Peter Sarstedt

Listening to Peter Sarstedt today, you might think he's the creation of some TV movie producer who tried to build a story around a character based on Donovan and only got it 25% right. Sarstedt recalled Donovan, and to a slighter extent such other British pop/folk singer/songwriters of the era as Al Stewart and Cat Stevens, with his lilting phrasing and earnest ambition. Like those artists, he was also prone to being a bit fruity and smug. And if you thought Donovan's production could be overly pop-conscious, Sarstedt's arrangements were a far more determined admixture of wordy lyricism and bouncy commercialism, their brassy orchestrations often sounding like juiced-up refugees from easy-listening sessions.
The combination paid big dividends, though, in early 1969, when his "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" went to #1 in the British charts. A none-too-sympathetic portrait of a young Euro-jet-setter set to a faux European waltz tune, it was only a tiny hit in the U.S., though Sarstedt did manage another Top Ten single in his native U.K. with "Frozen Orange Juice" later that year. Sarstedt's first two albums are some of the most peculiarly dated relics of their time, with a brazen eclecticism that seems to be firing for acceptance in both the underground and AM radio formats. James Bond soundtrack brass here, mournful pseudo-classical bombast there, chirping bassoons, straight acoustic heart-on-the-sleeve folky guitars: all were fair game, although as a singer/songwriter, Sarstedt's ambitions outstripped his talents. No one's going to mistake it for Great Art (or even great singer/songwriting), but the music remains intriguing for its combination of oppositional elements.

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