Sources: '2 Originals', the 'Heaven Collection', the 'Hell Collection', 'Profile - Disk 1 & Disk 2' and a 1974 interview by Constant Meijers for Dutch Magazine "Oor".

A Big Surprise

Russell: "We had no band at the time and attempted an album using L.A. session musicians. Had we taken a bit more stylized approach during the production, the results may have been more interesting. During a live TV performance of the song in Paris, Ron smashed his piano stool to bits in the eleventh row as a bewildered 'middle-french' audience quietly waited for Nana Mouskouri."

Achoo

Russell about the 'Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon U.K., 1975' recording: "This concert was part of the second tour that we ever did in England. Our third British LP 'Indiscreet' had just been released. The mix was taken off of the hall mixing console and was never intended to one day appear on a CD. Yet, we sprayed down the tape with a little 'Lysol' disinfectant and today it doesn't sound half bad."

All You Ever Think About Is Sex

Russell: "We were once invited to perform a special year-end concert at Disneyland, this song had been a big radio hit in Los Angeles. However, the Disney officials requested that in keeping with the squeaky clean image of the park, and since apparently none of the Disney characters ever had sex, we not perform this song. Our fans were not happy.
With the exception of 'Cool Places' and 'Lucky Me, Lucky You', the entire LP was recorded in Brussels, Belgium, the French-for-beginners city. One well-designed feature of Belgium is that you're never more than forty minutes away from leaving it. We also took the responsibility for the first time of being the sole producers of one of our albums. Unlike the two preceding LP's, 'Outer Space' had no rehearsals before recording: just a bunch of rough versions of songs sun by Ron on his Walkman. We had worked often at Synsound Studios, having done other projects with Belgian electronic group 'Telex' and singer 'Lio'. And yes, the girl on my lap in the cover photo of the single and 12" versions of 'Sex' is Chynna Phillips of Wilson Phillips."

Amateur Hour

Ron: With "Amateur Hour" we wanted to say that there are still a lot of amateurs in this world, who feel pretty confident about this. You will have noticed that there are many people nowadays who are instantly professionals."
Constant Meijers: "And what are you?"
Russell: "Could you come back next week?"

Russell: "Singles have a lifespan of about 4 minutes in England, thus while 'This Town' was losing steam, 'Amateur Hour' was released as the follow-up. It was satisfying that a song that was so different in nature from our initial success with 'This Town' could also be successful with the British and European public."

Angst In My Pants

Russell: "We were once again recording at Musicland Studios in Munich with the same band from "Whomp". "Angst" was the final song to be recorded for the LP, having been done after the rest of the band members returned to L.A. We made a tape loop of David Kendrick's drumming and Ron added his keyboard parts on top. Mack encouraged the exaggerated inflection of my vocals. Ron had written another song called "Angst In My Pants" that we liked lyrically, but weren't too keen on melodically. So, overnight he came up with this alternate melody that we recorded and finished in one day."

Angus Desire

Russell: "One of the best titles in the history of Western music. Sounded awful on the basic track - especially that break thingy near the end. We've never sounded good on basic tracks."
Ron: "Title inspired by Dean Detrick Jr. Blame him, not us."

Armies Of The Night

Russell: "Originally recorded for the film 'Fright night', another one of those horror films that makes Francis Ford Coppola's 'Dracula' look better and better by the minute."

Barbecutie

Russell: "We are advocates of the school that says that B-sides have their own 'raison d'etre'. A B-side is a B-side; it doesn't necessarily have to relate to the A-side, or to anything else for that matter. Afterall, it's a B-side. 'Barbecutie' didn't seem to fit with the 'Kimono' LP, so it became the first English B-side. Other important orphan tunes that appeared later as B-sides include 'Profile', 'England', 'Lost And Found', and 'The Wedding Of Russell Mael To Jacqueline Kennedy'."

Batteries Not Included

Ron: "A typical 'set-up-that-final-rave-up-song' song. Only shorter."
Russell: "Really proud of this one."

