I Couldn't Live Without Your Love

They Say...

Review by Joe Viglione, All Music Guide

The heart lifts and spirits rise when Tony Hatch's production and masterful pop sentiments meet up with Petula Clark. "I Couldn't Live Without Your Love" is more than over the top description of insanely obsessive love, it is two minutes and 50 seconds of pop supremacy; a climbing, soaring, ecstatic celebration of radio fun. The Top Ten hit, number one adult contemporary, came right in the middle of the 15 titles she drove up the charts with her perfect pop radio voice. Like contemporaries Lulu and Diana Ross, the magical tunes these women delivered cast spells. A cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" is a decent album track, but it is a run through with little of the production values of the title song. They are there somewhat, but not the full bursts of excitement that starts the album off. Petula Clark composes the melancholy "Two Rivers" on her own, and it isn't bad. In fact, it works better than the Paul Simon tune, but the arrangement of Harold Arlen's "Come Rain or Come Shine" is astounding. Mixed in with decent performances of the Mamas & the Papa's "Monday Monday," Sonny & Cher's "Bang Bang (what is it with the redundant double-word titles here?) and "Groovy Kind of Love" are brilliant performances of the Beatles' "Rain," Sinatra's "Strangers in the Night," Bob Lind's "Elusive Butterfly," and Carole King's "Wasn't It You." The Tony Hatch/Petula Clark connection could work miracles, and they are in abundance on this disc. The singer collaborates with her producer on "There Goes My Love, There Goes My Life," and it is one of the albums highlights as well. The important thing about I Couldn't Live Without Your Love is that some of the album tracks would be essential on a Petula Clark boxed set, something the timelessness of the title track demands.