"Sylvia" is a 1972 song by Dutch

progressive 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. Init ...

band Focus. It was released on their 1972 album '' Focus 3'' and as a UK single on 27 January 1973. The single became the band's biggest international hit, reaching number 4 in 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 ...

and number 89 in the US Billboard chart.

Background

First released as a single in The Netherlands in April 1972, the song was subsequently included on the album '' Focus 3'' in November. On 12 December, the band recorded a session for the BBC's '' The Old Grey Whistle Test'', including "Sylvia" segueing into the yodeling of "

Hocus Pocus Hocus-pocus is an exclamation used by magicians, usually the magic words spoken when bringing about some sort of change. Hocus Pocus or Hokus Pokus or ''variant'', may also refer to: Books * ''Hocus Pocus'' (novel), a 1990 novel by Kurt Vonneg ...

". Aside from Thijs van Leer's short section of

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentou ...

vocalising, the song is instrumental. In 1968, while in the four-piece backing band and vocal group ''Shaffy Chantant'' with lead singer Ramses Shaffy, Thijs composed the melody of the song with words by Linda Van Dijck for Sylvia Alberts to sing. It had the long winded title "''I Thought I Could Do Everything On My Own, I Was Always Stripping The Town Alone''" but when he played the song for Sylvia, "she didn't like it at all," so it went "on the shelf." Years later he dusted it down, and recorded it as an instrumental with Focus, and named it after her.

Reception

The '' Rough Guide to Rock'' describes Akkerman's guitar melody as "exuberant". The band's Christmas 1972 appearance on the ''Old Grey Whistle Test'', along with a number of UK gigs in late 1972, has been credited with exposing the band and helping the single reach number 4 in the

. The programme's presenter, Bob Harris, is quoted as saying that the band's appearance was so well received by the audience that the pressing plant for the single was overwhelmed and only produced copies of "Sylvia" for the following week to cater for the demand. Dave Thompson, writing for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

, said that aside from the studio recording, the band's best version of the song was the one included on the 1973 ''

At the Rainbow ''At the Rainbow'' (re-released as ''Live at the Rainbow'') is the first live album from the Dutch rock band Focus, released in October 1973 on Imperial Records. The album was recorded at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 5 May 1973 by The Pye Mob ...

'' live album. He compared the relatively short song to the band's longer compositions, describing Akkerman's playing as an "exercise in economics". In the US, the song peaked at number 89.

Personnel

* Thijs van Leer –

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

, vocals * Jan Akkerman – electric guitar *

Bert Ruiter Focus is a Dutch progressive rock band formed in Amsterdam in 1969 by keyboardist, vocalist, and flutist Thijs van Leer, drummer Hans Cleuver, bassist Martijn Dresden, and guitarist Jan Akkerman. The band has undergone numerous formations in ...

– bass guitar * Pierre van der Linden – drums

References

{{Focus , state=expanded 1973 singles Focus (band) songs 1972 songs Song recordings produced by Mike Vernon (record producer)