Release and Single Promotion
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Sputnik Music | |
Deep Purple's American label, Tetragrammaton, issued two singles. "Kentucky Woman", with the instrumental "Wring That Neck" (titled as "Hard Road" in the US) as the B-side, was the album's main promoter, much like "Hush" had been for Shades of Deep Purple. It was released in December, after the album had been out for a couple of months. While strictly a B-side, "Wring That Neck" would be used regularly in their live concert set, even into the Mark II era, as it allowed Blackmore and Lord to display their instrumental talents to audiences.
The "Kentucky Woman" single did not flop, peaking at #38, but to the dismay of the label it was nowhere near as big a success as "Hush" had been. In an eager attempt to improve sales of the album, another single was released in December, a heavily-edited version of "River Deep - Mountain High" (which ran over 10 minutes on the album), with "Listen, Learn, Read On" as the B-side. The single was not a success, charting lower than "Kentucky Woman", but it actually beat Ike and Tina Turner's version for some time.
Their English label, EMI, issued the "Kentucky Woman" single as Tetragrammaton did, but they stuck with that. EMI did not release the "River Deep - Mountain High" single, feeling it didn't have the potential to impact the charts in England and that it wasn't worth giving a shot. Not surprisingly, the album sold to a much lesser degree in the UK than overseas and it was widely overlooked there. That had also been the case for Shades of Deep Purple.
John Peel, head of the Top Gear radio show, had previously met the band while they were playing at his show. After great expectations, he had mixed reactions for the final album:
"The group have done some fine things for Radio One and they excite when they play live. I don't understand where this record went wrong, it is all too restrained somehow. They recorded "Wring That Neck" much better for a recent Top Gear."
Read more about this topic: The Book Of Taliesyn
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release, single and/or promotion:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“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)
“Without being forgiven, released from the consequences of what we have done, our capacity to act would ... be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover; we would remain the victims of its consequences forever, not unlike the sorcerer’s apprentice who lacked the magic formula to break the spell.”
—Hannah Arendt (1906–1975)
“Parents can fail to cheer your successes as wildly as you expected, pointing out that you are sharing your Nobel Prize with a couple of other people, or that your Oscar was for supporting actress, not really for a starring role. More subtly, they can cheer your successes too wildly, forcing you into the awkward realization that your achievement of merely graduating or getting the promotion did not warrant the fireworks and brass band.”
—Frank Pittman (20th century)