"Pictures of Matchstick Men" | ||||
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![]() A-side label of the UK vinyl release | ||||
Single by the Status Quo | ||||
from the album Picturesque Matchstickable Messages from the Status Quo | ||||
B-side | "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Café" | |||
Released | 5 January 1968 | |||
Studio | Pye, London [1] | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 3:09 | |||
Label | Pye | |||
Songwriter(s) | Francis Rossi | |||
Producer(s) | John Schroeder [1] | |||
The Status Quo singles chronology | ||||
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Official audio | ||||
"Pictures of Matchstick Men" (Mono Version) on YouTube |
"Pictures of Matchstick Men" is the first hit single by British rock band The Status Quo. It was released on 5 January 1968. [6]
The song reached number seven on the UK Singles Chart, number eight in Canada, and number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100, becoming their only top-40 single in the United States. [7] [8] [9] Francis Rossi confirmed on DVD2 of the Pictures set,[ clarification needed ] that it was originally intended to be a B-side to "Gentleman Joe's Sidewalk Cafe", but it was decided to swap the B-side and the A-side of the single.
There are two versions, one in stereo and another in mono, with significant differences: the original single was in mono and has the trademark wah-wah guitar in the breaks between lyrics, but this is omitted in stereo.
The song opens with a single guitar repeatedly playing a simple four-note riff before the bass, rhythm guitar, organ, drums and vocals begin. "Pictures of Matchstick Men" is one of a number of songs from the late 1960s which feature the flanging audio effect. The band's next single release, "Black Veils of Melancholy", was similar but flopped, which caused a change of musical direction. [10]
Rossi (living in a prefab in Camberwell at the time) [11] later said of the song:
I wrote it on the bog. I'd gone there, not for the usual reasons... but to get away from the wife and mother-in-law. I used to go into this narrow frizzing toilet and sit there for hours, until they finally went out. I got three quarters of the song finished in that khazi. The rest I finished in the lounge. [12]
The "matchstick men" reference is to the paintings of Salford artist L. S. Lowry. [12]
In 1989, Camper Van Beethoven scored a number 1 hit on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States with their version from the album Key Lime Pie . [13]
Chart (1968) | Peak position |
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Australian Singles (Kent Music Report) [14] | 19 |
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40) [15] | 18 |
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Wallonia) [16] | 18 |
Canada Top Singles ( RPM ) [17] | 8 |
Germany (GfK) [18] | 7 |
Netherlands (Single Top 100) [19] | 3 |
Switzerland (Schweizer Hitparade) [20] | 5 |
UK Singles (OCC) [21] | 7 |
US Billboard Hot 100 [22] | 12 |