Romany (album)

Romany
Studio album by
The Hollies
ReleasedNovember 1972
Recorded13 April–30 August 1972[1]
StudioEMI Studios, Abbey Road, London
GenreRock, pop
Length45:29
LabelU.K.: Polydor LP 2383144
U.S.: Epic KE 31992
ProducerThe Hollies
The Hollies chronology
Distant Light
(1971) 		Romany
(1972) 		The Hollies' Greatest Hits
(1973)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[2]
Christgau's Record GuideC−[3]

Romany is the twelfth UK studio album by The Hollies, the first not to feature their lead singer Allan Clarke, who had left to embark on a solo career. He was replaced by Swedish singer Mikael Rickfors. In the opinion of contemporary and retrospective critics, this album moved the band further away from the original vocal harmony style of Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash.[3][2]

The album only features two songwriting contributions from band members: one song was co-written by Tony Hicks, who had been a co-writer on a significant proportion of the band's material since their second album; and another was written by new member Rickfors. Previous albums, with the exception of Hollies Sing Dylan and the band's debut album, had much more original material.

The US Epic Records version of the album, which reached number 84 on the Billboard 200, omitted the track "Lizzy and the Rainman", and has a slightly altered side one track order. The album failed to chart in the UK. The cover of Romany is a rendering of the summer location depicted on Distant Light as a winter scene.

As the album was nearing release[when?] the members of the group were getting nervous and made at least three changes in the album, announced a single before retracting it,[vague] which delayed the album for three months. Due to the success of the previous album and its smash hit single, the LP initially sold very well in the US. Upon its release, Romany sold six times more copies in the first week in the US than any previous Hollies album had sold in a year. It also received more US FM airplay than the band had ever got in their previous nine years.[4][additional citation(s) needed]

  1. ^ "Session Listing". Archived from the original on 25 September 2018. Retrieved 25 September 2018.
  2. ^ a b Allmusic review
  3. ^ a b Christgau, Robert (1981). "Consumer Guide '70s: H". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies. Ticknor & Fields. ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved 26 February 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
  4. ^ Circus Magazine, May 1973. - "Romany - The Hollies Hop Over Disaster" by Janis Schacht.