The songwriter behind some of Petula Clark’s biggest hits has revealed the pair endured a secret feud.
Jackie Trent and husband Tony Hatch penned more than 400 songs for stars including Frank Sinatra, Des O’Connor and, most notably, Petula.
However, Jackie’s autobiography Being Me, which is being published to mark the second anniversary of her death, claims the Downtown singer acted like a “cold fish” towards her, according to the Daily Express.
The newspaper reports Trent wrote in her memoirs she and Hatch first met the singer and her husband Claude Wolff in Switzerland in 1965.
“She (Clark) looked at us, then turned away. Oh dear! I had bad premonitions. We sat and waited … Finally I prodded Tony into going over to Claude.
“Almost reluctantly, they invited me to join them. It was clear we were hardly welcome in their party set. Or was it just me?
“Over the next three days I tried my best to befriend Petula Clark but she truly acted like a cold fish and put a barrier of almost silence around her as far as I was concerned.”
Jackie writes that it got “a whole lot worse”, adding Petula would only agree to perform songs penned by Hatch.
“Unknown to her, Petula Clark was belting out my lyrics to her hit songs. Tony persuaded me, reluctantly, not to reveal I was writing the lyrics for her songs.
“In all, Tony and I would co-write 22 hit songs for Petula Clark and some 400 songs together in total. So, I didn’t do such a bad job, did I?” she adds.
Jackie, who also composed the theme song to Neighbours, died in hospital in Menorca in March 2015 aged 74 after a long illness.
