''Beautiful People'' is a 1971 album by UK pop group

The New Seekers The New Seekers are a British pop group, formed in London in 1969 by Keith Potger after the break-up of his group, The Seekers. The idea was that the New Seekers would appeal to the same market as the original Seekers, but their music would hav ...

. This was the group's third album and their last one released in the UK on the Philips record label. It was their first to be solely produced by David Mackay, who would guide the group through their most successful period over the next two years.

Overview

The New Seekers had found top 20 success in the US with the song "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma" in 1970, which was also a more minor hit in the UK. Subsequent singles, however, failed to attract as much attention until mid-1971 when they released "Never Ending Song of Love", which was featured on this album. The song rose to #2 in the UK and became one of the biggest selling singles of the year, remaining on the chart for 17 weeks. This album, which was released in May 1971 also included the earlier singles "When There's No Love Left" (released in December 1970) and the US-release "Beautiful People", which was written by

Melanie Safka Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947), professionally known as Melanie or Melanie Safka, is an American singer-songwriter. She is best known for the 1971–72 global hit "Brand New Key", her cover of " Ruby Tuesday", her compositi ...

, who had also penned the group's first hit. This latter single made #67 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. The US version of the album differed from the UK release with a slightly different track listing. This was the group's first album release there and reached #136 on the US album charts. ''Beautiful People'' was released on

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then rele ...

in 2008 as a double-pack with their 1972 album ''Circles''.

Track listing (UK)

Side One # "

One 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

" (

Harry Nilsson Harry Edward Nilsson III (June 15, 1941 – January 15, 1994), sometimes credited as Nilsson, was an American singer-songwriter who reached the peak of his commercial success in the early 1970s. His work is characterized by pioneering vocal ove ...

) 3.11 # "Beautiful People" (

) 3.50 # "

Never Ending Song of Love "Never Ending Song of Love" is a song written by Delaney Bramlett, and, according to some sources, by his wife Bonnie Bramlett. It was originally recorded with their band, Delaney & Bonnie & Friends, in 1971 on the album ''Motel Shot''. Released ...

" (

Delaney Bramlett Delaine Alvin "Delaney" Bramlett (July 1, 1939 – December 27, 2008) was an American singer and guitarist. He was best known for his musical partnership with his wife Bonnie Bramlett in the band Delaney & Bonnie and Friends, which included a wi ...

) 3.13 # "Look What You Have Done" (Robb Royer, James Griffin) 2.32 # "When There's No Love Left" (Brian Peacock, Rob Lovett) 3.43 # "There's a Light" (

Hans Poulsen Hans Sven Poulsen (born Bruce Gordon Poulsen, 7 March 1945 – 17 February 2023) was an Australian singer-songwriter and musician of Danish descent who was popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and known for his eccentric hippie style.McFa ...

) 2.09 Side Two # "

Blackberry Way "Blackberry Way" is a 1968 single by British band The Move. Written by the band's guitarist/vocalist Roy Wood and produced by Jimmy Miller, "Blackberry Way" was a bleak counterpoint to the sunny psychedelia of earlier recordings. It nevertheless b ...

" (

Roy Wood Roy Wood (born 8 November 1946) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He was particularly successful in the 1960s and 1970s as member and co-founder of the Move, Electric Light Orchestra and Wizzard. As a songwriter, he contributed a n ...

) 2.38 # "Cincinnati" ( Peter Doyle) 3.28 # "Eighteen Carat Friend" (

Bruce Woodley Bruce William Woodley (born 25 July 1942) is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. He was a founding member of the successful folk-pop group The Seekers, and co-composer of the songs "I Am Australian," "Red Rubber Ball," and Simon & Gar ...

) 2.55 # "Ain't Love Easy" (

Carol Hall Carol Hall (April 3, 1936 – October 11, 2018) was an American composer and lyricist. She was best known for composing the music and lyrics for the Broadway stage musical ''The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas'' (1978, adapted as a film in 1982). ...

) 3.24 # "

Your Song "Your Song" is a song written by English musician Elton John and songwriter Bernie Taupin, and performed by John. It was John's first international Top 10 chart single. "Your Song" was first released by American rock band Three Dog Night in M ...

" (

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 ...

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English songwriter, singer and visual artist. He is best known for his long-term collaboration with musician Elton John, a songwriting partnership that is one of the most successful in history. Tau ...

) 3.21 # "I'll Be Home" (

Randy Newman Randall Stuart Newman (born November 28, 1943) is an American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist known for his Southern American English, Southern-accented singing style, early Americana (music), Americana-influenced songs (often ...

