| Solitaire | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1972 | |||
| Recorded | June 1972 | |||
| Studio | Strawberry, Stockport, England | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Length | 41:22 | |||
| Label | RCA Victor | |||
| Producer | Neil Sedaka | |||
| Neil Sedaka chronology | ||||
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| Alternate cover | ||||
 The West German RCA International release of the Solitaire album, simply retitled Neil Sedaka | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    [1] |
Solitaire is a 1972 album by American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka.
The album was produced at Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, with the musical support of Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley who – together with the album's recording engineer Eric Stewart – would shortly become the successful pop band 10cc.
Sedaka opted to record at Strawberry after meeting Gouldman in New York and discovering his association with Stewart, Godley and Creme. The trio had recorded the single "Umbopo", which Sedaka liked, under the band name of Doctor Father. [2]
His work with the four British musicians proved to be a pivotal influence on their collective decision to forge a career as a band. Gouldman recalled: "It was Neil Sedaka's success that did it, I think. We'd just been accepting any job we were offered and were getting really frustrated. We knew that we were worth more than that, but it needed something to prod us into facing that. We were a bit choked to think that we'd done the whole of Neil's first album with him just for flat session fees when we could have been recording our own material." [3]
Sedaka recorded one more album with the band members, The Tra-La Days Are Over . Conspicuously absent from the Solitaire album was any work by Sedaka's long-running songwriting partner Howard Greenfield; Sedaka had by this point begun another partnership with Phil Cody, and both Sedaka and Greenfield had concluded that their collaboration had run its course.
The track "Better Days Are Coming" was reworked by Sedaka as the Japanese opening theme for the 1985 anime series Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam . The revised song became "Zeta - Toki o Koete" (Ζ・刻を越えて, Zēta - Toki o Koete, lit. "Zeta - Beyond Time"). This version was later translated back into English with new lyrics and retitled "Go Beyond the Time" by Richie Kotzen.
The album, released after a successful English tour in early 1972, [4] marked the comeback of Sedaka after a 10-year absence from the charts. Three singles were lifted from the album, "Beautiful You" (UK No. 43), "That's When the Music Takes Me" (UK No. 18; US No. 27), and "Dimbo Man".
The Solitaire album was not released in the US initially, but eventually it was issued after Sedaka regained his popularity in his home country in 1974-75 with the release of the album Sedaka's Back . In West Germany, the album was released on the budget label RCA International, simply titled Neil Sedaka.
The album's title track, "Solitaire", later became a hit single for Andy Williams (1973) and The Carpenters (1975), and was recorded by Elvis on the album From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976).
In 2010, BGO Records re-released the album on CD.
All tracks by Neil Sedaka except where marked
10cc are a British rock band formed in Stockport in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians – Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – who had written and recorded together since 1968. The group featured two songwriting teams. Stewart and Gouldman were predominantly pop songwriters, who created most of the band's accessible songs. Godley and Creme were the predominantly experimental half of 10cc, featuring art and cinematically inspired writing.
Godley & Creme were an English rock duo formally established in Manchester in 1977 by Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. The pair began releasing music as a duo after their departure from the rock band 10cc. In 1979, they directed their first music video with the single "An Englishman in New York". After this, they became involved in the production of videos for artists such as Ultravox, the Police, Yes, Duran Duran, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Huey Lewis and the News and Wang Chung, as well as directing the groundbreaking video for their 1985 single "Cry". The duo split at the end of the 1980s. Both have since been involved in music videos, TV commercials, and sporadic music projects.
Eric Michael Stewart is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known as a founding member of the rock groups the Mindbenders with whom he played from 1963 to 1968, and likewise of 10cc from 1972 to 1995. Stewart co-owned Strawberry Studios in Stockport, England, from 1968 to the early 1980s, where he recorded albums with 10cc and artists including Neil Sedaka and Paul McCartney. Stewart collaborated with McCartney extensively in the 1980s, playing on or co-writing songs for McCartney's solo albums Tug of War (1982), Pipes of Peace (1983), Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984), and Press to Play (1986). Since 1980, Stewart has released four solo studio albums.
