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Petula Clark is one of those stars from yesteryear who (from the current-day perspective of someone who "wasn't there") looks old before her time in pictures from the 1950s and 1960s, and yet some forty years later seems to look if not younger then certainly less frumpy. Whether this is due to plastic surgery or a pact with the devil I'm not sure, but "Downtown" certainly shows its age both in terms of its lyrics, about the bright lights of the amazing shops and bars, and its brassy arrangement.

Timeless, however, is the remarkable, unabashed bluntness of the truck driver's gear change forced into the middle of the song. It's simply uncalled-for. Personally, I can't listen to it without falling to the floor, as if I've been whacked in the back of the knees with a piece of scaffolding. All in all, the gear change massively violates my human rights, and I'm considering taking Petula Clark all the way to Strasbourg.

I present here the German version for maximum entertainment value. (I believe this is off the 1968 German album called simply Petula Clark – not to be confused with her 1975 album Petula Clark in Deutschland.)

Listen!

Related stuff

I was kind of surprised to discover the existence of the very thorough petulaclark.net – which she refers to as "PetNet", though this sounds like a website where you might buy a flea collar. It's worth checking out just for the hilarious graphic of her signature, after which she has appended ".NET". In a desperate bid to escape the shadow of "Downtown", she boasts a career in which she has been (and I quote): child performer, television star, film star, recording artist, composer, French chanteuse, sixties icon, international concert headliner, and musical theatre's Norma Desmond. It doesn't take long to deduce from her site that she's still "big in France"; though perhaps she should consider adding another string to her bow as a "German chanteuse".

Tony Hatch, of course, is the man who went on to bring us such gems as "Theme from Crossroads" and "Theme from Neighbours".