'Beyond the Sea'

[rayshae3]

This will be a new ongoing thread. Since his return to BBC Radio 2 last month, P. Gambaccini has started this new segment on his weekly radio show ‘America’s Greatest Hits’. ‘Beyond the Sea’ refers to the east side of the Atlantic (the British Isles) looking overseas west specifically to the United States. In this weekly segment, a couple of UK artists’ bestselling albums-ever in the United States are introduced. An explanation: The albums are from RIAA official certification numbers (which traditionally counts a double album as two discs sold or a triple LP album as three discs, etc.), and not from ‘copies sold’ as shown e.g. in the Wikipedia list. This means the show features the top-selling set by the Beatles being the album ‘The Beatles’ (otherwise known as The White Album) and not ‘Abbey Road’. Likewise, the RIAA top seller by Pink Floyd is ‘The Wall’, but in copies sold ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ comes on top.

In this thread, I’ll introduce the album, the track played in the program, and then my own favorite cut from the album (which may or may not be the same one featured in the show.)
Week1: Speaking of the biggest selling cumulative British album act in the US, it is the Beatles. And as I explained in the above-mentioned intro, RIAA certifies The White Album (‘The Beatles’) as the top album in terms of ‘discs’ sold.
Track played: “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
My personal favorite: “Happiness is a Warm Gun”

-Adele ‘21’
Track played: “Rolling in the Deep”. Only a few year’s old, it’s already covered extensively.
My personal favorite: “Someone Like You” (the other big single from the album)


Week2:Pink Floyd-The Wall (23 million double-counted)
Track played: “Comfortably Numb”
My personal favorite: “Don’t Leave Me Now” (That’s at the present moment; Like the many moods of Roger Waters, my favorite from the album actually changes often!!)

Peter Gabriel-So
Track played: “In Your Eyes” (now the most downloaded track from the album ever, even more than his US#1 “Sledgehammer”)
My personal favorite: “In Your Eyes” (the same)

Week3 (for 11/29/2014 program): Elton John-Greatest Hits (that’s of course his first compilation from 1974)
Track played: “Crocodile Rock”
My personal favorite: “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (another overplayed but ageless single)

The Police-Synchronicity
Track played: “Wrapped Around Your Finger”
My personal favorite: “Synchronicity I” (exciting opener to a great album)

More to come, with periodic updates…

[rayshae3]

Week4: Rolling Stones-Hot Rocks (1964-1971) (another 2-LP set; this one is also the biggest selling in ‘copies’ sold from the group)
Track played: Gimme Shelter
My personal favorite: “Paint It Black” (with a great sitar mix even George Harrison didn’t top IMHO)

Eric Clapton-Unplugged (live set from the MTV-series then about three years old)
Track played: Layla [note:certified platinum; the original 1970-released ‘Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs’ credited to Derek and the Dominos only went gold.]
My personal favorite: “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down & Out” (other live and acoustic reworking of another track from the above-mentioned Derek and the Dominos album.)

[rayshae3]

Week5: Rod Stewart-Blondes Have More Fun
Between ‘Every Picture Tells A Story’/1971 and ‘Still the Same…Great Rock Classics of Our Time’/2006, he had a total of 26 gold, platinum, and multiplatinum albums. This biggest released in 1978 was certified 4x-platinum.
Track played: “Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
My personal favorite: “Last Summer”

Eurythmics-Greatest Hits (The compilation from ‘91 trumps all their other studio albums, none of them multi-platinum. But this one was 3x-platinum.) I purchased its 95-min. video companion on VHS that has seven more cuts than the CD. (incl. from the soundtrack of the gritty and dark sleeper movie, “Julia” and “SexCrime (1984)”, the latter one of their biggest BB Dance/Disco songs.)
Track played: “Love Is a Stranger”
My personal favorite: “There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart)” (production-wise probably “Here Comes a Rain Again” is near or on top of all their hits; but I have always felt good about “There Must Be…”)

[rayshae3]

Week6: George Michael-'Faith'

The album released in 1987, just passed its eligibility deadline to enter for the year’s Grammy, but did win ‘Album of the year’ in the awards handed out in the ceremonies of 1989. Full of hits (incl: four number ones) it has sold over ten million copies by the present time.

Track played: “Father Figure”

My personal favorite: “Hard Day” (this song missed the Hot 100, but was a Top 5 hit in Dance chart and hit BB Hot Black Singles chart at #21. And if you had the CD or the Cassette, rather than the LP, there was a bonus extended remixed version. But I’d rather go with the regular version, the lead track from Side 2. Nevertheless, overall I had a tough time choosing any favorite, since I much preferred his 1990 follow-up album to this set.



