| Big Beat | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | October 1976 [1] | |||
| Recorded | August 1976 | |||
| Studio | Mediasound, New York City | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 35:30 | |||
| Label | Columbia (US), Island (UK) | |||
| Producer | Rupert Holmes Jeffrey Lesser for Widescreen Productions | |||
| Sparks chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Singles from Big Beat | ||||
| ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [3] |
| Classic Rock |   [4] |
Big Beat is the sixth album by American rock band Sparks, released in 1976.
Big Beat was recorded at Mediasound Studios, New York City in August 1976. The album was the group's first album after breaking away from their English backing band and returning to America. Instead, the Mael Brothers used session musicians and hired former Milk 'N' Cookies bassist, and Roxy Music contributor ( Viva! ), Sal Maida on bass, Tuff Darts guitarist Jeffrey Salen and Hilly Boy Michaels on drums. The release was their first for Columbia Records in the US. The album employed a much heavier and harder rock sound. Initially, the Mael brothers had returned to work with the early Sparks member Earle Mankey. Together, they recorded the song "England", a song which bore much in common with the jaunty home-made and unusual sound that the three musicians had made together in the early 1970s. Conversely, Rupert Holmes and Jeffrey Lesser's production on the album was slicker and more direct and the resulting album displayed a more "American" AOR sound. This new "West Coast" sound was deemed a failure as Sparks felt the results were "bereft of personality". [5] [ failed verification ]
The final track on the album was a re-recording of "I Like Girls". The song had been a live favourite from their pre-1974 days. Versions of the song had previously been recorded in 1973 and again in 1974, but both takes were deemed unsatisfactory. [6] The 1973 recording of "I Like Girls" was later included on the 1991 Rhino Entertainment compilation Profile: The Ultimate Sparks Collection.
The lead single, "Big Boy", and its B-side, "Fill-er-up", were performed for a cameo appearance in the 1977 disaster film Rollercoaster , after Kiss turned down the role. [7]
Big Beat was not a success in terms of chart performance and failed to match the performance of the group's previous three albums. It did not chart in the UK or US.
"Big Boy" and "I Like Girls" were released as singles but neither picked up any significant sales or radio play.
Big Beat was reissued by Island in 1994 and remastered in 2006. The first issue by the Island Masters subsidiary added "Tearing The Place Apart" and Russell Mael's "Gone with the Wind", both of which were recorded during the sessions for the Indiscreet album but went unreleased until "The Best of Sparks" compilation LP in 1978. The '21st Century Edition' added the non-album single "I Want to Hold Your Hand", its B-side, "England", and two previously unreleased tracks; "Looks Aren't Everything" and "Intrusion/Confusion". The latter is an early recording of "Confusion". The remastered edition is generally considered sonically superior to the earlier 1994 UK CD and the 1988 Japanese CD but accidentally extends the track "Throw Her Away (And Get A New One)" by about twenty seconds leading to a cold end, rather than the intended fade out present on every other edition.
All tracks are written by Ron Mael except as indicated
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Big Boy" | 3:30 |
| 2. | "I Want to Be Like Everybody Else" | 2:57 |
| 3. | "Nothing to Do" | 3:09 |
| 4. | "I Bought the Mississippi River" | 2:29 |
| 5. | "Fill-er-up" | 2:20 |
| 6. | "Everybody's Stupid" | 3:41 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 7. | "Throw Her Away (And Get a New One)" | 3:15 |
| 8. | "Confusion" | 3:27 |
| 9. | "Screwed Up" | 4:20 |
| 10. | "White Women" | 3:24 |
| 11. | "I Like Girls" | 2:58 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "Tearing the Place Apart" | 3:38 | |
| 13. | "Gone with the Wind" | Russell Mael | 3:07 |
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12. | "I Want to Hold Your Hand" | John Lennon and Paul McCartney | 2:56 |
| 13. | "England" | 3:18 | |
| 14. | "Gone with the Wind" | Russell Mael | 3:07 |
| 15. | "Intrusion/Confusion" | 2:47 | |
| 16. | "Looks Aren't Everything" | 3:28 | |
| 17. | "Tearing the Place Apart" | 3:38 |
Sparks is an American pop and rock duo formed by brothers Ron (keyboards) and Russell Mael (vocals) in Los Angeles. The duo is noted for their quirky approach to songwriting; their music is often accompanied by sophisticated and acerbic lyrics—often about women, and sometimes containing literary or cinematic references—and an idiosyncratic, theatrical stage presence, typified by the contrast between Russell's animated, hyperactive frontman antics and Ron's deadpan scowling. Russell Mael has a distinctive wide-ranging voice, while Ron Mael plays keyboards in an intricate and rhythmic style. Their frequently changing styles and visual presentations have kept the band at the forefront of modern, artful pop music.
