Recorded at Manchester, England's Strawberry Studios with
10cc's
Eric Stewart as engineer and the other three members of that band backing up
Neil Sedaka, this project features lyricists
Roger Atkins and
Phil Cody collaborating with the singer, a big change for the man who worked so long and so well with
Howard Greenfield. "That's When the Music Takes Me" and the title track, "Solitaire," would be lifted for the 1975 disc
Sedaka's Back, finding success after being repackaged and re-promoted. "That's When the Music Takes Me" became a Top 30 hit three years after it was first released on this album, the third chart song within a year during
Sedaka's comeback. Released in the U.S. after the brilliant
Emergence LP, this album is produced, arranged, and composed by
Sedaka, and it sounds as solid as the early solo albums from
the Beatles. Keep in mind what was going on at the time --
Sedaka's friend
Carole King was reshaping pop radio with
Tapestry. You can hear the influence of "That's When the Music Takes Me" on her hit from January 1975, "Nightingale," a tune that reached the Top Ten seven months before
Sedaka's song charted. "Don't Let It Mess Your Mind" would show up on
Yvonne Elliman's 1978
Night Flight album, with a five-and-a-half-minute version added as a bonus track on the extended
Steppin' Out album re-released by Varese Sarabande in 1998. Note how the keys in this song sound somewhat like
Elton John's "Madman Across the Water." Also note that when
John split from
Bernie Taupin he put out
A Single Man, while
Sedaka's brief time away from
Howard Greenfield is called
Solitaire. Hardly coincidental.