Petula Clark
, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer whose career has spanned seven decades.
Clark's professional career began as an entertainer on BBC Radio during World War II. During the 1960s she became known internationally for her popular upbeat hits, including "Downtown," "I Know a Place," "My Love," "Colour My World," "A Sign of the Times," and "Don't Sleep in the Subway". With more than 70 million records sold worldwide, she is the most successful British female solo recording artist ever and is cited as such in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Clark also holds the distinction of having the longest span on international pop music charts of any British female artist — 55 years, from 1954, when "The Little Shoemaker" made the UK Top 20, to 2009, when her CD Les Indispensables
charted in the Top 10 in Belgium. [1]
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PETULA CLARK TICKETS
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Early years
Born to
English father Leslie Norman Clark and
Welsh mother Doris (
née Phillips), both nurses, in
Epsom,
Surrey,
England, she was christened
Petula Sally Olwen Clark
. Her father Leslie coined her first name, jokingly alleging it was a combination of the names of two former girlfriends, Pet and Ulla. As a child, she sang in the
chapel choir and showed a talent for mimicry, frequently impersonating
Vera Lynn,
Carmen Miranda, and
Sophie Tucker for the amusement of family and friends.
[2]. Her father introduced her to theatre when he took her to see
Flora Robson in a 1938 production of
Mary Tudor
; she later recalled that after the performance "I made up my mind then and there I was going to be an actress . . . I wanted to be
Ingrid Bergman more than anything else in the world."
[3]. However, her first public performances were as a singer, performing with an orchestra in the entrance hall of
Bentalls Department Store in
Kingston upon Thames for a tin of
toffee and a gold wristwatch, in 1939.
[4]
In October 1942, Clark made her radio debut while attending a BBC broadcast with her father, hoping to send a message to an uncle stationed overseas. During an air raid, the producer requested that someone perform to settle the jittery audience, and she volunteered a rendition of "
Mighty Lak a Rose" to an enthusiastic response in the theatre. She then repeated her performance for the broadcast audience, launching a series of some 500 appearances in programmes designed to entertain the troops. In addition to radio work, Clark frequently toured the UK with fellow child performer
Julie Andrews. She became known as "Britain's
Shirley Temple" and was considered a mascot by the
British Army, whose troops plastered her photos on their tanks for luck as they advanced into battle.
[5]
In 1944, while performing at London's
Royal Albert Hall, Clark was discovered by film director
Maurice Elvey, who cast her as precocious orphaned waif Irma in his weepy war drama
Medal for the General
. In quick succession, she starred in
Strawberry Roan,
I Know Where I'm Going!,
London Town,
and
Here Come the Huggetts,
the first in a series of Huggett Family films based on a British radio series. Although most of the films she made in the UK during the 1940s and '50s were
B-movies, she worked with
Anthony Newley in
Vice Versa
(directed by
Peter Ustinov) and
Alec Guinness in
The Card
.
In 1945, Clark was featured in the comic strip
Radio Fun
, in which she was billed as "Radio's Merry Mimic".
[6]
In 1946, Clark launched her television career with an appearance on a BBC variety show,
Cabaret Cartoons
, which led to her being signed to host her own afternoon series, titled simply
Petula Clark
. A second,
Pet's Parlour
, followed in 1949. In later years, she starred in
This is Petula Clark
(1966-67) and
The Sound of Petula
(1972-74).
In 1949, Clark branched into recording with her first release, "Put Your Shoes On, Lucy," for
EMI. Because neither EMI nor
Decca, for whom she also had recorded, were keen to sign her to a long-term contract, her father, whose own theatrical ambitions had been thwarted by his parents, teamed with
Alan A. Freeman to form
Polygon Records in order to better control her singing career. She scored a number of major hits in the UK during the 1950s, including "
The Little Shoemaker" (1954), "Majorca" (1955), "
Suddenly There's a Valley" (1955) and "
With All My Heart" (1956). Although Clark released singles in the US as early as 1951 (the first was "Tell Me Truly" b/w "Song Of The Mermaid" on the Coral label), it would take thirteen years before the American record-buying public would discover her.
