She loves New York, but legendary 1960s British hitmaker Petula Clark hasn't booked a nightclub engagement here since the 1970s.
But Clark will take over the intimate Feinstein’s At Loews Regency for a two-week run starting Tuesday and running through Feb. 4.
"I haven't done cabaret in a long time," says Clark. "I'm not a cabaret performer as such, and usually play concerts all over the world. But I love this city: I have a daughter who lives here with two divine children who were born here, and I get to be here a couple weeks! So I had to do it."
Clark will of course perform her No. 1 1965 hit "Downtown" and its No. 3 follow-up "I Know A Place"--both Grammy winners--as well as highlights from her stage and screen roles in Sunset Boulevard, Blood Brothers and Finian’s Rainbow.
"Norma Desmond!" she says, referring to her lead role on Broadway in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical version of the Hollywood film classic. "Unpleasant lady--great fun to play! Then I did Blood Brothers in New York with David Cassidy. I know people will want to hear certain songs, and by the time I've sung those and something from Sunset and perhaps Finian's Rainbow, maybe I'll do a couple songs I've written, maybe a song in French. It's all about putting together an act."
Clark has just completed an album in French--including a duet she co-wrote with Charles Aznavour--and comes to Feinstein's following a November concert at the Casino De Paris Theatre. She has a two-week tour of Australia immediately after her run at Feinstein’s, then begins an English album project, perhaps to include a song by Songwriter Hall of Fame nominee Tony Hatch, who wrote "Downtown" and "I Know A Place" and other Clark classics including "Don’t Sleep In The Subway," "My Love" and "Sign Of The Times."
"I spent a few days with him 18 months ago on the island of Menorca where he lives off the coast of Spain," she says. "Of course we fooled around writing songs and came up with one I actually liked. He's still writing and does a lot for charity and has other things on his plate, but it would be great if he comes up with something: It's been a long time since my last English studio album, so it will be important to me."
Looking back at those "still wonderful" early hits with Hatch, Clark notes how Hatch also orchestrated their recording sessions, which he was in charge of.
"'Downtown' was recorded live in London with a big orchestra, and I think we did three takes and used the second one," she says. "But they were great songs, with no technical tricks or anything. How do you explain that? The sound just evolved."
That they did so well in the U.S., oddly, "really complicated my life," she adds.
"I was already a star in England, and went to France and married a Frenchman--and became a star in France," she explains. "That meant that I became well-known in French-speaking countries--Belgium, Switzerland, Tunisia, Algeria, French-speaking Canada. Then I started recording in Italian and had hits in Italy, and Germany, and had a pretty full schedule--and then 'Downtown' put me in the spotlight in America. It was great and unexpected and wonderful, but I had to fit America into my schedule! That meant a lot of flying around, and I was already the mother of two small children and living in Switzerland. So it was kind of complicated, but also exciting."
And now Petula Clark is excited to play an uncommonly small venue in New York.
"I'm using just four musicians, so it will be a different kind of sound for me," she says. "But I'll get used to it, and it might be kind of fun and creative."
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