18 May 1968
Continuing the turbulent social upheaval of May 1968: here’s Engelbert with tear gas for the ears. Originally an Italian song called ‘Quando m’innamoro’ from that year’s Sanremo festival, it ended up being recorded in at least ten other European languages; ‘A Man Without Love’ is repping the language of Shakespeare and Shakin’ Stevens.
Span-ish guitar; Parisian accordion; vaguely Mediterranean string arrangement; Bavarian farty tuba: Engelbert’s version—his fourth Irish number one—is a veritable Euro-pudding. He makes it another of his tales of maudlin male heartache, this time the abscondment of a “my girl” who most likely got sick of his possessive adjective, belittling noun and all-round bland unctuousness. The cocktail of choice for this May ’68 cabaret schlock is a Molotov.
