''Living in a Fantasy'' is the eighth album by the English singer-songwriter

Leo Sayer Gerard Hugh "Leo" Sayer (born 21 May 1948) is an English-Australian singer and songwriter whose singing career has spanned five decades. He has been an Australian citizen and resident since 2009. Sayer launched his career in the United Kingdom ...

. It was released on 22 August 1980. Although the album was not a huge commercial success, the single that it spawned, a

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

Bobby Vee Robert Thomas Velline (April 30, 1943 – October 24, 2016), known professionally as Bobby Vee, was an American singer who was a teen idol in the early 1960s and also appeared in films. According to '' Billboard'' magazine, he had thirty-e ...

's "

More Than I Can Say "More Than I Can Say" is a song written by Sonny Curtis and Jerry Allison, both former members of Buddy Holly's band the Crickets. They recorded it in 1959 soon after Holly's death and released it in 1960. Their original version hit No. 42 on Brit ...

", spent five weeks at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

in December 1980 and January 1981. Whitburn, Joel (1996). ''The Billboard Book of Top 40 Hits'', 6th Edition (Billboard Publications) Sayer's version of the song was certified a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

. It also spent three weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard''

adult contemporary chart The Adult Contemporary chart is published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine and lists the most popular songs on adult contemporary radio stations in the United States. The chart is compiled based on airplay data submitted to ''Billboard'' by sta ...

.Hyatt, Wesley (1999). ''The Billboard Book of No. 1 Adult Contemporary Hits'' (Billboard Publications) In the UK, the song peaked at No. 2 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

,Sayer UK chart info at Official Charts Company
/ref> while it spent two weeks atop the

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

in Australia. Sayer has stated that while looking for an "oldie" to record for ''Living in a Fantasy'', he saw a TV commercial for a

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

by Vee, and chose the song on the spot: "We went into a

record store A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were ...

that afternoon, bought the record and had the song recorded that night."

Track listing

Side one

#"Time Ran Out on You" (Alan Tarney) – 3:50 #"Where Did We Go Wrong" (Leo Sayer, Tarney) – 3:55 #"You Win, I Lose" (Sayer, Tarney) – 3:43 #"

" (

Jerry Allison Jerry Ivan Allison (August 31, 1939 – August 22, 2022) was an American musician, best known as the drummer for the Crickets and co-writer of their hits "That'll Be the Day" and "Peggy Sue", recorded with Buddy Holly. His only solo chart entr ...

Sonny Curtis Sonny Curtis (born May 9, 1937) is an American singer and songwriter. Known for his collaborations with Buddy Holly, he was a member of the Crickets and continued with the band after Holly's death. Curtis's best known compositions include "Walk ...

) – 3:41 #"Millionaire" (Sayer, Tarney) – 4:22

Side two

#"Once in a While" (Tarney) – 3:30 #"Living in a Fantasy" (Sayer, Tarney) – 4:25 #"She's Not Coming Back" (Sayer, Tarney) – 3:50 #"Let Me Know" (Tarney) – 3:55 #"Only Foolin'" (Sayer, Tarney) – 3:40

Personnel

*Leo Sayer – guitar, harmonica, vocals *

Nick Glennie-Smith Nickolas Glennie-Smith is an English film score composer, conductor, and musician who is a frequent collaborator with Hans Zimmer, contributing to scores including '' The Rock'' (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound), the 2006 histori ...

– keyboard *Trevor Spencer – drums *

Alan Tarney Alan Tarney (born 19 November 1945) is an English record producer and musician. He was born in Northside, Workington, Cumberland, but spent his teenage years in Adelaide, Australia, where he met his songwriting and musical partner Trevor Spencer ...

– bass guitar, guitar, keyboards,

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Allmusic.com album credits/ref>

Production

*Record producer: Alan Tarney * Mixing: Ashley Howe, Assistant: David Kemp * Mastering: John Dent *

Art direction Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and unify the visi ...

: Peter Wagg

Charts

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1980 albums Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Chrysalis Records albums Leo Sayer albums Warner Records albums Albums produced by Alan Tarney