Status Quo - Back To Back (1983)

Back to Back is the sixteenth studio album by English rock band Status Quo and released in November 1983.

 For the first time in the group's history, it featured four singles, "Ol' Rag Blues" (highest position No. 9), "A Mess of Blues", originally a hit for Elvis Presley (No. 15), "Marguerita Time" (No. 3), and "Going Down Town Tonight" (which reached No. 20 in a different, re-recorded version to the album version.)

The album entered the UK chart at its highest position of No. 9.

It was the last recorded before the group temporarily disbanded in 1985 and therefore the last to feature original bass guitarist Alan Lancaster and drummer Pete Kircher.

Lancaster co-wrote the first single, "Ol' Rag Blues", with Keith Lamb, lead singer of British bands The Kase, Sleepy Talk and Mr. Toad, and founder and lead singer of Australia's successful glam rock band Hush.

Lancaster was angered when the production company declined to release the version featuring his lead vocal (which has since been made available as a bonus track on the 2006 remastered reissue), in preference to that featuring the voice of Francis Rossi.

He also made no secret of his dislike of "Marguerita Time", which he thought was too pop-orientated for the group.

Track listing

1. "A Mess of Blues" (Doc Pomus, Mort Shuman) – 3:23
2. "Ol' Rag Blues" (Alan Lancaster, Keith Lamb) – 2:51
3. "Can't Be Done" (Francis Rossi, Bernie Frost) – 3:07
4. "Too Close to the Ground" (Rick Parfitt, Andrew Bown) – 3:43
5. "No Contract" (Parfitt, Bown) – 3:40
6. "Win or Lose" (Rossi, Frost) – 2:35
7. "Marguerita Time" (Rossi, Frost) – 3:27
8. "Your Kind of Love" (Lancaster, Ferguson Skinner) – 3:24
9. "Stay the Night" (Rossi, Frost, Andrew Miller) – 3:02
10. "Going Down Town Tonight" (Guy Johnson) – 3:33

Status Quo

• Rick Parfitt – guitar, vocals
• Francis Rossi – guitar, vocals
• Alan Lancaster – bass, vocals
• Andrew Bown – keyboards, backing vocals
• Pete Kircher – drums, backing vocals

Additional personnel

• Bernie Frost – backing vocals
• Tim Summerhayes – engineering
• Steve Churchyard – engineering

Notes

Released: 25 November 1983 

Recorded: 1983 Studio AIR Studios, Montserrat 

Genre: Hard rock, pop rock 

Length: 32:55 

Label - Vertigo Records