Tigers and Fireflies is an album released by Lynsey de Paul in April 1979 on the Polydor record label. It was launched at a special event at the Mayfair Club in London, with de Paul looking similar to the 1940s film star Veronica Lake. The album was recorded at Long View Farm Studios with additional recording at Mediasound and produced by Rupert Holmes. In his 1986 biography, Justin de Villeneuve, de Paul's manager at the time wrote "I gave Rupert Holmes a call in New York. He agreed to see me if I flew to America. Polydor, with the prospect of the involvement with Holmes, agreed to up the budget". The collaboration between de Paul and Holmes on "Tigers and Fireflies" was mentioned on the Ray Shasho Show, when Shasho interviewed Holmes on his BBS radio show on 7 August 2018.
Tracks
The track listing and lyrics for each song are listed on Musixmatch.com. The first album track is the lead single "Hollywood Romance" which was released ahead of the album in October 1978 and was well received, was DJ Dave Lee Travis's record of the week during his time as "the Hairy Cornflake" and became a radio hit. It is still played on BBC radio. The follow-up single "Tigers and Fireflies" was released just prior to the album itself. Some years later, de Paul revealed that the song 'Tigers and Fireflies' was about two of her former managers Gordon Mills and Don Arden and is about being cheated and lied to with dazzling promises. Other tracks include "Losin' the Blues for You" and "Melancholy Melon", both co-written by de Paul and her boyfriend at the time, the actor James Coburn, Indeed, Coburn was around when the album was being recorded, having flown from South America where he was filming Firepower with Sophia Loren. "'Twas" is a piano bar song with a blues tinged feel and is to date the only song that was co-written with the album's producer, Rupert Holmes. "Before You Go Tonight" was an affectionate song for former partner Ringo Starr, who was leaving for the U.S. while de Paul remained in the U.K. De Paul teamed up with former Eurovision singing partner Mike Moran to write the jaunty, jazzy and uptempo "Without You". The album also featured an updated, re-recording of her earlier hit single "My Man and Me", giving it a more blues/country style than the original ballad. The final track "Beautiful" is a song in its own right but ends by reprising snatches of each of the album's songs woven into the fade out, giving it a moody atmospheric feel. As noted elsewhere, de Paul's vocals had never sounded stronger, in a style somewhere between Crystal Gayle and Maria Muldaur, in spite of her apparently suffering from a bout of hay fever at the time. The album was well received and garnered positive reviews in the music press, with Smash Hits nominating "Hollywood Romance" and "Losin' the Blues for You" as the album's best tracks. Six of the original tracks, including the title track, "Melancholy Melon" and "Without You", were finally released on CD on de Pauls' anthology CD Into My Music in March 2013 and the original album sleeve was used for a limited issue release on Think! Records label in Japan. "Hollywood Romance" was not included and has yet to be released on CD although it is available as a mp3 download.
Musicians and other credits
A number of well respected musicians played on the album, including Tom Malone who played brass, reeds and flutes on the album and Joel Diamond played acoustic piano. Long term Holmes collaborators Dean Bailin and John Caruso played various guitars and electric bass guitar, respectively. Gary Burke of Professor Louie & The Crowmatix played drums and percussion, Bob Christianson played synthesizers as well as clarinet and singing backing vocals, and former Mick Ronson collaborator Dede Washburn provided percussion and backing vocals. Holmes also played clarinet and electric piano. Jesse Henderson and Michael Barbiero were the engineers and Henderson mixed the album. The photography for the front and back sleeve was by John Shaw, with art direction and design by Jo Mirowski.
Cover versions
Songs on the album that have been covered by other artists include "My Man and Me", recorded by Carl Wayne, as well as the Swedish artist Agneta Munther and by the Japanese musician Hummingbird; as well as "Hollywood Romance", which was given Japanese lyrics and recorded as "Romance" on Hummingbird's album Froggie. Lena Zavaroni also covered "Hollywood Romance" as the fifth number from the second episode of her first TV series, Lena Zavaroni and Music.