The Who-‘Who’s Next’ (their previous studio album was the rock opera ‘Tommy’, and likewise 'Who's Next's roots was in an aborted project called ‘Lifehouse’). This 1971 release sold over 3-million copies according to the RIAA numbers. Amazingly the group never had a #1 album in the U.S., and only one #1 in the UK album chart: this one.

Track played: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (in its glorious eight and a half minute album version)

My personal favorite: “Won’t Get Fooled Again” (The same; slightly edging and passing “Going Mobile” IMO)

[rayshae3]

Week7: Steve Winwood-‘Back in the High Life’
From a Brit whose every single “single” did better in the US than in the UK. But album-wise, that’s a different story (although this 1986 release also charted better in the United States than in Britain.) Chart –wise this wasn’t his biggest Billboard 200 hit album, but sales-wise it sold over 3 million, more than any other of his sets. (BTW, Wikipedia noting of this album selling over five million in the album’s introductory paragraph is for the cumulative worldwide figures.)
Track played: “Higher Love”
My personal favorite: “Freedom Overspill”

The Clash-‘Combat Rock’
The 1982 LP was both their chart champ (#7) and biggest seller (over two million, in fact their only million-plus selling album) in the US.
Track played: “Rock the Casbah”
My personal favorite: “Know Your Rights” (the opening track, contradictory ideas in lyrics)

[rayshae3]

Week8: Paul McCartney and Wings-‘Band on the Run’
One of the better post-Beatles albums from any of the fab four, glad it was also a commercial success.
Track played: “Band on the Run”
My personal favorite: “Bluebird” (simplest love-like pop tune on the album “…and what’s wrong with that?”…)

Def Leppard-‘Hysteria’ (12-million seller)
In spite of getting released four years after their previous album (‘Pyromania’ itself a 10-million-seller) in 1987, time was right for the heavy metal hair bands of the period (Def Leppard productions were more melodic than their contemporaries, though).
Track played: “Love Bites”
My personal favorite: “Love Bites” (the same, but actually this is a rare case I’d prefer the radio-edit to the almost 6-minute album version played).

[rayshae3]

Week9: Phil Collins-‘No Jacket Required’
From 1985 the third solo stadio album, after the previous multiplatinum efforts ‘Face Value’ (1981) and ‘Hello, I Must Be Going!’ (1982), was yet and since the biggest ever selling for Collins with twelve million copies sold.

Track played: “One More Night” (The first single and a preview 1984 release prior to the album)

My personal favorite: (another big single) “Don’t Lose My Number”


Queen-‘Greatest Hits’ (1992)(sold 8 million)
Note: This was a 1992 American release, not Wikipedia’s “Greatest Hits II’. The title of this US album was a generic ‘Greatest Hits’, identical title to their previous 1981 compilation (also called ‘Greatest Hits’) that sold only a million. This one had a total of 17 tracks, and with the North-American edition of the 1981 Greatest Hits had 10 tracks in common. Amazingly one of 4 tracks on the 1981 compilation, not on this 1992 set was Queen's greatest hit “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Another unfortunate omission from this 1992 updated best-of release was one of my favorites “Radio Ga Ga”. By the way eventually that above-mentioned ‘Greatest Hits II’ (that chronicled their biggest European Hits between 1981-1991) was released in the US in 2002, but as part of a boxed-set package titled ‘Greatest Hits I II & III: The Platinum Collection’. This 3-disc box-set itself also sold a million.

Track played: “We Will Rock You”

My personal favorite: “Don’t Stop Me Now”. [Comment: Queen were real masters in any genre they touched. From rockabilly-like “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”; to a heavy-hit rock anthem “We Will Rock You”, to funkish disco “Another One Bites the Dust”, to multi-layered mini-rock-opera “Bohemian Rhapsody”. “Don’t Stop Me Now” starts as a seemingly slow ballad, then picks up speed as not wanting to stop...!]

[rayshae3]

Week10: Jethro Tull-Aqualung
This 1971 release was the fourth and breakthrough album of the progressive rock band in North America, thanks to the extended promotion with the theatrics of their live concerts. Not only the pied piper Ian Anderson, but also keyboardist John Evan (w/showmanship as entertaining as those of Keith Emerson of ELP, and Elton John circa early-to-mid-70s), and even debut of the drummer Jeffrey Hammond-Hammond for the album, the members proved having solo expertise as well as playing well together. This was their only multi-platinum album, for a sale of over 3 million copies (even though their two other number one LPs only got to a gold status.)
On a personal note, we owned the open-reel copy of this album for a long time, before I finally updated it to a CD in the mid-90s.

Track played: “Hymn 43”
My personal favorite: all 1:23 short track of “Cheap Day Return”



Robert Plant: ‘Now and Zen'
The legendary ‘Led Zeppelin’ frontman, had a total of five platinum/multi-platinum albums as a solo artist. This 1988 release was his only multi-platinum set (for the sale of over 3-million).