In 1955 Clark became linked romantically with
Joe "Mr Piano" Henderson. Speculation that the couple planned to marry became rife. However, with the increasing glare of being in the public spotlight, and Clark's growing fame (her career in France was just beginning), Henderson — reportedly not wanting to end up as "Mr. Petula Clark" — decided to end the relationship.
[7] Their professional relationship continued for a couple of years, professionally culminating in the BBC Radio series
Pet and Mr. Piano
, the last time they worked together,
[8] although they remained on friendly terms. In 1962 he penned a ballad about their break-up, called "There's Nothing More To Say", for Clark's LP
In Other Words
.
Near the end of 1955, Polygon Records was sold to Nixa Records, then part of
Pye Records, which lead to the establishment of
Pye Nixa Records (subsequently simply Pye). This turn of events effectively signed Clark to the Pye label in the UK, for whom she would record for the remainder of the 1950s, throughout the 1960s, and early into the 1970s.
International fame
In 1958, Clark was invited to appear at the
Paris Olympia where, despite her misgivings and a bad cold, she was received with acclaim. The following day she was invited to the office of
Vogue Records to discuss a contract. It was there that she met publicist Claude Wolff, to whom she was attracted immediately, and when told he would work with her if she signed with the label, she agreed.
[9] Her initial French recordings were huge successes, and in 1960 she embarked on a concert tour of
France and
Belgium with
Sacha Distel, who remained a close friend until his death in 2004. Gradually she moved further into the continent, recording in German, French, Italian and Spanish, and establishing herself as a multi-lingual performer.
In June 1961, Clark married Wolff, first in a civil ceremony in Paris, then a religious one in her native England. Wanting to escape the strictures of child stardom imposed upon her by the British public, and anxious to escape the influence of her father, she relocated to France, where she and Wolff had two daughters, Barbara Michelle and Katherine Natalie, in quick succession. (Their son Patrick was born in 1972.) While she focused on her new career in France, she continued to achieve hit records in the UK into the early 1960s, developing a parallel career on both sides of the Channel. Her 1961 recording of "
Sailor" became her first #1 hit in the UK, while such follow-up recordings as "
Romeo" and "My Friend the Sea" landed her in the British Top Ten later that year. In France, "Ya Ya Twist" (a French-language cover of the
Lee Dorsey rhythm and blues song "Ya Ya" and the only successful recording of a
twist song by a female) and "Chariot" (the original version of
"I Will Follow Him") became smash hits in 1962, while German and Italian versions of her English and French recordings charted as well. Her recordings of several
Serge Gainsbourg songs also were big sellers.
In 1964, Clark scored the French crime caper
A Couteaux Tirés
(aka
Daggers Drawn
) and played a cameo as herself in the movie. Although it was only a mild success, it added a new dimension — that of film composer — to her career. (In 1989 she composed the score for the French educational film
Pétain
; six of its themes were released on the CD
In Her Own Write
in 2007.)
In 1963 and 1964, Clark's British recording career foundered. Composer-arranger
Tony Hatch, who had been assisting her with her work for Vogue in France and Pye Records in the UK, flew to her home in Paris with new material he hoped would interest her, but she found none of it appealing. Desperate, he played for her a few chords of an incomplete song that had been inspired by a recent first trip to
New York City, which he suggested might be offered to
The Drifters. Upon hearing the music, Clark told him that if he could write lyrics as good as the melody, she wanted to record the tune as her next single. Thus "
Downtown" came into being.
[10]
"Downtown" era
Neither Clark, who was performing in
French Canada when the song first received major airplay,
[11] nor Hatch realized the impact the song would have on their respective careers. Released in four different languages in late 1964, "Downtown" was a success in the UK, France (in both English and French versions),
Netherlands,
Germany,
Australia,
Italy, and even
Rhodesia,
Japan, and
India. During a visit to London,
Warner Brothers executive Joe Smith heard it and acquired the rights for the United States. "Downtown" went to #1 on the US charts in January 1965 and sold three million copies in America. It was the first of fifteen consecutive Top 40 hits Clark scored in the US, including "
I Know a Place", "
My Love", "
A Sign of the Times", "
I Couldn't Live Without Your Love", "
This Is My Song" (from the
Charles Chaplin film
A Countess from Hong Kong
), and "
Don't Sleep in the Subway." The American recording industry honored her with
Grammy Awards for "Best Rock & Roll Record" for "Downtown" in 1964 and for "Best Contemporary Female Vocal Performance" for "I Know a Place" in 1965. In 2003, her recording of "Downtown" was inducted into the
Grammy Hall of Fame.
