''All for a Song'' is a 1982 album by Barbara Dickson. The album was made up of mostly new recordings, but included four of her past hits.

Background

Following the success of her 1980 album, but relative failure of her next album,

Epic Records Epic Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America Sony Corporation of America (SONAM, also known as SCA), is the American arm of the Japanese conglomerate Sony Group ...

decided to take no chances with this release and included four of her past hits on the collection and backed it up with a TV advertising campaign. This resulted in ''All for a Song'' becoming the most successful album of Dickson's career. The album peaked at No.3 in the UK and spent most of the year in the charts, eventually selling over 600,000 copies in the UK alone. Past singles included on the album were "

Answer Me "Answer Me" is a popular song, originally titled "Mütterlein", with German lyrics by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch. "Mütterlein" was published on 19 April 1952. English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman, and the song was published as "Answer ...

", "

Another Suitcase in Another Hall "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" is a song recorded by Scottish singer Barbara Dickson, for the 1976 concept album '' Evita'', the basis of the musical of the same name. The musical was based on the life of Argentinian leader Eva Perón. Writ ...

", "Caravan Song" and " January February", while contemporary singles released from the album were "Run Like the Wind", "Take Good Care" and "I Believe in You". This was the first album to include "Caravan Song", which had been released in 1979 and was one of Dickson's most well-known songs. "Run Like the Wind" had originally been written by

Mike Batt Michael Philip Batt, LVO (born 6 February 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician, arranger, record producer, director and conductor. He was formerly the Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry. Having achieved substantial ...

for the film ''

Watership Down ''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural ...

'', but was replaced by " Bright Eyes". The album cover proved to be a problem when, on doing research, the record company decided that cover photographs with a lot of blue did not tend to sell well and despite the fact that the album sleeves had already been printed, they were rejected in favour of an alternative shot with warmer shades (''see illustrations, right''). The rejected covers were instead sold in

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. The album was largely recorded in

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with producer Mike Batt. Alan Tarney, the producer of her previous two albums was only used on one new track, while Dickson herself produced covers of

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

tracks, " The Long and Winding Road" and " With a Little Help from My Friends". ''All for a Song'' was released twice in the Netherlands under different titles, first as ''I Believe in You'' and shortly after as ''Run Like the Wind''. The latter reached No.42 in the Dutch album charts. To date, the album has never been released on Compact disc, although many of the tracks have appeared on compilations. In April 2022, 'All For A Song' was released on CD for the first time as a two-disc remastered Special Edition, featuring 21 bonus tracks. The CD was available only via Barbara's official website.

Track listing

Side One # "Run Like the Wind" (

) # "Caravan Song" (Mike Batt) # "

" ( Gerhard Winkler,

Fred Rauch Fred Rauch (Vienna, 28 September 1909 – Gmund am Tegernsee, 1 June 1997) was an Austrian singer and songwriter. He wrote the original German lyrics "Schütt die Sorgen in ein Gläschen Wein, Mütterlein" with Gerhard Winkler, which became ''An ...

Carl Sigman Carl Sigman (September 24, 1909 – September 26, 2000) was an American songwriter. Early life Born in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York to a Jewish-American family, Sigman graduated from law school and passed his bar exams to practice in ...

) # " The Long and Winding Road" (

John Lennon John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

) # "Tonight" (Dickson) # " With A Little Help From My Friends" (Lennon, McCartney) Side Two # " January February" ( Alan Tarney) # " Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (

Gerry Goffin Gerald Goffin (February 11, 1939 – June 19, 2014) was an American lyricist. Collaborating initially with his first wife, Carole King, he co-wrote many international pop hits of the early and mid-1960s, including the List of Billboard number-one ...

Carole King Carole King Klein (born Carol Joan Klein; February 9, 1942) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who has been active since 1958, initially as one of the staff songwriters at 1650 Broadway and later as a solo artist. Regarded as one ...

) # "Take Good Care" (Paul Bliss) # "I Believe in You" (Dickson) # "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" (

Andrew Lloyd Webber Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber (born 22 March 1948), is an English composer and impresario of musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 21 musicals, ...

Tim Rice Sir Timothy Miles Bindon Rice (born 10 November 1944) is an English lyricist and author. He is best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber, with whom he wrote, among other shows, ''Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat'', ' ...

) # "Surrender to the Sun" (Mike Batt)

Personnel

Producers:Discogs.com - ''All for a Song'' album info
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("Run Like the Wind", "Caravan Song", "Tonight", "Surrender to the Sun") * Junior Campbell ("Answer Me") * Barbara Dickson ("The Long and Winding Road", "With a Little Help from My Friends") * Alan Tarney ("January February", "Will You Love Me Tomorrow", "I Believe in You") *

("Another Suitcase in Another Hall") *

Paul Bliss Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) *Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity * Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

("Take Good Care")

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:All For A Song Barbara Dickson albums 1982 albums Albums produced by Alan Tarney Epic Records albums