Friday 29 March 2013

Eden Kane born 29 March 1942




Eden Kane (born Richard Graham Sarstedt, 29 March 1941, Delhi, India) is an early 1960s British pop singer.

Like Cliff Richard, Pete Best, and Engelbert Humperdinck, Richard Sarstedt was born in India, but returned with his parents to England while he was still a child. Although he formed a skiffle group with his younger brothers Peter and Robin his first recording was sponsored by Cadbury; 'Hot Chocolate Crazy'- an advertising jingle, issued as a single by
Pye Records. This was played almost as often as Horace Batchelor's football pools advertisement on Radio Luxembourg. By this time he had created the name 'Eden Kane' for himself. This was thought more fashionable at the time than Sarstedt. The new name, allegedly inspired by the film 'Citizen Kane', had similar biblical connotations to that of the highly successful Adam Faith.

His natural good looks enabled him to get a part in the 1960 film 'Drinks All Round', but then came the opportunity to record 'Well I Ask You' on Decca. 


















The song was written by Les Vandyke and arranged by John Keating. Vandyke had earlier worked on two chart-topping singles for Adam Faith, ("What Do You Want" and "Poor Me"). This proved to be a smash hit and was followed up with two more Vandyke songs, both of which reached the UK top ten.  After "Well I Ask You" made No 1 in June 1961, "Get Lost" reached No 10 in September 1961; "Forget Me Not" achieved No 3 spot in January 1962. Both of these were also written by Les Vandyke. "I Don't Know Why" reached No 7 in May 1962, and finally "Boys Cry" made No 8 in January 1964, but then the string of hits halted despite a return to Vandyke with 'House To Let'.

However, a couple of flops, financial problems, and a change in label to Philips subsidiary Fontana marked a decline similar to that experienced by most of the pre-Beatles UK
stars. Like many of his teen idol peers, Kane sought to stave off chart oblivion by hitching a ride onto the beat boom bandwagon, teaming with a group with real Liverpool pedigree - Fontana labelmates Earl Preston and the TT's. This energetic attempt, originally titled "Do You Love Me" (c/w "Comeback") was reissued with a new title "Like I Love You", to avoid confusion with the UK hit covers by Brian Poole & the Tremeloes and the Dave Clark Five of The Contours' U.S. hit of the same name, and some momentum was lost.

Kane's next release, a UK and Australia Top 10 comeback hit


with "Boys Cry" in 1964, was just a hiccup on the general downward spiral and did little to sustain his career. However, he was arguably the last British solo star to succeed before  the arrival of the Beatles, and his five chart singles all made the Top Ten.

Kane later moved to America and married journalist Charlene Groman (the sister of actress Stefanie Powers), whom he had first met while passing through the United States in the mid 1960s. They have now made their permanent home in Los Angeles. Kane remained active in the entertainment business in the States, as a record producer.

The family was far from finished. His brother, Peter Sarstedt, got to number one himself in 1969, with "Where Do You Go


To (My Lovely)"; whilst the youngest brother Clive, who had earlier recorded under the supervision of Joe Meek as Wes Sands, later used his middle name to call himself Robin Sarstedt and reached the British Top 3 in 1976 with his cover rendition of the old Hoagy Carmichael song, "My Resistance Is Low".

As a footnote, in the mid 1970s all three brothers sang together briefly, but this did not create new chart action for Kane. On 20 June 1973, the brothers made their first joint appearance as a group at Croydon's Fairfield Halls. Eden, Peter and Robin went on to win a joint BASCA Award for composing and songwriting. Eden has recorded for Decca, Fontana, Bell, Monarch, HMV and Festival (the last two being Australian releases).

As of 2006, all three of the Sarstedt brothers are still active in the music industry and Eden has toured the UK several times with the 'Solid Gold Rock and Roll' tours.

Kane was a contract actor on the Star Trek team, and made many appearances in the TV series under his real name Richard Sarstedt.

Currently he has a CD, entitled Y2Kane, available on his website. (Info edited from Wikipedia & 45-rpm.org)


Not much early footage of Eden except a few Scopitone clips. 
Here's Eden Kane performing with an anonymous dreamgirl in the bewitching Scopitone clip of "Someone Wants To Know". 

1 comment:

boppinbob said...

For a great compolation of Eden's greatest hits go here:

http://www18.zippyshare.com/v/50671284/file.html