Worlds Apart is the fourth studio album by the Canadian neo progressive rock band Saga and was originally released in 1981. The album has been released with several different covers. The album was produced by Rupert Hine. Frontman Michael Sadler stated in the band's video DVD Silhouette that Hine told him to stop "singing like a choir boy" and actually had him climb up to the roof of a barn located on the farm in England where the recording was done in order to get the proper passion out of Sadler for the song "On the Loose". Sadler's vocal style was noticeably different on Worlds Apart than on the first three Saga albums—a style that he kept in successive performances with the band.
Success
Widely considered Saga's best album, the album has become the band's most recognizable work to date. The first song on the album, "On the Loose" was a single that hit No. 26 on the BillboardHot 100 and No. 3 on the Top Rock Tracks chart in late 1982 and early 1983, landing Saga their best chart performance. The single was helped with a music video which appeared on MTV during the station's inaugural year on the air. Videos were also made for the singles "Wind Him Up" and "Amnesia". The success of the album was also largely credited to an expanded tour roster which saw the band enter new territories and venues, particularly in the United States, to expand their musical presence. Worlds Apart has been certified Platinum in Canada and Gold in Germany, Denmark, the United States, and Norway. The album was released on Maze Records in Canada, Portrait CBS Records in America and England, and Polydor Records for the remainder of the global market. "Wind Him Up" is another one of Saga's most popular songs, which deals with a fellow named Aldo being addicted to gambling..
Two of the songs, "No Regrets " and "No Stranger ", were part of a series of eight songs that Saga included within their first four albums called "The Chapters", which told the story of a young Albert Einstein. The release of these two chapters completed the original set of eight. These songs were also later included on The Chapters Live. To date, there's been no official compilation of the chapters in their studio incarnation.
Worlds Apart Revisited
In 2007, Saga released Worlds Apart Revisited, a live album in a 2-CD package that included all the songs from the original Worlds Apart album recorded as they were played in a recent concert by the band along with other popular works that the band played for fans in their set.
Track listing
Note
The track order shown above is for the original vinyl LP release. Later CD releases and the Canadian vinyl pressing on Maze Records have "Time's Up" as track #2, followed by "Wind Him Up", "Amnesia", and "Framed" in positions #3, #4 and #5, respectively. Some CD releases listed the tracks in the original LP order, meaning tracks #2 through #5 were mislabeled.
On the Portrait version of Worlds Apart, the spoken intro of "Amnesia" is missing. The intro is sampled from the Tom & Jerry cartoon "Nitty Witty Kitty": "It say here, a sharp blow on the head is a sure cure for amnesia, and that's what he's gonna get!"
The album was released internationally. In some markets it was released on Polydor Records, and in South America, Mexico and other Latin American markets it was released by CBS Records, Epic Records and CBS Discos
