''Cordon Bleu'' is the third album by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

symphonic rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Initi ...

group

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. It was released in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...

's label,

The Rocket Record Company The Rocket Record Company was a record label founded by Elton John, along with Bernie Taupin, Gus Dudgeon, Steve Brown and others, in 1973. The company was named after the hit song " Rocket Man". The label was originally distributed in the ...

History

Recorded at

Rockfield Studios Rockfield Studios is a residential recording studio located in the Wye Valley just outside the village of Rockfield, Monmouthshire, Wales. It was originally founded in 1963 by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward. Facilities Rockfield is a two- ...

Monmouth Monmouth ( , ; cy, Trefynwy meaning "town on the Monnow") is a town and community in Wales. It is situated where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. Monmouth is northeast of Cardiff, and west of London. I ...

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, ''Cordon Bleu'' saw the main quartet of Willem Ennes, Tom Barlage, Guus Willemse and Hans Waterman complemented by Chiel Pos. Pos contributed acoustic guitar to "Last Detail" and

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

to "Third Line" and "Whirligig", while Frankie Fish co-wrote some lyrics and also, together with Pos, added backing vocals. Like its predecessor ''

Divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the quantity of the vector field's source at each point. More technically, the divergence represents the volume density of the ...

'' (1972), ''Cordon Bleu'' mixed long instrumental pieces ("Chappaqua" and "Whirligig") with shorter vocal songs which also featured instrumental passages ("Third Line", "Last Detail" and "Black Pearl"). "A Song for You" is the shortest song on the album, and is a more conventional

pop song Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom. The terms ''popular music'' and ''pop music'' are often used interchangeably, although the former describe ...

. This was released as a

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in Europe, with an edited version of "Chappaqua" as the

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. "Chappaqua" was issued as an A-side in its own right in some territories (backed by "Whirligig"), and was a B-side again to "Give Some More" in 1977/78. Produced by Elton John's producer

Gus Dudgeon Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, "Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US No ...

, the album had a crisper sound than ''

'' and ''Divergence''. This trend was continued on the following album ''

Fully Interlocking ''Fully Interlocking'' is the fourth album by the Dutch symphonic rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United ...

'' (1977), also produced by Dudgeon. ''Cordon Bleu'' charted in the

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on 20 December 1975, reaching #18 and spending 11 weeks on the chart. First released on

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and

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, it was later reissued by

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in 1980 and on

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in 1988. In 2006, "Chappaqua", "Whirligig" and "Third Line" were included on the compilation ''The Ultimate Collection'', with versions of the other three tracks featured on the live disc.

Track listing

#"Chappaqua" (10:33) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Hans #"Third Line Part 1" (1:38) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #*Words by Michiel & Frankie #"Part 2" (5:44) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Hans #"A Song for You" (3:53) #*Music by Guus #*Words by Guus & Frankie #"Whirligig" (9:00) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #"Last Detail Part 1" (2:48) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #*Words by Michiel & Frankie #"Part 2" (2:41) #*Music by Tom, Willem, Hans & Guus #"Black Pearl Part 1" (1:14) #*Music by Tom, Guus & Michiel #*Words by Frankie #"Part 2" (5:01) #*Music by Tom & Willem

Personnel

*Tom Barlage –

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in E, smaller than the B tenor ...

soprano sax The soprano saxophone is a higher-register variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument invented in the 1840s. The soprano is the third-smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists (from smallest to largest) of the soprillo, sop ...

, flute, percussion *Willem Ennes –

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument which produces sounds when a performer presses the keys of a piano-style musical keyboard. Pressing keys causes mechanical hammers to strike metal strings, metal reeds or wire tines, leading to vibrations ...

, acoustic piano, organ,

Elka Rhapsody ELKA, Elka, or Elkas may refer to: * Aspioti-ELKA, Greek publishing and printing firm, active 1873–1997 * An Italian synthesizer manufacturer, now defunct; brand now owned by Generalmusic, used for their amplifier products ** Elka Synthex, a synt ...

*Guus Willemse – bass guitar, lead vocals, electric guitar *Hans Waterman – drums *All backing vocals by Tom, Guus and Frankie Fish. *Michiel Pos - additional tenor saxophone on "Third Line" and "Whirligig" and acoustic guitar on "Last Detail" Produced by Gus Dudgeon.
Recorded at

in Wales.
Engineers: Pat Moran & Phil Dunne.
Remixed at Marquee Studios in London.
Engineers: Steve Holroyd & Gus Dudgeon.
Sleeve design & photography by

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black Sabbath, UFO, 10cc, Ba ...

Lettering by Richard Evans.

External links

Official website run by Guus Willemse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordon Bleu (Album) Solution (band) albums 1975 albums Albums produced by Gus Dudgeon Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios