Search - Petula Clark :: My Love / I Couldn't Live Without Your Love

Brilliant originals, outstanding covers - typical Petula

Peter Durward Harris | Leicester England | 07/29/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first part of this twofer, the My love album, contains mostly original songs, while the second part, the I couldn't live without your love album, contains mostly covers. There are also three bonus tracks, which didn't appear on any original album.The songs are mostly upbeat, but there is plenty of variation in pace. Petula's hits here include Just say goodbye, A sign of the times, Round every corner and the two title tracks. Of the other original songs, my favorite is Two rivers, an autobiographical song about London and Paris, Petula's two cities with rivers running through them.The covers are mostly of sixties songs, including We can work it out (Beatles), Strangers in the night (Frank Sinatra), A groovy kind of love (Mindbenders - apparently the writers offered it first to Lesley Gore, who wanted to record it, but her management wouldn't let her), Rain (Beatles), Monday Monday (Mamas and Papas), Bang bang (Cher), Homeward bound (Simon and Garfunkel) and Elusive butterfly (Bob Lind). Petula's cover of Elusive butterfly blew me away when I first heard it on a compilation and it was one of the factors which caused me to realise that Petula was a far better singer than I had hitherto acknowledged.This is an absolutely stunning twofer, essential for any true Petula fan. For the less committed, it depends which songs you are looking for, but there's no filler here. If you enjoy Petula's music, you cannot go wrong with this."

Petula at her peak

Norman Landsburg | Chapel Hill, NC United States | 04/06/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

""My Love" is one of Petula's best albums from the 1960s era, perhaps of her whole 60+ year career. Even the title track, which Petula allegedly disliked, redeems its corny lyrics with a great beat and a catchy melody. The rest of the album is solid gold, featuring a cover of the Beatles' "We Can Work it Out" and the hit single "A Sign of the Times.""I Couldn't Live..." is mostly covers, as Pet was so busy with concert dates that she and her main songwriter, Tony Hatch, didn't have time to write much new material, aside from the upbeat title track and Pet's self-penned "Two Rivers." She does a very interesting cover of Frank Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," sort of her revenge for the Chairman of the Board's infamous cover of "Downtown," as well as Hatch-orchestrated covers of "Groovy Kind of Love" and "If I Were a Bell," the latter being from the musical "Guys and Dolls."The bonus tracks are also a nice supplement, the best one being the 1965 single "Round Every Corner."In short, any Petula fan must have this album."

A pair of Petula Clark albums from the year 1966

Lawrance M. Bernabo | The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota | 08/31/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This CD brings together a pair of Petula Clark albums from 1966, which was the year after she had his biggest hit with "Downtown" and became the first female vocalist from England to make it to the top of the Billboard chart. Throughout the Sixties she had major success on both sides of the Atlantic, but she remains the reigning queen of the British pop charts. Clark had another albums that year, "Petula 66," in which she sings in French (you have to heard "Un Jeune Homme Bien," otherwise known as "A Well Respected Man" by the Kinks). But "My Love" and "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" obviously make for a better combination. One of the great things about CDs is that you can always fit two albums from the 1960s on the same CD and still have room for bonus tracks.





"My Love" was recorded in New York City, the impact of which shows up in the production values for the album. As you would expect, the best tracks are written by Tony Hatch, who had penned "Downtown." On this album that would include the hit singles "My Love," which hit #1, and "A Sign of the Time," which topped out at #11 and is one of the better songs to comment on the Sixties (not that many actually did). "The Life and the Soul of the Party" is pretty fun, in a pop sort of way, and Hatch also wrote "The Thirty First of June," which sounds like a slowed down version of something Leslie Gore should be singing. Hatch and Clark also co-wrote several songs, "Hold on to What You've Got" and "Just Say Goodbye" with Pierre Delanoe, and "Time for Love" with Vito Pallavicini, "Dance With Me" with Hubert Ballay, and "Where Did We Go Wrong" by themselves, which is the best of that particular bunch. There is an interesting and almost minuet version of the Lennon & McCartney song "We Can Work It Out." The results are a bit uneven in terms of the pop sensibilities that Clark was into, so I would rate this one a four-star album.



"I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" begins with the title track, a Top 10 hit and another Tony Hatch number (you would have to be shocked if it did not since he clearly knew how to write for Clark's voice and vocal stylings). However, this album also has one of the best songs Clark wrote on her own with "Two Rivers," which is noticeably different from the rest of the songs. The two worked together with a couple of other composers on "There Goes My Love, There Goes My Life," which is the other stellar track. The recognizable covers are a mixed bag, which is crucial because on this album they constitute most of the songs. Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" is okay, but the cover of Lennon & McCartney's "Rain" that is just too peppy, or too pop, or too something for most people's taste. The best cover is a sexy version of Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine," with a gentle "Elusive Butterfly" and a perky "Strangers in the Night" in the running. I like Goffin & King's "Wasn't It You" a lot, but is it really a cover if you have never heard the song before? Clark also does a catchy uptempo version of Sonny & Cher's "Bang Bang" and the Mamas & the Papa's "Monday Monday," both of which are decent decent enough so that this album is actually the stronger of the two. It would come in at 4.5 stars.



This CD also has three bonus tracks. Tony Hatch's "Round Every Corner" is pretty good and you have to think it would have been a possible hit for Clark (it sure sounds like it should have been). Clark herself wrote the other two songs, the rocking "Where Am I Going?" and the ballad "Your Way of Life." You know, it would be interesting to have an album of Petula Clark songs all written by Petula Clark, because I hear a clear difference in the types of songs she wrote for herself from the hits Hatch was writing for her. These are certainly enough to make rate this album a solid 4.5 and because two are better than one I will round up."