Production
The band was defunct by the time the soundtrack was being prepared, and Johnny Rotten refused to participate in the project, so the "proper" Sex Pistols tracks were done by taking Lydon's vocals from the October 1976 demo session recordings and rerecording their instrumental tracks (done by Paul Cook and Steve Jones).
The double album features a significant number of tracks that omit Lydon entirely; most of them written and recorded after the band broke up. These include Sid Vicious singing cover songs, two new original songs ("Silly Thing", sung by Cook and "Lonely Boy", sung by Jones), tracks Cook and Jones recorded with Ronnie Biggs, the title track and "Who Killed Bambi?" sung by Edward Tudor-Pole, and numerous novelty tracks including French street musicians playing "Anarchy in the UK" and a medley of several Sex Pistols songs covered by a disco band.
Two further tracks were recorded along "Lonely Boy" and "Silly Thing" between May and July 1978; "Black Leather" and "Here We Go Again". While the two songs did not end up on either the film nor the soundtrack, both were later released as Sex Pistols singles.
Along with Rotten, people who sang on The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle include:
- Paul Cook – lead vocals on "Silly Thing" (1978), backing vocals on "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" (1979)
- Steve Jones – lead vocals on "Lonely Boy", backing vocals on "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", lead vocals on "Friggin' In The Riggin" and lead vocals on the single release of "Silly Thing" (1978)
- Ronnie Biggs – lead vocals on "No One is Innocent", "Belsen Was a Gas" (1978)
- Malcolm McLaren – lead vocals on "You Need Hands" (1979)
- Edward Tudor-Pole – lead vocals on "Rock Around the Clock", "Who Killed Bambi", "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle", (1979)
- Sid Vicious – lead vocals on "My Way", "C'mon Everybody", "Something Else" (1978)
Read more about this topic: The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (album)
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