American Gothic (1972)
American Gothic, released in 1972, was produced by Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin. Taupin and Ackles became acquainted when Ackles was selected to be the opening act for Elton John's 1970 American debut at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. Taupin said of Ackles's style, "There was nothing quite like it. It's been said so many times, but his stuff was sort of Brecht and Weill, and theatrical. It was very different than what the other singer-songwriters of the time were doing. There was also a darkness to it, which I really, really loved, because that was the kind of material that I was drawn to."
Though the album was recorded and mixed in about two weeks, Ackles worked for two years on its conception and "immensely complex" orchestral arrangements. Of Ackles's four albums, it was the only one recorded in England rather than in America. He used musicians from the London Symphony and a Salvation Army band chorus ("'The only trouble is, it's not the same as the American Salvation Army, so they were elongating all their a's, and he kept saying, "No no no, you've got to get rid of that accent"'"). Elektra gave Ackles his biggest budget to date to complete the project and advertised it pre-release as "The Album of the Year." The album was highly acclaimed by music critics in the US and UK: Melody Maker called it a classic and the influential British music critic Derek Jewell of The Sunday Times UK version described it as "the Sgt. Pepper of folk." But sales were again disappointing; it reached only #167 on the US charts.
Read more about this topic: David Ackles