Faithful (Todd Rundgren album)

Faithful
Studio album by Todd Rundgren
Released May 1976
Genre
Length 50:04
Label Bearsville
Rhino
Producer Todd Rundgren
Todd Rundgren chronology
Initiation
(1975)Initiation1975		 Faithful
(1976)		 Hermit of Mink Hollow
(1978)Hermit of Mink Hollow1978
Singles from Faithful
  1. "Good Vibrations"
    Released: May 1976
  2. "Love of the Common Man"
    Released: June 25, 1976
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic [1]
Rolling Stone(Not rated) [2]

Faithful is Todd Rundgren's seventh album, released in 1976.

Origins

Rundgren explained the motivation of the first side as treating rock music like European classical music, where a piece is performed over and over again in essentially the same way. The album's core group of musicians—Rundgren, Wilcox, Siegler and Powell (all members of Utopia) -- makes this a Utopia album in all but name, though other official Utopia albums featured songs written by other members of the band and not just by Rundgren.

The first side is dedicated to "faithful" re-recordings—near-replications of the originals—of some classic 1960s psychedelic-era songs, while side two comprised original material. Critic Robert Christgau called the second side Rundgren's "clearest and most interesting set of songs since Something/Anything?" [3] and magazine Rolling Stone's rock critic John Milward said "the original material that fills side two is a more ambitious tribute to his influences and his strongest collection of pop tunes since his classic "Something/Anything"."

The closing song, "Boogies (Hamburger Hell)", opens with a reference to Beefsteak Charlie's, which former Utopia drummer Kevin Ellman was currently operating along with his family.

Release

The album was released in May 1976 with virtually no advertising. Bearsville Records' president Paul Fiskin believed Rundgren fans would purchase just as many albums as his previous releases based on word of mouth. Only the remake of The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" was released as a single and charted briefly but the album itself made it to #54 on the Billboard Album Charts.

Track listing

Side one

  1. "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago" (Jeff Beck, Jim McCarty, Jimmy Page, Keith Relf) – 3:12
  2. "Good Vibrations" (Mike Love, Brian Wilson) – 3:44
  3. "Rain" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:16
  4. "Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" (Bob Dylan) – 3:24
  5. "If Six Was Nine" (Jimi Hendrix) – 4:55
  6. "Strawberry Fields Forever" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 3:53

Side two

All songs written by Todd Rundgren

  1. "Black and White" – 4:42
  2. "Love of the Common Man" – 3:35
  3. "When I Pray" – 2:58
  4. "Cliché" – 4:00
  5. "The Verb "To Love"" – 7:25
  6. "Boogies (Hamburger Hell)" – 5:00

Personnel

Charts

Weekly charts

Year Chart Position
1976 Billboard Pop Albums[4] 54

Single

Year Single Chart Position
1976 "Good Vibrations" Canada RPM Singles Chart 28
1976 "Good Vibrations" Billboard Pop Singles[5] 34
1976 "Good Vibrations" Billboard Adult Contemporary[5] 32

References

  1. ↑ "Faithful". Allmusic. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  2. ↑ "Rolling Stone Music | Album Reviews". Rollingstone.com. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  3. ↑ Robert Christgau, Rock Albums of the '70s
  4. ↑ "allmusic ((( Todd Rundgren > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". Billboard. Retrieved 2012-04-27.
  5. 1 2 "allmusic ((( Todd Rundgren > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))". Billboard. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
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