''Solitaire'' is a 1972 album by American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka.

Background and recording

The album was produced at Strawberry Studios in

Stockport Stockport is a town and borough in Greater Manchester, England, south-east of Manchester, south-west of Ashton-under-Lyne and north of Macclesfield. The River Goyt and Tame merge to create the River Mersey here. Most of the town is within ...

, England, with the musical support of Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme and Kevin Godley who – together with the album's recording engineer

Eric Stewart Eric Michael Stewart (born 20 January 1945) is an English singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer, best known as a founding member of the rock groups the Mindbenders with whom he played from 1963 to 1968, and likewise of 10 ...

– would shortly become the successful pop band

10cc 10cc are an English rock band formed in Stockport in 1972. The group initially consisted of four musicians – Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme – who had written and recorded together since 1968. The group featured t ...

. Sedaka opted to record at Strawberry after meeting Gouldman in New York and discovering his association with Stewart, Godley and Creme. The trio had recorded the single "Umbopo", which Sedaka liked, under the band name of Doctor Father. His work with the four British musicians proved to be a pivotal influence on their collective decision to forge a career as a band. Gouldman recalled: "It was Neil Sedaka's success that did it, I think. We'd just been accepting any job we were offered and were getting really frustrated. We knew that we were worth more than that, but it needed something to prod us into facing that. We were a bit choked to think that we'd done the whole of Neil's first album with him just for flat session fees when we could have been recording our own material." Sedaka recorded one more album with the band members, ''

The Tra-La Days Are Over ''The Tra-La Days Are Over'' is a 1973 album by American singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka. Overview The album was the second to be produced at Strawberry Studios in England in collaboration with Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme, Kevin Godley and Eric Ste ...

''. Conspicuously absent from the ''Solitaire'' album was any work by Sedaka's long-running songwriting partner Howard Greenfield; Sedaka had by this point begun another partnership with Phil Cody, and both Sedaka and Greenfield had concluded that their collaboration had run its course. The track "Better Days Are Coming" was reworked by Sedaka as the Japanese opening theme for the 1985 anime series '' Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam''. The revised song became . This version was later translated back into English with new lyrics and retitled "Go Beyond the Time" by Richie Kotzen.

Release

The album, released after a successful English tour in early 1972,"Q Rock Stars Encyclopedia" by Dafydd Rees and Luke Crampton, Dorling Kindersley, 1999 marked the comeback of Sedaka after a 10-year absence from the charts. Three singles were lifted from the album, "Beautiful You" (UK No. 43), "

That's When the Music Takes Me "That's When the Music Takes Me" is a song written and originally recorded by Neil Sedaka in 1972. It is a track from his ''Solitaire'' LP, as it was billed in the UK, entitled as ''Neil Sedaka'' in the U.S. The song became a hit in the UK and Ir ...

" (UK No. 18; US No. 27), and "Dimbo Man". The Solitaire album was not released in the US initially, but eventually it was issued after Sedaka regained his popularity in his home country in 1974-75 with the release of the album '' Sedaka's Back''. In West Germany, the album was released on the budget label RCA International, simply titled ''Neil Sedaka''. The album's title track, "

Solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...

", later became a hit single for

Andy Williams Howard Andrew Williams (December 3, 1927 – September 25, 2012) was an American singer. He recorded 43 albums in his career, of which 15 have been gold certified and three platinum certified. He was also nominated for six Grammy Awards. He hos ...

(1973) and The Carpenters (1975), and was recorded by

Elvis Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

on the album From Elvis Presley Boulevard, Memphis, Tennessee (1976). In 2010, BGO Records re-released the album on CD.

Track listing

All tracks by Neil Sedaka except where marked

Side one

# "

" – 3:35 # "Beautiful You" (Sedaka, Phil Cody) – 3:35 # "Express Yourself" (Sedaka, Cody) – 3:21 # "Anywhere You're Gonna Be (Leba's Song)" – 3:30 # "Home" (Sedaka, Cody) – 3:10 # "Adventures of a Boy Child Wonder" (Sedaka, Cody) – 3:10

Side two

# "Better Days Are Coming" – 4:17 # "Dimbo Man" (Sedaka, Roger Atkins) – 3:58 # "Trying to Say Goodbye" (Sedaka, Cody) – 3:20 # "

" (Sedaka, Cody) – 5:02 # "Don't Let It Mess Your Mind" (Sedaka, Cody) – 4:24

Personnel

* Neil Sedaka – piano, Fender Rhodes, Hammond organ, vibraphone, vocals * Graham Gouldman – bass guitar, guitar, backing vocals * Lol Creme – guitar, backing vocals * Kevin Godley – drums, backing vocals *

– recording engineer, lead guitar, backing vocals

References

{{Authority control 1972 albums Neil Sedaka albums RCA Records albums Albums recorded at Strawberry Studios