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Breakfast in America (song)

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"Breakfast in America"
Supertramp Breakfast In America Single Cover.jpg
Single by Supertramp
from the album Breakfast in America
B-side"Gone Hollywood"
ReleasedJune 1979
Recorded1978
StudioThe Village Recorder/Studio B, Los Angeles, California
GenreProgressive rock
Length2:39
LabelA&M
Songwriter(s)Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson[1]
Producer(s)Supertramp, Peter Henderson
Supertramp singles chronology
"The Logical Song"
(1979)
"Breakfast in America"
(1979)
"Goodbye Stranger"
(1979)
Music video
"Breakfast in America" on YouTube

"Breakfast in America" is the title track from English rock band Supertramp's 1979 album of the same name. Credited to Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, it was a top-ten hit in the UK[2] and a live version of the song reached No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 1981. The lyrics tell about a person, presumably British, who dreams of visiting the United States.

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Supertramp

Supertramp

Supertramp were an English rock band that experienced massive global success in 1979 with their seventh album Breakfast in America. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, the group were distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles as well as for a sound that relied heavily on Wurlitzer electric piano. The group's lineup changed numerous times throughout their career, with Davies being the only constant member throughout its history. Other longtime members included bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg and saxophonist John Helliwell.

Breakfast in America

Breakfast in America

Breakfast in America is the sixth studio album by the English rock band Supertramp, released by A&M Records on 29 March 1979. It was recorded in 1978 at The Village Recorder in Los Angeles. It spawned four US Billboard hit singles: "The Logical Song", "Goodbye Stranger", "Take the Long Way Home" and "Breakfast in America". In the UK, "The Logical Song" and the title track were both top 10 hits, the only two the group had in their native country.

Rick Davies

Rick Davies

Richard Davies is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best known songs, including "Rudy", "Bloody Well Right", "Crime of the Century", "From Now On", "Ain't Nobody But Me", "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", "Cannonball", and "I'm Beggin' You". He is generally noted for his rhythmic blues piano solos and jazz-tinged progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.

Roger Hodgson

Roger Hodgson

Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the band’s hits, including "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song", "It's Raining Again", and "Breakfast in America."

United States

United States

The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Composition

The inner sleeve of the 1979 Breakfast in America album lists one musician – Roger Hodgson or Rick Davies – as composer for each song. For the "Breakfast in America" title track, Davies alone is listed as composer and lyricist.[3] However, the center label of the 12-inch vinyl disc credits all songs to both Hodgson and Davies.[4] Similarly, on the vinyl single, it was credited to Hodgson and Davies.[5]

Supertramp started performing the song during a reunion tour without Hodgson, the latter took credit for writing the song, telling reporters that Davies initially "hated" the song, and that he believed Davies did not play on the recording at all.[6] However, in other interviews Hodgson has credited Davies with creating the vocalized retort line, "What's she got? Not a lot."[7] According to Ultimate Classic Rock critic Nick DeRiso, Hodgson started writing the song as a teenager, and Davies later "helped sharpen the lyrics."[8] Billboard critic Gary Graff agrees with this assessment, including Davies contributing the "What's she got? Not a lot" lyric.[9]

DeRiso describes the lyrics as being about a child dreaming about visiting the United States some day.[8]

Hodgson included the song in his 2010 world tour, produced as a live album titled Classics Live.

In 2005, rap rock band Gym Class Heroes released the hit song "Cupid's Chokehold", which features the chorus from "Breakfast in America".

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Roger Hodgson

Roger Hodgson

Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the band’s hits, including "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song", "It's Raining Again", and "Breakfast in America."

Rick Davies

Rick Davies

Richard Davies is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best known songs, including "Rudy", "Bloody Well Right", "Crime of the Century", "From Now On", "Ain't Nobody But Me", "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", "Cannonball", and "I'm Beggin' You". He is generally noted for his rhythmic blues piano solos and jazz-tinged progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is an American music and entertainment magazine published weekly by Penske Media Corporation. The magazine provides music charts, news, video, opinion, reviews, events, and style related to the music industry. Its music charts include the Hot 100, the 200, and the Global 200, tracking the most popular albums and songs in different genres of music. It also hosts events, owns a publishing firm, and operates several TV shows.

United States

United States

The United States of America, commonly known as the United States or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City.

Classics Live (Roger Hodgson album)

Classics Live (Roger Hodgson album)

Classics Live is the fifth solo album by former Supertramp songwriter and co-founder Roger Hodgson, and his second live album.

Gym Class Heroes

Gym Class Heroes

Gym Class Heroes is an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including hip hop, rock, funk, and reggae. After the addition of guitarist Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo and bassist Eric Roberts in 2003, the group was signed to Fueled by Ramen and Decaydance Records, on which they released their debut album, The Papercut Chronicles. The group gained a strong fanbase while promoting the album, appearing at festivals such as The Bamboozle and Vans Warped Tour.

