Smooth Sailing: Take A Trip Down To L.A.
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Closing track You’ll Like It by Mud is on the recently released compilation album Mud: The Singles 1973-80 on Cherry Red Records. The band with front man Les Gray recorded their first single Flower Power in 1967, followed by a couple more, but they all failed to chart. Things started to look brighter, when they were picked up by RAK label boss Mickie Most who liked their energetic live performances. He introduced them to Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, a very successful producers and songwriters duo at the time and known for their work with glam rock acts The Sweet and Suzi Quatro. They wrote Crazy and Hypnosis for the band, two singles that made the UK Top 20 in 1973. Finally Mud had reached what they were looking for all those years, although the two singles were not representative of the group's sound. When The Sweet rejected Dynamite, Mud was more than willing to record the song that fitted the band like a glove. It was the beginning of Mud hysteria with multiple number one hits all over Europe. Les Gray’s spaghetti hair, dark sunglasses and working class image made him a teen idol for a short period of time. When Mud decided to switch record labels in 1975, they had to leave Chinn and Chapman as well. At first the hits kept on coming, but when the decade came to a close, the group struggled to keep up with the zeitgeist. Unfortunate single choices, numerous label switches, line-up changes, occasional solo singles (Les Gray) and side projects (Roly) did not help either. They called it quits in 1980, but Les Gray started to re-use the name Mud to perform at the golden oldies circuit a few years later. In retrospect, Mud wrote pop history in the mid-seventies. Their song Tigerfeet with its typical dancing steps was used during the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics,
Tracklist:
Jim Messina – We Got To Go Back (1983)
Darrell John – Write Your Lucky Number (1979)
Muscles – Love Is All I’ve Got (1977)
Leder Brothers – I'd Like To Touch A Star (1978)
The Dukes (Bugatti & Musker) – Fate (1982)
Bobby Caldwell – What You Won't Do For Love (1978)
Foxy – Mademoiselle (1978)
Rupert Holmes – Lunch Hour (1979)
Cheryl Ladd – Skinnydippin' (1978)
Boz Scaggs – Then She Walked Away (1977)
Jon Lucien – Mi Vida (1976)
George Moir – The Coast (2023)
Tullio De Piscopo – Stop Bajon (1984)
Randy Edelman – Concrete And Clay (1975)
James Walsh Gypsy Band – Cuz It’s You, Girl (1978)
Bill Champlin – Gotta Get Back To Love (1981)
Martie Echito – Cryin’ In The Night (1980s)
Phil Carmen – On My Way In L.A. (1985)
Olivia Newton-John – Deeper Than The Night (1979)
Chicago – Another Rainy Day In New York City (1976)
Mud – You’ll Like It (1979)
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