The Friends of Mr Cairo

The Friends of Mr Cairo
Cover of second release
Studio album by
Jon and Vangelis
Released3 July 1981[1]
StudioDavout Studios, Paris, and Nemo Studios, London
Genre
Length45:42
LabelPolydor
ProducerVangelis
Jon and Vangelis chronology
Short Stories
(1980) 		The Friends of Mr Cairo
(1981) 		Private Collection
(1983)
Alternative cover
Artwork on 1981 Polydor LP release
Singles from The Friends of Mr Cairo
  1. "The Friends of Mr Cairo"
    Released: 22 May 1981[2]
  2. "State of Independence"
    Released: 31 July 1981
  3. "I'll Find My Way Home"
    Released: November 1981
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[3]

The Friends of Mr Cairo is the second album by Jon and Vangelis, released in July 1981.

A second edition of the album, released in January 1982,[4] includes the single "I'll Find My Way Home", which according to Anderson was added in response to poor initial sales of the album, and which was a big hit across Europe at the time, peaking at No. 1 in Switzerland, No. 2 in The Netherlands and No. 6 in the UK.[5]

"State of Independence" was later a hit single for Donna Summer, and a decade later for Moodswings with Chrissie Hynde on vocal. Anderson also re-recorded that song on his solo album Change We Must, released in 1994.

The album saw considerable success in Canada, reaching #2 for 3 weeks, and was #15 in the Best of 1981.[6]

The title track, "The Friends of Mr Cairo", was No. 1 on the Canadian singles chart for 5 weeks in late 1981 and No. 10 on the Canadian AC charts for 2 weeks,[7] although it was not a hit elsewhere[8][9] but made No. 99 in Australia for one week on 2 November 1981.[10] Its accompanying music video serves as an ode to classic Hollywood films of the 1930s and 1940s, including references to the classic film noir The Maltese Falcon. Joel Cairo (Mr Cairo) is the character played by Peter Lorre in The Maltese Falcon. The track incorporates sound effects and voice impressions of the stars of the era, most notably Lorre, Humphrey Bogart, Sydney Greenstreet, and Jimmy Stewart. The title track includes the sounds of screeching car tyres. These were sampled from the audio track of the film Get Carter.

  1. ^ "Music Week" (PDF). p. 47.
  2. ^ "Music Week" (PDF). p. 22.
  3. ^ "Allmusic review". Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  4. ^ "BPI".
  5. ^ "Official charts". Official Charts. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  6. ^ "RPM Top 100 Albums of 1981 - December 26, 1981" (PDF).
  7. ^ "RPM Top 30 AC - December 12, 1981" (PDF).
  8. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - November 14, 1981" (PDF).
  9. ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles - December 12, 1981" (PDF).
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference aus was invoked but never defined (see the help page).