Release
Backed with "I Don't Care Anymore", "Dark Horse" was issued as the album's lead single in America (as Apple 1877), on 18 November 1974. The single was available in a white sleeve on which the song lyrics and a large dot were printed in blue. Capitol Records, Apple's US distributor, sent an edited mix, cutting a minute's worth from the middle of the song, as a promotional disc for radio stations across America.
"Dark Horse" made a strong impact as a single, reaching the US top 20 "with ease", according to Eight Arms to Hold You authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter. It then stalled at a relatively low number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100, however, on 11 January 1975, before disappearing from the chart altogether two weeks later. In Canada, where the tour had begun on 2 November, "Dark Horse"'s progress was similarly disappointing, peaking at number 26 on the RPM 100. In Britain, the song was released as the second single off Dark Horse, in February 1975 (as Apple R 6001), with the show-opening "Hari's on Tour (Express)" on the B-side. Surprisingly, the single failed to place at all on the UK Singles Chart, then just a top 50.
Due to the delay in completing the recording, the Dark Horse album was not issued until the second week of December, towards the end of the tour. In the original LP format, "Dark Horse" appeared as the second track on side two, between "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", the album's other single, and the soul-inflected "Far East Man". In his handwritten sleeve notes, Harrison lists A&M Records secretary and future wife Olivia Arias among the participating musicians, her contribution being "Blissed out". The couple had first met at the start of Harrison's hectic few weeks in Los Angeles, and Arias became his constant companion on the tour.
"Dark Horse" was included on the 1976 Capitol compilation The Best of George Harrison but omitted from the posthumous, career-spanning Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison in 2009. The recording has yet to be remastered since Dark Horse was first released on CD, in January 1992.
Read more about this topic: Dark Horse (song)
Famous quotes containing the word release:
“The near touch of death may be a release into life; if only it will break the egoistic will, and release that other flow.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“An inquiry about the attitude towards the release of so-called political prisoners. I should be very sorry to see the United States holding anyone in confinement on account of any opinion that that person might hold. It is a fundamental tenet of our institutions that people have a right to believe what they want to believe and hold such opinions as they want to hold without having to answer to anyone for their private opinion.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“Come, thou long-expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.”
—Charles Wesley (1707–1788)