Wonderous Stories
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"Wonderous Stories" is a song by the English
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
Yes Yes or YES may refer to: * An affirmative particle in the English language; see yes and no Education * YES Prep Public Schools, Houston, Texas, US * YES (Your Extraordinary Saturday), a learning program from the Minnesota Institute for Talente ...
, released in September 1977 as the first single from their eighth studio album, ''
Going for the One ''Going for the One'' is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 15 July 1977 by Atlantic Records. After taking a break in activity in 1975 for each member to release a solo album, and their 1976 tour of the Un ...
''. It was written by lead vocalist
Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...
, who gained inspiration for the song one morning during his stay in
Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
where the band recorded the album. The song reached number 7 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 ...
and remains the band's highest-charting single in the country.


Background

By October 1976, the Yes line-up of singer
Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...
, bassist
Chris Squire Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4March 1948 – 27June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes. He was the longest-serving original memb ...
, guitarist
Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to l ...
, drummer Alan White, and keyboardist
Patrick Moraz Patrick Philippe Moraz (born 24 June 1948) is a Swiss musician, film composer and songwriter, best known for his tenures as keyboardist in the rock bands Yes and The Moody Blues. Born into a musical family, Moraz learned music at a young age a ...
had retreated to
Mountain Studios Mountain Studios was a commercial recording studio founded by American singer and composer Anita Kerr and husband Alex Grob in 1975 within the Montreux Casino in Montreux, Switzerland. The studio was under the ownership of Queen and then long ...
in
Montreux Montreux (, , ; frp, Montrolx) is a Swiss municipality and town on the shoreline of Lake Geneva at the foot of the Alps. It belongs to the district of Riviera-Pays-d'Enhaut in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland, and has a population of approximat ...
,
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
to record their eighth studio album, ''
Going for the One ''Going for the One'' is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 15 July 1977 by Atlantic Records. After taking a break in activity in 1975 for each member to release a solo album, and their 1976 tour of the Un ...
'' (1977). The group had worked on a substantial number of new songs for the album, one of them being "Wonderous Stories" by Anderson, to which the group contributed ideas to develop them further. Early into the sessions, however, Moraz was asked to leave the band, something that he did not expect and later reasoned it down to the internal pressures of the group and ongoing issues that he was unaware of. His departure came after the group invited previous keyboardist
Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...
, who had left in 1974, to play on the album. A demo tape containing early versions of "Wonderous Stories" and "Going for the One" was sent to Wakeman in England, who liked the direction the band were going with the songs and felt he could contribute to the music. He subsequently agreed to travel to Switzerland and rejoin the band. "Wonderous Stories" was produced collectively by the band, with John Timperley as their recording engineer and David Richards assisting.


Music and lyrics

"Wonderous Stories" is a ballad solely credited to Anderson. He wrote the song during "a beautiful day" while staying in Montreux, "one of those days you want to remember for years afterwards". It was then when the words "wonderous stories" entered his head, which he later used for the song's lyrics. He noted the song's meaning as "the joys of life, as opposed to the uptightedness of some aspects of life" that was inspired by romantic stories and "a kind of dream sequence". Author Bill Martin believed the song is about the importance of hearing and listening. Howe commented that Anderson wrote the song during "his Renaissance period" when he was into a "classical ... feeling to things" and noted its strong "classical framework". The song features Howe playing a 12-string
Portuguese guitar The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra ( pt, guitarra portuguesa, ) is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six course (music), courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses wat ...
, which he had used on "
I've Seen All Good People "I've Seen All Good People" is a song by the English progressive rock band Yes, written by frontman Jon Anderson and bassist Chris Squire and recorded on their third studio album, ''The Yes Album'' (1971). The almost 7-minute song is in two par ...
", and an electric guitar which he plays at its conclusion. Wakeman plays the
Polymoog The Polymoog is a hybrid polyphony (instrument), polyphonic analog synthesizer that was manufactured by Moog Music from 1975 to 1980. The Polymoog was based on Frequency divider, divide-down oscillator technology similar to electronic organs an ...
, a
polyphonic Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...
analogue synthesiser An analog (or analogue) synthesizer is a synthesizer that uses analog circuits and analog signals to generate sound electronically. The earliest analog synthesizers in the 1920s and 1930s, such as the Trautonium, were built with a variety of ...
. White contributed the idea of the drums and bass playing on odd beats.


