Status Quo - Blue For You (1976) [FLAC]
{2005 remastered and expanded edition}


Track listing:

01. IS THERE A BETTER WAY (3:30)
(Francis Rossi/Alan Lancaster)

02. MAD ABOUT THE BOY (3:34)
(Francis Rossi/Bob Young)

03. RING OF A CHANGE (4:17)
(Francis Rossi/Bob Young)

04. BLUE FOR YOU (4:06)
(Alan Lancaster)

05. RAIN (4:37)
(Rick Parfitt)

06. ROLLING HOME (3:04)
(Alan Lancaster/Francis Rossi)

07. THAT'S A FACT (4:22)
(Francis Rossi/Bob Young)

08. EASE YOUR MIND (3:14)
(Alan Lancaster)

09. MYSTERY SONG (6:43)
(Rick Parfitt/Bob Young)

10. YOU LOST THE LOVE [bonus track] (3:01)
(Francis Rossi/Bob Young)

11. MYSTERY SONG (SINGLE VERSION) [bonus track] (4:01)
(Rick Parfitt/Bob Young)

12. WILD SIDE OF LIFE [bonus track] (3:18)
(Arlie Carter/William Warren)

13. ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (bonus track) (3:16)
(Francis Rossi)

14. WILD SIDE OF LIFE (DEMO) [bonus track] (3:51)
(Arlie Carter/William Warren)

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Presentation by Gary Fielding (included in the CD sleeve):

Status Quo ended 1975 with a headline appearance at the Great British Music Festival in London's Olympia on New Year's Eve right in the middle of recording sessions for their next album at Phonogram Studios in London.

As a preview for the album, Rick Parfitt's song "Rain" was released as a single on the 6th February. The single was another hit for the band and reached the Number 7 position in the UK chart. The B-side, "You Lost The Love", although recorded during the sessions for the album, was not included in the final track listing.

The "Blue For You" album was issued by Vertigo on the 12th March 1976 and went straight to the Number One position, completing a run of six consecutive Top 5 hit albums for the band. The album spent nearly seven months in the UK charts and was the 28th best selling LP of 1976. Original copies of "Blue For You" came with a gatefold sleeve and lyric inner sheet.

The record company took a different approach to promoting the album. Touchline adverts appeared at the League Cup Final the month before "Blue For You" was released and at the end of season football matches covered by the "Match Of The Day" TV programme. They also signed a deal with Levis-Strauss jeans that resulted in 6,000 posters of the band wearing Levi jeans being produced for display in boutiques and department stores throughout the country. The end result was the confidence to issue the album with not a word on the front cover - just four 'boys in blue' daring the world not to recognise them and buy the LP!

An edited version of "Mystery Song" was chosen as a second single from the album and was released on the 2nd July. "Drifting Away", from the the band's 1974 "Quo" album, was the B-side. The single entered the UK charts on the 10th July and peaked at the Number 11 position. Later the same month Quo headlined a festival at Cardiff Castle (with Curved Air, Hawkwind and The Strawbs supporting) in front of a 20,000 crowd. The appearance resulted in rave reviews in the music press and is described by the band as one of their best ever gigs.

On the 11th December the band's third single of the year - "Wild Side Of Life" - was released. The song was a cover of an old country & western tune -with the title "Honky Tonk Angel" - that had originally been recorded by Hank Snow back in 1952. Francis Rossi joked at the time: "I'd been trying to buy a copy of the original for ages without success so we made our own instead". The single was produced by Roger Glover of Deep Purple and was the first time that Quo had gone into the recording studios to purposely record a 'single', since their days with Pye Records in 1971.

"Wild Side Of Life" reached the No.9 position in the UK chart and made 1976 the band's most successful year so far - with three hit singles and a number one to their credit. Quo's plans for 1977 included the release of a live album (that had been recorded during three gigs at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow in October '76) together with what would become their most successful hit single "Rockin' All Over The World".