Cupid's Chokehold

Cupid's Chokehold

"Cupid's Chokehold" is a song by American rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, featuring the vocals of Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. The song relies heavily on the music and chorus from Supertramp's hit song "Breakfast in America" written by Roger Hodgson. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100, number one on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 radio chart, number three on the UK Singles Chart, and number three on the Canadian Hot 100.

Reception

Billboard writer David Farrell praised John Helliwell's "Benny Goodman-flavoured clarinet solo."[10] DeRiso rated it as Supertramp's 9th greatest song.[8] Graff rated "Breakfast in America" as Supertramp's 5th best song.[9]

Personnel

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Roger Hodgson

Roger Hodgson

Charles Roger Pomfret Hodgson is an English musician, singer and songwriter, best known as the former co-frontman and founding member of progressive rock band Supertramp. Hodgson composed and sang the majority of the band’s hits, including "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit", "Take the Long Way Home", "The Logical Song", "It's Raining Again", and "Breakfast in America."

Rick Davies

Rick Davies

Richard Davies is an English musician, singer and songwriter best known as founder, vocalist and keyboardist of the rock band Supertramp. Davies was its only constant member, and composed some of the band's best known songs, including "Rudy", "Bloody Well Right", "Crime of the Century", "From Now On", "Ain't Nobody But Me", "Gone Hollywood", "Goodbye Stranger", "Just Another Nervous Wreck", "Cannonball", and "I'm Beggin' You". He is generally noted for his rhythmic blues piano solos and jazz-tinged progressive rock compositions and cynical lyrics.

John Helliwell

John Helliwell

John Anthony Helliwell is an English musician, best known as the saxophonist, secondary keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional songwriter for the rock band Supertramp. He also served as an MC during the band's concerts, talking and making jokes to the audience between songs.

Dougie Thomson

Dougie Thomson

Douglas 'Doogie' Campbell Thomson is a Scottish musician, born in Glasgow and raised in the Rutherglen area of the city. He was the bass guitarist of progressive rock band Supertramp during much of the seventies and eighties.

Bob Siebenberg

Bob Siebenberg

Robert Layne Siebenberg also known as Bob C. Benberg, is an American musician, best known as a member of British progressive rock band Supertramp, playing drums and percussion. He was the sole American in Supertramp's lineup, joining the band in 1973. His son, Jesse, joined Supertramp at the time of the release of the live album It Was the Best of Times.

Dick Hyde (musician)

Dick Hyde (musician)

Richard John Hyde, sometimes credited as Slyde Hyde, was an American trombonist who played several brass and woodwind instruments. He was a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Hall of Fame. He worked as a session musician and sideman for Count Basie, Herbie Hancock, Frank Sinatra, Jaco Pastorius, Steely Dan, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Beach Boys, Tom Waits, Supertramp, Temptations, Boz Scaggs, Ringo Starr, Carole King, Madonna, and Donna Summer.

Charts

Chart (1979–80) Peak
position
Austria (Ö3 Austria Top 40)[12] 16
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[13] 18
Germany (Official German Charts)[14] 23
Ireland (IRMA)[15] 6
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[16] 14
Netherlands (Dutch Top 40)[17] 16
South Africa (Springbok)[18] 9
UK Singles (OCC)[2] 9
US Billboard Hot 100[19] 62

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Ö3 Austria Top 40

Ö3 Austria Top 40

Ö3 Austria Top 40 is the official Austrian singles chart, as well as the radio show which presents it, aired Tuesdays on Hitradio Ö3. The show presents the Austrian singles, ringtones and downloads chart. It premiered on 26 November 1968 as Disc Parade and was presented by Ernst Grissemann. The show has had other names and other presenters, as detailed below.

Ultratop

Ultratop

Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium. Ultratop is a non-profit organization, created on the initiative of the Belgian Entertainment Association (BEA), the Belgian member organization of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Two parallel sets of charts are concurrently produced and published, one on behalf of Belgium's mainly Dutch-speaking Flanders region, and the other catering to the nation's mainly French-speaking region of Wallonia.

GfK Entertainment charts

GfK Entertainment charts

The GfK Entertainment charts are the official music charts in Germany and are gathered and published by GfK Entertainment, a subsidiary of GfK, on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie. GfK Entertainment is the provider of weekly Top 100 single and album charts, as well as various other chart formats for genres like compilations, jazz, classical music, schlager, hip hop, dance, comedy, and music videos. Following a lawsuit in March 2014 by Media Control AG, Media Control® GfK International had to change its name.

Irish Singles Chart

Irish Singles Chart

The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured electronically each day from retailers' EPOS systems. All major record shops, digital retailers and streaming services contribute to the chart, accounting for over 95% of the market. A new chart is compiled and officially released to the public by the Irish Recorded Music Association on Friday at noon. Each chart is dated with the "week-ending" date of the previous Thursday. The singles chart was first published on 1 October 1962, and covered the top ten singles of the previous week by record label shipments.

