Crispian St. Peters - The Anthology (1996)

As a 29-song anthology that spans Crispian St. Peters' entire career, this compilation has the appearance of being the first-choice retrospective of this minor performer's work. 'Tain't necessarily so, though, because only about half of it is from 1965-1967, the era that most would think of as St. Peters' peak. To little notice, he continued to record through the 1970s and had a 1990 comeback album, and there's a good deal of that mediocre-to-terrible stuff on this CD. On the other hand, it does include the original versions of the few well-known cuts that anyone who wants a St. Peters collection would demand to have: "The Pied Piper" and his British hit cover of "You Were on My Mind" (which, if truth be known, is far worse than either the We Five version or the Ian & Sylvia original). There are also a bunch of his far lesser known A-sides and B-sides from the 1960s, including a cover of Phil Ochs' "Changes" and quite a few original compositions. It's a fairly large discography that this disc samples, but for all that, he ultimately comes off as a mediocre, rather boring pop/rock singer with strong traces of country and pop-folk, his vocal delivery sometimes resembling P.J. Proby or a lesser Gordon Waller (of Peter & Gordon). The country influence came to dominate his work by the end of the 1960s, and from 1970 onward his discs were pretty blah -- never more so than on the three sluggish songs from his 1990 album (including a lame remake of "The Pied Piper") that finish off the anthology. Any lost moments worth recounting here? Nope, though it's odd to hear his debut single "At This Moment," which was as poppy and teen-idolish as he ever got.