He had a strange affection for Charlie Chaplin jackets and short trousers, but there is still huge affection for 1970s chart-topper Gilbert O’Sullivan. Still making records and releasing a new greatest hits compilation, Chris Price found out how.

With a chirpy semi-Irish accent and slightly less wacky dress sense, there is a confidence about every word uttered by Gilbert O’Sullivan.

The 65-year-old responsible for 1970s hits Alone Again (Naturally), Clair and Get Down claimed he has never released a record he wasn’t happy with.

His confidence remains even though he would have “three hours to do two songs,” in his heyday, whereas now “you could spend a year making a record”. Yet the world’s biggest selling UK artist of 1972, who cracked America in the same year, does have one thing he would change if he could turn the clocks back.

“My only regret is the image I created with the cap, boots, football socks and Charlie Chaplin jacket,” he said from his home in Guernsey.

“That image was important to me because I created it but no one liked it. In 1971 I had some pictures taken with me wearing short trousers and that is what everyone talks about.

“I never wore them on stage but I did for this photo shoot and that is what everyone remembers. I should have known because when we went back to the car, my PR man ran for cover. What I should have done was wear a dress and make-up. That would have been fun.”

After getting good reviews last year for his 17th studio album, Gilbertville, the powers that be decided it was time to revisit the career of Gilbert O’Sullivan, real name Raymond Edward O’Sullivan.

The result was a new greatest hits compilation, A Singer and His Songs – The Very Best Of Gilbert O’Sullivan, tracking the length of the big-haired singer-songwriter’s 45-year career.

The record contains 14 Top 10 UK hits, including the multi-million US selling and Grammy-nominated Alone Again (Naturally), which went to No1 across the pond.

There is also UK No1 Clair and Get Down, which won Gilbert two Ivor Novello Awards in 1973, for Best Song and Best Songwriter.

Gilbert’s first two albums, Himself and Back To Front, stayed in the UK chart for 86 and 64 weeks respectively, but although he is heading out on tour to promote both the greatest hits and his latest studio album, Gilbert is not losing sleep over his chart performance today.

“My job is to write songs, make a record, and then it is out of my hands,” he said. “I don’t top the charts but I sell respectably. I’d like to sell more and that is part of the drive you have to compete.

“As a writer I just want to maintain a good melodic input and be interesting lyrically. The key is to write a good song and that is what makes me happy.”

A big fan of Rihanna, Maroon 5 and Bombay Bicycle Club because he “loves the production” on their records, Gilbert’s contemporaries were the likes of the Osmonds (featured in this week’s What’s On on Page 20).

The male members of the family group had their fair share of interest from the ladies, something which did not concern Gilbert. “I was caught up in the 1970s with David Cassidy and the Osmonds,” he said. “It happened but I never got involved in that. I never got taken up by it.

“When you are doing concerts it goes on but I never lost sight of what makes people like me. The way I dressed turned a lot of people off but I never got bogged down and thought too much about it – I concentrated on the key thing that would make me successful and that was the songs.”

Gilbert O’Sullivan performs at Dartford’s Orchard Theatre on Tuesday, March 20. Tickets £26, concessions £1 off. Box office 01322 220000.