Kimono My House is the third studio album by American rock band Sparks, released on May 1, 1974, by Island Records. The album is considered to be their commercial breakthrough, and was met with widespread acclaim.
"This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" is a song by American pop band Sparks. Written by Ron Mael, it is the opening track on their third studio album Kimono My House (1974), and was the lead single from the album. Although it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100, "This Town Ain't Big Enough for Both of Us" achieved major success in Europe, peaking within the top ten of the charts in the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the latter country, the song peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, where it remained for two consecutive weeks. The song has become the highest-charting for Sparks on the UK Singles Chart, held off from the top spot by The Rubettes' bubblegum pop song "Sugar Baby Love".
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Indiscreet is the fifth album by Sparks. It was released in 1975 and later re-released with three bonus tracks. The album was a departure from the glam rock sound of Kimono My House and Propaganda, and emphasised the theatrical elements of their work, with greater use of orchestral arrangements and drawing from non-rock orientated styles such as jazz, big band, swing, vaudeville, and classical music. The album was produced by Tony Visconti, with whom the group reunited in 1997 to produce several tracks for their retrospective album Plagiarism. The song "How Are You Getting Home?" was used in Leos Carax's film Holy Motors.
Introducing Sparks is the seventh album by the American rock band Sparks, released in 1977 by Columbia Records.
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Whomp That Sucker is the tenth album by the American rock band Sparks, released in 1981.
Angst in My Pants is the eleventh studio album by American pop and rock band Sparks. The album was released in 1982 by Atlantic Records in both the US and UK, and this was the sixth overall label that the band was signed to in the US, and, for the first time since the mid-1970s, the band would be signed to the same label in both the US and UK for three consecutive studio albums.
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Gratuitous Sax & Senseless Violins is the 16th album by American rock band Sparks. It was released in 1994, after an absence from the music industry of 6 years, and marked the duo's transition into a more techno/Eurobeat-influenced sound, which earned them popularity in Germany.
Balls is the 18th album by the American rock band Sparks, released in 2000.
Lil' Beethoven is the 19th album by the American rock band Sparks, released on November 26, 2002. The album was a radical musical departure compared to their previous works. The band only used strings, piano, and voices but sporadic drums: the result was both classical and pop music.
Hello Young Lovers is the 20th album by American pop and rock duo Sparks, released in 2006. A continuation of the repetitious, orchestral sound of their previous album Lil' Beethoven, though with a much greater emphasis on guitar and drums, it is a concept album which addresses aspects of modern love.
Gleaming Spires was an American new wave pop group in the 1980s.
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Hilly Michaels, also known as Hilly Boy Michaels, is an American drummer and musician who is best known for playing drums with Sparks in the 1970s. Then a New York-based session drummer, he performed on Sparks' 1976 album Big Beat, which was produced by Rupert Holmes. Michaels was the only session musician to go on the North American tour with Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks. Michaels released two solo albums in the early 1980s, Calling All Girls (1980) and Lumia (1981).
The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman is the 22nd album by American rock group Sparks, released in August 2009. The duo's first work in the radio musical genre, the album is built around an imaginary visit to Hollywood by Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman in the mid-1950s. Its storyline focuses on the divides between European and American culture, between art and commerce. Unlike other Sparks albums, the work is conceived as a single piece, to be listened to as a whole, rather than a collection of stand-alone songs.
Salon Music is a Japanese new wave/rock duo consisting of Hitomi Takenaka (竹中仁見) and Zin Yoshida (吉田仁). The group have released twelve studio albums between 1983 and 2011. As of 2020 their most recent album was Sleepless Sheep in 2011.
Songs of the Spires is the debut album by American new wave pop group Gleaming Spires. It features the single "Are You Ready for the Sex Girls?" and was produced by Stephen Hague.