Track Played: “Tall Cool One”
My personal favorite: “Helen of Troy”

[rayshae3]

Week11: George Harrison-All Things Must Pass
Harrison’s third solo album, but first after the Beatles breakup opened his successful musical adventures thru the decade of the 70s. For reference, those Beatles’ era solo efforts from the 1960s didn’t achieve the chart or sales status of his 1970s works. But all of Harrison’s album releases during the seventies (incl. the live triple-LP ‘Concert for Bangladesh’ that also included other artists like Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston,etc. as well as his 1976 best-of compilation) achieved platinum or gold status according to RIAA. The 6xplatinum-certified ‘All Things Must Pass’ also cemented his unique solo sound.

Track played: “What Is Life”
My personal favorite: “Let It Down” (quiet and loud moments side-by-side, featuring Eric Clapton, Gary Wright, and Bobby Keys among a dozen acts on this cut)



Elvis Costello- 'My Aim Is True’
Elvis Costello had a total of 30 albums to date on the Billboard 200, but this, his first studio album, is still his biggest seller. (Of the 30, only a couple have achieved the platinum status; This one from 1977 and the 1985 compilation ‘Best of Elvis Costello & the Attractions’). Reading the music press like Rolling Stone, at the time of the album release, he was billed as a punk-rocker at the forefront of the new wave movement (with a peculiar image of Buddy Holly/Woody Allen); nevertheless various album tracks got massive airplay on US FM-rock stations in late 77/early 78. The production was aided by fellow new-Rock’n’Roller label mates in England, Nick Lowe and to a lesser extent Dave Edmunds. The unique US pressings also contained an extra track “Watching the Detectives” which was his first chart entry (BB bubbling under Hot 100 @#115).

Track played: “Alison” (early recording w/backing band “Clover”; recorded before his then-current band “The Attractions” was formed; and twelve years before the other girl “Veronica” became his biggest pop song.) [If this was a Top 40 hit, I would’ve included it in the other thread, since the lyrics to this song has the album title, “…my aim is true.”]

My personal favorite: “Miracle Man”

[rayshae3]

Week12: Cat Stevens-‘Greatest Hits’
This 1975, 4xplatinum, album has mostly five years’ worth of his biggest chart hits, ignoring Cat Stevens 1960s career that went all the way back to 1966 and his first (less-than-serious) bubbling under songs. The earliest song featured in this 1975 collection is his 1970 heavy FM rock radio play “Father and Son”. What a shame its immediate predecessor, and one of my favorite Cat Stevens’ songs “Lady D’Arbanville” was not charted in the US.

Track played: “Father and Son”

My personal favorite: This time I’ll go with his breakthrough hit and one of his biggest but also the best of his signature tunes—“Wild World” opening the set.


Oasis-'(What the Story) Morning Glory?'
Rarely a big commercial hit such as this four-million-seller, is also one of critics’ favorite sets. This is such a case. Only the second Oasis studio album , released just a year after their debut set, has an entirely different sound than the first effort. The 1995 titled ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ proved Oasis to be more than a blur (pun intended) in producing a supreme sound.

Track played: “Wonderwall”

My personal favorite: “Roll with It”

[rayshae3]

Week13: Free-‘Fire and Water’
The third and their breakthrough album from 1970 only went as high as #17 on the Billboard 200, in fact it was their only Top 40 charted album; A great blues-rock collection which “All Right Now” only scratches the surface.
Track played: “All Right Now” (of course the unabridged version)
My personal favorite: “Heavy Load”

The Bee Gees-‘Saturday Night Fever’
Let me explain that Barry, Maurice and Robin here are considered British, not Australian or even hyphenated Aussies. The brothers started playing together as early as the mid-1950s when they were kids in Manchester, England. And since then they technically lived less than ten years down under. Plus their career as musicians really took a serious turn when they returned to the UK early in 1967. And what an illustrious career only on the album list: their first LP in 1967 (‘Bee Gees’ 1st’), and the 34th and their last chart entry in 2010 (‘Bee Gees: Opus Collection’).
Moreover, ‘Saturday Night Fever’ is credited as ‘Original Movie Soundtrack’. But on different lists is attributed to Various Artists, or to Bee Gees/Various. However it is considered a Bee Gees album for our purpose since practically 6 out of 17 cuts are by the Bee Gees (that’s more than any other act on the album); plus songs by Tavares and Yvonne Elliman also written by the brothers (in case of “More than a Woman” both theirs and the Tavares version are included); but obviously it is a multi-format, multi-act set (compiled by Bill Oakes.)
Also a note about certification: 15xplatinum for this soundtrack. If a double-LP can been fitted into a single compact disc, RIAA count the certification is terms of copies sold, and doesn’t double the disc (unlike e.g. Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’).

