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A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout

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A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout
Greatest hits album by
ReleasedJuly 1992
GenrePop
LabelColumbia (Europe), Epic (USA)
ProducerThomas Dolby, Prefab Sprout
Prefab Sprout chronology
Jordan: The Comeback
(1990)
A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout
(1992)
Andromeda Heights
(1997)
Singles from A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout
  1. "The Sound of Crying"
    Released: June 1992
  2. "If You Don't Love Me"
    Released: July 1992
  3. "All the World Loves Lovers"
    Released: September 1992
  4. "Life of Surprises"
    Released: December 1992
  5. "I Remember That"
    Released: March 1993
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
NME8/10[1]

A Life of Surprises: The Best of Prefab Sprout is a compilation album by the English pop band Prefab Sprout, released by Epic Records in July 1992.[2] The album reached No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart.[3]

The compilation features selections from their first five albums and two new songs, "The Sound of Crying" and "If You Don't Love Me", both of which were issued as singles. Three other previously released tracks - "Life of Surprises" from Protest Songs, "I Remember That" from From Langley Park to Memphis and "All the World Loves Lovers" from Jordan: The Comeback - were also released as singles to promote the compilation.[4]

As well as the popular audio formats of the time (LP, CD and cassette), A Life of Surprises was also released as a 45-minute-long VHS video with a slightly different track listing. The video featured only 11 songs and did not include the title track, "A Life of Surprises", "Faron Young", "Wild Horses", "All The World Loves Lovers", "Goodbye Lucille #1", "I Remember That" or "Cruel". However, it did feature videos for "The Golden Calf" and "Looking for Atlantis". Thus only nine songs were common to both audio and video releases.

Track listing

[edit]

All tracks composed by Paddy McAloon.[2]

No.TitleOriginal albumLength
1."The King of Rock 'n' Roll"From Langley Park to Memphis, 19884:23
2."When Love Breaks Down"Steve McQueen, 19854:08
3."The Sound of Crying"previously unreleased4:44
4."Faron Young"Steve McQueen3:47
5."Carnival 2000"Jordan: The Comeback, 19903:21
6."Goodbye Lucille #1 (Johnny Johnny)"Steve McQueen4:27
7."I Remember That"From Langley Park to Memphis4:15
8."Cruel"Swoon, 19844:18
9."Cars and Girls"From Langley Park to Memphis4:26
10."We Let the Stars Go"Jordan: The Comeback3:34
11."Life of Surprises"Protest Songs, 19894:04
12."Appetite"Steve McQueen3:56
13."If You Don't Love Me"previously unreleased3:43
14."Wild Horses"Jordan: The Comeback3:41
15."Hey Manhattan!"From Langley Park to Memphis4:46
16."All the World Loves Lovers"Jordan: The Comeback3:51

Video track listing

[edit]
  1. "The King of Rock 'n' Roll"
  2. "The Sound of Crying"
  3. "Cars and Girls"
  4. "We Let the Stars Go"
  5. "The Golden Calf"
  6. "Looking for Atlantis"
  7. "Hey Manhattan!"
  8. "If You Don't Love Me"
  9. "When Love Breaks Down"
  10. "Carnival 2000"
  11. "Appetite"

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Culp, Nancy (4 July 1992). "Long Play". New Musical Express. p. 35.
  2. ^ a b "Album review by Michael Sutton". AllMusic.com. Retrieved 5 December 2008.
  3. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 433. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
  4. ^ McIntosh, Bedford. "Prefab Sprout discography". browningmcintosh.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2007. Retrieved 13 February 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)