Today’s classic mid-60s song of the day is “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” by Brit songbird Petula Clark. This single, released in June of 1966, went to #9 on the Billboard Hot 100, #6 on the UK Singles chart, and #1 on Billboard’s Easy Listening chart.
“I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love,” like many of Pet Clark’s big hits, was written by her producer, Tony Hatch, in this case along with his paramour at the time, Jackie Trent. The song was inspired by Hatch and Trent’s ongoing affair; they eventually got married in August of 1967.
Petula Clark recorded “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” at Pye Studios in London’s Marble Arch. It had that typical big, brassy Tony Hatch sound, from the opening piano chords to the powerful choruses, complete with brass and strings and background singers galore, over which Pet’s voice just soars. It was a sound designed to stand out on the radio, which it did; the single was released on Pye Records in the UK and the Warner Bros. label in the U.S.
“I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” was Ms. Clark’s fifth Top Twenty hit here in the U.S., after “Downtown” (1964), “I Know a Place” (1965), “My Love” (1965), and “A Sign of the Times” (1966). She went on to place five more singles in the Billboard Top Twenty: “Colour My World” (1967), “This is My Song” (1967), “Don’t Sleep in the Subway” (1967), and “Kiss Me Goodbye” (1968). That’s a total of ten Top Twenty singles in just four years, which is pretty damned good.
And here’s your daily bonus video of the day, Petula Clark singing “I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love” live on some French television show in 1966. Man, that girl could sing!