Beat The Clock

Russell: "I Feel Love" had caused an amazing impression on us. Working with Giorgio Moroder, we wanted to see if we could combine some of the electronics and feel of that song with our lyric slant. "Beat The Clock" was the second British hit single from the LP. We were happy to see that the menu was basically the same at the BBC-TV canteen"

Beaver O'Lindy

Ron: "A tune about a mythical rock singer named Beaver O'Lindy. So fragmented that it holds together."
Russell: "I wrote the music to the choruses (the B-E-A-V-E-R etc. parts). Ron wrote all the other bits. We didn't know what we were doing with this one."

Big Bands

Russell: "The fast part stuck on the end is worth waiting for. Or just lift the needle and move to that bit. And the breathy sigh in the instrumental is pretty good too."
Ron: "A medley, or to be more blunt about it, a song composed of about six parts spliced together, that we couldn't play straight from start to end. A typical 'set-up-that-final-rave-up-song' song."

Big Boy

Russell: "I was going to do a lush, orchestral duet version of 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' with Marianne Faithfull. Rupert Holmes did the score for the song, yet Marianne dropped out of the project at the last minute leaving Rupert and ourselves with a score and no one to sing it. I ended up singing the song, yet it seemed so incongruous even for Sparks, that it never appeared on an LP. A single of the song was released as ''Sparks' in a few assorted foreign lands. We continued working with Rupert even though 'Big Beat' was going to be a more stripped down LP with more guitars and fewer of Ron's keyboards. Yes, you did see Sparks performing 'Big Boy' and 'Fill Er Up' in the film 'Rollercoaster' during your last airplane trip. No, we didn't know that the film was going to turn out like that"

Biology 2

Russell: "The first Sparks song I ever heard on the radio. How boring - I didn't even get to hear myself singing on the radio as Earle sang this one."
Ron: "Corpuscle capers. Sparkled a dance craze that took the Married Students' Housing Block by storm."

Breaking Out Of Prison

Russell: "I felt very awkward being in the same studio with Bruce Swedien, the guy responsible for recording all the Michael Jackson albums, and wondering what this guy is thinking about both our song and my singing. We had just gone out and bought a new TR-909 drum machine to use on the session. But, it never made it on to the recording because Bruce said it sounded like 'doggy doo-doo'. I think even non-musicians can understand his 'musical' terminology. That very same drum machine which didn't pass the Swedien inspection later became "the" machine of choice on at least half the dance records made in this decade."

Change

Russell: "In terms of personal satisfaction, "Change" is possibly my favourite Sparks' song. We went back to Brussels and spent a month each on "Change" and "The Scene". We wanted to try something epic in scope: something that was really involved. The basic song had been written before going into the studio, however we spent weeks and weeks doing the arrangement and recording. The lyrical spirit of everything we had done to this point was probably better conveyed by Ron in this one song than in anything else we had done. And from a sonic standpoint, we couldn't do any better than the instrumental passage in the middle of this song. We're especially proud of it."

Complaints

Ron: "Nothing more than three minutes of complaining. In stereo."
Constant Meijers: "The first stereophonic headache?"
Ron: "Exactly.

Cool Places

Russell: "Jane Wiedlin had once been President of her own non-authorized L.A. Valley Sparks fan club. Rather than sue her and since we were fans of the Go-Gos, we asked Jane if she would like to do a duet together. We had proposed a bunch of songs from which she picked "Cool Places" and "Lucky Me, Lucky You". We recorded the two songs very quickly in Giorgio Moroder's home studio in L.A. The only thing debated on was the tail end of "Cool Places" as Jane and I tried ad-libbing the name of every possible place we thought was cool in L.A. Once the list reached Canter's Deli, we knew the idea was really lame, so we scrapped it and added the present endings. Jane performed with us on many of the concerts during the "Cool Places" tour, and had a keen eye for Tijuana pottery and black velvet paintings. The video was shot in San Francisco by "The Residents" regular video maker, Graham Whiffler. Any director who would incorporate a photo of Mary Jo Kopeche into a pop video was OK by us."

Dance Godammit

Russell: "We sometimes take great pleasure in writing songs about dancing which are totally unsuitable for dancing."