Hotlegs was a short-lived English band best known for their hit single "Neanderthal Man" in 1970. The band consisted of Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley, Lol Creme and – briefly – Graham Gouldman. In 1972, the band re-branded themselves as 10cc.
"I'm Not in Love" is a song by British group 10cc, written by band members Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman. It is known for its innovative and distinctive backing track, composed mostly of the band's multitracked vocals. Released in the UK in May 1975 as the second single from the band's third album, The Original Soundtrack, it became the second of the group's three number-one singles in the UK between 1973 and 1978, topping the UK Singles Chart for two weeks. "I'm Not in Love" became the band's breakthrough hit outside the United Kingdom, topping the charts in Canada and the Republic of Ireland as well as peaking within the top ten of the charts in several other countries, including Australia, Germany, New Zealand, Norway and the United States.
Sheet Music is the second album by the English rock band 10cc. It was released in 1974 on UK records, and yielded the hit singles "The Wall Street Shuffle" and "Silly Love". The album reached No. 9 in the UK and No. 81 in the United States.
Strawberry Studios was a recording studio in Stockport, historically in Cheshire, now within Greater Manchester, England. Founded in 1968, it operated until the early 1990s. Strawberry Studios became one of the finest professional recording studios in the United Kingdom outside London used by a range of artists including 10cc, Joy Division, Neil Sedaka, Barclay James Harvest, The Smiths, The Stone Roses, The Moody Blues, Paul McCartney, Wax and Cliff Richard.
Deceptive Bends is the fifth studio album by rock band 10cc, released in 1977. It was the first album released by the band after the departure of founding members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme and produced the hit single The Things We Do for Love.
...Meanwhile is the tenth studio album by the British rock band 10cc, released in 1992. It was the band's first in nine years and marked the brief comeback of the original 10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme.
Thinks: School Stinks is the only studio album by English pop band Hotlegs. The album, featuring the band's hit single "Neanderthal Man", was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport near Manchester and engineered by the studio's co-owners, Eric Stewart and Peter Tattersall.
"Solitaire" is a ballad written by Neil Sedaka and Phil Cody. Cody employs playing the card game of solitaire as a metaphor for a man "who lost his love through his indifference"—"while life goes on around him everywhere he's playing solitaire". The song is perhaps best known via its rendition by the Carpenters. Another version by Andy Williams reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart in 1973.
The Tra-La Days Are Over is a 1973 album by American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka.
"The Dean and I" is a song by the art rock/pop band 10cc, from their 1973 eponymous debut album, written by Lol Creme and Kevin Godley. The song was released as the fourth single from the album in August 1973 and peaked at #10 on the UK Singles Chart. The single reached the top of the Irish Singles Chart on 20 September 1973.
Sedaka's Back is a compilation album by American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka. The record, composed of selections from his previous three albums, which had been released only in the UK, was released on Elton John's label, The Rocket Record Company, in 1974. Three singles were released from this album: "Laughter in the Rain", "The Immigrant" and "That's When the Music Takes Me." The latter two songs were both Top 40 hits. Also included were songs that were turned into hits by other artists: "Solitaire" and "Love Will Keep Us Together". The album reached No. 23 on the US Billboard album charts and was certified Gold for shipping half a million sales.
Live and Let Live is 10cc's first live album, released in the Autumn of 1977. It was recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon in London between 18 and 20 June 1977 and the Manchester Apollo, Manchester between 16 and 17 July 1977.
Harvey Brian Lisberg is an English talent manager and impresario, best known for discovering Herman's Hermits in 1963. In 1965, he signed songwriter Graham Gouldman, a founder member of 10cc, who Lisberg also managed, along with Godley & Creme, Tony Christie, Barclay James Harvest, Gordon Giltrap, Sad Café, Wax and others.
100cc is a compilation album by the English rock band 10cc.
"That's When the Music Takes Me" is a song written and originally recorded by Neil Sedaka in 1972. It is a track from his Solitaire LP, as it was billed in the UK, entitled as Neil Sedaka in the U.S.
"Our Last Song Together" is a 1973 song recorded by Neil Sedaka. It is a track from his LP The Tra-La Days Are Over, and was the third of four single releases from the album.
Clever Clogs is a live and video album by 10cc released in 2008.
