You're showing off, you're showing out

Continuing my trip back through the 1979 album charts.

21/10/79 : Whatever You Want - Status Quo

Our fourth visit with the Mighty Quo and the title track has to be up there with peak Quo, doesn't it? I have to admit I don't mind it as well, but I fear a whole album will be a bit too much for me.

And it opens with the title track, which is a surprisingly enjoyable nostalgic experience. And, for the most part, it continues in the same vein, which is fine but a bit repetitive. But then there's "Living On An Island" which has a very Eagles feel to it which was most unexpected and "High Flyer" also has much more of a US feel to it than I was expecting. So, all in all, I think they just about get away with it - it's not an album I'd choose to go back to but it was considerably more bearable than I was expecting. I'm not a fan of the album cover though.

We're at #4 in the charts this week on their second week of a fourteen week run with it having peaked at #3 in its debut week. The rest of the top five were The Police, Fleetwood Mac  (a new entry), Blondie and Eagles with the next highest new entry being Motorhead (#11) who are a band we've seen very little of, particularly when compared with how often Iron Maiden pop up.

Wikipedia tells us this is their twelfth album - and that's all the content of any interest there is, I'm afraid. So to pad things out, I'm going to describe the cover artwork for title track when it was released as a single (peaking at #4 in September) - quite obviously, it's a penguin standing on a red carpet wearing a red suspender belt. I've no idea what the thinking was there. Back to the album, it was well received critically with Smash Hits giving it 7.5/10, which diverted me down a very enjoyable Smash Hits rabbit hole - it ran from '78 to '06 and sold over a million copies in its peak in the late 80s. Back to the Quo, it did better than I expected commercially in Europe getting to #7 in Spain and The Netherlands and #9 in Germany - looking at their discography I can see we're going to be seeing a lot more of them because they've had TWENTY top ten albums over the years.

Looking at discogs.com, you can pick up a decent copy for three quid but someone's trying to flog one for £119.70, which seems like a most peculiar price - and there's no obvious explanation as what more you're getting for your money there. I'm actually pretty certain that everyone who wants to own this album already does so and that doesn't include me, but I have to admit it was a lot more enjoyable than I was expecting. 

14/10/79 - A fine slice of historical futurism
28/10/79 - No Hotel California

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