) 2.54

Track listing (US)

Side One # "One" # "Allright My Love" (

Keith Potger Keith Leon Potger (born 21 March 1941) is an Australian musician. He is a founding members of the Australian folk-pop group the Seekers. He was born in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and is of Burgher descent. In 1969, Potger and his business partner D ...

, David Groom) 2.58 # "Ain't Love Easy" # "Blackberry Way" # "When There's No Love Left" # "Your Song" Side Two # "Look What They've Done to My Song Ma" (

) 3.21 # "Cincinnati" # "Eighteen Carat Friend" # "Beautiful People" # "I'll Be Home" # "Never Ending Song of Love"

''Never Ending Song of Love''

By mid 1972, the group had achieved major success in the UK with two more top two hits; "

I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing (In Perfect Harmony)" is a pop song that originated as the jingle "True Love and Apple Pie", by British hit songwriters Roger Cook and Roger Greenaway, and sung by Susan Shirley. The lyrics were rewritten ...

" and "

Beg, Steal or Borrow "Beg, Steal or Borrow" was the entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1972, performed in English by The New Seekers. The song was composed and written by Tony Cole, Steve Wolfe and Graeme Hall. It is a love song to a former lover claiming the t ...

" as well as a #2 album ''

We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing ''We'd Like to Teach the World to Sing'' is the name given to two albums by UK pop group The New Seekers. The first of these, released in late 1971, was a repackaging of their previous album '' New Colours'' and was released in the US. The secon ...

''. Eager to cash in on this, the group's new record company

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

, licensed the tracks from

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and re-released the album in May 1972 under the new title ''Never Ending Song of Love''. Where the original album had failed to chart in the UK, this time the album entered the charts in August, peaking at #35 and remaining in the top 50 for four weeks. One reviewer at the time made mention of the fact that it was a re-release and said of the album; "It could rate as one of the best things they have ever done - there's a fine choice of songs...and they can sing well."

Track listing

Side One # "Never Ending Song of Love" # "Beautiful People" # "One" # "Look What You Have Done" # "When There's No Love Left" # "There's a Light" Side Two # "Blackberry Way" # "Cincinnati" # "Eighteen Carat Friend" # "Ain't Love Easy" # "Your Song" # "I'll Be Home"

Personnel

Eve Graham Eve Graham (born Evelyn May Beatson; 19 April 1943) is a Scottish singer who found fame in the early 1970s with the pop group, The New Seekers. Biography Graham began her career during the 1960s as a band singer with the Cyclones in Scotland a ...

- vocals *

Lyn Paul Lyn Paul (born Lynda Susan Belcher; 16 February 1949) is an English pop singer and actress. She came to fame as a member of the international chart-topping pop group the New Seekers in the early 1970s. She has more recently found success and criti ...

- vocals * Peter Doyle - vocals *

Paul Layton Paul Martin Layton (born 4 August 1947) is an English musician and former child actor. He is the bassist and vocalist of the group The New Seekers. Biography Acting Layton studied acting, leaving school at fourteen to train at the Aida ...

- vocals *

Marty Kristian Marty Kristian (born Martins Vanags on 27 May 1947) is a German-born, British-based musician. He grew up, and started his musical career, in Australia, as a solo artist. He is a singer-song writer-guitarist and, in the 1970s, he became a heartt ...

- vocals * David Mackay - Producer * Bill Shepherd and David Mackay - Arrangements *

- Co-ordination * Bill Shepherd - Orchestral director * Mike Claydon, Andy Knight, John Pantry, Chris West - Engineers * Other contributors:

Terry Britten Terence Ernest Britten (born July 1947) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and record producer, who has written songs for Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Status Quo and Michael Jackson amongst many others. Britten (along w ...

, Barry Guard, Graham Hall, Scott Shukat,

Peter Skellern Peter Skellern (14 March 1947 – 17 February 2017) was an English singer-songwriter and pianist who rose to fame in the 1970s. He had two Hit song, top twenty hits on the UK Singles Chart - "You're a Lady" (1972), which typifies his signature u ...

Trevor Spencer Trevor Spencer (born 1947 in Adelaide, Australia) is an Australian songwriter, record producer and drummer. He studied drums and percussion from the age of 10. By the age of 14, he was playing professionally in bands in Adelaide and Melbourne, w ...

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 ...

* Recorded at IBC Studios, London

References

{{Authority control 1971 albums The New Seekers albums Philips Records albums Elektra Records albums Polydor Records albums Albums produced by David Mackay (producer)