Another in EMI's admirable roundups of
Sandie Shaw's foreign-language recordings, this German selection -- titled for the Eurovision smash "Puppet on a String" -- echoes its Italian- and Spanish-language cousins in tracking down every known recording she made in that tongue, regardless of whether or not it was a hit, a completist approach that can only be admired. That said, this is surely the weakest of all
Shaw's journeys into Linguaphone land, if only because German itself does not seem to suit her natural singing voice -- and her efforts to come to grips with it sound forced and false. Indeed, there are moments where one is reminded not of one of Britain's finest-ever female singers, gallantly appealing to her northern European audience, but of the humorist
Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, translating their own "Mr. Apollo" into the same language. At the same time, however, if you've already bought the others in the series, you'll be buying this one as well. You really won't want that gap in your collection, will you? ~ Dave Thompson