The artist isn’t always the best judge of material. Petula Clark didn’t hear much potential in the song “My Love,” considering it to be on the slight side. Over the years, her opinion on it hasn’t softened all that much.
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But audiences loved it, both when it was released in 1966 and in all the years that have passed since. “My Love” helped solidify Clark as the preeminent UK female artist during the British Invasion years, often outdoing her rocking countrymen on the charts worldwide.
The Power of Pet
Petula Clark began her singing career before she was even 10 years old, so you might say she got a head start on the competition. During World War I, she was belting out songs on the BBC to calm troubled audiences and cheer up soldiers. She also began an acting career, appearing in many movies.
In the ‘50s, Clark started to score commercial success in her native Great Britain (she was born in Ewell, Surrey). She then moved on to recording in many different languages to make herself a household name in many different countries.
As was the case for many British artists, the United States was the last domino to fall in Clark’s efforts to achieve global success. There was no stopping her when she recorded the sweeping “Downtown,” which topped the U.S. charts in early 1965.
“Love” and Happiness
“Downtown” was the first of a string of successes Clark enjoyed in collaboration with Tony Hatch. Hatch was not only a songwriter, but he also served as a producer and arranger, developing his own style in which orchestral elements were introduced seamlessly to pop song forms.
During a 1965 session in Los Angeles, Clark recorded a trio of Hatch compositions with the legendary Wrecking Crew session musicians. Of the three, she liked “My Love” the least. Hatch had written the song after getting a suggestion from an American on an airplane about a phrase that would work with U.S. audiences.
Clark allegedly begged her record label representative not to go with “My Love” as a single. But the record company won out, and it’s a good thing they did. The song immediately broke out and gave Clark her second U.S. No. 1.
What is “My Love” About?
“My Love” sticks to a familiar pop song template: Find ways to express the enormity of the emotion involved in a romantic relationship. Hatch’s words describe a feeling that both reaches the heights and manifests itself in subtler fashion: My love is warmer than the warmest sunshine / Softer than a sigh.
In the verses, the narrator expresses how the feeling enveloped her when they met and gave her something she never expected to have: Once I thought that love was meant for anyone else but me / Once I thought you’d never come my way. Now that she possesses it, she won’t let it go: And there is nothing in this world / That can ever change my love.
Petula Clark might not have been overjoyed with “My Love” as a composition, but she certainly sold it to the hilt, belting out those platitudes with the horns and strings swooping all around her. It’s an example of a legendary artist rising above her concerns to deliver the kind of performance that makes a song a classic.
Photo by McKeown/Express/Getty Images
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