B for Brotherhood

B for Brotherhood is the fifth album by pop group Brotherhood of Man. It was released in June 1978 and released on Pye Records. The album featured the UK No.1 single "Figaro" and top 20 hit "Beautiful Lover". On the UK albums chart it reached No.18 and was certified silver for sales of over 60,000 copies.

The album was released on Pye Records in June 1978 and featured the singles "Figaro" and "Beautiful Lover", which were hits in Europe, reaching No.1 and No.15 respectively in the UK.^[1] The album was advertised on television, extensively displayed in record shops and even featured as a double-page colour spread in Record Mirror magazine.^[2] Helped by this, the album reached No.18 in the UK Charts, their highest charting album to this point.^[1] It was certified silver with sales of over 60,000 on 1 September 1978.^[3]

The songs on the album were in the group's now full-fledged pop mould, after experimenting with differing styles on their earlier albums. The tracks were mostly sung by the female members of the group and were often commented upon by the media on their similarity in style to ABBA. Like the group's other albums, the tracks were produced by manager Tony Hiller. Member Lee Sheriden was the musical director on six of the songs (including the two singles), while Colin Frechter performed this task on the other six. Sheriden later recalled that the recording sessions would work as follows; "Ten o'clock to one o'clock, we would put down the rhythm section - the guitar, the bass, the piano, drums, percussion and everything. Then in the afternoon the strings would come in and we'd put on all the brass and woodwind. And then in the evening the singers would come in, they'd been in bed all day, while I'd been working, but the idea is the voices would be warmer, you can sing a bit better at night. Recording sessions would then wrap up around midnight".^[4]

La canción "Greatest Love" aparece en la etiqueta como "The Greatest Love I've Ever Known". La canción "People Over the World" también fue grabada por el grupo pop Guys 'n' Dolls a principios de 1978 con la intención de lanzarla como sencillo, pero finalmente fue descartada. ^{[ 5 ]} Posteriormente, el dúo Peters and Lee hizo una versión y la lanzó como sencillo en 1979. ^{[ 6 ]} Se grabaron videos musicales para las canciones "Beautiful Lover", "People over the world" y "I'll Never Let You Down", a pesar de que esta última nunca se lanzó como sencillo. ^{[ 7 ]}

El álbum recibió críticas mixtas en la revista Music Week, que decía que era un "éxito seguro" y que el grupo era capaz de producir "piezas de pop melódico predecibles pero satisfactorias", pero que había "un eco ocasional de una demo de ABBA". ^{[ 8 ]}

La portada del álbum no incluye el nombre del grupo, aunque la contraportada lo titula: B for Brotherhood of Man . La portada muestra al grupo en un bosque otoñal, y las reseñas de la época destacaron su sofisticada estética. Sin embargo, al examinarla con más detenimiento, resulta evidente que el bosque es simplemente un fondo fotográfico.

El álbum nunca se ha publicado en CD, pero se lanzó como descarga digital en julio de 2019. Se publicó junto con el siguiente álbum, Higher Than High , y varias pistas adicionales. ^{[ 9 ]}

Todos los temas fueron compuestos por Tony Hiller, Lee Sheriden y Martin Lee.

Cara uno

1. " Figaro " – 2:57
2. "Broken Hearted Avenue" – 3:08
3. "Cenicienta" – 3:33
4. "Cuando el verano se acaba" – 3:22*
5. "Nunca te defraudaré" – 3:15
6. "Enamorado" – 3:52

Cara dos

1. " Bella amante " – 3:27
2. "Tengo ganas de bailar" – 3:11
3. "Mucho mejor que tú" – 2:41*
4. "Ruleta" – 2:56
5. "El amor más grande" – 3:08
6. "Gente de todo el mundo" – 3:01

Nota * En la versión en casete del álbum, "When Summer's Gone" y "Much Better Than You" se intercambiaron para igualar la duración de las caras.

• Martin Lee – Voz principal en "People Over the World"
• Lee Sheriden – Voz principal en "Broken Hearted Avenue"
• Nicky Stevens y Sandra Stevens – Voces principales conjuntas en "Figaro", "Cinderella", "When Summer's Gone", "I'll Never Let You Down", "Beautiful Lover", "I'm In a Dancing Mood", "Much Better than You", "Roulette"
• Tony Hiller – Productor
• Lee Sheriden – Director musical en las pistas 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 y 11
• Colin Frechter – Director musical en las pistas 2, 4, 8, 9, 10 y 12
• Terry Evennett – Ingeniero
• Simeón Skolfield – Ingeniero
• Simon Fowler y Paul Canty / LFI – Fotografía
• Angela Joyner – Diseño de manga