Chart-topping singer Sarstedt dies, aged 75
SINGER-SONGWRITER Peter Sarstedt, best known for his 1969 hit where Do You Go to (My Lovely), has died at the age of 75.
the musician’s family released a statement yesterday announcing his death after a six-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy, a rare brain disease that can cause problems with balance, movement, vision, speech and swallowing.
Sarstedt’s most famous song, about a girl born in poverty who becomes a member of the European jet-set, topped the UK singles charts in February 1969.
It remained number one for four weeks and won the Ivor Novello award for best song composition. As of 1998, Sarstedt was reportedly still making £60,000 a year in royalties from it.
over his 50-year career until his retirement due to ill health in 2010, Sarstedt made 14 albums, the last of which, Restless Heart, was released in 2013.
He released at least two singles a year between 1967 and 1987, including Beirut, take off Your Clothes, I’m A Cathedral and Frozen orange Juice.
Born into a musical family in Delhi, India, his parents were classical musicians and his brothers, Eden Kane (real name Richard Graham) and Clive Sands (real name Robin), became pop stars.
His music came to the forefront again when where Do You Go to (My Lovely) was used in the wes Anderson films Hotel Chevalier and the Darjeeling Limited. In the sleeve notes for his self-titled debut album, Sarstedt wrote that where Do You Go to (My Lovely) was based on a girl he ‘fell madly in love with’ in Vienna but who later died in a hotel fire.
But in an interview in 2009, Sarstedt revealed the song was actually based on his first wife, Anita Atke.
Referring to the song’s protagonist Marie-Claire, he said: ‘Marie-Claire was meant to be a generic European girl, but if she was based on anybody it was my then Danish girlfriend Anita Atke.’