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Romany is the twelfth UK studio album by The Hollies, the first not to feature their lead singer Allan Clarke, who had left to embark on a solo career. He was replaced by Swedish singer Mikael Rickfors. In the opinion of contemporary and retrospective critics, this album moved the band further away from the original vocal harmony style of Allan Clarke, Tony Hicks and Graham Nash.
The album only features two songwriting contributions from band members: one song was co-written by Tony Hicks, who had been a co-writer on a significant proportion of the band’s material since their second album; and another was written by new member Rickfors. Previous albums, with the exception of Hollies Sing Dylan and the band’s debut album, had much more original material.
The group’s follow-up album to a pair of hit singles (“Long Cool Woman,” “Long Dark Road”) tries for the harder sound that sold those singles. Romany‘s cover art deliberately recalls its immediate predecessor Distant Light, but otherwise the two albums are rather dissimilar. For starters, this is the album that the group cut during the short-lived tenure of Mikael Rickfors as lead singer — he’s more of a weighty, David Clayton-Thomas type singer than Allan Clarke was, much more of a hard-rock crooner, as is evident on the version of David Ackles‘ “Down River” and the self-consciously heavy rocker “Slow Down.” Tony Hicks and Terry Sylvester make a valiant effort to meld their harmonies into the familiar Hollies mode, and succeed on songs such as “Delaware Taggett and the Outlaw Boys” and “Jesus Was a Crossmaker,” though apart from “Magic Woman Touch,” most of this album’s original first side lacks the memorable hooks, melodies, or tempos needed for hit material. There are tunes worth discovering, however, for anyone who has never heard this album. The title track, although it was too moody and arty to ever become a hit, could be the prettiest song to come from the group after the 1960s; the Tony Hicks co-authored “Blue in the Morning” has a hard-edged, crisp, economical guitar part reminiscent of “Long Dark Road”; and “Courage of Your Convictions” seems to be a conscious attempt at emulating the sound of “Long Cool Woman.” The playing and singing are impressive, and these are solid album tracks, if not necessarily chart-topping material.
The US Epic Records version of the album, which reached number 84 on the Billboard 200, omitted the track “Lizzy and the Rainman”, and has a slightly altered side one track order. The album failed to chart in the UK. The cover of Romany is a rendering of the summer location depicted on Distant Light as a winter scene.
UK Version
Side one- “Won’t We Feel Good” (Cy Crane, Herbert Weiner, John Gluck, Jr.) – 3:23
- “Touch” (Mikael Rickfors) – 5:13
- “Words Don’t Come Easy” (Colin Jennings) – 3:46
- “Magic Woman Touch” (Colin Jennings, Garth Watt-Roy) – 3:20
- “Lizzy and the Rainman” (Larry Henley, Kenny O’Dell) – 3:19
- “Down River” (David Ackles) – 4:09
- “Slow Down” (Cy Crane, Herbert Weiner, John Gluck, Jr.) – 2:57
- “Delaware Taggett and the Outlaw Boys” (Colin Jennings) – 3:11
- “Jesus Was a Cross Maker” (Judee Sill) – 3:46
- “Romany” (Colin Jennings) – 5:28
- “Blue in the Morning” (Kenny Lynch, Tony Hicks) – 3:22
- “Courage of Your Convictions” (Alan Rush, Randy Cullers) – 3:38
Companies, etc.
- Recorded At – Abbey Road Studios
Credits
- Engineer [Recording Engineer] – Alan Parsons, Peter Bown
- Illustration [Outer] – Elgie, Hipgnosis
- Producer – The Hollies
Notes
Release Date: 1972
Recording Date: October 8, 1971 – March 15, 1973
Recording Location: AIR EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England
Duration: 45:15
Genre: Pop/Rock
Styles: Contemporary Pop/Rock, AM Pop
Label – Polydor Records
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