Rather than writing a blog on the dreary economic situation, I decided that music is more to my mood this evening. Accordingly here are three singers singing two great songs from 1964 that made them famous, and one by Shirley Bassey from 1965 that didn't make her any more famous than her international fame from "Goldfinger".already secured. I like the spy-movie camp quality of the soundtrack to "The Liquidator", and the basso nova tempo and Shirley's rafter-rattling delivery, so put it down to a guilty pleasure if you enjoy it as well!
Note---I wish I could give you the video of Dionne singing this first song but the soundtrack was removed by You Tube because the copyright holder won't allow it up. Bummer. Anyway, there's at least a picture of her above so you can look at something besides a microphone.
Petula look great....the male dancers around her seem a tad goofy.
Hmmm...looks like Rod Taylor and Jill St. John just got a look at the final draft of the script they had to act.
Can you imagine what those male dancers are thinking as they look back on that video? I sense a retiring under the duvet while they wait for it to finish. I have never been keen on Shirley Bassey, in spite of her tremendously strong voice, I couldn't take the exaggerated hand movements while she sings.
ReplyDeleteDionne Warwick is a singer with great timing. I believe, from the old films I've seen, Petula Clarke started her career acting, while she was a young child...
Thank you Doug, interesting!
Thanks for posting those blasts from the past Doug. They remind me of weekend TV when I was growing up.
ReplyDeleteMy mom didn't approve of Petula Clark because she lived in France and was apparently a naturist, she scored demerits on both counts.
My mom did like Shirley Bassey a lot though, because she was from Wales where her own dad came from, I'm not sure whether she ever actually listened to the songs, but she had firm opinions on both of these singers.
Dionne Warwick had a definite thumbs up from both my parents (so long as you pronounced her name right) because my brother had her records.
For some reason Frank Zappa was never on 'Sunday Night at the London Palladium' nor the 'Royal Command Performance' so my family had to find other reasons to dislike him which they did comprehensively.
Thanks for posting these clips Doug, don't hear those songs everyday....well not for a few decades anyway.
Indeed, regarding Petula Clark as a child actress. She was in Michael Powell's "I Know Where I'm Going" with Wendy Hiller. Her film career in the Sixties were a couple big musicals that did little at the box office sadly.
ReplyDeleteShirley Bassey's hand gestures brings a giggle to me. She was a bit over the top there. Without her singing range , she could have had a career as a flagger, helping taxi commercial planes into the terminals at Heathrow. :-)
I think of the three Dionne was the one I find most enchanting. Her early work holds up nicely today,although I can't tolerate "Do You Know the Way to San Jose". I grew up there and that was enough.
ReplyDeleteAnd, also, my parents liked the Dionne/Burt Bacharch sound. I didn't really rediscover her until the 80's when I matured a bit.
So Petula Clark lived in France, prancing about in her underclothes worshipping nature? O, O, Oh, but this is grievous news! :-) She probably listened to Zappa records in her basement at the Chateau I'll wager.
Thanks for sharing those memories AA.
When I watch old black and white films, they bring Petula out in some odd scene where she starts singing, there isn't even any lead up to the song, which seems strange. She must have made a fair sum of money though! I think she had a good few hit songs in her time, didn't she?
ReplyDeleteYou have found a perfect retirement job for our Shirley, hahahahahahaha....
Yep, I go for Dionne Warwick as well!