Do Re Mi

Ron: "This developed from one of our infrequent jam sessions. A crowd pleaser, but hard on the pocket book since it was written by a couple of other guys."
Russell: "While everyone was tuning up, I started making like Julie Andrews. The best live tune because the song resembled something that everyone has heard. Scary when the beat got off in the middle."

Equator

Ron: "The old story of a girl that tells a boy that she would be waiting for him at the Equator, which he takes seriously. He can't find her although they did agree to meet around the bend. Just a sad boy-girl song. Nothing more, nothing less."

Fa La Fa Lee

Ron: "Incest at the roller-rink. Russell had a cold, so he did his voice on four tracks to compensate. It ended up sounding like four tracks of a person with a cold."
Russell: "She ain't heavy, she's a brother to me', one of my favourite lines; and I didn't even have anything to do with writing it. I sang the song with a cold in my nose."

Falling In Love With Myself Again

Ron: "Ehm, "Falling In Love With Myself Again" is about the tendency of people to fall in love with people to whom they look like a lot themselves. An idealistic form of what they would have wanted to have been themselves."
Constant Meijers: "How many times have you fallen in love with yourself?"
Ron: "Quite honestly, I never liked myself. I'm not my type."

Fletcher Honorama

Ron: "For some reason, this one took between eighteen and twenty takes to get. To answer those of you who think it's only a bunch of gibberish, let me say that besides the gibberish angle, we have here a tune about a celebration being thrown for an old man named Fletcher just before his death. His friends didn't want to wait until he died to get together."
Russell: "The instrumental's really good."

Funny Face

Russell: "We again were using a permanent band, having enlisted L.A.'s group "Bates Motel" to become official Sparks members. After rehearsals with the band in L.A., we recorded in Munich. Mack (co-producer of many of Queen's albums) produced. Harmonies were back again, as were songs about girls who suffer of overly beautiful exteriors and their ensuing suicide attempts, followed by new found happiness as a result of their total facial disfigurement."

Get Crazy

Russell: "This is an alternate recording of the title song from the movie of the same name. I was up for the role of the lead character in the film, but after seeing the movie, I was quite happy that they gave the part to Malcolm McDowell. It was no 'Clockwork Orange'."

Get In The Swing

Russell: "The idea of Tony Visconti as Sparks' producer was appealing not only because we had been fans of his work with T-Rex and Bowie, but also because of his talents as an arranger for outside instruments. On 'Indiscreet', we wanted to allow each song's instrumentation and arrangement to be dictated by the song rather than our obligation to use a four piece rock band just because we had a four piece rock band. Taking Ron's idea for the marching band-alike choruses, Tony wrote the charts for the outside players. Tony conducted and wrestled with the BBC Orchestra through all of the song's tempo changes in a stirring rendition of 'Get In The Swing' that we performed live on 'Top of The Pops'. And I was wearing tennis shorts, not hot-pants, as one Radio 1 DJ announced the following morning."

Girl From Germany

Russell: "The best of the more conventional song type songs. Lyrically, the best of the more lyric type lyric songs. I wrote the music, Ron, the lyrics.
A Guy brings his German girlfriend home to meet his parents. The parents still can't forget The War. To my knowledge, no other bands were dealing in the same subject matter at the time."
Ron: "I like this one a lot. It was our favourite pick for a follow-up single to 'Wonder Girl'. In order to avoid the risk of failure, no follow-up was released, thereby relieving us of a lot of anxious moments. WHEW!"

Happy Hunting Ground

Russell: "The majority of 'Indiscreet' was recorded in Tony Visconti's phonebooth size home studio in London. Before recording 'Hunting Ground', Tony picked up the bass guitar and proceeded to perform a solo rendition of the bass part he played on Bowie's 'The Man Who Sold The World'. after a moment of reverent silence, we raced through our tune. We again worked with Tony Visconti in 1989/1990 in Paris for the Sparks/Tony Visconti/Les Rita Mitsouko duets, 'Singing In The Shower' and 'Live In Las Vegas'."

Hasta Manana Monsieur

Russell: "Dedicated to the Berlitz School of Languages, where we tried to combine two languages in one song. It's about communication failures. A song to practice foreign languages, I suppose."

