reDiscover Status Quo’s ‘Whatever You Want’
Our final visit to Status Quo’s ‘Vinyl Collection 1972-1980’ box set, released tomorrow (14), is another taster for this opulent collection of ten vintage Quo albums, newly pressed on 180 gm vinyl. This time, we focus on the band’s 12th studio album and their final entry of the 1970s, ‘Whatever You Want.’
We all know the title track that previewed the album, a rocking Rick Parfitt/Andy Bown composition that became another Quo theme tune. That single reached No. 4 in a nine-week run on the UK charts, their ninth top ten hit in as many years. When the album arrived a few weeks later, in October 1979, it burst into the bestsellers at No. 3, outsold only by The Police’s ‘Regatta de Blanc’ and Blondie’s ‘Eat To The Beat.’
The Quo album was on the chart until mid-November, and was part of another double certification achievement for the band: the single went silver on September 1, and the album exactly a month later.
As with its 1978 predecessor ‘If You Can’t Stand The Heat…’, the new album feature a number of writing contributions from Bernie Frost, who co-wrote three songs, while Robert Young was the co-writer on three more. For a band with such a reputation for good-time boogie-rock, the second single from the set was quite a surprise: it was the soft, acoustic and harmonised ‘Living On An Island.’ It reached No. 16 at Christmastime.
Tony Stewart struck a positive tone about the album in his NME review. “Musically, it is their most successful ever,” he wrote, “with a positive enthusiasm surging through eight of the ten songs; guitar rhythms shoulder-barging and swaggering against the steady, solid pump of bass and drums.”
Listen to ‘Whatever You Want’ on Spotify
Explore our dedicated Status Quo Artist Page
Pre-order ‘The Vinyl Collection 1972-1980’ below
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