Release and Single Promotion
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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
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