Russell: "Living and working on 'that' side of the world saw a rapid continentalization of our lives. Witness 'Hasta Manana': a guy's confusion over how to communicate with a girl who speaks a foreign tongue, yet not knowing exactly which tongue that might be. Kind of like being a cashier at Harrods."

Here Comes Bob

Russell: "First use of outside instruments on a Sparks song. It still doesn't sound like a real song."
Ron: "Our only excursion into the land of supplemental instruments on the first two albums. The tale of the best way to meet people in Los Angeles, that is, smash your fender into their fender.
'Dents ?' I'd love to."

Here In Heaven

Ron: "Yes, I liked the title and made up the lyrics to match. A boy and a girl decide to commit suicide together. He jumps and she has second thoughts at the last moment. From heaven he looks down and sings to her how much it is a pity she's not with him."

High C

Ron: "My favourite track off the first two albums. A simple tale of an opera singer. Not a bad form for a young songwriter."
Russell: "One of the better received songs when performed live during that period. The waitresses at the Whiskey A Go Go were particularly fond of this one."

I Like Girls

Russell about the version on 'Profile - Disk 1: "Though a version of the song is on 'Big Beat', the song was written at the time of the original L.A. band. This version of the 'I Like Girls' was recorded in upstate N.Y. at Bearsville Studios with the original group members. I don't know why it never saw the light of day until the Rupert Holmes mega-production version on 'Big Beat'."

I Predict

Russell: "Our ode to the "National Enquirer" ("Lassie Will Prove That Elvis And Her ad A Fleeting Affair".) Ron's striptease to his boxer shorts usually accompanies this song live."
About the 'Live at The Palace, Hollywood, 1985' recording: "The same concert was also being broadcasted live on the radio so we we're all on our best behaviour."

Je M'Appelle Russell

Russell: "We were starting to spend more and more time in France so we thought it was time to attempt a song in French. As I am the only French speaking one of the two of us, Ron is still quite convinced that the title of the song translates as 'Our Name is Sparks'."

Jingle Announcing 'Magic Mountain' Concert 1

Russell: "In their finest L.A. 'Valley Girl' dialect, these girls advertised for yet another concert of Sparks in L.A. And by the way, young girls still can be heard with this glorious accept even to this day."

Jingle Announcing 'Magic Mountain' Concert 2

Russell: "The promoters responsible for this concert actually allowed Ron near a microphone to do his own radio ad for the show."

Jingle For 'Brussels' Concert 1981

"To the novice, the speaker in this ad sounds like he has total command of the French language until he throws in that bit about 'nonante'. C'mon dude, back home in Paris we say 'quatre-vingt-dix'."

Just Got Back From Heaven

Russell: "All those wonderful things that you've heard about heaven are 100 % true."

Looks, Looks, Looks

Russell: "Again, this song was conceived not for our normal band, but as a 'big-band' swing arrangement. Somehow we did manage to play it live with just the four piece group. The zealous audience shrieks apparently substituted adequately for the lack of a brass section."

Lost And Found

Russell: "A guy finds a wallet lost by a careless man and makes only a half-hearted attempt to find its owner and return it to him. It's not really a metaphor for anything. It's just about a guy finding a wallet and not wanting to give it back."

Madonna

Russell: "Back when 'Madonna' was a wholesome girl, we had written this story about a guy who had an imaginary affair with her. We thought everyone should be able to hear this story in their own language, so we did four versions: English, German, Spanish and French. We've had numerous requests, so maybe one day we'll release versions in Italian, Russian, Swedish, Serbo-Croatian, etc, etc."

Modesty Plays

Russell: "We were enlisted by screenwriter Larry Wilson to do a theme song for a proposed TV series based on Modesty Blaise, the female James Bond. The show didn't materialize, but we liked the song and gave it to our French record company who released it. For legal reasons, we called the song 'Modesty Plays'. A later version also appeared on 'Music That You Can Dance To'."

Moon Over Kentucky

Ron: "I wrote the intro theme after seeing 'Death In Venice' the previous day, which proves nothing at all."
Russell: "The echo on the voice of this one more than compensates for the shallow lyrical content."

