Cristopher Clark

The most commercially successful female singer in British chart history, Petula Clark was born November 15, 1932 in Epsom, England. Trained to sing by her soprano mother, Clark embarked on a stage career at the age of seven; soon she was a fixture on British radio programs, and began hosting her own regular show, Pet's Parlour a series spotlighting patriotic songs designed to boost the morale of wartime audiences at the tender age of 11. After entertaining British troops alongside fellow child stars Julie Andrews and Anthony Newley, Clark made her film debut with A Medal for the General in 1944. By the dawn of the '50s she was a superstar throughout the U.K., with a résumé of close to two-dozen films; 1954's "The Little Shoemaker" was her first Top 20 single, while 1960's "Sailor" was her first chart-topper.

The Dave Clark Five are usually compared with their British contemporaries, the Beatles. Though clearly not in the same league, they don't deserve to be completely dismissed.

Though wildly misunderstood when first released (like most art that’s ahead of its time), Gene Clark's third solo album—his most focused and intricately-produced shot at musical immortality—is now revered as something of a lost masterpiece. Expectations were high for the former Byrd, who had signed a solo deal after he’d been the bright spot in the band’s abortive 1973 reunion.

Bear Family's The Fool – a 33-track anthology of Sanford Clark's Jamie and Dot recordings that includes his only major hit, "The Fool" – is as generous and definitive a collection as anyone could want. Not content to stop there, Bear Family followed up with Shades, a miscellany of Clark's odds and ends spanning more than 20 years. The album begins with three Jamie recordings that didn't fit on The Fool, including Lee Hazlewood's tragic story-song "The Girl on Death Row," about an innocent girl who is mistakenly put to death.