Reintroducing... Gilbert O'Sullivan, the renascent singer-songwriter in the berry vest of health.

In the 1970s Gilbert O'Sullivan had number one singles on both sides of the Atlantic and four Top Five albums in Britain. Now he is enjoying his most successful year for far too long. His greatest hits album, The Berry Vest Of Gilbert O'Sullivan, made the Top 20, and Morrissey has been covering Nothing Rhymed in his live show. It is time to re-assess Alone Again (Naturally), Matrimony, Get Down and, yes, Clair and Ooh Wakka Doo Wakka Day, says Charles Hutchinson. Gilbert agrees.

How has 2004 gone for you?

"We've done very nearly 100,000 sales with the greatest hits album for EMI; it's not platinum, it's not million selling, but it's very pleasing."

How do you asses your standing in British pop and rock?

"Radio 2 has become Radio 1 and I'm very aware I'm not hip, though I did visit the Steve Wright and Jeremy Vine shows when the album was released.

"You can deal with the situation two ways: either get out or find your niche and get on with it, which is what I do. I always fund my albums myself and I always send them to the major labels, and I've always been able to do lease deals abroad but the difficulty has been Britain."

After a series of albums on your own By Gum label, EMI backed your last studio album, 2003's Piano Foreplay, and is now promoting the hits compilation. Good news, presumably?

"EMI liked Piano Foreplay, and Steve Davis, the man responsible for the deal and the marketing, came out to see me in Jersey to discuss the greatest hits record. I got to choose tracks and write the liner notes, and the reason I did so was that I'd had enough of seeing liner notes that made me cringe and were factually inaccurate."

Isn't that "Berry Vest Of" title a little cringe-inducing?

"The serious side of my music is the writing; the light side is that title. What's wrong with it? It's just a bit of fun, a bit of wordplay, and it's good to go against the grain with something a little off the wall."

Whether you're singing to a dog on Get Down or dressing like Charlie Chaplin, you have cut an individual, idiosyncratic path. Presumably that was what caught John Peel's eye in 1967.

"Yes, my first radio broadcast was on John's Top Gear show. He'd just moved to Radio1 from his Perfumed Garden show, and they offered me a slot on his new show. I met up with John at Lower Regent Street to record Disappear and What Can I Do. I had the hat, I had the Chaplin jacket and I had the hair I couldn't hide, and he really liked it that I stood out from the crowd."

Are you flattered by Morrissey singing your song Nothing Rhymed in this year's live shows?

"Why shouldn't he do that? Morrissey talks of lots of people influencing him and I thought 'Why shouldn't he listen to me?'. That's one of the gripes I have: the intellectual Mojo and Q magazine mentality and the musical snobbery of BBC 6 Music. For young singer-songwriters who are looking to writers to check out, they will be told to check out Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, James Taylor, Morrissey, but they'll know nothing about me because they never hear me or read about me.

"The reason Morrissey heard me in the Seventies was that I was having hits. Take away the image and I'm on a par with those people, James Taylor, Ray Davies. Like him, I write about the English character."

What lies in store for you, apart from your 58th birthday next month?

"I'm pretty optimistic about my future despite obstacles being put in front of me. If I do have one worry about what I do, it's not about my work or my ambition or opportunities that may come up, but I do worry about my age, because I basically work in the same way that I always have. I still sit in a room with a piano and press a button to record, but what has changed is my age, and that has to catch up with me.

"Elton John is lucky: he just does the music. If he did the lyrics you wouldn't see the extrovert in Elton in his lyrics, but they're being done for him by Bernie Taupin in his mountain home. If Elton did the lyrics he wouldn't have the time to party and go from gig to gig.

"But I'm at my happiest doing my own songs, writing my own lyrics."

Gilbert O'Sullivan, Grand Opera House, York, Wednesday, November 10, 7.30pm. Tickets: £15, £12.50, on 0870 606 3595.

Updated: 16:00 Thursday, November 04, 2004