Surprise (Lynsey de Paul album)

Surprise is the first album released by Lynsey de Paul on the MAM record label in 1973.^[1][2][3] In Australia, the album name was changed to Sugar Me, after de Paul's first hit single.^[4] All of the songs on the album were written or co-written by de Paul (half the tracks had been her songwriting demos),^[5] who was accompanied by some of the UK's leading session musicians including Terry Cox, Ralph McTell, Ray Cooper, Jeff Daly, John Gustafson, Chris Rae, Danny Thompson, Gary Boyle, Barry de Souza, Dick Katz, Robert Kirby, Francis Monkman, John Richardson (who would later become the drummer in The Rubettes) and violinist Johnny Van Derrick.^[6][7][8] The album has a gatefold sleeve with illustrations provided by de Paul, a nod to her previous career of designing album sleeves and song lyrics.^[9] It received favourable reviews from the mainstream music press.^{[10][11][12][13]} The Sunday Herald wrote "...her first album, Surprise, demonstrated a ready facility for melody and catchy hooks, but also a knack for sidestepping the most predictable pop clichés."^[14]

Surprisingly, her debut single "Sugar Me" was re-recorded for this album and has a much longer fade out with de Paul being the producer on this version rather than Gordon Mills, who produced the hit single version. This song was covered by many artists over the years, most notably in the USA by Nancy Sinatra and Claudine Longet.^[15][16] Although no other tracks were released by de Paul from the album as singles in the UK, Europe and US, the track "Water" was released as "Agua" in Chile, with "Rockerdile" as the B-side.^[17] The album's last track "Just Visiting" sees de Paul speculate that spacemen visited prehistoric man and gave continued guidance in mankind's development and that we might find ourselves in the same position,^[18] a theme taken up by Chris de Burgh in his later song "A Spaceman Came Travelling".

De Paul performed some of the tracks from the album on television including Top of the Pops (and an album was released to BBC radio stations around the world containing these tracks),^[19] as well as on the first episode of the German TV program, Musikladen performing "Sugar Me", and later on episode 5 performing "Doctor, Doctor".^[20] She also performed "Sleeping Blue Nights" on the German TV program Hits-a-Go-Go on 24 June 1973.^[21][22]

Many of the tracks on Surprise were also recorded by other artists, including the jazz tinged "Mama Do" (recorded as "Papa Do" by Barry Green^[23], the Daltons^[24] and also Cardinal Point);^[25] "Ivory Tower" (released as a single by Caroline Hall);^[26] "Crossword Puzzle" (recorded and released as a single by Dana Rosemary Scallon);^[27]"Rockerdile" (recorded and released as a B-side to the de Paul/Blue penned single "Mona" by Winston);^[28] plus "Sleeping Blue Nights" recorded by Zig-Zag.^[29] More recently, Japanese artist Nickey recorded a version of "Water", which was the last track on her 2013 album A Taste on Honey.^[30][31][32] Smoove & Turrell borrowed from the backing track to "Water" on their single "You Don't Know" in 2009, with permission from de Paul, who also received a writing credit for the song.^[33][34][35] The British rap artist Twiggz also released the song in 2018 completely with new spoken vocals, but featuring the de Paul backing track and her vocals repeating "Water".^[36]

In 2005, the album was released on CD in Japan on the AIRAC label, and featured the following additional bonus tracks on a second CD: "Storm in a Teacup", "Getting a Drag", "Brandy", "All Night", "Blind Leading the Blind", "Won't Somebody Dance with Me", and "So Good To You" i.e. all four singles and B-sides recorded for the MAM Records label.^[37][38] It also featured the original gatefold sleeve artwork cover.

Surprise is considered one of the best albums of 1973,^[39] and was featured as the "Album of the Day" on the music site "Todaysalbum" on 1 October 2017.^[40] Tracks from the album are still played on American radio.^[41]

Track listing

A side

1. "Mama Do"
2. "Ivory Tower"
3. "Doctor Doctor"
4. "Crossword Puzzle"
5. "Water"

B side

1. "Sleeping Blue Nights"
2. "The Way It Goes"
3. "Rockerdile"
4. "Sugar Me"
5. "Just Visiting"

References