LADY / YOU STARTED LAUGHING WHEN I HELD YOU IN MY ARMS

This single is now very hard to find and a collectors`s rarity. It was released in November 1975 (in the U.K., in other European countries, in the U.S., and in Australia) at the same time as their "Crisis? What Crisis?" album was released , and it had in the "A" side of the U.K. single the album version of "Lady", and in the U.S. single it had an edited version of this same song from the same album, plus in the "B" side it had a song which was only released in its studio version in this single, titled "You Started Laughing When I Held You in My Arms", which also was recorded during the same recording sessions for that album. This last song was also released in a live version in their "Paris" album from 1980, but only titled as "You Started Laughing". This live version was released again in their "Retrospectacle" compilation album in 2005, leaving the studio version of this song as unreleased in the CD format. I don`t know why this happened, but I think that it was a mistake, because they released in that compilation both songs from another very hard to find single from 1973 (and both were unavailable on an official album or in a previous compilation) which had "Land Ho" on the "A" side and in the "B" side it had "Summer Romance". I don`t know why Rick Davies (who was the one who selected the tracks to be released in the "Retrospectacle" compilation album) left the studio version of "You Started Laughing When I Held You In My Arms" as unreleased in the CD format again when the "Retrospectacle" compilation album was released. By doing this he wasted a good opportunity to make available to the fans another rarity to make that compilation album a more interesting buying item.

I never have listened to the edited version of "Lady". I even searched for it several times in youtube to listen to it. Unfortunately, I could not find it there. Anyway, I have listened a lot of times to this song in its full length version in the "Crisis? What Crisis?" album, and I like the song, which I think it is a bit similar to "Dreamer", a song from their "Crime of the Century" album from 1974, but it is much better for my taste. "Lady", like "Dreamer", also includes a Wurlitzer piano played by Roger Hodgson (who also composed the song and sang it) in a very similar way to "Dreamer". But "Lady" has more interesting drums playing and in general a better arrangement in comparison to "Dreamer". "Lady" could have been a Hit Single. Apparently, it went nowhere in the Hit Parade charts.

I read in a magazine in the eighties and in the web years later that there was a studio version of "You Started Laughing When I Held You In My Arms" (which was composed and sung by Rick Davies) which was released as the "B" side of this single. I even looked for it in used vinyl record shops. I never found it, of course. I also searched for it several different times in youtube, without success. But, one or two years ago one day I visited youtube again and I searched for it and finally I found it, being uploaded there by a fan in that same day. So, I listened to it there at least ten times! But unfortunately a few days later it was deleted from youtube. But I can remember that this studio version has a more "dark" sound and it also has an orchestral arrangement done in a very similar way to other songs from the "Crisis? What Crisis?" and "Crime of the Century" albums, but this orchestral arrangement was brief, being more in the background of the song. The studio version is good, very well recorded and mixed. The orchestral arrangement was played in the live version using synthesisers. I like both versions of this song. I think that this song has some humour in the lyrics, being more like a "bittersweet" song not to be taken very seriously.