One-Trick Pony (album)

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One-Trick Pony

Studio album by Paul Simon
Released	August 1980
Recorded	1979 - 1980
Genre	Rock
Length	38:12
Label	Warner Bros. Records
All Music Guide link Robert Christgau (B-) link
Paul Simon chronology
Greatest Hits, Etc. 1977	One-Trick Pony 1980	Hearts and Bones 1983

One-Trick Pony is an album released by Paul Simon in 1980.

Paul Simon's One-Trick Pony is a record released to coincide with the movie of the same name, in which Simon also stars. Although considered a soundtrack to the movie, the original album did not contain some songs from the movie; likewise there are some songs from the album that are not in the movie. The record is best known for the track "Late in the Evening" which was a hit for Simon in 1980. Two of the tracks (the title song and "Ace in the Hole") were recorded live at the Agora Theatre and Ballroom in Cleveland, the rest are studio cuts.

The record features several top session musicians (who also appeared in the movie as the character Jonah's backing band), including Eric Gale on lead guitar, Richard Tee on piano, Tony Levin on bass, and Steve Gadd on drums.

In 2004, "One-Trick Pony" was remastered and re-released by Warner Bros. Records. This reissue contains four bonus tracks in addition to the original ten songs: two songs which originally appeared in the movie but not the album "Soft Parachutes" and "Spiral Highway (an early version of "How the Heart Approaches What It Yearns")", an outtake "All Because of You" (an early version of "Oh Marion"), and "Stranded in a Limousine", which originally appeared on the 1977 compilation Greatest Hits, Etc.

[edit] Miscellanea

The Victoria, B.C. band Immaculate Machine takes their name from the track, "One-Trick Pony".
Douglas Adams' novel, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, was dedicated to this album.
The phrase "one-trick pony" has become a cliche, and may have originated with Paul Simon's album and film: the web yields no earlier citations or references. When asked about it by UK DJ Anne Nightingale in a TV interview following the release of the album, Simon did not admit to knowing any precedent for its use.