YOUR hit You Make Me Feel Like Dancing was used in Charlie's Angels (2000) and When I Need You was used in The Sopranos (2002), and the list goes on it must give you a buzz when producers ask to use your music on their soundtracks?
``Yeah, it is good! It means the songs have longevity and life. You always hope, as a songwriter, your songs will be covered by other artists or used elsewhere like that and as it happens my songs don't often get covered because the style of my songs is more personal, the subject matter is very autobiographical. Roger Daltrey did Giving It All Away and had success but no one else has given that one a go.
``You Make Me Feel Like Dancing was used in the movie Slapshot [1977] and I got a really nice message from Paul Newman which was a real knockout, saying `Love that song, man!'. And that's really cool. I met Cameron Diaz in a store and she said: `I shower to your song.' And I thought, hell, that's great, isn't it! No, but it's flattering when your songs get used, and especially when they use your voice to sing them.''
Do you always say yes?
``You kind of have to. If I said no they'd get very angry with me. You'd have to have a bloody good reason. There was a commercial for ladies' sanitary pads that wanted to use one of my songs in Canada. It might've been You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, I can't remember. I was finally able to turn that down but I had to come up with a million reasons before they'd throw it out. There was $75,000 on the table, you know, and when people have got vested interests and they're gonna pick up a big percentage of that, and also my co-writer on that song, Vini Poncia, he's relying on that towards his living, you know what I mean?''
You've done a lot of TV, mostly appearing as yourself. Did you have second thoughts about doing Celebrity Big Brother?
``I just shouldna dunnit! Reality TV, on that kind of scale, is not reality at all because they manipulate what's goin' on in the show. They kind of twist the knife every now and then to make some person's life murder and that's what they did to me. The only way to win in that show is to act completely and absolutely dumb! And I'm sorry, I can't be that, it's not me, it's not my character. I just wanted to find out what the experience was like and make some good money for charity. But, you know, I should've said no!''
Just as Bette Midler slowed down the Cliff Richard hit Do You Wanna Dance? and came up with a sensual triumph, last year you slowed down You Make Me Feel Like Dancing with the same steamy brilliance. How has it gone over?
``To be quite honest, not well actually. It's a real shame the record didn't lift off. I've gotta say in a very truthful way it was last year's record and I've already moved on.
``People liked it but they don't necessarily favour it over the original. You know, it didn't kick off the way it was intended. But it's all right, that happens. I kind of admire the public for maybe choosing the original and that's what we're doing on stage at the moment. And it's real fun to do it. But we are doing Don't Wait Until Tomorrow [from the slow album, of the same name] because I'm proud of that song.
``I've had plenty of people with vested interests come up to me and tell me, yeah, but the record's not a hit because you chose that unusual title. So there you go. I've fought marketing people all my life. I could kill the lot of them, quite honestly. They've got nothing to do with music. I just wanna make good music, you know. The rest of it is irrelevant.
``It's nice to have success because it clears the path and brings in the money for you to make records. But other than that it's bloody useless, really.''
Sayer performs at Blacktown Workers Club onSaturday, October31.
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