Introduction
In 1974 Jon Anderson, singer of the British band "Yes", visited Vangelis in Paris. Jon was impressed with Vangelis' music for "L'Apocalypse Des Animaux" (1973) and was looking for a new keyboard player for his band, to replace Rick Wakeman who was leaving. While Vangelis travelled to London to meet and rehearse with the other band members, that effort did not turn out fruitful as Vangelis still refused to tour with a band. Still it left him with all his equipment in London, and the next months he spent looking to rent an apartment there, as well as a location to create his own studio.
That year a 7” single appeared in the UK by the name "Odyssey", an obvious pseudonym referring to Vangelis' second name: Odysséas. The single contains two songs, ‘Who’ and ‘Sad Face’. 'Who’ with 3:38 minutes is a vocal song credited to Robert Fitoussi and Richelle Dassin, with whom Vangelis also worked on his album “Earth” a year earlier. Given this fact, it is plausible that both songs were left over from the recording sessions for “Earth” (1973), and were released to introduce Vangelis' music to the UK, which until then had greatly missed out on his record releases.
‘Sad Face’ with 3:15 minutes is an instrumental track by Vangelis.
Tracklist and credits
- ‘Who’
Composed and vocal by Robert Fitoussi.
Lyrics by Richelle Dassin.
- ‘Sad Face’
Composed by Vangelis Papathanassiou.
Arranged and produced by Vangelis Papathanassiou.
Discography
7” single
CD
- 2007 Dirty Space Disco (Tiger Sushi Records 6134072) France. Includes ‘Who’ (clearly a transfer from the 7” single).
Recording studio
It is unknown where the songs ‘Who’ and ‘Sad Face’ are recorded, but if these songs are indeed from the recordings sessions for the "Earth" album, then they are recorded in the Europa Sonor Studio “Poste Parisien” in Paris.
More
- Robert Fitoussi is also known by his artist name "F.R. David", and made fame with the hit single ‘Words’ in 1981. Robert and Vangelis met shortly after Vangelis broke up with Aphrodite's Child, in a music shop named "La Compagnie", where Vangelis had stored his equipment. Vangelis played something and Robert sang to it, they started working together and became friends.
- Richelle Dassin is the step-daughter of Melina Mercouri. She also worked as a lyricist with Vangelis on the songs that Vangelis recorded with Melina Mercouri that same year.
- The song ‘Who’ was a popular subject for other artists, as in 1977 three covers were released:
- Demis Roussos covered the song as ‘I Dig You’, released on his album "Magic" which was produced and arranged by Vangelis.
- The Italian progressive rock-group Chrisma covered the song as "U", which was released as the groups second single. Vangelis' involvement is not clear as he is not credited in any way, but listening to the song reveals that Vangelis is definately playing on it. Vangelis was also involved with the band’s first single, ‘Amore’ b/w ‘Sweet Baby Sue" in 1976, where he is credited using another pseudonym: Richard Broadbaker.
- The Finnish singer Marion covered the song as ‘Syy Täysikuun’ on her album “Rakkaus On Hellyyttä”.
Links