Foreign Affairs (Tom Waits album)

This article is about the album by Tom Waits. For other uses, see Foreign affairs (disambiguation).

Untitled

Foreign Affairs is an album by Tom Waits, released in 1977 on Elektra Entertainment. It was produced by Bones Howe, and features Bette Midler singing a duet with Waits on "I Never Talk to Strangers".

Production

Bones Howe, the album's producer, remembers the album's original concept and production approach thus:

[Waits] talked to me about doing this other material[...] He said, 'I'm going to do the demos first, and then I'm gonna let you listen to them. Then we should talk about what it should be. 'I listened to the material and said, 'It's like a black-and-white movie.' That's where the cover came from. The whole idea that it was going to be a black-and-white movie. It's the way it seemed to me when we were putting it together. Whether or not it came out that way, I don't have any idea, because there's such metamorphosis when you're working on [records]. They change and change.

Artwork

Rickie Lee Jones, Waits' then-girlfriend, is pictured on the front cover with Waits.

Track listing

All tracks written by Tom Waits, except where noted.

Side One

1. "Cinny's Waltz" (instrumental) – 2:17
2. "Muriel" – 3:33
3. "I Never Talk to Strangers" – 3:38
4. "Medley: Jack & Neal/California, Here I Come" ("California, Here I Come" written by Joseph Meyer, Al Jolson and Buddy De Sylva) – 5:01
5. "A Sight for Sore Eyes" – 4:40

Side Two

1. "Potter's Field" (words: Waits, music: Bob Alcivar) – 8:40
2. "Burma-Shave" – 6:34
3. "Barber Shop" – 3:54
4. "Foreign Affair" – 3:46

Personnel

• Gene Cipriano – clarinet solos on "Potter's Field"
• Jim Hughart – bass
• Shelly Manne – drums
• Bette Midler – vocals on "I Never Talk to Strangers"
• Jack Sheldon – trumpet solos
• Frank Vicari – tenor saxophone solos
• Tom Waits – piano, vocals