Moustache

Russell: "Ron's original moustache had been the source of some controversy, even though the issue often went unspoken. We always thought the debate was ludicrous. If the moustache resembled anything, our thoughts were always closer to Chaplin. The lyric in the song talks about a guy with a moustache: 'and when I trimmed it real small, my Jewish friends would never call'. We had been kicked off a French television show at the last moment when its host did in fact think Ron's moustache was too small. The new improved streamlined moustache seems to have stopped the debate."

Music That You Can Dance To

Russell: "We now had spent so many months recording in Brussels, that we were even beginning to understand some Flemish, and that was frightening. We spent longer on the recordings of this LP than we had done on any previous one. It was a great luxury for us to be extravagant with studio time, and to be far from home. We also shot the video for this song without any outside assistance. My living room was the set; Ron shot my scenes, I shot his. It took us 3 months to complete. We could ask for help next time. After some promotion for the song in Europe, we made one of several trips to Japan to record with the Japanese group "Salon Music"."

National Crime Awareness Week

Russell: "The first recording for the next Sparks' album. Tells a tale from the point of view of a criminal who gets great pleasure out of seeing his name in headlines the day after his latest exploits. And no, Mr. Bernard Hermann, the "Psycho" riff is s not sampled; it's Ron Mael playin' them strings."

Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth

Russell: "After the series of uptempo singles, 'Mother Earth' was our interpretation of a change of pace. On a BBC Radio I record review broadcast, Ray Davies inaccurately accused the lyrics of relating to some sort of hippy, earth-child theme. Yeah, right, Ray. Stick to writing about transvestites. Fifteen years later, Depeche Mode, on occasion, performs this song live, while the group's Martin Gore recorded a version on his solo LP."

'Nissan' Commercial

Russell: "We were approached by the advertising agency representing Nissan to do a commercial for one of their sporty off-road small trucks. They told us to make it wild and extreme in keeping with the image they wanted for the truck. The poor junior executive having to explain this piece of music to his boss."

No. 1 Song In Heaven

Russell: "The combination of Giorgio Moroder's electronics and a dance beat had been intriguing to us. Both Giorgio and ourselves were feeling our way through the recording process, as he had never worked with a band before, and we had never worked with a producer known more for his work with solo artists like Donna Summer. No drum machines were used on the album, none existed at the time. Just Keith Forsey (Billy Idol's current producer) and his steady right foot. Though recorded mostly in Los Angeles, once again the British and European public were the most supportive of what we were doing."

(No More) Mr. Nice Guys

Ron: "That final rave-up song. Pre-Alice, of course. Edited and speeded up version used as the 'B' side of original 'Wonder Girl' single."
Russell: "Well, at least somebody discovered this song and made a buck or two out of it.
Although many of the songs on this LP risked total obliteration when we would attempt to recreate them in a live context. 'Nice Guys' met with resounding approval by the 6 waitresses and sparse 'tour bus' audiences that that caught our regular Whisky a Go Go shows in L.A. When we brought out our Rose Parade style ocean-liner float to conclude the shows, the guests from Omaha scratched their heads, while the waitresses smiled and prepared themselves to come backstage."

Nothing Is Sacred

Ron: "We were recording this song. As we got near the end, we all simultaneously forgot to stop and double-time ensued. Caramba!"
Russell: "A lot of people hate the singing in this song."

Nothing To Do

Russell: "Joey Ramone has told us that he has wanted to do a version of this song, yet never has been able to convince the other Ramones. I hope he's successful one day. The LP cover was shot in 15 minutes by Richard Avedon at his NY assembly-line style photo studio, In by 9, out by 5."

Over The Summer

Russell: "Our Beach Boys-like ode to summer romance, whereby a guy's girlfriend goes through a radical transformation over the 3-month period.. The demo had a naive charm that we never could recreate using the highprices backing vocalists. That was a lesson to be learned."

