Wretched earworm!

[adams house cat]

Mrs. House Cat asked me yesterday if I knew about a song that went on about "Where do you go to..." or something. Further inquiries led me to the conclusion that she was referring to Peter Sarstedt's utterly wretched "Where Do You Go To My Lovely?". She saw my look of horror and explained that she thought it was awful but was just curious.

Anyway, the fucking thing has been in my head all night and won't go away. Any tips?

[G-Man]

Wretched earworm!

Going to embassy parties where you can speak Russian and Greek might help.

[dalliance]

Wretched earworm!

I read this post and then I laughed. Ha ha ha ha.

[Mumpo]

Wretched earworm!

[like]

[MsD]

Wretched earworm!

Oh, I love that song, although it was overplayed when it was number 1.

I was about nine when it was out, so it made quite an impression, although I puzzled about the topless swimsuit - did he mean just bikini bottoms?

Anyway, I still like it and know all the words, although there's not much call for it.

[G-Man]

Wretched earworm!

Thank goodness, somebody else who doesn't despise the song. I'm not claiming it's a Meisterwerk, but I don't see why it is so widely hated.

[dalliance]

Wretched earworm!

It's a good song, it just has too many verses.

[Stumpy Pepys]

Wretched earworm!

G.Man wrote:

Thank goodness, somebody else who doesn't despise the song. I'm not claiming it's a Meisterwerk, but I don't see why it is so widely hated.

1. Execrable cod-French style
2. Goes on forever
3. Dreadful lyrics
4. Lyricist has made a massive list of everything French (or continental) he can think of and shoehorned them into the song
5. "For a laugh, ha-ha-ha" (and similar)

[MsD]

Wretched earworm!

I disagree, as it tells quite a good tale, of poshness* not of Frenchness necessarily.

I do think girls who make it from the slums via the Sorbonne to the Boulevard St Michel should be able to laugh and dance how they want, without being stalked by some miserable git with an accordion, though.

* as in nouveau riche, arriviste, designer label culture etc.

[erwin]

Wretched earworm!

Coward that I am, I can now peek out over the top of the trench bravely dug by MsD, G.Man and dalliance and say that I too liked and still like this song.

I think we likers are winning the battle.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Wretched earworm!

Peter Sarstedt was possibly the only person to get booed off stage at a Hyde Park free concert. It was definitely the wrong song at the wrong time in the wrong place. Roy Harper, pointedly, sang Nobody's Got Any Money in the Summer immediately after he'd left.

[dalliance]

Wretched earworm!

I might be wrong but I can't remember it as a song with any sort of middle eight. It's a relentless verse verse chorus structure, he barely takes a breath between each one and with the lyrics both bountiful in quantity and fairly dense and diverse then it becomes a pretty tiring listen.

[historyman]

Wretched earworm!

The song is a fucking classic! Historywoman and me listen to it quite a bit - as did my dad back in the day.

I keep my wife going about it because - like the line in the song- loads of her friends used to say that she would marry a millionaire one day.

And then for some strange reason she married me...

Live Version

[Gerontophile]

Wretched earworm!

I am a huge fan of this song. Its, annoying and not exactly singalongable*, but fuck it, it works for me.

*it is a guaranteed, floor-sweeper on Karaoke.

[Jon]

Wretched earworm!

I've woken up with this in my head for the last 2 days. Which isn't a bad thing - I'm definitely in the like camp. I can see what dalliance is saying about the relentless nature of the song's structure, (cf Windmills of your mind from the same period) but, like Gero says, it just kind of works. Whereas I don't think it does with Windmills of your mind.

Did he have any other hits? I have the feeling he was a one hit wonder, although I know he had 2 brothers who also had hits.

[MsD]

Wretched earworm!

Without even googling, I can tell you he had lesser hits (but still, hits) with Beirut and Frozen Orange Juice. And that Robin Sarstedt had a hit, but I can't remember that one.

[MsD]

Wretched earworm!

Actually, checking the song's Wikipedia page, we learn that there were originally two additional verses; that it was covered by Right Said Fred; and that a "sequel" recorded in 1997

"picks up the story of Marie Claire twenty years on, living now in London. It namechecks more people and places, including Belgravia, Ballets Russes, Cape Town, Claridge's, Gstaad, John Galliano, Harrods, Jerusalem, Long Island, Milan, Rudolf Nureyev, Palm Beach, Rio de Janeiro, and Isabella Rossellini"

Less is more, Peter, less is more.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Wretched earworm!

I'd disagree that Windmills of Your Mind is a lesser song. The lyrics — if a little camp and over-wordy — are far more evocative and well constructed. It's a song that needs the right vocalist — like Dusty — to do it justice though and it's forever lumbered with The Thomas Crown Affair association which is a pity.

I don't remember any other hits of Sarstedt, but that doesn't mean there weren't any. He was mainly referred to as Eden Kane's brother at the time.

[Jon]

Wretched earworm!

I was referring to the Noel Harrison version of Windmills of your mind, AdC, which I find relentlessly wretched. But, having just listened to Dusty sing it (Never heard that version. To my shame I don't own Dusty in Memphis) and it sounds much better.

"4. Lyricist has made a massive list of everything French (or continental) he can think of and shoehorned them into the song"

This was in Stumpy's list upthread and, I thought it was a tad harsh but you can certainly apply that to the sequel that MsD mentions, although it's no longer an exclusively French list.

[G-Man]

Wretched earworm!

Windmills is a dull song, especially by Bacharach's standard. Dionne Warwick does a good job of it, as does Dusty Springfield. But it really needs a male voice, I think. Grady Tate did a fine version of it. If Lou Rawls ever recorded it, I bet that would be good.

Regarding the Sarstedt family hit factory, the third brother recorded under a pseudonym. Alas, I forget what it was, and don't really dig googling it.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Wretched earworm!

It's Michel Legrand, not Bacharach.

Fairly unusually it was written with two sets of lyrics; one for a man, one for a woman.