Clark's recording successes led to frequent appearances on US variety programs hosted by
Ed Sullivan and
Dean Martin, guest shots on
Hullabaloo,
Shindig!,
The Kraft Music Hall
, and
The Hollywood Palace,
and inclusion in musical specials such as
The Best on Record
and
Rodgers and Hart Today.
In 1968,
NBC invited Clark to host her own special in the US, and in doing so she inadvertently made television history. While singing a duet of "On the Path of Glory," an anti-war song she had composed, with guest
Harry Belafonte, she touched his arm, to the dismay of a representative from
Chrysler, the show's sponsor, who feared the brief moment would offend Southern viewers at a time when racial conflict was still a major issue in the US. When he insisted they substitute a different take, with Clark and Belafonte standing well away from each other, she and husband Wolff, producer of the show, refused, destroyed all other takes of the song, and delivered the finished program to NBC with the touch intact. It aired on April 8, 1968 to high ratings and critical acclaim, and marked the first time a man and woman of different races exchanged physical contact on American television
[12] [13]. (To commemorate the 40th anniversary of the telecast, Clark and her husband, who had served as executive producer of the show, appeared at the
Paley Center for Media in
Manhattan on September 22, 2008 to discuss the broadcast and its impact following an airing of the program
[14].)
Clark subsequently hosted two more specials, another for NBC and one for
ABC, which served as a pilot for a projected weekly series. She declined the offer in order to appease her children, who disliked living in
Los Angeles.
Throughout the 1960s and 70s, Clark toured in concert extensively throughout the States, and often appeared in supper clubs such as the
Copacabana in New York City, the
Ambassador Hotel's Cocoanut Grove in Los Angeles, and the Empire Room at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, where she consistently broke house attendance records. During this period, she also appeared in print and radio ads for
Coca Cola, television commercials for
Plymouth, print and TV spots for
Burlington Industries in the US, television and print ads for Chrysler Sunbeam, and print ads for Sanderson Wallpaper in the UK.
Clark revived her film career in the late 1960s, starring in two big musical films. In
Finian's Rainbow
(1968), she starred opposite
Fred Astaire, and she was nominated for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance. The following year she was cast opposite
Peter O'Toole in
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
, a musical adaptation of the classic
James Hilton novella. (Her last film to date is the British production
Never Never Land,
released in 1980.) After this, her output of hits in the States diminished markedly, although she continued to record and make television appearances into the 1970s. By mid-decade, she scaled back her career in order to devote more time to her family.
Herb Alpert and his
A&M record label benefitted from Clark's interest in encouraging new talent. In 1968, she brought French composer/arranger
Michel Colombier to the States to work as her musical director and introduced him to Alpert. (He went on to co-write
Purple Rain
with
Prince, composed the acclaimed pop symphony
Wings
, and a number of soundtracks for American films.)
Richard Carpenter publicly has credited her with bringing him and his sister to Alpert's attention when they performed at a premiere party for her film
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
.
Post-"Downtown" era
In 1954, Clark had starred in a stage production of
The Constant Nymph,
but it wasn't until 1981, at the urging of her children, that she returned to legitimate theatre, starring as
Maria von Trapp in
The Sound of Music
in London's
West End. Opening to rave reviews and what was then the largest advance sale in British theatre history, Clark — proclaimed by
Maria Von Trapp herself as "the best Maria ever" — extended her initial six-month run to thirteen to accommodate the huge demand for tickets
[15]. In 1983, she took on the title role in
George Bernard Shaw's
Candida.
Later stage work includes
Someone Like You
in 1989 and 1990, for which she composed the score;
Blood Brothers
, in which she made her
Broadway debut in 1993 at the
Music Box Theatre, followed by the US tour; and
Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Sunset Boulevard
, appearing in both the West End and US touring productions from 1995 through 2000. In 2004, she repeated her performance of
Norma Desmond in a production at the
Cork Opera House in the
Republic of Ireland, which was later broadcast by the
BBC. With more than 2500 performances, she has played the role more often than any other actress.
