Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CLXIX--Leo Sayer: Long Tall Glasses

This week we're returning to the 70's for the sixth week in the last seven--a little pop ditty that was among the first 45 RPM records that I ever bought...

Like many artists featured here on Friday Night Jukebox, Leo Sayer had a nice run for several years--from the mid 70's to the early 80's he had two #1 singles, two other top ten singles, and two top twenty albums (and he had even more success in his native U.K.).  He also won a Grammy Award for best Rhythm and Blues Song for a song that was neither rhythm nor blues ("You Make Me Feel Like Dancing"), appeared on the Muppet Show, and once performed a song on British TV dressed as Pierrot (why, yes, I did have to look that up).  Over the course of his forty-five year career, Sayer has released twenty-three albums, the last in 2015.  Sayer eventually settled in Australia, where he still tours regularly.

Released in 1975 from his 1974 album Just a Boy, "Long Tall Glasses" would become the first top ten hit for Sayer in the U.S., reaching #9 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100.  

Fun Fact:  Sayer had a #2 single with "The Show Must Go On" in the U.K....which was also the last top ten single for fellow FNJ alum Three Dog Night, reaching #4 here in the States in 1974.

"Long Tall Glasses" is not your conventional top 40 hit--it tells the tale of a tired and hungry hobo who comes across an establishment offering food and drink for everyone.  When he gets inside he discovers there's good food everywhere...but in order to partake, he has to "...dance like Fred Astaire."  Our hero is uncertain at first, but then decides to give it a whirl and finds that hell, yes, he can dance.  Needless to say, this one is all about the fun--Sayer throws in a lot of little goodies like accentuating the "aire" part of Astaire, and describing glasses of wine as being full "up to yar."  There's also a lot of emaycee fave banjo playing throughout, plus some spirited vocals and guitar from Sayer who alternates between playfulness and sheer joyfulness.  It won't make anybody forget "Blowin' in the Wind," but it will make you bop around the kitchen while you're cooking up the burritos for the night's dinner...

Lyric Sheet:  "I can dance/I really hit the floor/Ah, it feels good/Look at me dancing..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee