''Tigers and Fireflies'' (sometimes referred to as ''Tigers & Fireflies'') is an album recorded in 1978 and released by Lynsey de Paul in April 1979 on the Polydor record label. It was launched at a special event at the Mayfair Club in London, with de Paul looking similar to the 1940s film star

Veronica Lake Constance Frances Marie Ockelman (November 14, 1922 – July 7, 1973), known professionally as Veronica Lake, was an American film, stage, and television actress. Lake was best known for her femme fatale roles in film noirs with Alan Ladd ...

. The album was recorded at

Long View Farm Studios Long View Farm Studios was a music recording studio located in North Brookfield, Massachusetts which was founded in 1974 by Gilbert Scott Markle, a professor at Clark University, on his farm property. It was the location of recordings from many w ...

with additional recording at Mediasound Studios, New York and produced by

Rupert Holmes David Goldstein (born February 24, 1947), better known as Rupert Holmes, is a British-American composer, singer-songwriter, dramatist and author. He is widely known for the hit singles "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" (1979) and " Him" (1980). ...

. In his 1986 biography,

Justin de Villeneuve Justin de Villeneuve (born Nigel Jonathan Davies) is a British businessman, known for being supermodel Twiggy's manager from 1966 to 1973. De Villeneuve worked as a Mayfair hairdresser under the name Christian St. Forget, before meeting Twiggy a ...

, de Paul's manager at the time wrote "I gave Rupert Holmes a call in New York. He agreed to see me if I flew to America. Polydor, with the prospect of the involvement with Holmes, agreed to up the budget". The collaboration between de Paul and Holmes on ''Tigers and Fireflies'' was mentioned on the Ray Shasho Show, when Shasho interviewed Holmes on his BBS radio show on 7 August 2018. The story behind the recording of the album was also discussed in the book ''Dervish Dust: The Life and Words of James Coburn''. Speaking to ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' about the album, Jim Cook said "Throw away all of your preconceived ideas about Lynsey de Paul".

Tracks

The track listing and lyrics for each song are listed on Musixmatch.com as well as on Musicbrainz, MusicMeter, and Rokol. The first album track is the lead single " Hollywood Romance" (co-written by de Paul and David Jordan) which was released ahead of the album in October 1978 and was well received. It was BBC Radio 1 DJ

Dave Lee Travis David Patrick Griffin (born 25 May 1945), known professionally as Dave Lee Travis, is an English disc jockey, radio presenter and television presenter. Travis began his broadcasting career on the pirate radio station Radio Caroline in 1965. He ...

's record of the week during his time as "the Hairy Cornflake" and became a radio hit. It was also released on the BBC Latin America label (together with "Don't Take Love for Granted" by

Lulu (singer) Lulu Kennedy-Cairns (born Marie McDonald McLaughlin Lawrie; 3 November 1948) is a Scottish singer, actress, and television personality. Noted for her powerful singing voice,Lulu, ''I Don't Want to Fight'', Time Warner Books, 2002. p. 214 Lulu ...

and "Got To Get You Into My Life" by

Earth, Wind and Fire Earth, Wind & Fire (EW&F or EWF) is an American band whose music spans the genres of jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, big band, Latin, and Afro pop. They are among the best-selling bands of all time, with sales of over 90 million ...

), and it is still played on BBC radio. The follow-up single "Tigers and Fireflies" was released just prior to the album itself. Some years later, de Paul revealed that the song 'Tigers and Fireflies' was about two of her former managers

Gordon Mills Gordon William Mills (15 May 1935 – 29 July 1986) was a successful London-based music industry manager and songwriter. He was born in Madras, British India and grew up in Trealaw in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales. During the 1960s and 1970s ...

and

Don Arden Don Arden (born Harry Levy; 4 January 1926 – 21 July 2007) was an English music manager, agent, and businessman. He managed the careers of rock acts such as Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Air Supply, Small Faces, The Move, Black Sabbath ...

and is about being cheated and lied to with dazzling promises. The song is still played on the radio in Japan. Other tracks include "Losin' the Blues for You" (which was the B-side to the single version of "Hollywood Romance") and "Melancholy Melon", both co-written by de Paul and her boyfriend at the time, the actor

James Coburn James Harrison Coburn III (August 31, 1928 – November 18, 2002) was an American film and television actor who was featured in more than 70 films, largely action roles, and made 100 television appearances during a 45-year career.AllmoviBi ...

, Coburn was around when the album was being recorded, having flown from South America where he was filming ''

Firepower Firepower is the military capability to direct force at an enemy. (It is not to be confused with the concept of rate of fire, which describes the cycling of the firing mechanism in a weapon system.) Firepower involves the whole range of potent ...

'' with

Sophia Loren Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (; born 20 September 1934), known professionally as Sophia Loren ( , ), is an Italian actress. She was named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest female stars of Classical Hollywood ci ...

. "'Twas" is a piano bar song with a blues tinged feel and is the only song that was co-written with the album's producer, Rupert Holmes. "Before You Go Tonight" was an affectionate song for former partner

Ringo Starr Sir Richard Starkey (born 7 July 1940), known professionally as Ringo Starr, is an English musician, singer, songwriter and actor who achieved international fame as the drummer for the Beatles. Starr occasionally sang lead vocals with the ...

, who was leaving for the US while de Paul remained in the UK. De Paul teamed up with former Eurovision Song Contest writing and singing partner Mike Moran to write "Without You". The album also featured a striking, updated, re-recording of her earlier hit single "

My Man and Me "My Man and Me" is a song written, recorded and produced by the British female singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul for her second album, '' Taste Me... Don't Waste Me'', and released as a single backed with de Paul's smoochy version of "Dancing on a ...

"n that has a more bluesy feeling than the original ballad. The final track "Beautiful" is a song in its own right but ends by reprising snatches of each of the album's songs woven into the fade out. As noted elsewhere, de Paul's vocals had never sounded stronger, in a style somewhere between

Crystal Gayle Crystal Gayle (born Brenda Gail Webb; January 9, 1951) is an American country music singer widely known for her 1977 hit "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue". Initially, Gayle's management and record label were the same as that of her oldest sist ...

and

Maria Muldaur Maria Muldaur (born Maria Grazia Rosa Domenica D'Amato; September 12, 1942) is an American folk and blues singer who was part of the American folk music revival in the early 1960s. She recorded the 1973 hit song "Midnight at the Oasis" and has ...

, in spite of her apparently suffering from a bout of

hay fever Allergic rhinitis, of which the seasonal type is called hay fever, is a type of inflammation in the nose that occurs when the immune system overreacts to allergens in the air. Signs and symptoms include a runny or stuffy nose, sneezing, red, i ...

at the time.''An Affectionate Punch'' by Justin De Villeneuve. Publisher: Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1986. The album was well received and garnered positive reviews in the music press, with ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'' nominating "Hollywood Romance" and "Losin' the Blues for You" as the album's best tracks. Six of the original tracks, including the title track, "Melancholy Melon" and "Without You", were finally released for the first time on CD on de Pauls' anthology CD ''Into My Music'' in March 2013 and the original album sleeve was used for a limited issue release on Think! Records label in Japan. "Hollywood Romance" was not included on ''Into My Music'' - since de Paul herself oversaw the selection - and has yet to be released on CD, although it is available as a mp3 download. It still is played on BBC radio, most recently on the

David Sheppard David Stuart Sheppard, Baron Sheppard of Liverpool (6 March 1929 – 5 March 2005) was a Church of England Bishop of Liverpool who played cricket for Sussex and England in his youth. Sheppard remains the only ordained minister to have played T ...

show.

Musicians and other credits

A number of well respected musicians played on the album, including Tom Malone who played all of the brass, reeds and flutes on the album and Joel Diamond played acoustic piano. Long term Holmes collaborators Dean Bailin and John Caruso played various guitars and electric bass guitar, respectively. Gary Burke played drums and percussion, Bob Christianson played synthesizers as well as clavinet and singing backing vocals, and former

Mick Ronson Michael Ronson (26 May 1946 – 29 April 1993) was an English musician, songwriter, arranger, and producer. He achieved critical and commercial success working with David Bowie as the guitarist of the Spiders from Mars. He was a session music ...

collaborator Dede Washburn provided percussion and backing vocals. Holmes also played clarinet and electric piano. Jesse Henderson and Michael Barbiero were the engineers and Henderson mixed the album. The striking photography for the front cover (de Paul hiding around a corner from a man with a torch) and back cover (de Paul marching away, hair fluttering behind her) sleeve was by John Shaw, with art direction and design by Jo Mirowski.

Cover versions

Songs on the album that have been covered by other artists include "My Man and Me", recorded by

Carl Wayne Carl Wayne (born Colin David Tooley; 18 August 1943 – 31 August 2004) was an English singer and actor. He is best remembered as the lead singer of The Move in the 1960s. Early days Wayne was born in Winson Green, Birmingham, and grew up in ...

(as "My Girl and Me"), as well as the Swedish artist Agneta Munther and by the Japanese musician Hummingbird; as well as "Hollywood Romance", which was given Japanese lyrics and recorded as "Romance" on the 2013 album ''Froggie'' by Japanese singer-songwriter Yoshiko Goshima (aka 五島良子).

Lena Zavaroni Lena Hilda Zavaroni (4 November 1963 – 1 October 1999) was a Scottish singer and a television show host. At ten years of age, with her album ''Ma! (He's Making Eyes at Me)'', she was the youngest person in history to have an album in the top ...

also covered "Hollywood Romance" as a song and dance routine with the "Ace Eight dancers". It was the fifth number from the second episode of her first BBC prime time TV series, ''Lena Zavaroni and Music''.

Track listing

;A-side #" Hollywood Romance" ( Lynsey de Paul, David Jordan) #"

" (Lynsey de Paul) #"Without You" (Lynsey de Paul, Mike Moran) #"Forever and a Day" (Lynsey de Paul) #"Tigers and Fireflies" (Lynsey de Paul) ;B-side #"Melancholy Melon" (Lynsey de Paul,

) #"Losin' the Blues for You" (Lynsey de Paul, James Coburn) #"

Before You Go Tonight ''Before You Go Tonight'' also known as ''Take Your Time'' is a Lynsey de Paul album recorded in 1976 for Jet Records, but shelved out of spite by then manager Don Arden, and not released until 1990. Then it appeared as a CD release in Japan ...

" (Lynsey de Paul) #"'Twas" (Lynsey de Paul,

) #"

Beautiful Beautiful, an adjective used to describe things as possessing beauty, may refer to: Film and theater * ''Beautiful'' (2000 film), an American film directed by Sally Field * ''Beautiful'' (2008 film), a South Korean film directed by Juhn Jai-h ...

" (Lynsey de Paul)

References

{{Authority control 1979 albums Lynsey de Paul albums