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Sheet Music (10cc album)

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Sheet Music
Studio album by
10cc
Released24 May 1974[1]
RecordedJanuary 1974
StudioStrawberry Studios, Stockport, Cheshire, England
Genre
Length37:12
LabelUK
Producer10cc
10cc chronology
10cc
(1973) 		Sheet Music
(1974) 		The Original Soundtrack
(1975)
Singles from Sheet Music
  1. "The Worst Band in the World"
    Released: January 1974
  2. "The Wall Street Shuffle"
    Released: May 1974
  3. "Silly Love"
    Released: August 1974

Sheet Music is the second album by the English rock band 10cc. It was released in 1974 on UK records (No: UKAL 1007), 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.

Production

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The album was produced by 10cc, engineered and mixed by Eric Stewart. It includes all possible combinations of co-writing duos between Stewart, Gouldman, Godley and Creme, which the band used to experiment and explore new creativity while making the album.

In a 2006 interview, ex-drummer Kevin Godley said: "We'd really started to explode creatively and didn't recognise any boundaries. We were buzzing on each other and exploring our joint and individual capabilities. Lots of excitement and energy at those sessions and, more important, an innocence that was open to anything."[4]

While 10cc were recording their album during the night, Paul McCartney was using the Strawberry Studios in the daytime to produce his brother Mike's album McGear. Graham Gouldman remarked how the band used Paul's drum kit for their album, and how Paul's influence was certainly felt while making the record.[5]

The subject of the song "Clockwork Creep", which ends side one of the album, is a bomb aboard a jumbo jet describing the final minute in its countdown to detonation.[6]

Release

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Three singles were taken from the album, all of them released in 1974. The lead single "The Worst Band in the World" failed to chart, while the follow-up "The Wall Street Shuffle" made #10 in the UK and #2 in the Netherlands. The third single "Silly Love" made #24 in the UK.

The album was reissued several times with different b-sides from the 10cc and Sheet Music singles as bonus tracks. The most recent version is 2007 UK reissue which combines only Sheet Music related bonus tracks.

The album in its entirety—including all of the bonus cuts from the 1993 release and the 2007 release—appears, along with 10cc's first album 10cc and all its released bonus cuts, on 10cc - The Complete UK Recordings on Varèse Sarabande Records.[7][8]

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[9]
Christgau's Record GuideB[10]
Tom HullC+[11]

Charley Walters in his 1974 Rolling Stone review felt that the band had "concocted standard pop into their own inventive, even sophisticated, art", and that while not typical pop music it would be popular with AM-oriented DJs and their listeners.[12] Billboard felt the band had a "certain zany feeling", but that "their songs are far from silly when carefully listened to" and they had "some of the most innovative vocal techniques and instrumental arrangements around".[13]

Legacy

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Dave Thompson, in a summary of the album for Allmusic, felt that it had staying power and that it was "perhaps the most widely adventurous album of what would become a wildly adventurous year".[14] George Durbalau in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die felt it was "a piece of well-crafted, highly idiosyncratic pop" and was "in a word, inventive".[15]

Kevin Godley, Graham Gouldman and Eric Stewart have subsequently referred to Sheet Music as 10cc's zenith throughout their career.[16]

Graham Gouldman performed the album live in its entirety in 2015 with his 10cc touring band.[17]

Producer J Dilla sampled the track "The Worst Band In The World" on his track "Workinonit" from 2006's Donuts. In 2020, after J Dilla's track was used in two Dave Chappelle Netflix specials, Music Sales Corporation and Man-Ken Music, Ltd. (the latter of which owns the 10cc composition) sued Universal Polygram International Publishing Inc. and E.P.H.C.Y. Publishing, for copyright infringement [18]

Track listing

[edit]
Side one
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."The Wall Street Shuffle"
Stewart3:54
2."The Worst Band in the World"
Creme2:49
3."Hotel"
Godley4:54
4."Old Wild Men"
  • Creme
  • Godley
Stewart and Godley3:21
5."Clockwork Creep"
  • Creme
  • Godley
Creme, Godley, Stewart and Gouldman2:46
Side two
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
6."Silly Love"
  • Stewart
  • Creme
Creme and Stewart with Godley4:01
7."Somewhere in Hollywood"
  • Creme
  • Godley
Godley with Creme6:39
8."Baron Samedi"
  • Stewart
  • Gouldman
Stewart with Godley3:46
9."The Sacro-Iliac"
  • Gouldman
  • Godley
Gouldman and Godley with Creme2:33
10."Oh Effendi"
  • Stewart
  • Godley
Godley and Stewart2:49

