"Back Street Luv" is a song by British rock band

Curved Air Curved Air are an English progressive rock group formed in 1970 by musicians from mixed artistic backgrounds, including classical, folk and electronic sound. The resulting sound of the band is a mixture of progressive rock, folk rock, and fu ...

, written by band members

Darryl Way Richard Darryl Way (born 17 December 1948 in Taunton, Somerset, England) is an English rock and classical musician who was a founding member of Curved Air and co-writer of their Progressive Rock seminal albums from 1970 to 1976. He is best kno ...

Sonja Kristina Sonja Kristina (born Sonia Christina Shaw; 14 April 1949) is a British singer and songwriter, best known for starring in the original London production of the seminal 1960s musical ''Hair'', and for being the lead vocalist of the 1970s progres ...

, and Ian Eyre. It was included on the '' Second Album'' and released as a single in June 1971 by

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

It reached number 4 in the UK Singles Chart on 18 September. Warners also released it as a single in the Netherlands, Germany, France and Portugal. In 1975 a live version appeared on '' Curved Air – Live'' and was released as a single in the UK by Deram, but it failed to make any commercial impact.Joynson, Vernon (1995)
''The Tapestry of Delights''
. London: Borderline Books. Rock music critic Dave Thompson called the song "one of the band's own finest moments" and "also one of the crucial singles of the early 1970s". …''It's also one of the crucial singles of the early 1970s.'' In 1997,

Salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed ingredients, frequently vegetables. They are typically served chilled or at room temperature, though some can be served warm. Condiments called '' salad dressings'', which exist in a variety of flavors, a ...

covered the song on the Childline charity album.

Track list

Personnel

Original studio version

— vocals *

Francis Monkman Anthony Francis Keigwin Monkman (9 June 1949 – 12 May 2023) was an English rock, classical and film score composer, and a founding member of both the progressive rock band Curved Air and the classical/rock fusion band Sky. Life and career ...

—

EMS VCS 3 The VCS 3 (or VCS3; an initialism for ''Voltage Controlled Studio, version #3'') is a portable analogue synthesizer with a flexible modular voice architecture introduced by Electronic Music Studios (EMS) in 1969. EMS released the product ...

Hohner Pianet The Hohner Pianet is a type of electric piano, electro-mechanical piano built by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany and designed by Ernst Zacharias. The Pianet was a variant of his earlier reed-based Hohner electric piano, the Cemba ...

, guitar,

Hammond organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...

* Ian Eyre – bass *

Florian Pilkington-Miksa Florian M. Pilkington-Miksa (3 June 1950 – 20 May 2021) was an English rock drummer and a sculptor. He was best known as a member of both the original and reformed lineups of Curved Air. He also performed with Kiki Dee Pauline Matthews ( ...

— drums (

, though the chief writer of the song's music, does not play on the original recording.)

''
Beat-Club ''Beat-Club'' was a West German music programme that ran from September 1965 to December 1972. It was broadcast from Bremen, West Germany on ''Erstes Deutsches Fernsehen'', the national public TV channel of the ARD, and produced by one of its m ...
'' performance, 1971

* Sonja Kristina — vocals, percussion * Darryl Way – electric piano * Francis Monkman —

, guitar, keyboards * Ian Eyre – bass * Barry de Souza — drums

Live version from Curved Air – Live, 1975

* Sonja Kristina – vocal * Darryl Way – VCS3, electric piano * Francis Monkman – guitar, organ * Phil Kohn – bass * Florian Pilkington-Miksa – drums

Live version from Alive, 1990

* Sonja Kristina – lead vocal * Darryl Way – synthesizers, backing vocal * Francis Monkman – guitar, bass * Florian Pilkington-Miksa – drums

Album appearances

* 1971 — '' Second Album'' (3:36, WEA International)Back Street Luv
– www.allmusic.com. * 1971 — ''Second Album'' (5:56, Collectors' Choice Music) * 1975 — ''Live'' (3:47,

Repertoire Repertory or repertoire () is the list or set of works a person or company is accustomed to performing. Whether the English or French spelling is used has no bearing, but it was the French word, with an accent on the first e, , that first took ho ...

) * 1976 — ''Best of Curved Air'' (Warner Bros.) * 1994 — ''Progression'' (Alex Records) * 1995 — ''Journey to the Edge: Progressive Rock Classics'' (3:35, Music Collection) * 1995 — ''The No. 1 70s Rock Album'' (3:40 Alex) * 1995 — ''Progressive Pop: Inside the 70s'' (3:50, See For Miles Records) * 1999 — ''Rock Festival'' (Insight) * 2000 — ''Alive, 1990'' (4:26, Mystic Records) * 2006 — ''Absolute 70s'' (Crimson Productions) * 2006 — ''Classic Rock Presents Prog Rock'' (3:37, Gut-Active) * 2006 — ''Good Morning Vietnam 2'' (3:50, Disky) * 2006 — ''My Sounds Rock'' (Disky) * 2007 — ''Head Full of Rock'' (3:36, EMI) * 2007 — ''The Prog Rock Album'' (3:38, Crimson Productions) * 2007 — ''The Sound of the 70s'' (3:35, Warner Strategic Marketing) * 2008 — ''The Best of Curved Air'' (Repertoire) * 2008 — ''Legendary Rock'' (3:48, MP Records) * 2010 — ''

The Old Grey Whistle Test ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' (sometimes abbreviated to ''Whistle Test'' or ''OGWT'') is a British television music series broadcast by the BBC. It was devised by producer Rowan Ayers, commissioned by David Attenborough, and aired on BBC2 from ...

'' (3:33, Rhino)

References

{{authority control 1971 singles Curved Air songs 1971 songs Warner Records singles