International fame

In 1958, Clark was invited to appear at the Olympia in Paris where, despite her misgivings, 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, and when told he would work with her if she signed with the label, she agreed. Her initial French recordings were huge successes, and in 1960 she embarked on a concert tour of France and Belgium with French star 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.


1962 EPIn 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 recording of Sailor became her first number 1 hit in the UK in 1961, while 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 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 were also big sellers.

In 1963 and 1964, Clark's British career foundered. Composer-arranger Tony Hatch, who had been assisting her with her work for Vogue in France and Pye Records in the UK which continued to distribute Clark's records in that country, flew to 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 intended to present 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.