Friday, February 05, 2010

Your Mental Sorbet: Harry Belafonte with Petula Clark

Here is another "Mental Sorbet" that we could use to momentarily forget about those things that leave a bad taste in our mouths.


The television special Petula, aired in April 1968. A vehicle for popular singer Petula Clark ("Downtown"), the show featured Harry Belafonte as her guest. During one song, Petula touched Belafonte's arm and this "interracial contact" was considered taboo enough to cause a national controversy to surround the special.



Stat Tuned

Tony Figueroa

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Pet, as a European, had no idea that she was doing something taboo. It was natural. When she discovered that there was to be a fuss, she and her manager/husband, and his lawyer went to the tapes room and had all the rest of the tapes for the song destroyed.

It's a corking song, and bang on the nail even today, co-written by Petula herself.