In both 1998 and 2002, Clark toured extensively throughout the UK. In 2000, she presented a self-written one-woman show, highlighting her life and career, to tremendous critical and audience acclaim at the St. Denis Theatre in
Montreal. A 2003 concert appearance at the Olympia in Paris has been issued in both
DVD and
CD formats. In 2004, she toured Australia and
New Zealand, appeared at the Hilton in
Atlantic City, the Hummingbird Centre in
Toronto, Humphrey's in
San Diego, and the Mohegan Sun in
Connecticut, and participated in a multi-performer tribute to the late
Peggy Lee at the
Hollywood Bowl. Following another UK concert tour in early spring 2005, she appeared with
Andy Williams in his Moon River Theater in
Branson, Missouri for several months, and returned for another engagement in the fall of 2006, following scattered concert dates throughout the US and Canada.
In November 2006, Clark was the subject of a
BBC Four documentary entitled
Petula Clark: Blue Lady
and appeared with
Michael Ball and
Tony Hatch in a concert at the
Theatre Royal Drury Lane broadcast by BBC Radio the following month. In December that year she made her first appearance in
Iceland.
Duets
, a compilation including
Dusty Springfield,
Peggy Lee,
Dean Martin,
Bobby Darin, and the
Everly Brothers, among others, was released in February 2007, and
Solitude and Sunshine
, a studio recording of all new material by composer
Rod McKuen, was released in July of that year. She was the host of the March 2007
PBS pledge-drive special
My Music: The British Beat
, an overview of music's
British invasion of the US in the 1960s, followed by a number of concert dates throughout the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. She can be heard on the soundtrack of the 2007
independent film Downtown: A Street Tale
.
Une Baladine
(in English, a wandering minstrel), an authorized pictorial
biography by Francoise Piazza, was published in France and Switzerland in October 2007, and the following month Clark promoted it in bookshops and at book fairs.
Clark was presented with the 2007
Film & TV Music Award for Best Use of a Song in a Television Program for "Downtown" in the ABC series
Lost
. She completed a concert tour of England and Wales in Summer 2008, followed by concerts in
Switzerland and the
Philippines.
Then & Now
, a compilation of greatest hits and several new Clark compositions, entered the UK album charts in June 2008 and won Clark her first-ever Silver Disc for an album.
Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection
, a compilation of previously unreleased material and new and remixed recordings, was released in January 2009. Additionally, her 1969 NBC special
Portrait of Petula
, already released on DVD for Region 2 viewers, is being made available for Region 1.
In 1998, Clark was honored by
Queen Elizabeth II by being made a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
[16]
Filmography
- Medal for the General
(1944)
- Strawberry Roan
(1945)
- Murder in Reverse
(1945)
- I Know Where I'm Going!
(1945)
- Trouble at Townsend
(1946)
- London Town
(1946)
- Vice Versa
(1948)
- Easy Money
(1948)
- Here Come the Huggetts
(1948)
- ''Vote for Huggett (1949)
- The Huggetts Abroad
(1949)
- Don't Ever Leave Me
(1949)
- The Romantic Age
(1949)
- Dance Hall
(1950)
- White Corridors
(1951)
- Madame Louise
(1951)
- The Card
(1952)
- Made in Heaven
(1952)
- The Runaway Bus
(1954)
- The Gay Dog
(1954)
- The Happiness of Three Women
(1954)
- Track the Man Down
(1955)
- That Woman Opposite
(1957)
- 6.5 Special
(1958)
- À Couteaux Tirés
(1964) (also composed score) (aka "Daggers Drawn" for US release)
- Finian's Rainbow
(1968)
- ''Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969)
- Drôles de Zèbres
(1977)
- Never, Never Land
(1980)
- Sans Famille
(1981 French television miniseries)
Discography
Singles
Clark released her first single in 1949, however, she did not chart until 1954, because the first
UK Singles Chart was not published until November 1952.