Release

"Wonderous Stories" was released in
7-inch In music, a single is a type of release, typically a song recording of fewer tracks than an LP record or an album. One can be released for sale to the public in a variety of formats. In most cases, a single is a song that is released separate ...
and
12-inch The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...
formats as the first of two singles from ''Going for the One'', in September 1977. A limited edition in black and blue vinyl was also released and marketed as a Special Edition. The
B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph records and cassettes; these terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or record compan ...
contains the complete edit of "Parallels", a track written by Squire. In the US, "Wonderous Stories" was released with an edited version of "Awaken", also from ''Going for the One'', as the B-side. The single entered 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 ...
at number 31, the week of 17 September 1977. After a four-week climb, it reached its peak of number 7 for the week of 8 October to become the band's highest charting UK single; it remained on the chart for the next five weeks. To promote the single, Yes produced a music video for the track, their first such production. It features the group playing the song in a live setting. "Wonderous Stories" has been released in several Yes compilation albums and box sets. The song was performed acoustically for the first time during the band's 2004 tour in celebration of their 35th anniversary. In 2006, the song was featured in a
Cadillac DTS The Cadillac DTS is a full-size, four-door, front-drive, five or six passenger luxury sedan that was manufactured and marketed over a single generation for model years 2006–2011 by Cadillac, using GM's G-platform. The DTS debuted at the 2005 ...
television commercial whereby a group of men in the car discuss whether many people listen to Yes. They ask a pair of women, to which one of them replies, "Yeah, it's classic rock".


Reception

The song has been considered as Yes's "pop moment" and a marked departure from the less accessible approach of their previous two albums which broadened their audience as a result. In a retrospective review 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 databas ...
, Ross Boissoneau thought the song, along with "Turn of the Century", a track from ''Going for the One'', were "lovely ballads the way only Yes can do them". Critic and author
Martin Popoff Martin Popoff (born April 28, 1963) is a Canadian music journalist, critic and author. He is mainly known for writing about the genre of heavy metal music. The senior editor and co-founder of ''Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles'', he has additionally ...
also praised the song, calling it "perhaps the most beautiful Yes composition of the quiet sort, an angelic acoustic bit of frolic, whose deceptive, simple arrangement bears many hard-won treasures". Critic and band biographer
Chris Welch Chris Welch (born 12 November 1941) is an English music journalist, critic, and author who is best known for his work from the late 1960s as a reporter for ''Melody Maker'', ''Musicians Only'', and ''Kerrang!''. He is the author of over 40 mu ...
described "Wonderous Stories" as a "fortuitous" tune, "relaxed and melodic" that makes the group "fly without really trying". Author Bill Martin picked Anderson and Squire's
harmony vocals Vocal harmony is a style of vocal music in which a consonant note or notes are simultaneously sung as a main melody in a predominantly homophonic texture. Vocal harmonies are used in many subgenres of European art music, including Classical chora ...
as a highlight of the song. ''
Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' said that "the melodies spun by Jon Anderson's clear, soaring voice are irresistable, while all the instrumental parts, especially Chris Squire's tasteful bass lines, anchor the sound for solid rock appeal." Yes keyboardist
Geoff Downes Geoffrey Downes (born 25 August 1952) is an English keyboardist who gained fame as a member of the new wave group The Buggles with Trevor Horn, the progressive rock band Yes, and the supergroup Asia. Born in Stockport, Downes moved to London ...
rated the track as one of Yes's "hidden gems", and bassist
Billy Sherwood William Wyman Sherwood (born March 14, 1965) is an American multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, singer, record producer and mixing engineer. He is best known for his tenures in the English progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes as guitarist and ke ...
has ranked it as one of his favourites from the band.


Credits and personnel

Yes *
Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...
 – lead vocals *
Steve Howe Stephen James Howe (born 8 April 1947) is an English musician, best known as the guitarist in the progressive rock band Yes across three stints since 1970. Born in Holloway, North London, Howe developed an interest in the guitar and began to l ...
 – Portuguese and electric guitar, vocals *
Chris Squire Christopher Russell Edward Squire (4March 1948 – 27June 2015) was an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as the bassist and backing vocalist of the progressive rock band Yes (band), Yes. He was the longest-serving original memb ...
 – bass guitar, vocals *
Rick Wakeman Richard Christopher Wakeman (born 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist best known as a former member of the progressive rock band Yes across five tenures between 1971 and 2004, and for his solo albums released in the 1970s. Born and raised ...
 – Polymoog synthesizer * Alan White – drums, percussion Production * Yes – production * John Timperley – recording engineer * David Richards – assistant recording engineer


Charts


References

Sources * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Wonderous Stories 1977 singles 1977 songs Atlantic Records singles Songs written by Jon Anderson