Propaganda / At Home, At Work, At Play

Russell: "Originally, the two pieces had no relation whatsoever. But as an afterthought when sequencing the LP, we thought the acappello 'Propaganda' might sound substantional if treated as part of a whole 'piece'. All of the vocal layering was done at Air Studios, London. The LP front cover was shot during a gale somewhere near Bournemouth; the rear photo was taken at a gas station near Notting Hill Gate as a last-minute alternative to more coastal shots that where ruined by bad weather."

Roger

Ron: "I don't understand this song, ask Russell."
Russell: "My first major composition of any stature."

Rosebud

Russell: "Originally recorded in Brussels, this mix was done in L.A. Some votes have been cast saying the vocal sounds like Gene Pitney. Yeah, I wish."

Saccharin And The War

Ron: The main reason we never used a vibra-clap since 1972. I don't get this song, ask Russell."
Russell: "A weight reducing song. You should have heard the home demo we recorded in our living room. More character."

Sextown U.S.A.

Russell: "Another one of the Disney Corporation's favourite Sparks' songs.
Originally the song had been rehearsed with a long middle instrumental breakdown section that had unfortunately been edited down leaving only the vocal phrase, 'there's a whole lotta fish in the sea'. On any given night, the song would gain a good 10 to 15 beats per minutes causing one of the fastest renditions of a song known to Western Music. To keep us off the streets one night while in Munich, we played a show at the tiny 'Domicile Club' on Leopoldstrasse. Out of frustration for an intermittent power transformer on one of Ron's synths, he trashed the sucker. The audience thought it was part of the show, but soon learned otherwise as we left the stage for one hour while our roadies returned to Ron's hotelroom to get his spare keyboard. The club thanked us later as their beverage sales skyrocketed due to the lengthy inpromptu intermission."

Shout

Russell: "The scary thought about performing this song live is what if I say 'hey, ey, ey, ey' and nobody answers ?"

Simple Ballet

Russell: "One of our first songs that almost sounded musical. Seven takes to get the best performance of me singing "oh, no" preceding the instrumental."
Ron: "A Swiss miss".

Singing In The Shower

Russell: "We read an interview with Les Rita Mitsouko prior to their L.A. concert saying that they had chosen the name "Rita Mitsouko" with the same sort of spirit in mind as the title of our album "Kimono My House". We were flattered, and like true groupies, we went to meet them after the show. The result was this collaboration, recorded in Paris (the song is also featured in the film "Black Rain", starring Michael Douglas.
There were six other songs that we also approached to Fred and Catherine, but they chose "Shower" and "Live In Las Vegas" (which appeared on their CD - Marc & Robert)."

Slowboat

Ron: "This was written around the time of 'Bridge Over Troubled Water' and 'Let it Be'. The reason for this one not being accepted can only be attributed to a lack of backing by the record company."
Russell: "Should have been a single at some point during it's lifetime. Shouldn't it have ?"

So Important

Russell: "We have finally put together our own studio after having always been at the mercy of record company imposed recording budgets to determine when and for how long we would be allowed to record. "Interior Design" was the first LP to christen "The Pentagon". We performed "So Important" on French TV with Catherine Ringer and Fred Chichin of French band Les Rita Mitsouko assuming the roles of the Sparks' guitarist and drummer. We reciprocated by doing 3 songs together for their LP "Marc et Robert."

Something For The Girl With Everything

Russell: "Another song in the hyper-acrobatic melody style that Ron had initiated on 'Kimono'. We were now experts on the menu choices of the BBC canteen as a result of numerous 'Top of The Pops' appearances."

Talent Is An Asset

Russell: "It was a bizarre phenomenon for us to be performing songs in concert with lyrics such as those in 'Talent' about a young Einstein growing up, and in turn having girls screaming and throwing themselves at us on stage."

Thank God It's Not Christmas

Ron: "This one is hard to explain without getting involved in the Moody Blues philosophy. Look, every day one can find an excuse to escape somebody else. At Christmas, everything is closed and you just have to. However..."

The Japanese Have Come And They Bought My Number One

Russell: "A guy loses his girlfriend to a well-heeded businessman. And she gladly accepts."