- 1954: "The Little Shoemaker" UK #7
- 1955: "Majorca" UK #12
- 1955: "Suddenly There's A Valley" UK #7
- 1957: "With All My Heart" UK #4
- 1957: "Alone (Why Must I Be Alone)" UK #8
- 1958: "Baby Lover" UK #12
- 1961: "Sailor" UK #1
- 1961: "Something Missing" UK #44
- 1961: "Romeo" UK #3
- 1961: "My Friend The Sea" UK #7
- 1962: "I'm Counting On You" UK #41
- 1962: "Ya Ya Twist" UK #14 (French version of "Ya Ya" by Lee Dorsey)
- 1963: "Casanova/Chariot" UK #39
- 1964: "Downtown" UK #2 / Canada #1 / U.S. #1 (Gold)
- 1965: "I Know A Place" UK #17 / Canada #1 / U.S. #3
- 1965: "You'd Better Come Home" UK #44 / Canada #11 / U.S. #22
- 1965: "Round Every Corner" UK #43 / Canada #6 / U.S. #21
- 1965: "You're The One" UK #23 (co-written by Clark; U.S. #4 in 1965 for The Vogues)
- 1965: "My Love" UK #4 / Canada #1 / U.S. #1
- 1966: "A Sign Of The Times" UK #49 / Canada #8 / U.S. #11
- 1966: "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" UK #6 / Canada #6 / U.S. #9 (also U.S. Adult Contemporary #1)
- 1966: "Who Am I" Canada #14 / U.S. #21
- 1967: "Colour My World" UK #16 / Canada #14 / U.S. #16
- 1967: "This Is My Song" UK #1 / Canada #4 / U.S. #3
- 1967: "Don't Sleep in the Subway" UK #12 / Canada #5 / U.S. #5 (also U.S. Adult Contemporary #1)
- 1967: "The Cat In The Window (The Bird In The Sky)" Canada #35/ U.S. #26
- 1968: "The Other Man's Grass (Is Always Greener)" UK #20 / Canada #12 / U.S. #31
- 1968: "Kiss Me Goodbye" UK #50 / Canada #10 / U.S. #15
- 1968: "Don't Give Up" Canada #23/ U.S. #37
- 1968: "American Boys (Take Good Care of Your Heart)" Canada #37 / U.S. #59
- 1969: "Happy Heart" U.S. #62 (bigger hit version by Andy Williams)
- 1969: "Look At Mine" U.S. #89
- 1969: "No One Better Than You" U.S. #93
- 1971: "The Song Of My Life" UK #32
- 1972: "I Don't Know How to Love Him" UK #47
- 1972: "My Guy" U.S. #70
- 1972: "The Wedding Song (There Is Love)" U.S. #61
- 1982: "Natural Love" U.S. #66 (also U.S. #20 Country Charts)
- 1988: "Downtown '88" UK #10
US Top Fifteen
Adult Contemporary hits: "You'd Better Come Home" (#4), "My Love" (#4), "A Sign Of The Times" (#2), "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" (#1), "Colour My World" (#10), "This Is My Song" (#2), "Don't Sleep in the Subway" (#1), "The Cat In The Window" (#9), "The Other Man's Grass" (#3), "Kiss Me Goodbye" (#2), "Don't Give Up" (#5), "Happy Heart" (#12), "Look At Mine" (#14), "My Guy" (#12), "The Wedding Song" (#9), "Loving Arms" (#12)
Notable French Singles
- "Garde-moi la dernière danse (Save the last dance for me)" (1961, #3)
- "Marin (Sailor)" (1961, # 2)
- "Roméo" (1961, #1)
- "Ya Ya Twist" (1962, #1)
- "Chariot" ("I Will Follow Him") (1962, #1)
- "Cœur blessé" (1963, #1)
- "Je me sens bien auprès de toi (Dance on)" (1963, # 3)
- "Ceux qui ont un cœur (Anyone who had a heart)" (1964, #7)
- "Dans le temps (Downtown)" (1965, #6)
- "C'est Ma Chanson" ("This is My Song") (1967, #1)
- "La dernière valse (The last Waltz)" (1967, #2)
Notable German Singles
- "Monsieur" (1962, #1)
- "Casanova Baciami" (1963, #2)
- "Cheerio" (1963, #6)
- "Mille Mille Grazie" (1963, #9)
- "Mit weißen Perlen" (1964, #17)
- "Alles ist nun vorbei (Anyone who had a heart)" (1964, #37)
- "Downtown" (1965, German version, #1)
- "Kann ich dir vertrauen" (1966, #17)
- "Verzeih' die dummen Tränen" (1966, German version of "My Love", #21)
- "Love - so heißt mein Song" (1967, German version of "This is My Song", #23)
Notable Italian Singles
- "Sul mio carro (Chariot)" (1962, #1)
- "Quelli che hanno un cuore (Anyone who had a heart)" (1964, #4)
- "Invece no" (Entry at the San Remo Festival 1965, # 5)
- "Ciao, ciao (Downtown)", (1965, #1)
- "Cara felicita' (This is my song)" (1967, # 1)
- "Kiss me goodbye (Italian version)" (1968, #26)
Complete Spanish Recordings
- "Qué tal, Dolly? (Hello, Dolly!)"
