I love the song Where do you go my lovely, what other songs are similar?

November 23, 2010 2:39 PM

I watched Darjeeling Limited / Hotel Chevalier a while ago and I fell in love with one of the songs featured in these movies. The song is Where do you go my lovely by Peter Sarstedt. To me it conveys sophistication, melancholy and nostalgia. What other songs from this era would I probably like?
posted by bbxx to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

"Love me, Please Love me" by Michel Polnareff
posted by fire&wings at 2:47 PM on November 23, 2010

It's possible you might like early Scott Walker, and his great inspiration from that time Jacques Brel - that song is definitely in the chanson rather than Anglo-American Folk tradition. Perhaps also the great English chansonnier Jake Thackray.
posted by Grangousier at 3:04 PM on November 23, 2010

Yves Montand's "Rue St. Vincent" (which makes a brief appearance in "Rushmore") comes to mind.
posted by ryanshepard at 3:09 PM on November 23, 2010

Wes Anderson soundtracks are chock full of this stuff.

Yves Montand: aside from "Rue St. Vincent," also see Les Feuilles Mortes
Nico: These Days and Fairest of the Seasons

Check out those artists, but also Edith Piaf from a slightly earlier era. And you might enjoy a lot of the torch song genre.

Pretty much any version of the song Lush Life.

Also Serge Gainsbourg (poppier and cheesier, but seriously, you can't get more 1960s Fronnnnsh than Serge et Jane Birkin).
posted by Madamina at 3:18 PM on November 23, 2010

It reminds me a fair amount of a certain strain of Dylan -
.....My Back Pages
.....Sara
.....It Ain't Me, Babe
.....Mama, You Been On My Mind (link is to a cover)
.....Visions of Johanna
.....Hard Rain's Gonna Fall
.....Shelter from the Storm
.....Fourth Time Around
.....Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
.....Don't Think Twice; It's all Right
.....Girl from the North Country

Also, it's not at all the same era, but there's a musically-very-similar song by They Might Be Giants called "Drink".
posted by foursentences at 3:21 PM on November 23, 2010

Actually, this is what you are looking for.
posted by fire&wings at 5:49 PM on November 23, 2010

Belle & Sebastian – Piazza, New York Catcher
posted by Etaoin Shrdlu at 6:21 PM on November 23, 2010

Perhaps not quite as sophisticated (no accordions), but Jackson C.Frank's The Blues Run the Game lives in the same corner of my head as the Sarstedt song (perhaps because of the hotel theme running through both of them).
posted by redsparkler at 8:50 PM on November 23, 2010

Al Stewart sometimes has a Sarstedt vibe.
posted by Iridic at 10:06 PM on November 23, 2010

There's a Putumayo Records album named French Cafe. Some of it's chanson, some of it mellow jazz. It has some of the artists already mentioned above (Gainsbourg, Birkin) and some others that you'd probably also like such as Coralie Clement and Paris Combo. It's mostly in French.
posted by Ahab at 2:00 AM on November 24, 2010

Gordon Lightfoot : If You Could Read My Mind
for a laugh aha ha
posted by Dr.Pill at 5:02 PM on November 24, 2010