Petula Clark

Singer/songwriter Petula Clark may be best known for the iconic ‘60s tune “Downtown,” but she’s actually one of the most commercially successful artists in British history with a music and film career spanning seven decades. Clark, born in Ewell, England in 1932, got her first taste of fame as a child singing for the troops in World War II. She moved into a successful film career before releasing her first hit single, 1954’s “The Little Shoemaker,” which was a Top 10 British hit. By the early ‘60s, Clark had reinvented herself as a French chanteuse, singing and performing in a new language, culminating in 1966’s C’est ma chanson. She reached international superstar status with her English-language track “Downtown,” which hit No. 1 in America. Clark followed that with an impressively long career on the screen (including 1969’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips) and a musical journey that saw her stage a comeback in 2022 with the glossy single “Luminescent.”