Unlike many of today's "celebrities" struggling to match Andy Warhol's "15 minutes of world-fame" prediction, Petula Clark says: "I've always been famous, as far back as I can remember."
Now 84, and on another world tour with a new album (From Now On) adding to her phenomenal 70 million record sales, Clark has advice for B-Grade wannabes who fill our TV screens.
"It's hard work being famous. Becoming a star is one thing. Staying a star is the real challenge."
Clark has never published an autobiography. That's our loss.
No other star in history has sung for Winston Churchill; danced on screen with Fred Astaire (Finian's Rainbow, 1968); and made films with Alec Guinness (The Card, 1952) and Peter O'Toole (Goodbye Mr Chips, 1969).
She provoked her sponsors' wrath during her US TV special in 1968 by holding the arm of Harry Belafonte – the first time on American TV a black man and white woman were shown touching (despite pressure, she refused to reshoot).
The last time she saw Karen Carpenter, Clark pleaded with the younger singer to seek professional help for anorexia.
And she starred on the West End and Broadway, to acclaim, in The Sound of Music and Sunset Boulevard.
Yet you can understand Clark's reluctance to put down the definitive version of "my strange life" in print given the global publicity she received after revealing the time she met Elvis Presley in Las Vegas.
The story went viral: Elvis was itching to have a threesome with Clark and a pre-anorexic Carpenter. But Clark, married with three children, coaxed her friend out of Elvis' clutches.
Since that burst of attention, Clark has been guarded.
But when the subject is raised, she laughs. "There's really not much more to say. It was perfectly obvious Elvis was trying it on. How else can I put it politely?
"Neither Karen nor I had met Elvis before. We thought it would be fun to see his show. Afterwards we were invited back to his huge dressing room.
"There were other people there, but when Elvis appeared, everyone disappeared. So it was just Elvis, Karen and me.
"Elvis was the perfect 'Southern Gentleman'. Really charming. Karen was younger, and naive. But I knew where he was going. I'd been round the block a bit.
"I got out of there as quickly as I could, dragging Karen with me. Elvis was at the doorway, laughing with a look which said; 'I'll get you one day!' But he never did."
Clark also appeared on one of rock's great protest live recordings. "It was American Independence Day – July 4. 1969," she says.
"Britain's Shirley Temple", who had been a household name with hit records and film roles for most of her adolescence, had married Frenchman Claude Wolff in 1961, carving out a European career as a French chanteuse. But in 1964 she was persuaded to record in English again.
Her first "new" hit was Downtown. She'd heard it as a mere tune and title when Pye Records producer Tony Hatch played his fledgling composition to her in Paris. It became a worldwide hit, making her the first British female singer to top the US charts and the first British female singer to win a Grammy.
"I'd been booked for a series of concerts at Montreal's Place des Arts. The previous time I'd performed there I'd sung in French."
"But, Downtown, I Couldn't Live Without Your Love and Don't Sleep In the Subway had been hits in Canada too. So I thought, great – I can do a bilingual show."
However, 1969 was a politically charged year. The "Free Quebec" independence movement was at its peak.
"There was a verbal battle in the theatre," Clark recalls. "When I sang in English, the French booed. When I sang in French, vice-versa.
"I was so upset. Frankly, I needed to speak to someone who'd understand what I was going through. And I knew John Lennon was in town for a Bed-In.
"So I walked to his hotel. It was pouring and I arrived looking like a drowned rat. Strangely, the concierge recognised me.
"So when I told him I'd like to see John Lennon, he sent me up. It's amazing how security has changed.
"I walked into their bedroom. John and Yoko were in bed. All very proper and everything. And John said: 'What's the matter?'
"I burst into tears. He was very sweet, very kind, very funny and gave me a piece of advice I can't repeat." (The word "f---" features prominently.)
Lennon then invited Clark to enjoy a glass of wine in the sitting room while he and Ono got dressed.
"There were lots of other people there, including Timothy Leary (the American psychologist and LSD evangelist). "There were no drugs. Nothing like that. Just a nice, chilled-out atmosphere with a simple melody playing in the background.
Then suddenly I'm singing in the chorus as John recorded Give Peace a Chance. Pure happenstance."
One of Clark's proudest career moments is being asked to sing Downtown in New York after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Hatch wrote Downtown after his first visit to Manhattan, and has confessed his geography is wrong. The lyric is about Times Square, which isn't in the Big Apple's Downtown area.
Still, Downtown is about a universal condition.
The jaunty tune belies the message: the need to pick yourself up after a personal disaster, and live life while you can.
The lyric perfectly suited New York's psyche as it rebuilt itself after the al-Qaeda attack on the twin towers.
"Actually, I was asked to sing Downtown twice," Clark points out. "Once in the Wall Street area, and then in Washington Square. I was immensely moved, of course."
Petula Clark plays at Hamer Hall, Melbourne on May 13, Perth Concert Hall on May 17, Canberra Theatre on May 19, State Theatre, Sydney on May 20 and QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane on May 26.