Track played: “How Deep Is Your Love”
My personal favorite: “K-Jee” by MFSB; but among the Bee Gees cuts “You Should Be Dancing”; and if pressed to choose only the songs included specifically for the soundtrack, then I go with “How Deep Is Your Love” as well.

[rayshae3]

Week14: Ringo Starr-‘Ringo’
The third solo album by Ringo Starr (his previous two both came out in 1970), this enjoyable 1973 set was not only his sole million seller, it also was his biggest charted album, missing #1 on Billboard 200, but nevertheless hitting the top on both Cashbox and Record World album charts. All the tracks had help from superstar session musicians, least of which from his previous partners, George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon (as backup musicians as well as writers of different tracks.)

Track played: “Photograph”
My personal favorite: “Six O’Clock” (McCartney composition)


Blur-‘Blur’
And here’s from a Brit-pop staple of the mid-90s (along with others like Oasis and Pulp); Fine and complex record. Shame that this multi-format 1997 set, their biggest seller, only got certified Gold (w/ the chart position #61).

Track Played: “Song 2”
My personal favorite: “Theme from Retro”

[rayshae3]

Week15: ‘Donovan’s Greatest Hits’
By the end of the 60s, the Scottish folk musician was a star; and this compilation, his only million selling set and his biggest album hit BB 200 chart at #4, full of solid Mikie Most commercial hits.

Track played: “Hurdy Gurdy Man”

My personal favorite: "Laléna" (previously a minor Top 40 single)




Supertramp-‘Breakfast in America’
Early in their career, Supertramp were very much an art-rock cult act with extravagant album-geared materials. But perhaps somewhere between ‘Crisis, What Crises?’ and ‘Even in the Quietest Moments’, they already developed a more fully commercial sound. Of course, by this 1979 release, their sixth studio album, they had more pop and compact tracks to fill the album. This is more like a midtempo/soft-rock effort, albeit an intelligent one with cuts still centering around the mastery of their keyboardist songwriting team of the front-man Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, and creative but down-to-earth lyrics throughout. Of course with their then-recent relocation to LA, they didn’t need to “take a jumbo across the water” to record this album in Amercia. 4xplatinum and their only #1 album.

Track played: “The Logical Song”

My personal favorite: “Gone Hollywood”

[rayshae3]

Week16: ‘Kinks Greatest Hits!’
US-only compilation release, containing their earliest songs from the well-known “You Really Got Me” to their then-recent 1966 Top 40 hit “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”, barely two years after cracking the charts as part of the original British invasion. This album, also their biggest chart album set, ended up being their only Top 10 LP on the Billboard chart. The album was one of their only four gold-certified albums. Too early of a release for my all-time Kinks’ favorite, “Waterloo Sunset” to get included here.

Track played: “A Well Respected Man”

My personal favorite (from the album): “Dedicated Follower of Fashion”



Billy Idol-‘Rebel Yell'
The second solo effort had a sleek production, much tidier than his earliest days with the punk band Generation X. This 1983 album was also his only multi-platinum effort (selling over two million copies). The album produced four Hot 100 hits as well, all in the top 50 portion (incl: “Rebel Yell” and “Catch My Fall”), but only two Top 40 hits (“Flesh for Fantasy”, and his first Top 5 “Eyes without a Face”).

Track played: “Eyes without a Face”

My personal favorite: (the same) “Eyes without a Face”

[rayshae3]

Week17: Cliff Richard-‘I’m Nearly Famous’
The ‘76 album only got to high of #76 in BB chart shortly after the peak of the single “Devil Woman” (no platinum or gold certification for the album either.) This from an act who is only behind the Beatles and the Elvis in most UK chart feats that matter.

Played track: “Miss You Nights”
My personal favorite: “It’s No Use Pretending”


Adam Ant-‘Friend Or Foe’
Like Cliff Richard above, whose real name was Harry Webb (officially changed his name to Cliff Richard in the Eighties), of course Adam Ant wasn’t his real name. Born Stuart Goddard, he chose the stage name of Adam Ant in the 70s (my favorite trivia about him: Around the same time, his wife Carol Mills, also renamed herself Eve.)
This 1982 album was Adam Ant’s first solo effort after breakup of the group Adam & the Ants earlier that year. But Adam Ant kept his former band member Marco Pirroni for the solo project, not only as the guitarist but also as a co-producer of this album. One difference between this solo set and the previous three Adam and the Ants studio albums was the extensive use of horn section for most tracks. But songs from the album was popular in both Top 40 and AOR formats at the time. Nevertheless, the tribal drums and buccaneer image stayed for this album as well. All the tracks was co-written by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni with the exception of one: a cover of the Doors’ “Hello, I Love You.” This album, Adam Ant’s only Top 40 chart set (#16), was only certified Gold by the RIAA.

Played track: “Goody Two Shoes”
My personal favorite: “Friend Or Foe” (the opening title track)