''Cordon Bleu'' is the third album by the Dutch

symphonic rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed "progressive pop", the ...

group

Solution Solution may refer to: * Solution (chemistry), a mixture where one substance is dissolved in another * Solution (equation), in mathematics ** Numerical solution, in numerical analysis, approximate solutions within specified error bounds * Solu ...

. It was released in

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

's label, The Rocket Record Company.

History

Recorded at Rockfield Studios in

Monmouth Monmouth ( or ; ) is a market town and community (Wales), community in Monmouthshire, Wales, situated on where the River Monnow joins the River Wye, from the Wales–England border. The population in the 2011 census was 10,508, rising from 8 ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, ''Cordon Bleu'' featured the main quartet of Willem Ennes, Tom Barlage, Guus Willemse and Hans Waterman complemented by Chiel Pos. Pos contributed acoustic guitar to "Last Detail" and

tenor sax The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while ...

to "Third Line" and "Whirligig", while Frankie Fish co-wrote some lyrics and also, together with Pos, added backing vocals. Like its predecessor ''

Divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the rate that the vector field alters the volume in an infinitesimal neighborhood of each point. (In 2D this "volume" refers to ...

'' (1972), ''Cordon Bleu'' mixed long instrumental pieces ("Chappaqua" and "Whirligig") with shorter vocal songs which also featured instrumental passages ("Third Line", "Last Detail" and "Black Pearl"). "A Song for You" is the shortest song on the album, and is a more conventional pop song. This was released as a single in Europe, with an edited version of "Chappaqua" as the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

. "Chappaqua" was issued as an A-side in its own right in some territories (backed by "Whirligig"), and was a B-side again to "Give Some More" in 1977/78. Produced by Elton John's producer

Gus Dudgeon Angus Boyd "Gus" Dudgeon (30 September 1942 – 21 July 2002) was an English record producer, who oversaw many of Elton John's most acclaimed recordings, including his commercial breakthrough, " Your Song". Their collaboration led to seven US N ...

, the album had a crisper sound than ''

'' and ''Divergence''. This trend was continued on the following album '' Fully Interlocking'' (1977), also produced by Dudgeon. ''Cordon Bleu'' charted in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

on 20 December 1975, reaching #18 and spending 11 weeks on the chart. First released on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

and cassette, it was later reissued by CBS in 1980 and on

Compact Disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

in 1988. In 2006, "Chappaqua", "Whirligig" and "Third Line" were included on the compilation ''The Ultimate Collection'', with versions of the other three tracks featured on the live disc.

Track listing

#"Chappaqua" (10:33) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Hans #"Third Line Part 1" (1:38) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #*Words by Michiel & Frankie #"Part 2" (5:44) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Hans #"A Song for You" (3:53) #*Music by Guus #*Words by Guus & Frankie #"Whirligig" (9:00) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #"Last Detail Part 1" (2:48) #*Music by Tom, Willem & Guus #*Words by Michiel & Frankie #"Part 2" (2:41) #*Music by Tom, Willem, Hans & Guus #"Black Pearl Part 1" (1:14) #*Music by Tom, Guus & Michiel #*Words by Frankie #"Part 2" (5:01) #*Music by Tom & Willem

Personnel

*Tom Barlage –

alto sax The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E, smaller th ...

, soprano sax, flute, percussion *Willem Ennes –

electric piano An electric piano is a musical instrument that has a piano-style musical keyboard, where sound is produced by means of mechanical hammers striking metal strings or reeds or wire tines, which leads to vibrations which are then converted into ele ...

, acoustic piano, organ,

Elka Rhapsody The Elka Rhapsody is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral synthesizer with either a 49-key or 61-key keyboard, depending on the model. It was particularly popular with Berlin School electronic musicians during the 1970s. Revisions Elka Rhap ...

*Guus Willemse – bass guitar, lead vocals, electric guitar *Hans Waterman – drums *All backing vocals by Tom, Guus and Frankie Fish. *Michiel Pos - additional tenor saxophone on "Third Line" and "Whirligig" and acoustic guitar on "Last Detail" Produced by Gus Dudgeon.
Recorded at Rockfield Studios in Wales.
Engineers: Pat Moran & Phil Dunne.
Remixed at Marquee Studios in London.
Engineers: Steve Holroyd & Gus Dudgeon.
Sleeve design & photography by

Hipgnosis Hipgnosis were an English art design group, based in London, that specialised in creating album cover artwork for rock musicians and bands. Their commissions included work for Pink Floyd, Def Leppard, T. Rex, the Pretty Things, Black S ...

Lettering by Richard Evans.

External links

Official website run by Guus Willemse
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordon Bleu (Album) Solution (band) albums 1975 albums Albums produced by Gus Dudgeon Albums with cover art by Hipgnosis Albums recorded at Rockfield Studios