elizabeth in Montreal, Petula happened to be singing four blocks away at Place des Arts and dropped in for a visit and some guidance from John about the English part of the audience not wanting to hear her French songs and the French part being indifferent to her American hits. John's advice: "Fuck'em."

She was captured on film singing along with the impromptu recording of "Give Peace a Chance". She appears at 4:12:

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She was always serious about her anti-war work, as exemplified by this TV duet with Peggy Lee (1970), her all-time idol:

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Three years ago I saw Petula Perform at the ANDY WILLIAMS MOON RIVER THEATER in Branson, MO.

She sang 7-8 songs plus 3 duets with Andy.
Good Times!!!