Clive Robin Sarstedt (21 January 1944 – 22 January 2022), who also recorded as Clive Sands, Wes Sands, and Robin Sarstedt, was a British pop singer and instrumentalist active from the late 1950s. He was best known for his 1976 UK hit " My Resistance Is Low", a version of a song written and originally recorded by

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, a ...

. He was the younger brother of singers

Eden Kane Richard Graham Sarstedt (born 29 March 1940),Some sources, including his own website, give 1942 as his birth year; but official sources give 1940. known by the stage name Eden Kane, is an English pop/rock singer, musician, record producer and ...

and

Peter Sarstedt Peter Eardley Sarstedt (10 December 1941 – 8 January 2017) was a British singer-songwriter and instrumentalist. He was the brother of singers Eden Kane, a teenage pop idol and Clive Sarstedt, with both of whom he also recorded and performed ...

Early life

Sarstedt was born in

Ajmer Ajmer () is a city in the north-western States and union territories of India, Indian state of Rajasthan. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Ajmer district and Ajmer division. It lies at the centre of Rajasthan, earning it the ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, now in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

, to parents who were British

civil servants The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

working there during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Both had trained as classical musicians. After Indian independence from Britain in 1947, they remained in India and managed a tea plantation, and their sons went to school there. In 1954, Sarstedt's father died, and the family moved to Britain, settling in south London. Sarstedt was the youngest brother of

and

and with them formed a skiffle group, the Fabulous Five.

Career

Sarstedt appeared on many live music shows including ''

Top of The Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British record chart television programme, made by the BBC and broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show. For most of its histo ...

''. He initially recorded under the names "Wes Sands" (recorded by his manager,

Joe Meek Robert George "Joe" Meek (5 April 1929 – 3 February 1967) was an English record producer and songwriter considered one of the most influential sound engineers of all time, being one of the first to develop ideas such as the recording studio a ...

) and "Clive Sands". He joined The Deejays in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1966 and 1967. They had two big hits on "

Tio i Topp ''Tio i Topp'' ( English: ''Ten at the Top'') was a Swedish record chart and radio program broadcast by Sveriges Radio P3 between the years of 1961 and 1974. It was launched to combat pirate radio charts and was the first official Swedish record c ...

" in Sweden: "Dum Dum (Marble Breaks And Iron Bends)" and "Baby Talk". He finally had a

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from ''Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust or HIT, a fictional organization i ...

in 1976, with a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

of the Hoagy Carmichael penned song, "My Resistance Is Low", using his middle name and billed as Robin Sarstedt. It reached Number 3 in the UK Singles Chart. Without other

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphics, graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can repres ...

success, he remained a British

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...

. However, in the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

countries he hit the charts later in 1976 with his version of "

Let's Fall in Love "Let's Fall in Love" is a song written by Harold Arlen (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics) for the film ''Let's Fall in Love (film), Let's Fall in Love'' and published in 1933. In the film, it is heard during the opening credits and later sung by ...

", a song written by

Harold Arlen Harold Arlen (born Hyman Arluck; February 15, 1905 – April 23, 1986) was an American composer of popular music, who composed over 500 songs, a number of which have become known worldwide. In addition to composing the songs for the 1939 film ' ...

and

Ted Koehler Ted L. Koehler (July 14, 1894 – January 17, 1973) was an American lyricist. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972. Life and career Koehler was born in 1894 in Washington, D.C. He started out as a photo-engraver, but ...

and published in 1933, thus prolonging his short chart career there.

Later life and death

From the late 1990s Sarstedt lived in the

Almería Almería (, , ) is a city and municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain, located in Andalusia. It is the capital of the province of Almería, province of the same name. It lies in southeastern Iberian Peninsula, Iberia on the Mediterranean S ...

area of Spain. Sarstedt died from a heart attack on 22 January 2022, at the age of 78. "Clive Robin Sarstedt", ''British Heart Foundation''
Retrieved 6 April 2022

Album discography

*''Clive Sarstedt'' – 1970 –

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

*''Freeway Getaway'' – 1971 – RCA *''In a Dream'' – 1971 – RCA

References

External links