Crispian St. Peters

Crispian St. Peters was one mid-1960s act, like We Five (from whom he appropriated a song), who seemed to capture a moment with his best songs, but never moved past that moment. In his particular case, a mix of psychological problems, bad timing, and an inconsistent style seemed to make it impossible to get past his two big hits. Born Robin Peter Smith in Kent, England, he'd been a member of a trio called the Beat Formula Three in the early 1960s when manager Dave Nicolson pegged him for stardom, with a new name, Crispian St. Peters, and a new folk-rock sound. His first two singles, an uptempo, harmonium-driven ballad called "At This Moment," and the loud, retro-sounding love song "No No No," failed to attract any attention from the public or the press. Then he covered the Sylvia Fricker-authored "You Were On My Mind," which the quintet We Five had picked up from Ian & Sylvia and turned into a hit in America -- his version, slightly more subdued and brooding (his phrasing of the song's opening line was almost Elvis-like), was issued very hurriedly late in 1965 and languished for a time. Gradually, however, it took hold in England and eventually made the British Top Ten in mid-1966. By then, as with most pop phenomena, Crispian St. Peters became the object of massive press attention, and that was where the first of his outlandish self-promoting statements achieved notice -- he claimed that he'd written 80 songs that were better than anything John Lennon or Paul McCartney had ever authored, and subsequently described himself as a singer better than Elvis Presley, sexier than Dave Berry ("The Crying Game"), and more exciting than Tom Jones. Later in 1966, St. Peters' "The Pied Piper" soared into the Top Ten on both sides of the Atlantic, and, with its infectious chorus...