Chart entered : 15 January 1972
Chart peak : 47
Petula is still active so it's perhaps a surprise that she last scored a new hit single so long ago. On the other hand she was approaching 40 when this was a hit. I think I'm right in saying that she's still the most consistently successful British female in chart terms. Nevertheless her chart career had been in decline since "This Is My Song" hit number one in 1967 and she had two completely blank years in 1969 and 1970.
The song of course is from Jesus Christ Superstar and is sung by the actress playing Mary Magdalene. Petula never played the role ; she was probably alerted to it by her friend Jackie Trent recording it a little earlier. It's also notable for marking the first time its composer Andrew Lloyd-Webber was accused of plaigarising a classical composer for his melody , in this case Mendelssohn's violin concerto in E minor. Tim Rice's lyrics delicately skate on the thin ice of the exact nature of the connection between Magdalene and Jesus ( still hotly debated by Da Vinci Code devotees ) by merely posing a series of questions emanating from the woman's own confusions.
Petula's version is book ended by blasts of that familiar chorus ( well to people of my age who can't hear it without remembering its adoption by supporters and detractors of a certain Irish footballer of the time ) as if to remind people where it comes from. I'm not sure it does the record any favours. It was up against Yvonne Elliman's original version which most people regard as definitive and I wouldn't dissent from that opinion. Petula was old enough to be Yvonne's mother and it's certainly valid to do an older woman's version but she doesn't have the same purity of tone and I prefer the folk-tinged arrangement on the original to Johnny Harris's orchestrations. Sadly the two versions cancelled each other out, each peaking at 47 a couple of weeks apart. I say sadly because while Yvonne had her moment in the disco era a few years hence, it wasn't substantial enough to get her on here and Petula's partly responsible for that.
Not only was this Petula's last new hit it was her last single for Pye; she moved over to Polydor for her next single "The Wedding Song ( There Is Love)" in October 1972 which had been written by Peter Paul and Mary's Paul Stookey for his bandmate Peter Yarrow's wedding in 1970. It certainly sounds like the work of an American folkie in its declamatory wordiness but Petula's vocal is faultless despite her unfamiliarity with the style. It reached 65 in the U.S. and was a Top 10 hit in Australia.
Petula was busy with her own TV show, The Sound Of Petula which ran from 1972 to 1974. A year passed before her next single, "Lead Me On" , a duet with Sacha Distel which sounds like a good Eurovision entry but was actually a dud everywhere. Another year passed by before "Let's Sing A Love Song" which was written by two-hit wonder Lobo. It's a peerless piece of Olivia Newton-John style country pop and you get the feeling that it was Petula's very longevity that was counting against her.
By April 1975 she was back with Tony Hatch to record his and Jackie Trent's "I Am Your Song" a high class MOR pop song that sounds a bit like early Abba. I'm guessing it made the Radio Two playlist rather than Radio One's. She then returned to Pye for "The Wind Of Change " in May 1975, a Rod McKuen song set to a classical guitar melody that I recognise but can't name. It's got an extraordinary arrangement by Johnny Harris. Petula caresses McKuen's poetry with cut glass clarity with just the guitar for company in the first verse , then is joined by soft strings in the second. Then two minutes in, a disco beat kicks in for the middle eight and I was just jotting down "he's ruined it" when Petula comes back in with a wordless cry that's just spellbinding. I'm struggling to think of a better vocal performance in any genre. I have to say the close of the record is a bit drawn-out but it remains a stunning piece of work. Alas, it didn't get heard and it's the last single of her's for a long time that's worth another listen.
Two month later she took on "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line . It has the customary classy vocal performance and contemporary funky guitar albeit low in the mix but it's still a bit bland. She then recorded a regrettable disco version of "Downtown" which was almost immediately withdrawn presumably due to a negative reaction from her fans though it remained available in Germany where it got to number 45.
In 1977 she got a welcome boost when her French-language recording of "Don't Cry For Me Argentina " as "La Chanson d'Evita" got to number 8 in France. That might have been what persuaded CBS to take her on and she released her discofied version of "I'm Not In Love" in February 1978. There's a clip on youtube from French TV of her performing it in a skimpy outfit and she's in great shape for 46 but it's more enjoyable if you mute the sound. Two months later she had to change the title of her next single "Put A Little Sunbeam In Your Life" substituting "Sunshine" because she was advertising the Chrysler Sunbeam at the time. It has that late seventies cod-sophisticated sound that was common to expensive advertising campaigns at the time - you expect Petula to sing "That's Martini" at the end of each line - but actually sounds rather uncomfortable as the tempo is too fast for her to get the words out smoothly.
In November 1978 she did the theme for The Greek Tycoon , a ghastly turkey starring Anthony Quinn and Jacqueline Bisset. The song , written by another two-hit wonder John Kongos "Just A Dance With Time" isn't much better, starting out as a Streisand-esque ballad then going into a Greek-flavoured disco chorus. It's a real dog's dinner.
Petula seemed to realise she wasn't getting anywhere and it would be nearly four years before her next single . During this period she made her last forays into straight acting in film with Never Never Land in 1980 and on TV with Sans Famille in 1981. That year, at the urging of her children, she returned to musical theatre with a triumphant run in The Sound Of Music despite being at least 20 years too old for the role. Nevertheless the real Maria von Trapp acclaimed her the best ever,
She made her recording comeback with "Natural Love" in 1982 , a pleasant but forgettable slice of country pop that got to number 66 in the U.S. I haven't heard the follow-up "Dreamin With My Eyes Wide Open " but I'm guessing it was in the same vein.
Another hiatus ensued before "Mr Orwell" in February 1985 , a horrible Europop ditty celebrating the passing of 1984 written by a Quebecois songwriting partnership who'd go on to work with Celine Dion. Whether Petula wasn't really trying on such crap or her 53 years were starting to take their toll but her voice seems to have lost something of its magic on it.
Her next single was the awful "Downtown 88". This wasn't another re-recording but the 1964 version re-mixed by Peter Slaghuis which effectively meant bolting it on to a backing track that's very derivative of Blue Monday. Petula got behind it , though not without some trepidation, and did a live off-key vocal for it on Top Of The Pops which helped it to number 10, her last appearance in the UK singles chart. The same trick didn't work for "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" the following year
By that time she was working on the musical "Someone like You" for which she wrote the music . It opened in November 1989 in Cambridge and moved to the West End the following March to mixed reviews. The title track , a duet with Dave Willetts was released as a single but doesn't work at all out of context. In April 1990 it was suddenly shut down by bailiffs due to producer Harold Fielding's financial difficulties and hasn't been revived.
In 1992 she came up with a single "Oxygen" which was written by Nik Kershaw but sounds like The Pet Shop Boys. The near-60 year old Petula sensibly does it all in a low register and it's OK, nothing special.
The following year she made her Broadway debut in Blood Brothers working with David Cassidy then two years later started performing in the role she made her own , Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard which made her a star in America all over again. She was in it more or less continuously from 1995 to 2000. In 1998 she received an OBE.
In the 21st century Petula has shown few signs of slowing down with frequent tours and some CDs of new material. In 2011 she guested on The Saw Doctors' version of "Downtown" which made number 2 in the Irish charts. In 2012 she performed on Jools Holland's Hootenanny programme having not long turned 80 and 2013 saw the release of a new album "Lost In You". The single "Cut Copy Me" is a La Roux-ish electro ballad on which her voice is Autotuned into Gaga-esque inhumanity but I quite like it. It was reportedly a big hit in Belgium . A second single "Never Enough" is a country knees-up where the Autotuning is less obvious but still there if you listen closely. Long may she continue !
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