"Sweet Illusion" is a song written and recorded by

Junior Campbell Junior Campbell (born William Campbell Jnr, 31 May 1947) is a Scottish composer, songwriter and musician. He was a founding member, lead guitarist, piano player, and singer with the Scottish band Marmalade and co-wrote and produced some of th ...

in April 1973 as a follow up single to " Hallelujah Freedom", which had seen success in the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

at the end of the previous year. The recording took place at Decca Studio 2 in London and featured Campbell on lead vocal, piano, guitar & electric piano, with Ray Duffy on drums and percussion, Rick West of

The Tremeloes The Tremeloes are an English beat group founded in 1958 in Dagenham, England. They initially found success in the British Invasion era with lead singer Brian Poole, scoring a UK chart-topper in 1963 with "Do You Love Me". After Poole's departu ...

on bass, and Pete Zorn on flute. The backing vocals were performed by Ruby James,

Irene Chanter Irene Chanter is a British singer best known for her career as a member of the Chanter Sisters and for her work as a session singer, working with a number of musicians in the 1970s and 1980s. Irene Chanter has worked with Elton John, Long John Ba ...

and Campbell. The recording was engineered by John Burns - Decca staff engineer. The orchestral accompaniment consisted of 12 violins, 4 violas, 4 celli, ( Strings) and 3 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones and 1 bass trombone (

brass Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...

). The arrangement was by Campbell himself. "Sweet Illusion" was released on 27 April 1973 on Deram DM 387 entering the UK Singles Chart on 2 June 1973. The record spent nine weeks on the chart reaching number 15 position.

References

*Roberts, David. ''Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums''. Guinness World Records Limited. 20th revised edition. (Jun 2007). {{ISBN, 1-904994-10-5 * Liner notes ''Second Time Around'' - 2001 -

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is as of 2013 a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest m ...

CMDDD 398 1973 songs Songs written by Junior Campbell Deram Records singles 1973 singles