Petula Clark was one of the most prominent female singers of the 1960s but had a reputation as being a bit old-fashioned – perhaps because her show business career had actually started in the 1940s.
However, this track always sounded to me like it had a touch of the Beach Boys about it.
This clip seems to be from a German – or Austrian – TV show.
She first came to prominence in 1964 due to her association with The Rolling Stones (Jagger and Richards wrote her first hit.) She had a sweet but almost insubstantial voice suited to soft pop songs but by the mid 60s her singing career had stalled, in part due to a drugs scandal. She took up acting with some success though but mostly fell out of public consciousness.
Here’s Faithfull’s version of a Jackie DeShannon song that gave her her highest UK chart placing (no 4 in 1965 as compared to the no 9 achieved by As Tears Go By the year before.)
Marianne Faithfull: Come and Stay with Me
The song below is from her 1980 “comeback”* album of the same title, which is widely regarded as her best, not least by herself.
*Even if Dreamin’ my Dreams had intervened in 1976
Marianne Faithfull: Broken English
Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull: 29/12/1946 – 30/1/2025. So it goes.
Perhaps their most is Hold On, I’m Comin’ (a 1966 US no 21 and R&B no 1) but their first UK top thirty hit was Soul Man in 1967. Their highest UK chart placing came at no 15 in 1969 with Soul Sister, Brown Sugar.
Sam and Dave: Hold On, I’m Comin’
Sam and Dave: Soul Man
Sam and Dave: Soul Sister, Brown Sugar
Samuel David (Sam) Moore: 12/10/1935 – 10/1/2025. So it goes
I heard Brenton Wood’s death reported on the radio on 3/1/2025. The piece referred to a song of his I couldn’t remember ever hearing, The Oogum Boogum Song, which apparently became famous after being used in various films and TV shows.
What I remember Woods for is his 1967 hit Gimme Little Sign, a UK no 8. Here’s a Top of the Pops clip from February 1968.
Brenton Wood: Gimme Little Sign
Alfred Jesse Smith (Brenton Wood,) 26/7/1941 – 3/1/2025. So it goes.
First a straightforward use of the tune with love song lyrics. I did not know until I looked this up that it had first been recorded by Nancy Sinatra in 1962. In the UK Maureen Evans had a hit with it a year later.
His most famous work was done with King Crimson for whom he came up with the name and wrote most of the lyrics for the first four albums though he didn’t play on them.
I have featured his work before since he wrote the English language lyrics for Italian group Premiata, Forneria, Marconi (PFM.) The World Became the World is a prime example of Sinfield’s art.
Another of the most successful songwriters of the 60s, Ken Howard, has died. Together with his songwriting partner Alan Blaikley (whose death I noted here) he wrote hits for The Honeycombs, The Herd and, most notably, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich. Their songwriting list is impressive.
This was a no 4 for the latter band in 1965.
Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich: Hold Tight!
Later in their career Howard and Blaikley went into writing TV Themes and musicals.
This is perhaps the most familiar of those tunes.
Vejle Symfoniorkester: Miss Marple TV Theme
Kenneth Charles (Ken) Howard: 26/12/1939 – 24/12/2024. So it goes.
From the sublimely named LP Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake (don’t take up smoking kids). As I recall it came in a circular cardboard sleeve (and when released as a CD years later in a cylindrical tin resembling those tobacco was once sold in.)*
The Small Faces: Song of a Baker
*Looking it up it seems that the very first release was also in a tin but quickly replaced by the circular cardboard as the tin was too expensive and rolled off record shelves!