Dutch Single Top 100

Dutch Single Top 100

The Dutch Single Top 100 or Single Top 100 is a Dutch chart, based on official physical single sales, legal downloads and since July 2013 streaming and composed by Dutch Charts. It is one of the three official charts, the other two being the Dutch Top 40 and the Mega Top 30. The difference is that these charts also include airplay data. The list is especially intended for the music industry and those who take an interest in charts. In Dutch TV programmes the Single Top 100 is often cited, although it has not been broadcast since December 2006.

Dutch Top 40

Dutch Top 40

The Dutch Top 40 is a weekly music chart compiled by Stichting Nederlandse Top 40. It started as a radio program titled "Veronica Top 40", on the offshore station Radio Veronica in 1965. It remained "The Veronica Top 40" until 1974, when the station was forced to stop broadcasting. Joost den Draaijer initiated the Top 40 in the Netherlands. The show currently airs on Fridays from 2 to 6 PM on Qmusic.

Springbok

Springbok

The springbok or springbuck is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus Antidorcas, this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1780. Three subspecies are identified. A slender, long-legged antelope, the springbok reaches 71 to 86 cm at the shoulder and weighs between 27 and 42 kg. Both sexes have a pair of black, 35-to-50 cm (14-to-20 in) long horns that curve backwards. The springbok is characterised by a white face, a dark stripe running from the eyes to the mouth, a light-brown coat marked by a reddish-brown stripe that runs from the upper fore leg to the buttocks across the flanks like the Thomson's gazelle, and a white rump flap.

UK Singles Chart

UK Singles Chart

The UK Singles Chart is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-selling singles in the United Kingdom, based upon physical sales, paid-for downloads and streaming. The Official Chart, broadcast on BBC Radio 1 and MTV, is the UK music industry's recognised official measure of singles and albums popularity because it is the most comprehensive research panel of its kind, today surveying over 15,000 retailers and digital services daily, capturing 99.9% of all singles consumed in Britain across the week, and over 98% of albums. To be eligible for the chart, a single is currently defined by the Official Charts Company (OCC) as either a 'single bundle' having no more than four tracks and not lasting longer than 25 minutes or one digital audio track not longer than 15 minutes with a minimum sale price of 40 pence. The rules have changed many times as technology has developed, the most notable being the inclusion of digital downloads in 2005 and streaming in July 2014.

Official Charts Company

Official Charts Company

The Official Charts Company is a British inter-professional organisation that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France.

Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales, radio play, and online streaming in the United States.

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/sales
United Kingdom (BPI)[20] Silver 200,000double-dagger

double-dagger Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

Source: "Breakfast in America (song)", Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, (2022, October 30th), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breakfast_in_America_(song).

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References
  1. ^ "ACE Repertory: Breakfast in America". ASCAP. Retrieved 13 October 2020.
  2. ^ a b Supertramp UK chart history, The Official Charts. Retrieved 11 December 2011.
  3. ^ Breakfast in America (1979). Inner sleeve credits. A&M Records.
  4. ^ Breakfast in America (1979). Center label credits. A&M Records.
  5. ^ "Breakfast in America" (1979). Vinyl disc in-lay credits. A&M Records.
  6. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Roger Hodgson Explains His Reaction To Supertramp Tour - Undercover.fm News". Undercover.fm. 25 April 2010. Archived from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  7. ^ "CRR Interview - Roger Hodgson: What's He Got? Quite A Lot!". Classicrockrevisited.com. Retrieved 14 October 2016.
  8. ^ a b c DeRiso, Nick. "Top 10 Supertramp Songs". Ultimate Classic Rock. Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  9. ^ a b Graff, Gary (10 October 2017). "Supertramp's 10 Best Songs: Critic's Picks". Billboard. Retrieved 16 June 2022.
  10. ^ "Closeup" (PDF). Billboard Magazine. 31 March 1979. p. 166. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  11. ^ "Breakfast in America by Supertramp - Songfacts".
  12. ^ "Supertramp – Breakfast in America" (in German). Ö3 Austria Top 40.
  13. ^ "Supertramp – Breakfast in America" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50.
  14. ^ "Supertramp – Breakfast in America" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts.
  15. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Breakfast in America". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  16. ^ "Supertramp – Breakfast in America" (in Dutch). Single Top 100.
  17. ^ "Nederlandse Top 40 – Supertramp" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40.
  18. ^ "South African Rock Lists Website - SA Charts 1969 - 1989 Songs (A-B)".
  19. ^ allmusic ((( Supertramp > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles )))
  20. ^ "British single certifications – Supertramp – Breakfast in America". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 29 February 2020.
Sources
External links

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