- "Pequeña Flor (Petite Fleur)"
- "Tú no tienes corazón (Anyone who had a heart)"
- "Cantando al caminar (The Road)"
All four songs were released in 1964 in Spain on Hispavox
EP "Petula Clark canta en Español" (Cat.-No. HV 27-126).
Other noteworthy recordings
- "Put Your Shoes On Lucy" (1949)
- "House in the Sky" (1949)
- "I'll Always Love You" (1949)
- "Clancy Lowered the Boom" (1949)
- "You Go To My Head" (1950)
- "Music! Music! Music!" (1950)
- "You Are My True Love" (1950)
- "Mariandl" (with Jimmy Young) (1951)
- "Where Did My Snowman Go?" (1952)
- "The Card" (1952)
- "Christopher Robin At Buckingham Palace" (1953)
- "Meet Me In Battersea Park" (1954)
- "Suddenly There's A Valley" (1955)
- "Another Door Opens" (1956)
- "With All My Heart" (1957)
- "Fibbin'" (1958)
- "Devotion" (1958)
- "Dear Daddy" (1959)
- "Mama's Talkin' Soft" (1959), a song deleted from Gypsy
prior to its Broadway opening
- "Cinderella Jones" (1960)
- "Marin" ("Sailor") (1961)
- "Cœur blessé" (1963)
- "Ceux qui ont un cœur" ("Anyone Who Had a Heart") (1964)
- "Invece no" (1965)
- "Dans le temps" ("Downtown") (1965)
- "Sauve-moi" (1977)
- "Mr. Orwell" (1984)
- Blood Brothers
(International Recording) (1995)
- Songs from Sunset Boulevard
(1996)
- Here for You
(1998)
- The Ultimate Collection
(2002)
- Kaleidoscope
(2003)
- "Starting All Over Again" (2003)
- Live at the Paris Olympia
(2004)
- "Driven by Emotion" (2005)
- "Memphis" (2005)
- "Together" (2006), recorded as a duet with Andy Williams
- "Thank You for Christmas" (2006)
- "Simple Gifts" (2006)
- Duets
(2007)
- Solitude and Sunshine
(2007)
- In Her Own Write
(2007)
- Then & Now
(2008)
- Open Your Heart: A Love Song Collection
(2009)
See also
- List of best-selling music artists
References
- Ultrapop Belgian Charts
- Kon, Andrea, ''This is My Song: A Biography of Petula Clark''. London: W.H. Allen & Co. Ltd. 1983 ISBN 0 491 02898 9, pp. 23, 37-38
- Kon, pp. 22-23
- Kon, pp. 26-27
- Kon, p. 54
- ''The Penguin Book of Comics'' by George Perry and Alan Aldridge, 1967
- Kon, pp. 119-20
- Kon, p. 130
- Kon, pp. 122-25
- Kon, pp. 157-58
- ''Legends: Petula Clark — Blue Lady'', broadcast on BBC Four 19 November 2006
- Harry Belafonte 'Speaking Freely' Transcript
- It is often stated that the ''Star Trek'' episode "Plato's Stepchildren" was the first to feature interracial contact, but it was actually broadcast some seven months after the Clark special
- PetulaClark.net
- ''Independent'' article
- New Year Honours: Success of song for Diana propels Elton John to a popular knighthood - News - The Independent