"I Know a Place," Petula Clark (1965)

A swinging invitation to a swinging club

Peak: #3 on the Hot 100
Streams: 4.2 million

Petula Clark turns 93 this week, which makes her one of the most senior rock stars in the world. The start of that sterling rock career was startling for many reasons.

First of all, Petula Clark didn’t even become a rock star until her early 30s, when she topped the charts with “Downtown.” Then as now, rock was aimed primarily at teenagers, so for a fully grown woman to break through in the prepubescent era of Ricky Nelson and Brenda Lee was quite something.

Plus, Clark was already well established in Europe as an old-school balladeer. She scored British hits with lushly orchestrated tunes like “Sailor,” which is an English-language adaptation of a German schlager. By all rights, the rock revolution should’ve spelled the end of her career, not a new beginning. Instead she helped set the template for what pop-rock would become.

“Downtown,” of course, remains a classic, and you can hear it echoing in any song that jumps from a sedate verse to a bold chorus. But Clark hardly stopped there. She had six top ten hits in the United States, including a cover of a Charlie Chaplin song (!!).

And while “Downtown” is my favorite Petula Clark tune, I’m giving the silver medal to her follow-up hit,“I Know a Place.”

Yes, this song is awfully similar to “Downtown.” That quiet verse/loud chorus is back, and so are the lyrics about escaping your crappy life by going somewhere cool. This time, though, Petula recommends a specific, underground nightclub instead of a city’s entire business district. The lyrics about going to a cellar for swinging girls and boys evokes a specific picture of the fun-loving kids just waiting for us to join them. And those horns, y’all! Who doesn’t want to visit a club with that much energy?

Clark won a Grammy for this vocal, and all these years later, it’s still clear why. She’s got the poise of a supper club singer, but when she’s hollering out those notes in the chorus, she wails with conviction. She sounds like she’s having a good time when she sings about the good time she describes. I’m glad she got the opportunity to prove she could tell this kind of story.