1993 CD release bonus track

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  1. "Waterfall" (Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:43

2002 Japanese CD reissue bonus tracks

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  1. "Bee in My Bonnet" (Gouldman, Stewart) – 2:01
  2. "Gismo My Way" (instrumental) (Godley, Creme, Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:43
  3. "18 Carat Man of Means" (Godley, Creme, Gouldman, Stewart) – 3:27

2007 UK CD reissue bonus tracks

[edit]
No.TitleWriter(s)Lead vocalsLength
1."18 Carat Man of Means"
  • Godley
  • Creme
  • Gouldman
  • Stewart
Stewart with Godley and Creme3:27
2."Gismo My Way"
  • Godley
  • Creme
  • Gouldman
  • Stewart
instrumental3:43
3."The Worst Band in the World (Radio Version)"
  • Creme
  • Gouldman
Creme with Gouldman2:49

Personnel

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Credits sourced from the original album liner notes.

  • Eric Stewart – lead (1, 4, 8), co-lead (5, 6, 10) and backing vocals (3, 5–7, 10), electric piano (1, 8), grand piano (1, 6), lead guitar (1–4, 6, 8, 10), mellotron (1), organ (1), electric guitar (3, 6, 9), slide guitar (4, 7), "phase" guitar (7), Gizmo (8), marimba (8)
  • Lol Creme – lead (2, 5, 6), co-lead (7, 9) and backing vocals (1, 3–10), electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 6, 10), grand piano (2, 5, 7, 8), electric piano (2, 5, 7, 9), percussion (2), acoustic guitar (3), lead guitar (3, 7, 8), mellotron (3, 8), synthesizer (3, 4, 7), Gizmo (4), whistles (5), maracas (10)
  • Graham Gouldman – lead (9) and backing vocals (2–6, 8–10), bass guitar (1–3, 5–10), acoustic guitar (1, 3, 9, 10), electric guitar (1, 5, 8), percussion (1–3, 8, 9), tambourine (4, 10), autoharp (4), bouzouki (5), tubular bells (7), sleigh bells (10)
  • Kevin Godley – lead (3, 4, 7, 10), co-lead (5, 6, 8, 9) and backing vocals (2–5, 7–10), drums (1, 2, 5–10), percussion (1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10), congas (3, 8), timbales (3), rhythm skulls (3), tap dancing (7), bongos (8)

Charts

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Chart (1974) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[19] 87
United Kingdom (Official Charts Company) 9
United States (Billboard 200) 81

References

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  1. ^ "BPI".
  2. ^ Grimstad, Paul (4 September 2007). "What is Avant-Pop?". Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 19 July 2017.
  3. ^ Lester, Paul (18 August 2016). "The Outer Limits: How prog were Buggles?". TeamRock.
  4. ^ "Kevin Godley interview". Muzikreviews.com. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  5. ^ Stannard, Joseph(2010)."Are You Normal? 10cc's Graham Gouldman Interviewed". The Quietus
  6. ^ Lester, Paul (22 November 2012). "10cc: 'It was a tragedy we didn't stay together'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2018.
  7. ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "10cc: The Complete UK Recordings 1972-1974" (review; CD release date, 16 March 2004). AllMusic. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  8. ^ "10cc: The Complete UK Recordings". Varesesarabande.com (publisher's product description). Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  9. ^ Sheet Music at AllMusic
  10. ^ Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: T". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 15 March 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  11. ^ Hull, Tom (April 1975). "The Rekord Report: First Card". Overdose. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via tomhull.com.
  12. ^ Charley Walters (12 September 1974). "10cc – Sheet Music". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  13. ^ "10cc – Sheet Music". Billboard. 1974. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  14. ^ Dave Thompson (2012). "Sheet Music – 10cc | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 26 April 2012. Dave Thompson
  15. ^ George Durbalau (5 December 2011). 1001 Albums: You Must Hear Before You Die. Octopus Publishing Group. ISBN 9781844037148. Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  16. ^ The Worst Band In The World: The Definitive Biography of 10cc by Liam Newton (2000: Minerva Press) ISBN 0-75410-311-0
  17. ^ Roger Wink (12 December 2014). "10cc To Perform Sheet Music Album Live". noise11.com. Retrieved 11 April 2020.
  18. ^ Madison Bloom (1 September 2020). "J Dilla's 10cc Sample on Donuts Is the Subject of Copyright Infringement Lawsuit". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
  19. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 307. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
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