As Time Goes By...

Here is part 4 of our look at the career of Bryan Ferry, who will be performing live in concert in Reykjavik on May 27th and May 28th.

After the release of The Ultimate Collection in 1988, things went very quiet for a while. Ferry signed with Virgin Records and started to work on his next studio album, which ended up taking 5 years to make. In the meantime though, he released an album of covers.

Taxi was released in UK on 22nd March 1993. Bryan had just recorded "Are You Lonesome Tonight" for the soundtrack to Honeymoon In Vegas in 1992 (featured as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Taxi) and he decided to take a break from the album he had been working on to make a whole album of covers. The album was very successful and peaked at number 2 in the UK album charts.

The first single was the excellent  "I Put A Spell On You", which reached #18 in the UK and became his last worldwide hit.







The next single was his take on the Shirelles hit "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow", which peaked at #23 in the UK.

 





The final single from the album was a cover of the Elvis Presley track "Girl Of My Best Friend". It peaked at #57 in the UK.





After his 1988/89 world tour Bryan had begun working on an album with the title Horoscope. His attention to detail and his strive for perfection meant that Bryan wouldn't let go of the album as he didn't feel it was finished. In 1994, now re-titled Mamouna (arabic for "safe") Bryan finally released the album.

Despite generally being well received by critics, the album was not a big hit (it did peak at #11 in the UK though) - perhaps not surprisingly, considering the lack of commercial appeal of both the album and it's singles.

The first single (and one of my all time favorite Bryan singles) was "Your Painted Smile". This beautiful and  stunningly produced track was never going to be a hit single - it peaked at #52 in the UK.

The next single was the equally uncommercial (but excellent) title track, which peaked at #57 in the UK.





The final single from the album was "Don't Want To Know".






This excellent best of CD was released in October 1995, peaking at #15.







In the same year, a a Roxy Music box set called The Thrill Of It All was released. It came in a longbox and had a large booklet along with four CD's, filled with album tracks, singles, b-sides and more.



In the following years Bryan recorded some tracks for tributes and the song "Dance With Life" for the film Phenomenon (supposed to be released as a single in the UK, but cancelled).



After a chance meeting with arranger Colin Good, Ferry returned with the album "As Time Goes By" in 1999, on which he tackled the Thirties and Forties standard songbook. This had been a long term plan of Bryan's and he felt this was the right time to do the album.



The album, despite not being a very commercial product, peaked inside the UK top 20 and sold well for months.



The title track was released as a single but it did not enter the charts. Another track from the album, "In The Mood For Love" was issued as a promotional single in many markets.



A very successful tour followed. During this tour Bryan was so overwhelmed at the response to some of the more obscure Roxy Music songs that he performed that he was inspired to reform Roxy Music.

 

2000 saw the release of Slave To Love: The Best Of The Ballads, which peaked at #11 on the UK charts.

Bryan announced with Phil Manzanera & Andy Mackay in 2001 the they would take Roxy Music on a reunion tour in 2001, the first tour in 18 years. This tour proved to be a huge success with 51 dates in UK Europe Australia & Japan finishing in Hammersmith Odeon 2nd October 2001. This date was filmed for a DVD released in May 2002. A new compilation, The Best Of Roxy Music was released, entering the charts at #12. The stunning artwork had been shot years before, originally supposed to be used for the Horoscope (Mamouna) album.

The final part will be online soon...