The Louvre

Ron: "Russell recorded the vocals on this totally in French, then totally in English. After countless debates, that threatened to delay the release of the Woofer LP several decades, all centering around which language worked best, a compromise was reached. All's well that ends well."
Russell: "If you can't make out the French it ain't your fault cause I didn't know any French when I sang it either."

This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us

Russell: "Phase II of Career Plan: due to the negligible response to our American releases, we moved to England. We had done a small tour of Britain and appeared on English TV with the original group. The enthusiastic reception shocked us. At that times, any reception shocked us. So we thought why not base ourselves over there. We advertised in Melody Maker magazine and enlisted a new group of British musicians to record "Kimono". Ron had been playing a lot of Bach etudes to improve his musicianship and that classical thing is apparent in "This Town". Muff Winwood, Stevie's big brother, produced the LP and bet his friend Elton John that this song would be a number 5 hit in Britain. Elton bet no, and lost."

About the 'Live at Fairfield Halls, Croydon U.K., 1975' recording: "This version of the song was true to the original recorded version of the song which had one extra verse that was edited out before its release:

Choosing, the girl is choosing,
between the man who's well-to-do
and the man who is you.
Heartbeat, increasing heartbeat
There is a panic-selling jamboree
Now he's a liability.

Also, it took a lot longer to get to the scream as it does in this version."

Tips For Teens

Russell: "We were once again performing live a lot, though now mainly in America. A new young audience was attracted that was virtually unaware of our British and European past careers. We were a brand new band with nine albums that few of our fans were aware of. Dick Clark welcomed us back."

Tryouts For The Human Race

Russell: "Despite the success with the public, the British press crucified us for "going disco" with this LP. We felt we had committed some crime and Giorgio was our accomplice. Funny how ten years later, "disco" is called "dance music" and it's no longer a pejorative term. A video for "Tryouts" that has never been shown in America was shot at Shepperton Film Studios in London. We were transformed into werewolves by one of Hitchcock's Shepperton based make-up artists."

Underground

Ron: "Mankey-mania hits side two!!"
Russell: "Earle's first smash since 'Biology 2'. I think I prefer songs about microscopic organisms."

Upstairs

Russell: "'Upstairs' became the new Sparks live encore anthem. Back in London to launch the LP, we staged a 3-round boxing match at the London Hilton to tie-in with the LP's cover photo."

When I'm With You

Russell: "Ron had played Giorgio scores of songs before recording "Terminal Jive" and all had been rejected with the exception of "When I'm With You" which Giorgio still felt needed a new middle section. In commercial terms, this was the biggest single Sparks has had to date, and it was never even released in America. The majority of the sales came from France where we stayed for nine months as a result of the large number of TV shows we appeared on. A video of Ron as a ventriloquist and me as his dummy (no comments, please) was shown to death in France. As a result, we could walk into virtually any couscous restaurant in Paris and get the best table in the house."

Whippings And Apologies

Russell: "Always misconstrued to be about some perverse goings on, when in fact it was about spankings at home. Maybe that's why we were well received at Max's Kansas City in New York."
Ron: "Recorded loud and without bass. The bottom, if one exists, is the left hand of the keyboards. Two chords always make the best chord progressions."

With All My Might

Russell: "When we would do a song which was softer in tone, people often wondered what our motive was. They wanted to know what the punch line was for Sparks doing such an a typical song. There was no punch line. We think "With All My Might" got caught in this dilemma. Another Graham Whiffler video with a highly stylized fake western motif which had Ron doing some trick equestrian riding accompanied the song."

Wonder Girl

Russell: "This song probably responsible for getting us signed to a record company. A number one in Montgomery, Alabama - God knows why!
Todd Rundgren should be given the Purple Heart of Valor for having been the first and only person at the time willing to stick his neck out on our behalf. He signed us and produced our first LP, retaining the essence of our 'living room' demos. All of those who told us that the LP was eccentric and highly unusual were equally surprised to see us perform 'Wonder Girl' on 'American Bandstand'. And even more shocked when the song got into the Billboard Top 100."
Ron: "Our first top 100 single in the U.S. Our last top 100 single in the U.S.

Young Girls

Russell: "Young Girls", Yes, Your Honor, it is a song about being a dirty old man."